Wrecki’s Monthly Review: April 2009

The month of April surely closes with many disgruntled faces among the local football fraternity.

The reason is simply the much-loathed Brunei DPMM FC is now sitting atop of the S League after 10 rounds after (convincinigly) beating and thus dislodging SAFFC at home in the Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium on last Sunday evening.
They have also drawn against the run of play with Tampines and then beaten a physical Gombak side with 2 nicely-executed freekicks taken by fullback Sairol Sahari in 2 back to back televised games.
When doubts were thrown at how the Bruneian side would fare in these games against sides seemingly of higher calibers, they took it in their stride and passed with flying colors; giving their glib tongued Croatian coach Vjeran Simunic all the ammunition to bask in his glory.
Personally I say kudos to Simunic and his boys to play according to their tactics which foiled our supposedly big boys in the local league. Complacency surely had played in for our local sides but DPMM doesn’t look half bad at all at this point with fitness surely not an issue.
The one true acid test would be the final game in this round against Home United at Clementi Stadium where the home side had an intact record (played 3, won 3, concede 0, scored 10) to boast about.
DPMM will be without 4 defenders through suspension will fancy a draw but with Algerian Hamid Berguiga is such form that saw him nabbed the golden boot award in his own domestic league, we might see Sivaji’s Protectors choked again.

Speaking of the rotund former national coach, 2 wins over Maldives side Club Valencia in their AFC Cup Group H ties, they now sit nicely in 2nd place, en route for qualification into the knock out round.
However subsequent losses to Binh Duong and PEA might come back to haunt them again.
After losing to Geylang, P N Sivaji found salvation with that big win over Sengkang (with a score looking much granduer than it actually is). They went on to notch another away loss against Super Reds at Yishun Stadium.
It was made known that the management committee will be reviewing his position by the end of the 1st round, surely things don’t spell nicely for Sivaji.
They made another headline in April with the only transfer despite the window is closed. National team midfielder and former Young Lions skipper, Isa Halim has fulfilled his “national commitment” and allowed to return to his parent club.
Seemingly Woodlands, his parent club, is unlikely to add him to their pay roll, and Home Utd jumped on the opportunity to sign Isa to add to their collection of national team players.
It is bewildering why Isa who can play as a rightback as well as a defensive midfielder would fancy a club where competitions on both positions are aplenty.
Another of Home’s national team contingent, custodian Lionel Lewis hit headline of his own. After playing 2nd fiddle to usual deputy Ridzuan Fatah Hasan for 5-6 consecutive games had been touted to consider hanging up his gloves at the grand old age of 28.
Lionel laughed off those baseless speculation but unless he clocked more games, it is likely that Hassan Sunny will be the undisputed No.1 for the Lions.

SAF’s AFC Champions League campaign surely should come to an end losing in both game of the double-biller against Kashima Antlers.
They have taken the  toll of commitment in both competitions with 16 senior players with the starting eleven remaining intact game in game out.
Beside that mauling of our wretched Dolphins, they were lucky to pip a win in the Friday night game against Super Reds.
Traveling non-stop last week from Ibaraki then to Bandar Seri Begawan saw them losing in meek fashion to DPMM, they will next have to play Geylang on Friday again at Bedok stadium for the Singapore Cup Preliminary tie.
It’s unlikely 24 year old Gunter Djafril will be pitting himself against his former team which he notch the Prime League topscorer award last season.
Richard will surely put his faith on evergreen Duric (another former Eagles); surely stifling the growth of a pacey striker I thought is pretty decent from the pre-season friendly against us.

Well Gunter’s former club might not require his service afterall when a new found scoring machine has arrived, in the form of Englishman Llyod Butler.
The former Arsenal (the real deal, albeit 4 months) youth trainee made the best possible introduction to our local game scoring in consecutive games against Super Reds, Home & Woodlands since his debut, 2 of the goals being the winner as well; surely not the sight Canadian Rickey Marvin Harris want to see as he contemplates on playing in the Prime League squad for now.
The Eastern outfit has seen a revival in fortunes on the pitch once they abandon the 3 men coaching team to giving Mike Wong the full rein of coaching affairs.
The change brought 3 wins and a draw in the next 4 games and they are now consolidating the 5th position, 3 points shy of rival Tampines Rovers.

Tampines still has the luxury to be known as “the other unbeaten team” in the league. Their profligancy in front of goal surely has cost them a couple of victories but they still possess the most sound defense in the league.
Gombak who ran out of ideas to carve open the stubborn Stags’ defense ended April with a convincing win against Balestier Khalsa when the riot could see the Bulls scoring more than the 4 goals.
The Tigers of Toa Payoh aren’t exactly that bad from their spirited display, however they couldn’t find more charitable sides like our Dolphins to let them score easy goals. Poor skipper Jufri Taha who turned from hero to zero when one day he helped nabbed a petty thief in their stadium, on the other he went to score an early own goal which doom their team in a wretched loss to Woodlands.
While Albirex still hold an impressive record at home in Jurong East, they are still let down by poor away records but 10 points for the young side at this stage ain’t exactly that bad when they still has so much potential to improve upon. Their pacey attack had thwarted many sides including DPMM at home. The likes of Ogawa, Akiyoshi & Adachihara work in tandem up front but were not helped when the likes of keeper Matsushita and stopper Matsuoka cannot stop leaking goals at the back.
The side that bore us to death everytime they appear on Friday night football (due to their generic looks actually), the Super Reds still look a decent side who holds much possession in the games they’ve play but always not well rewarded when their possesion failed to turn into goals.
Woodlands and Young Lions, 2 sides we had beaten at the tail end of April had a rather indifferent April. The latter saw their record signing Yang Mu notching his first goal against Balestier but gaffer Terry Pathmanathan still have a big task at hand to mold his raw talents before the SEA games.
The loss of regular keeper Rezal Hassan to injury in the early stages in the home game against Geylang, saw Woodlands losing 3 on the trot, including an early exit to the RHB Singapore Cup to invitee Bangkok Glass FC, a competition which they valiantly took the runners-up spot last term.

As the league takes a backseat for the Cup competition as we enter May, it would be interesting to see how our local sides fare against some decent clubs in Southeast Asia.

April ends well for Sengkang Punggol FC and we hope May would begin with a bang as well but as usual we just have to moderate our expectations. No expectation, no disappointment as they said.