So the S-League continues to get coverage from the Soccer Rag while being ignored in the Singapore national media despite local soccer having great progress and with Singapore having qualified for the next round of the World Cup qualifiers. Anyway, the match of the week was held yesterday at the Tampines Stadium and what a fine stadium it was, between home team Tampines Rovers and away team Home United which really is a fancy name for the team from the Home Ministry, the police and national security secret agents, really. Billed as the headliner of the week due to both teams having title ambitions, the game lived up to its hype and even managed to get a review in the papers today, which is a big deal although still really just giving face value as the rest of the week’s matches were given nothing more than a paragraph or two in Sports Shorts, which is a total disgrace.

This S-League match between Tampines Rovers and Home United had a totally different feel and setup to the previous one I had attended between Dalian Shide Siwu and the Korean Super Reds, which means this was much more professional and small wonder given the standing of both clubs in the Singapore soccer scene and the better budget they had, not to mention they are serious competitors. Tampines Rovers also has one of the best set of supporters, colourful and very vocal, which made the game all the more fun and interesting to follow. The best bit was when former player Peres, who now plies his trade with Home United, delivered the killer blow by scoring the winner in the dying seconds of the match, was delivering a throw in and heard fans cursing him and he turned and flashed a wide grin. Now this might have led to a riot in other countries but Singaporeans are well mannered on the most parts in public and just wanted to have some fun. There were cackles and laughter all round and added to a near carnival mood for the game despite the amount at stake.

Home United supporters though are pretty much what they could muster from the uniformed groups and their cheerleaders are possibly one of the lamest. I could hardly spot any Home United fans in the stands and unlike in other countries where fans are pretty much segregated by law authorities due to fears of unrest, in Singapore, you have fans from both sides sitting and having fun together but this game was simply full of home fans and not one Home United fan in sight except in one small section of the stadium. Extremely disappointing. What’s the point of having a club do so well on the pitch when you have zero fans?

Moving on to the game itself, the match lived up to its hype and moved at breakneck speed throughout. I was pleasantly surprised with this as it meant that both teams would be able to match up to the Koreans Super Reds, who are speedy and can be quite deadly at that pace. Tampines Rovers had speedy wingers and a frontman who supported the striker but failed to use them adequately enough till the second half when they started putting Home United under pressure. There were also some dodgy decisions that went the away team’s way and Tampines’ frontline were also guilty of wasteful finishing. In fact, I would say that Home United had less clear cut chances in the game despite a better balanced attack yet they walked away the winners.

Honestly, Home United aren’t that impressive but incredibly efficient. Peres ran the show in midfield and if he could be convinced of becoming a Singaporean citizen, maybe Singapore can go one step further on the world stage. Calm on the ball, great touch, and a superb footballing brain, this guy gelled well with Chinese comrade Shi Jiayi, who incidentally is already playing for Singapore. If not for the two midfielders, Home United would be one-dimensional and a pale copy of Chelsea.

Continuing with Home United, their striker must be one of the worst buys ever in the club’s history. Kengne Ludovick might be ‘free scoring’ to some, but the guy has poor control, and must be praying for Peres to deliver some nice passes for the rest of the season to keep up his record. One thing about him though, Ludovick is fast and that probably is the best part of his game.

The reason why Home United got rid of Qiu Li and gave him to Tampines Rovers must be due to the same reason why Tampines Rovers fans started to get on the back of the Chinese player during the game. No doubt Qiu Li is tough to shake off and holds the ball up well, however, the guy seriously looks out of shape and was taken off midway through the second half, probably to help speed the game up to Tampines’ advantage. Perhaps the good life in Singapore has gotten to him and Tampines needs to whip him into shape in order to get the most out of him before their season quickly deteriorates.

At the end of the day, Home United walked away with all three points after a last gasp winner from Peres. A fine header that went unchallenged and placed in the top corner of the net where Rezal had no chance of getting to. It also wrapped up the match for a dominating player who ran the show for the away team and would be their key player in the run up to the S-League Championship. This match also proves that once again, this year’s challenger to SAFFC’s crown would be Home United again.

Tampines Rovers, on the other hand, just seems to lack that something extra, but surely they will be a key factor in the title race. Sutee their Thai striker needs to get off the mark fast soon for them to sustain a challenge, and the other players who have so far failed the mandatory fitness test for the S-League also have to shape up soon to do their part for the team.

All in all, this match between Tampines Rovers and Home United was actually a fine advertisement for the S-League. Both local teams and featured decent football and chances galore at both ends, despite fine defending. The season is way too early yet, but I can already see the top three being SAFFC, Home United and a toss up between Tampines Rovers and the Korean Super Reds, who must pray that they stay clear of injuries and disciplinary problems to have a realistic chance.

Tags: Match Analysis, Match Highlights, S-League by Soccer Rag
No Comments »

These are some match highlights of the S-League soccer match between Dalian Shide Siwu and Korean Super Reds which is a paradox in itself since both teams are not Singaporean and are also feeder clubs from China and South Korea respectively. Whether they become feeder clubs for their parent clubs in the two countries, or actually become a feeder club for the Singapore national team, that’s another question, as it has been known widely now that the Singapore national soccer team is not made up of Singaporeans but players from other countries – of course they will justify it as being natural and that other countries like Croatia have done the same like with Eduardo. I don’t necessarily agree but for Singapore to really go on to bigger things on the global stage, they need to have better players than the few locals who have made it to that level.

Anyway, I made a trip down to the game to provide necessary media coverage to the soccer match, the two teams and the S-League itself since they all really need it, given that there is hardly, and I mean HARDLY, any coverage or exposure of the league and game in the Singaporean national newspapers anymore unless you care to figure the local tabloids, which says a lot about the state of the game. It’s funny, because the national team has been progressing nicely in recent years under the good guidance of Serbian coach Raddy but the coverage has gone downhill and there is only mention when the team wins tournaments – it speaks volumes about the mentality and integrity of Singapore sports when they only want to be associated with winners and do not care for those who have worked hard but may not necessarily have scored any resounding results.

This is all hypocritical when it comes to their bid to host the Youth Olympics and other global sporting events like the F1 race, as you can try to market yourself to the whole world all you want, but when you do not even care for your local sports scene at the grassroots level, it is all pure bullshit and not a long term strategy.

Anyway, back to this game and while I have some funny moments to talk about, I must say overall I was pleasantly surprised by the quality afforded by this level in the S-League and while these are two foreign teams and I have yet to see the local teams like SAFFC, Tampines Rovers and Home United play this year, having these teams involved will raise the standard of soccer in Singapore, even though I am not totally supportive of having foreign teams in the S-League since it does dilute its identity. What has to be improved though is the professionalism in the S-League and I will talk more about this later on.

The Queenstown Stadium hosted this game, being given to Chinese side Dalian Shide Siwu (what a mouthful of a name) as their home stadium and I am not sure if it’s the typical Singaporean opinion that the mainland Chinese are not as affluent as they are, but this stadium is really rundown and has to be improved if the S-League wishes to be taken seriously by the rest of the world and the guest teams who have decided to be part of it. You have ancient army barrack style changing rooms, and the stadium has poor facilities with a terrible pitch that had both teams struggling with it for at least the first half hour before they got familiar. However, the local game and league does suffer from a distinct lack of funds so maybe the Soccer Rag needs to step in with a donation drive.

The crowd was boisterous and enough had filed into the stadium just before the game started. You could see the different nature of both sets of supporters – the Koreans extremely organised with their cheering and almost all decked out in team colours, while the Chinese fans were more self serving and without any planned support in advance. There was also the pack of punters who were more interested in the result of the match affecting their betting slips than the game itself, and since the introduction of legalised soccer gambling in the S-League, most games are filled with such fans. There’s no harm in it as long as it doesn’t filter down to the players, which has been the case again last season when Chinese team Liaoning FC was thrown out of the competition for having close to 10 players involved in match fixing.

The soccer match itself was extremely fast paced typical of Korean and Chinese football. Technical levels were sufficiently high, and the Korean players impressed, especially the midfielders, in particularly No. 11. On a separate note, the ’stadium announcers’ (who were obviously hired from some event management cum DJ company) were pretty crap and clearly not soccer fans. Calling out the lineup, the announcer went “Jersey No. 12″, “Jersey No.5″. Who the hell says the word “Jersey” whilst calling out the players’ names?

The Korean Super Reds dominated proceedings in the first half, creating a number of clear cut chances before scoring a tremendous first goal from far out looped into the net. The second, just before half time, was a beautifully struck free kick that curled over the wall into the top corner, giving the Dalian keeper no chance at all. Don’t ask me for the players’ names because I have no idea. I wasn’t sitting in the grandstand, which was designated the VIP area when there were hardly any VIPs. Security was also over zealous and tried to remove a family with baby in tow when they chose to sit in the grandstand.

Dalian Shide Siwu came back strongly in the second half and scored an early goal to put pressure on the Super Reds. Be reminded that the Super Reds consist of 10 players with professional experience from the K-1 League (the top tier of Korean football), while Dalian was primarily their under-19 side. Technically there was little to separate the two teams, with the Super Reds showing more composure on the ball. This ultimately led to the premature dismissal of a Dalian player, which under normal circumstances would have ended the competition. Incredibly, the Chinese team dug deep and put the complacent Koreans under siege and tremendous pressure in the last 15 minutes, coming close on a few occasions, and might even have drawn had they shown better decision making. Instead, they lost 2-1.

The Super Reds a dark horse for the S-League title? Possibly, but not likely. A good, efficient team, but lacking some identity and without having seen what their reserves are capable of, if their potent midfield gets injured, they might struggle. Still, their speed and technicality will trouble all S-League teams and staying injury free is crucial to their chances. Dalian themselves might struggle due to the youth factor, but they don’t seem to be the type to throw games so that in itself might be enough to escape being cellar dwellers in their first year in the S-League. They still have the matter of bringing honour to their parent team who have dominated their domestic league back home in China. What Dalian has to improve though are their fitness levels. Having a player come down with cramp halfway through the second half was embarrassing. The young players are also impulsive and would need to calm down like how the Super Reds showed them passing the ball around for close to 5 minutes retaining possession in the second half.

The Soccer Rag enjoyed the S-League match overall and will certainly look forward to providing more media coverage in subsequent games. There was much hype about a national target of reaching the World Cup in 2010 which was anything but a pipe dream. But just as soon as they admitted as much, the higher level of support and funding from all quarters disappeared and it was disappointing to see the mentality and hypocrisy that surrounds the national sport and local sports in general. So if you missed this S-League soccer match between Dalian Shide Siwu and the Korean Super Reds, you definitely missed an entertaining match and should turn up for other games during the season, not to mention the return leg.

Tags: Match Highlights, S-League by Soccer Rag
4 Comments »