August 8, 2021
The Singapore Premier League consists of 8 sides who play each other three times for a 21 match season. The current league leaders are champions Albirex Niigata, a feeder side to the Japanese club of the same name. Over the years the SPL has hosted a number of foreign sides, including from China, Malaysia, South Korea and Brunei. Albirex mostly field young Japanese prospects, but the league rules require they start each match with 2 Singaporeans in their line-up and they must play at least 45 minutes.
The other 7 sides in the league are allowed to sign 4 foreign players, of which at least one must be from an AFC ( Asia ) affiliated country, and must have 6 Under-23 Singapore qualified players in their 18 match day squad. The SPL is ranked the 10th best league in East Regions of the Asian Football Conference.
Balestier Khalsa can trace their origins back to 1898 and are considered to be oldest club in Singapore. They are commonly known as The Tigers. Following a merger between Balestier Central FC and Clementi Khalsa FC in 2002, the club are very popular with the Sikh community in Singapore. However, despite its history, Balestier Khalsa have never won the Singapore League since its inception in 1996, finished 5th in 2020, and currently sit in 7th place in the 2021 table.
Home is normally the 6,000 capacity Bishan Stadium but as that is currently under renovation, matches this season are being played in the Toa Payoh Stadium, which has a capacity of just under 4,000.
Balestier’s overseas players are Croatian forwards Kristian Krajcek and Zime Zuzal, both formally of Hrvatski Dragovoljac, young Serbian defender Ensar Bruncevic and Japanese forward Shuhei Horshino, who previously played for Albirex. Two players were in the most recent Singapore international squad, goal-keeper Zaiful Nizam has 3 caps and midfielder Hazzuwan Halim has 4 caps. The coach is Croatian Marko Kraljevic.
Zuzal is the top scorer with 8 goals, including scoring in the last 6 matches. However, after starting the season with 8 points from 4 matches, Balestier have taken only one point from their last 8 games, despite the form of Zusal, and it is obvious their problems are in defence. Last time out they suffered an embarrassing 2-3 home defeat to previously winless Young Lions.
In its preview of today’s game, the SPL website commented “Beleaguered Balestier will continue to miss defensive midfielder Aarish Kumar due to a long-term injury, while utility man Faizal Raffi is still not fully fit yet”. The website also showed that Krajeck had committed the most fouls in the league, with 31 ! However, along with Horshino, he had five assists.
Opponents Lion City Sailors are reported the wealthiest club in the SPL, being owned by a billionaire Singaporean businessman. They too normally play at the Bishan Stadium but home matches this year are being played at Jalan Besar Stadium. The name Singapore comes from Sanskrit and translates as Lion City, even though there have never been any lions on the island. The Malay prince who named the island probably saw a tiger !
The Sailors finished third last season but are faring better so far this year, lying in second place with only one defeat, and were just 4 points behind Albirex with two games in hand. They had drawn twice with Albirex ( including a 1-1 draw in their previous outing ), but lost to Hougang United 9 games ago.
The Sailors overseas players are Brazilian midfielder Diego Lopes, formally of Benfica and Rio Ave ( and who cost a reported $3M ! ), Brazilian defender Jorge Fellipe ( ex Portuguese sides Aves and Farense ), ex-Sibenik Croatian forward Stipe Plazibat and South Korean midfielder Song Ui-Young. They had 7 players in the last national squad, keeper Hassan Sunny ( 85 caps ), defender Hafiz Sujad ( 44 caps ), midfielders Shahdan Sulaiman ( 67 caps ) and Suifullah Akbar ( 3 caps ) and forwards Faris Ramli ( 59 caps ), Hafiz Nor ( 8 caps ) and Gabriel Quak ( 36 caps ).
Plazibat was their top scorer with 10 goals and 5 assists, whilst Quak had scored 8 times. Diego Lopes notched a hat-trick in the 8-0 win over Geylang International.
The SPL website reported “as for the Sailors, Adam Swandi and Song Ui-Young are unavailable due to injury and suspension. The good news is that the key midfield duo of Saifullah Akbar and Shahdan Sulaiman have returned from their respective one-match bans to bolster coach Kim Do-hoon’s options”. The coach was formerly coach of South Korean giants Ulsan Hyundai, and won 72 caps for his country. He took over from ex Feyenoord and Standard Liege Australian, Aurelio Vidmar.
Matches earlier in the season were initially played behind closed doors, before a maximum crowd of 250 was allowed. However, since matches resumed in mid-July after a Covid suspension, attendances of up to 100 are now permitted. In 2018 the average attendance in the SPL was 1,800.
All SPL matches are free to watch on the SPL Facebook page, or on the Singapore Premier League YouTube channel, with a commentary in English. Eleven Sports ( formerly MyCujoo ) also shows SPL games, and matches are also streamed on Bet365.com. The SPL website ( www.spl.sg ) is excellent for news and statistics.
Bet365 had Lion City as 1/10 favourites, with Balestier 11/1 rank outsiders and the draw at 7/1. The temperature at the local kick-off time of 17.30 was around 30 degrees, and earlier thundery showers had potentially softened a hard pitch.
Both sides made surprise changes to their line-ups, LCS dropping Singapore captain Hariss Harun to the bench, and even more surprisingly Balestier dropped top marksman Zime Zuzal to the bench and moved Krajcek to midfield. The Sailors played in blue shirts with white shorts, whilst Balestier were in all red.
The start of the game was pretty dull, with the home side content to sit with numbers deep in defence and looking to hit on the counter attack. Lion City had most of the ball but were unable to much with it, although right-winger Quak looked to have the beating of his marker.
Shahdan Sulaiman sent a free-kick just wide in the 14th minute for the Sailors, and Balestier created their first chance two minutes later, when Krajcek found space down the left to deliver a low cross into the area that Pavan Raj couldn’t make contact with.
Saifullah Akbar made a dangerous run from half-way, beating three opponents but was closed down once inside the Balestier penalty area and the chance was gone.
LCS should have opened the scoring in the 34th minute, Diego Lopes made a good run to the by-line and his cross fell to Quak, but under pressure from the keeper he sliced his shot wide from 4 yards.
Balestier made their first substitution a minute later, Zuzal being introduced to replace the ineffective left-back Syahir, with Gareth Low moving from midfield to take his place. This change made Balestier look much more solid, although the Sailors should have taken the lead just before half-time. Plazibat sent a cross into the area from the left, Diego Lopes cushion headed the ball into the path of Quak, but his close range short was well blocked by Nizam.
That was Quak’s last touch of the game, as puzzlingly, the Lions immediately substituted their most dangerous looking player !
With the score 0-0 at the interval, the Sailors made another substitution during the break, with Harun entering the fray. Not that it initially appeared to improve their play as the Tigers missed a good chance in the 52nd minute when Low delivered a tremendous ball from the left to the marauding right-back Fadli Kamis in the right hand side of the penalty area, but he shot into the side-netting.
The unthinkable happened seven minutes later when Balestier took a shock lead. A long free-kick was headed on by Horshino and Zuzal beat keeper Sunny to the ball to poke it past him, and then side-foot into the empty net. In his follow-through the Lion’s keeper collided with team-mate Fellipe and was badly injured. Play was held up for eight minutes as Sunny received treatment, before eventually being carried off on a stretcher.
It looked like the Sailors’ title hopes had suffered a hole below the water line, and Balestier looked a much more confident side with the lead.
Sulaiman did shoot from 20 yards after a neat chest lay-off by Ramli but Nizam saved with his legs, but apart from that, the Sailors were floundering on the rocks of the home defence. Indeed, at this stage it looked more likely to become 2-0 rather than 1-1, as Zuzal forced a good save from the replacement keeper, and then Krajcek released Zuzal with a delightful through ball, but as he went to shoot, Harun made an important block.
With 10 minutes of added time announced, the Lions finally stirred themselves and laid siege to the home goal. Nizam flapped at a cross but the loose ball evaded the Sailors’ attackers, Saifullah Akbar sent a curling shot just over, before major drama in the 93rd minute.
A hopeful punt was launched in the Tigers penalty box. Fellipe managed to get to the bouncing ball and headed goalwards. Balestier defender Bruncevic attempted to make a block, but the ball hit his hand and went wide. The referee awarded a penalty and showed a red card to the Serbian. Plazibat made no mistake from the spot for the equaliser, leaving Balestier to hang-on for 5 minutes.
Despite having the extra player advantage, Lion City weren’t able to create another decent chance, and so unexpectedly dropped two points. Balestier’s hard work and organisation earnt them a deserved point.
Balestier Khalsa : Nizam – Kamis, Bruncevic, Hakeem, Syahir ( Zuzal ) – Halim ( Zavyan ), Krajcek, Johari, Puvan Raj ( Hussain ), Low - Horshino
Lion City Sailors : Sunny ( Kairullah ) – Eunos, Bin Azmi, Fellipe, Nur Adam – Quak ( Ramli ), Sulaiman, Diego Lopes, Pashia ( Harun ), Akbar – Plazibat
No comments:
Post a Comment