Singapore league 4/8-July

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4 Jul 2007 Geylang VS Y Lions 5 Jul 2007 Balestier VS Korean 6 Jul 2007 Albirex VS Home 7 Jul 2007 Y Lions VS Sengkang 7 Jul 2007 Gombak VS Woodlands 8 Jul 2007 Geylang VS Tampines

Teams P W D L F A GD Pts Home United FC 14 11 2 1 32 9 23 35 Tampines Rovers FC 13 11 0 2 31 13 18 33 Singapore Armed Forces FC 14 10 1 3 42 19 23 31 Gombak United FC 14 7 4 3 27 15 12 25 Albirex Niigata FC (S) 14 5 3 6 22 23 -1 18 Young Lions 14 4 5 5 17 19 -2 17 Woodlands Wellington FC 13 4 5 4 19 22 -3 17 Geylang United FC 14 4 4 6 18 19 -1 16 Sengkang Punggol FC 14 3 4 7 19 25 -6 13 Balestier Khalsa FC 14 3 4 7 17 24 -7 13 Liaoning Guangyuan FC 14 3 1 10 17 31 -14 10 Korean Super Reds FC 14 1 1 12 8 50 -42 4

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Geylang United FC vs Young Lions
1X2
Home Draw Away
2.50- 3.30 -2.35 current odds
<2.45> <3.30> <2.40> opening odds Singapore Pools

Date & Time: 4 July 2007 info@sleague.com

This is a busy period coming up for S.League clubs Geylang United and the Young Lions, starting on Wednesday night at Bedok Stadium.
Geylang have an important game against Tampines Rovers to contend with on Sunday next while the Young Lions have one day less of recovery before a meeting with Sengkang Punggol on Saturday night at Jalan Besar Stadium.
They also face Gombak on 10 July and Albirex Niigata (S) five days later so coach V Sundram Moorthy’s men will be feeling pretty tired by the end of that period.
Most of the players will have been involved in Under-23 or even senior international matches and recovery time has been limited.
Khairul Amri who was injured in the game against Australia should be back for the Geylang tussle even though he is still not 100 per cent.
Fazrul Nawaz, who got stepped on in the same game, should be back too while Erwan Gunawan who played well against the Australian B team last Sunday has not recovered from his knock and will miss the match at Bedok Stadium.
Jasper Chan is another week away from taking his place in the side.
The three Chinese players - Li Ji Sheng, Che Hao and Guan Hong Yu - who had been registered with the Young Lions this season were only under contract until the end of June.
The trio have since gone home so Sundram’s options are even more limited now.
Brazilian Leandro Rodrigues remains on the injured list so there will be no foreigners available at all for this game.
Leandro has been doing some ball work but has not been engaged in any of the tactical sessions.
Geylang have a few injury worries too.
A flu-stricken coach Lim Tong Hai revealed that he has a few concerns, with captain Aide Iskandar nursing a nose broken in the 2-1 win over DPR Korea though the long-time Lion should be able to start.
Goalkeeper Hassan Sunny seems to be over the chronic back problems that reduced his efficiency earlier in the season.
“We just have to work on his (Hassan's) concentration now,” said Tong Hai. “That is occasionally a problem for him.”
The Eagles have not had the benefit of any matches against other clubs or visiting countries’ teams, concentrating on games among themselves at training.
There are a couple more games to be played before the transfer window opens so many of the players will be fighting for spots after then.
Fadzuhasny Juraimi is doing some light running at last and is making progress in his battle to get back in the side.
Otherwise Geylang are ready to pick up the pieces once more.
“I’ll be looking at bringing in another foreigner once the transfer window opens and maybe one other new player,” said Tong Hai.
The fresher Geylang side could pick up another close and valuable win in this one, but the Young Lions will not be easy victims.
“They are a good side and we expect a very hard game against them.”

My prediction:HOME WIN

Probable Team Line-Up
Geylang United FC Jersey No. Name Position 1 Hassan Sunny GK 2 Noh Rahman DF 3 Abdul Hadi DF 4 Razaleigh Khalik DF 5 Aide Iskandar DF 7 Syed Fadhil MF 8 Razali Johari MF 10 Rangsan Vivatchaichok MF 14 Syed Thaha MF 15 Bae Jin Soo FW 20 Abdelaziz Dnibi MF		Young Lions Jersey No. Name Position 2 Zulfadli Zainal Abidin MF 3 Ismail Yunos DF 4 Mohd Isa Halim MF 7 Baihakki Khaizan DF 9 Sufian Anuar MF 10 Fazrul Nawaz FW 11 Jeremy Chiang DF 12 Khairul Amri FW 17 Hariss Harun MF 22 Zakaria Normat GK 26 Yusiskandar Yusop DF

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Balestier Khalsa FC vs Korean Super Reds FC
Home Draw Away
<1.15> <6.00> <11.00> openning odds Singapore Pools

Date & Time: 5 July 2007 info@sleague.com

No wins for one team, and no points for the other. That is the disappointing track record in the last two months for Balestier Khalsa and the Korean Super Reds, as the two teams aim to turn around their seasons this Thursday at the Toa Payoh Stadium.
Following their mid-table finish in the previous season, the Tigers would have been hoping to build upon their achievements, and finish in the top half of the table this year. However, the story of their season so far has been one of underachievement, as the Tigers find themselves separated from the bottom only by Liaoning Guangyuan and their opponents this Thursday night.
Balestier’s recent form speaks for itself. Five losses out of six games, with a solitary point coming in their 0-0 draw with Sengkang Punggol more than a month ago. Still, head coach Abdul Karim Razzak finds it hard to fault his charges, for their performances so far this season.
“The players have done their best in every game,” commented Karim. “I cannot fault their effort, but of course you can never guarantee a result even with that.”
Karim did however attribute his team’s slump to the brand new team he has had to work with. “We did lose some good players from the previous season, like Ludovick and Nakamura. This year’s squad is almost a brand new one, so we have to give them some time before the results come,” said Karim.
To add to the woes of the club, Balestier will also be losing three of their squad players to National Service this month. Sahairi Ramri, K. Sathiaraj and Aloysius Yap have been important squad members this season, and will be sorely missed in the remaining months of the season.
Not that Balestier can afford to take pity on themselves, at this juncture of the season. They need to turn their season around fast, and looking at the Koreans’ record so far in their maiden season, the Tigers might be forgiven for looking forward to this Thursday’s game.
Having shipped 50 goals in 14 games thus far, the Super Reds are looking well on course to breaking the S.League record for goals conceded in one season, which is interestingly held by Balestier, them having conceded a whopping 103 goals in 2002!
Although goals have seemed easy to come by against the Koreans, coach Karim remains wary of overconfidence from his team, which could prove to be a potential banana skin.
“You cannot take anything in football for granted. No matter whether you are playing Korean, SAFFC or Home United, there is never such a thing as a guaranteed three points,” Karim pointed out.
Three points this time around would propel Balestier above Sengkang into 9th spot. More importantly, the Tigers would be right back in the ongoing mid-table battle, and they would be just two points shy of 5th spot, currently occupied by Albirex.
Despite Karim’s words, the smart money looks to be on the home team, especially with the Koreans’ last point coming two months ago in late April.
If history is any sort of predictor, we should be expecting a goal feast come this Thursday night, as past Korean games have tended to toss up. The Koreans will need to be at their very best defensively, or else loss no.13 may well be on the cards for them.

My prediction: OVER 3.5 goals (1.90 in bwin)

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Wednesday, July 04, 2007
S-League, Singapore
1:45 PM Geylang United 2.50 X 3.20 Young Lions 2.50 +4

Thursday, July 05, 2007
S-League, Singapore
1:45 PM Balestier Khalsa 1.20 X 5.25 Korean Super Reds (S) 11.00 +4

odds: bwin

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Albirex Niigata FC (S) vs Home United FC
Date & Time: 6 July 2007 info@sleague.com
<5.70> <3.80> <1.45> www.singaporepools.com
5.50 3.80 -1.50 bwin

They came into the match having won the three before that, scoring eleven goals and striking fear into the hearts of all and sundry with their lightning-quick attacking football.

But when Home United and Albirex Niigata (Singapore) last faced off at the end of March, the end result was a goalless draw that left Vincent Subramaniam’s men disappointed to see their winning start to the season end in such tame fashion.

That game in Bishan left many observers bemused, not so much because of the points the Protectors had dropped as they were over how those points were dropped in a match where Home were uncharacteristically tentative in their play.

Against a side that was second from bottom at that point, the caution eventually proved too stifling as Vincent’s men rarely looked like seizing the initiative.

“Basically, we didn’t take our chances in that game,” reflected Home captain S. Subramani.

“We had a few chances, but we never capitalised on any of them. Sometimes there will be games where chances will be very few, so we must be able to take them.”

That warning will ring in the ears of Subramani’s teammates as they prepare for Friday evening’s rematch with Albirex, held on the neutral ground of Jalan Besar Stadium.

At stake is the Protectors’ position at the head of the league table, with second-placed Tampines Rovers set to play on Sunday evening and SAFFC due to face Liaoning Guangyuan a further day later.

With victory an absolute must, Subramani has urged his teammates not to be distracted by the manner in which the previous encounter between the two teams had played out.

“Every game is a new game, and I think we shouldn’t look at our past games,” stressed the centreback.

“We should really be looking at the game ahead, because the past results and the next game are two separate matters. Even if we had a good run in our past few games, when it comes to the next match, we still have to prepare for it afresh and start from 0-0.

“We just have to concentrate on one game at a time. It’s going to be a long season for us, so there’s no point at looking too far behind or too far ahead.

“We definitely have to respect every opponent to some extent or other, and the same goes for our next match against Albirex,” continued the 34-year-old.

“But at the end of the day, it’s up to us how we are going to approach the match on Friday. We must go in with the right attitude, and show the hunger and desire, because we know we are capable of producing results as long as we show the right attitude.”

Albirex coach Hiroaki Hiraoka was equally quick to dismiss any thoughts of reading into the teams’ previous encounter for a guide to how they will fare on Friday.

Significantly, the 37-year-old remarked that the Home United his team had played against in March is markedly different from the Home United he expects to see, as they have taken a more aggressive attacking approach than before.

“I don’t think Home United were particularly scared of us when they met us earlier,” said Hiraoka.

“They played the same game they did against us as they did in the games before that. I had seen them in those games, and they played with their defence sitting deep and relied on their counterattacking approach, which did work for them against other teams.

“Now, though, their game has changed. They go on the attack more and are more aggressive in their approach, especially with their No.17 (Shahril Ishak) getting much more heavily involved.

“With that kind of game, they have even less reason to be scared of us. In fact, our defence has to think about how to contain them, which we will do our best to achieve.”

Hiraoka’s White Swans will certainly have plenty to do against the Protectors, who have additional motivations to make a roaring start to the second half of the season.

A resounding victory could go some way towards dissuading Vincent from following through on a quit threat he had made last week, following a club-versus-country furore involving several Home players who were called up to the Singapore national team.

With experienced general manager K T Velu recently retired, an exit by the coach at this point would deal the team a potentially destabilising blow.

That is why Subramani has vowed to get everyone at the club to rally together and work towards keeping the momentum and winning the club’s third S.League title.

“We all know that things have been written in the papers in the past few days, but our coach has assured us that he is fully behind the team,” he noted.

“We have already agreed at the start of the year that we will all stick together as a team, and that will be the case no matter what. There will be a bit of worry and reservation, of course, but we have also assured the coach that we are all behind him as well.”

“The players are all okay, the coach is okay, and I’m okay as well,” added club assistant coach J. Surachai, who has worked closely with Vincent since the latter had joined the club midway through 2006.

“In short, we are all okay and ready for the game. If we have any problems, we can do something about them later, but we will play first.”

Probable Team Line-Up:

Albirex Niigata FC (S)
Jersey No. Name Position

1 Kazuma Miyauchi GK
2 Masato Anzai DF
5 Takatoshi Uchida DF
6 Hideaki Iwahana MF
7 Shin Hosogai MF
8 Yoshitaka Komori MF
10 Eiichiro Ozaki DF
14 Takayuki Motoshimizu MF
16 Masatoshi Saiga MF
18 Kenta Toyota FW
21 Tetsuya Okayama MF

Home United FC
Jersey No. Name Position

3 Indra Sahdan Daud FW
4 Juma'at Jantan DF
5 S Subramani DF
7 Shi Jiayi MF
9 Qiu Li FW
10 Kengne Ludovick FW
11 Kone Hamed MF
15 Diakite Fode Bangaly DF
17 Shahril Ishak MF
18 Lionel Lewis GK
19 Goh Swee Swee FW

I think will be OVER 3.5 goals match (2.02 odds in bwin)

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Young Lions vs Sengkang Punggol FC
Date & Time: 7 July 2007 7:45:00 PM
info@sleague.com

The Young Lions will host Sengkang Punggol this Saturday in a bid to claw their way up the S.League table.

Fresh from a 1-0 victory against Geylang United three days ago, head coach V Sundramoorthy must be pleased with his side’s performance at the Bedok Stadium.

However, he will be concerned with the lack of adequate resting time for his players. Most of his players were involved in the U-23 and senior international matches in the past few weeks.

With so little time for his charges to recuperate after Wednesday’s match, V Sundramoorthy will have to play his cards right in order for him to get the most out of his players.

The good news for him is that Cameroonian defender Moudourou Moise will return from his suspension to be available for selection. Midfielder Erwan Gunawan might also recover in time from his injury to stake a claim in the first eleven.

With Brazilian midfielder Leandro Rodrigues and custodian Jasper Chan rated as doubtful for this game, Moise’s experience in defence will prove to be useful in this fixture.

The Dolphins may have one of the leakiest defences in the league but they do know the route to goal.

When Trevor Morgan’s men hosted the Young Lions at the Hougang Stadium in early April, they clawed their way back from 3-1 down to earn a well-deserved draw.

Therefore, Trevor is predicting that Saturday’s match will be a memorable one for the neutral observers.

He said, “When we played against them earlier in the season, it turned out to be an excellent match. It could have really gone either way.

“Of course the Young Lions were disappointed that they didn’t win the match after leading by two goals.

“We were also disappointed that we couldn’t win the game after equalizing from two goals down.

“After a long break, most of my players have fully recovered from their niggling injuries and they are raring to go.

“The Young Lions may only have a few days’ rest but they’re all young, fit players. When you’re at that age, all you want to do is to play in the next game. So both teams will definitely go all out this Saturday,” Trevor commented.

My prediction:DRAW

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Gombak United FC vs Woodlands Wellington FC
Date & Time: 7 July 2007 info@sleague.com
<2.00> <3.20> <3.15> singaporepools

Jurong West Stadium hosted the likes of former AFC Player of the Year Hamad Montashari, fellow Saudi Yasser Al Qahtani and Oman stars Ali Al Habsi and Fawzi Bashir in the past two weeks.

But those talented feet, amongst others from Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and North Korea have left a distinct physical impression on Gombak United's turf.

The Bulls, returning to S.League action against Woodlands Wellington on Saturday, have been unable to train on their own pitch thanks to its international commitments.

“We booked the indoor court at Jurong West, and we also trained once at Clementi Stadium but the conditions aren’t the same," said Gombak team manager Jeffrey Lee.

“The stadium at Clementi is being used by many other teams including the Prime League (teams) and the pitch itself is very bad.

“I’m worried about the lack of training that we have. We haven’t had enough ball and tactical play, only physical.

“It’s going to be a big game for us against Woodlands because we need to collect points and the Football Association of Singapore hasn’t helped us in any way during this situation,” he added.

Gombak also missed out on a friendly with Oman, who ended up playing Woodlands and edging them 3-2.

“I was looking for a friendly game against an international side but we couldn’t get the teams to play," said Lee.

“The Oman team was supposed to play with us but we didn’t have our pitch so I guess they went to play against Woodlands instead," he added.

“The break was a disadvantage because we had four players away and only came back (in the past few days). However, we’ll try to win the game tomorrow,” said Lee.

The Bulls might also have to do without Singapore international Agu Casmir, who is nursing an injury.



Probable Team Line-Up View Match Preview

Gombak United FC
Jersey No. Name Position

4 Sevki Sha'ban DF
5 Ruhaizad Ismail MF
7 Ishak Zainol MF
8 Jalal MF
9 Kingsley Njoku FW
10 Theerawesin Seehawong MF
12 Zaiful Nizam GK
14 Nor Azli Yusoff DF
16 Precious Emuejeraye DF
17 Obadin Aikhena MF
20 Gabriel Obatola FW

Woodlands Wellington FC
Jersey No. Name Position

1 Yazid Yasin GK
6 Lucian Dronca DF
7 Ahmad Latiff MF
8 Jerry Bartholomeusz DF
9 Laakkad Abdelhadi FW
10 Akihiro Nakamura MF
11 Hasrin Jailani MF
13 Anaz Hadee DF
14 Sazali Salleh MF
18 Park Tae Won MF
19 Zahid Ahmad DF

Too defensive squads.I will try UNDER 3.5 goals.

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Young Lions vs Sengkang Punggol FC
Date & Time: 7 July 2007 7:45:00 PM

<1.53> <3.50> <5.30> singaporepools

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Today in Singapore weather is thunderstorms!.
Probably two under's games...