Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Singapore Football

Finally, in less than a week's time, the prime league of Singapore Football, the S-League, returns back to the scene. The interest level is not high, even my interest level is not high. That is due to the amazing level and attraction of the top leagues in the world reaching towards its final stretch. UEFA Champions League, English Premier League, Spanish Primera Liga, Italian Serie A, and more. All these have high level football that let alone the S-League in SIngapore, the UEFA Cup is overshadowed too by this influx of attractive football.

Let's skip that. I have decided to put all my views of football (soccer), I mean in the European or other continents' football all on my other blog. See my other blog under 'View my Complete Profile'. At here, I would be concentrating on Asian football. Especially SIngapore football. I have started working with a scoring system for different S-League clubs, to guage the ability and true skill of S-League clubs. Basically, it works like this:

S-League: Win=5pts, Draw=2pts, Lose=0pt
Singapore Cup: W=7, D=3, L=1
League Cup: W=3 D=1 L=0
AFC Cup: W=11 D=5 L=2

Achievements in the league and cup competitions will also be noted down. For this experiment, I would be giving monthly reviews for the performance of S-League clubs, starting from March. After that, when the number of matches by each club reaches at least 20, I would have the system I am planning to call as 'The Singapore Rankings'. Bonuses are subjective to change. Also, I might be including further bonuses, perhaps for a win by at least 3 or 4 goals, and also for unbeaten or winning streaks.

Enough for now, I shall be ending my post. But before that, I would report on the current top 3 upon the completion of the League Cup.

1) Woodlands Wellington
2) Sengkang Punggol
3) Gombak United

As you may have noticed, these are just the top 3 for the League Cup.
Note: SAFFC, Young Lions, Liaoning FC and Geylang United did not participate in this inaugural competition.

Monday, February 26, 2007

Breakthrough of the season

Following my one-sided affair at Battleville against visitors Posers, ending in a 5-0 romp for my side, I started out on a new journey in this series.

WhiteSandsMechs 2-6 Battler United

Wonderful outcome I must say. I have decided to spring a surprise against my opponents by sing counter-attacks against him, though my midfield is slightly stronger.

My attack was 1 better than his defence, his attack was 1 worse than my defence, and my midfield was 6 better. (Our defence both scored 37 in the ratings).

I had targetted a draw to be a fair result. Instead, I went on to romp to the greatest win of the week in my league series. Red Chaos had ended Bravo Warriors promotion bid with a 5-1 thrashing, while Norwich remained in the hunt with a tremendous comeback from 2 goals down to triumph 5-2. In the battle of the dwellers, Posers continued their misery run with a loss at newbies Squeeling Jets 0-2. Both are confirmed demoted to the bottom tier, with two games remaining, since my team, Battler United, managed to win and bring myself to 12 points, on level with WhiteSandsMechs, only behind on an inferior goal difference.

So, let me round up with some Singapore football. In the recently concluded SingTel League Cup, Woodlands Wellington managed a 4-0 win against last-season's bottom club, with goals from Japanese player Akihiro, foreigner Lucian Dronca, and strikers, Korean Park Tae Won, and last season's top scorer and player of the year, Laakad Abdelhadi.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Back at posting

Firstly, all in all, I shall wish everyone a happy lunar new year!

Next, I would proceed to the results of my matches in Hattrick.

Darkonian FC 3-5 Battler United

For this return match, I congratulate my opponent to bounce back from a 10-0 thumping to lose by two goals only in this 8-goal thriller. I had underestimated my opponents, but I did not lose anything from it.

Battler united 5-0 Posers

I had finally managed to carve out a win in the league, after a rough patch with matches against the top 4 constantly. Now, it's time for me to get back on track in my pusch for 5th place, and my next league match will be against rivals WhiteSandsMechs. My last match shall be one against Squeeling Jets, the newest team in the league, which have yet to claim a point in this campaign, though they have a chance against Posers.

Team Posei 0-3 Battler United

I had an inferior midfield in this match, albeit by the slightest margin. I put in a largely reserve side and won due to my tactics for the first time, with my ratings proving to be inferior in many areas.

Finally, congratulations to my Hattrick friend, owner of Red Chaos, who managed to climb to the top of the league, following two 1-2 losses by Bravo Warriors to Norwich City and Mantissa FC, and dropped to 3rd, with Norwich occupting second on 28 points, 2 behind leaders Chaos. Meanwhile, I am on 9 points, with 3 games remaining, and a 5 point cushion from automatic relegation.

Lastly, I shall be mentioning about Singapore football. S-league is coming back! With new team Korean Super Reds and Liaoning Guangyuan FC joining the crop, it is amazing to think about a foreign team challenging the likes of SAFFC, Tampines, and Home for the title. I predict SAFFC and Home to be in a tussle with Super Reds for the top 3, with Tampines and Young Lions to battle or 4th and possible 3rd.

Albirex should be tussling for 6th with Liaoning FC and Woodlands Wellington, while Geylang should battle for 9th with Balestier Khalsa. This part is shaky, as Balestier could also end up last, since Gombak United have revived fortunes since last year, and Sengkang Punggol is showing good progres in the inaugural season opener SingTel League Cup, poised to meet either Home or Woodlands in the final.

I would be predicting Asean Football Championships hero Khairul Amri, last year's winner Laakad Abdelhadi, and Peres de Oliviera to lead the lights in terms of scoring. Lionel Lewis could soon be leaving the S-League, since personal sponsor Adidas is finding him a place in the US Soccer League. Do not over-judge on Korean Super Reds' failure in the League Cup; it counts for nothing. Liaoning FC is still anonymous, so their quality is still not to be totally trusted yet.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Up and Down

Battler United 10-0 Darkonian FC

I had been recently thinking about the possibility of a double-digited win. Mostly I have seen is good teams beating bot teams 9-0. Now, I have achieved the tremendous job of a double-digited win. My opponent is a bot; you cannot arrange a friendly with a bot anyway.

Two of my players bagged a hat-trick each as I completed the rout. This is not understandable. One time, this team can draw 1-1 against a team. The next, this team routed their opponents 10-0, despite the lack of differences in the gaps of the two teams.

This is certainly the best ever match I have ever had.

Red Chaos 8-1 Battler United

Obviously, this is the down part. I had a defender sent off after just 8 minutes, hence contributing to the cause of this result.

I am really disappointed at this result. It brought me back down to earth. However, it was not unexpected.

Congratulations Singapore on standing their ground againstthe more talented Thais and equalising with a superb goal to lift the title through sheer hard work and moments of magic.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

League Match 8,9 and Friendly Match

Bravo Warriors 4-0 Battler United

I have to be given credit for being able to keep the scores as low as this, against the league leaders. I used counter-attacks against this strong team and reaped benefits. Not much to comment on since this result was largely predicted and accepted.

Team Posei 1-1 Battler United

Shocking draw due to Random Factor as my midfield rating is much higher. Record in schedule is 3 wins and 2 draws.

Battler United 0-5 Mantissa FC

Mistake in fielding suspended playmaker. Substitute playmaker starts match and when another playmaker is injured (for 3 weeks), substitute defender comes into pitch as a playmaker! It contributes to poor midfield rating and a crushing loss. Mantissa have a shockingly good left attack of brilliant, better than their really good defence!

Note

Squeeling Jets have replaced Bukit Panjang and has used 200,000 for three players! Atrocious use of money. Hope this team does not end in the cauldron of defeat soon...

Singapore, go on and win the Asean Football Championships over Thailand!