Win, but not enough?

In a competitive group like this, with Uzbekistan and World Cup regular Saudi Arabia and Lebanon in this group, obviously Singapore will have to take their chances, and must be able ot cope with any types of scenario.

Yesterday night, we witnessed our Lions not exactly dominating. Lebanon were better at the opening exchanges, and it was against the run of play that Singapore scored in the 8th minute. Duric got the goal, but he should have finished the match with a hat-trick.

When Singapore scored again, it was not after the scorer, Fazrul Nawaz, had missed a total sitter, with an open goal a metre in front of him, he blasted over. This is exactly the kind of shot I would have probably made when I was not in the best of luck.

And second half... it makes me sad to talk of it, because Duric was really unlucky in striking the far post once, but he had an opportunity liek Fazrul's miss, and he couldn't quite make the stretch to make good contact and score. Sharil Ishak also totally wasted a chance. Mustafic's moment came when he lashed perhaps the only good shot from outside the box, but the keeper was equal to it.

On the whole, it was good to keep a clean sheet, but on account of the number of wasted chances, Singapore really should have taken the chance, be sharper in front of goal and win by 4 goals.

And the defence was dismal. Especially so for Precious Emuejeraye, who made no tackles, and looked lost, short on pace, unable to stop any Lebanese. Indra was off-colour in front.

There is still much room for improvement before we can survive to the next stage.

Blog reform?

I am considering reforming this blog slightly to make it more engaging, but till now I have no ideas.

So for now, Singapore football...

Singapore is playing against Lebanon soon on Wednesday night (Singapore time) for an Asian World Cup qualifying Round 3.

Info: Singapore lost the 1st group match to Saudi Arabia, 0-2

I am really amazed at Aleksander Duric. He makes the national team at an old age of 36! And now he is proving to be an asset. A total exception from Raddy's policy of fielding youth players. And rightfully so.

Duric is showing he is no fluke, with 4 goals in 5 league games, which currently helps SAFFC to sit second, having played a game less than surprise package Super Reds. Both teams have perfect record till now.

I am looking forward to seeing the Duric-Indra partnership up front bear fruit. Ever since Duric got his PR status, this is the duo I am most happy with. Noh Alam Shah's temper is suspect, while Khairul Amri does a lot of dribbles, he lacks a little bit of confidence and experience to do as well as either Indra or Duric.

I am going to root the Lions for a 3-1 win over Lebanon, with Duric and Indra getting a goal each.

Soccerproject policies

As you can see from the top, I had hit a good stretch, with consecutive wins over teams like me, which are battling not for promotion, not exactly for survival, but for as high a position as possible. I am still short of the 5th place target I had set for myself, but I am near.

My next match will be against a managerless team, which always means a huge win for me. That could boost my goal difference. In the bottom division H, I can rest my best players when I am facing a weaker team. But the challenge gets big here, when you aim to get something out of a match against a promotion-worthy team, and you want to win by as big a margin against the worst teams. Hence, I am aiming to get better players. I have already been adopting a rotation policy, worse than Benitez', as you will probably see no single player play 2 matches in a row.

Why so? Morale. I need to keep their morale up to get good performances from them. This tactic will not allow me to get the best from all of my players (I don't field them when their morale is 100), but I will be getting near-peak performances from all of them though.

In order to reduce rotation, I will be aiming to reduce squad size. Another reason for this aim is to reduce overall players' wages. I have been struggling to break even in finances for matches; counting everything from a match, usually I lose money. I had increased capacity of the arena to 7000 seats from 4000 seats, and I am able to get >5000 in my stadium nowadays. So I earn for home matches, but as for away matches, I will keep losing money, but I treat that as a given.

This is probably all I will update on. Will be back soon.

S-League update

Wonderful.

This season is going to be exciting. I believe it will be remembered as the season when we witnessed a change of powers.

Last season showed a clear, distinct difference between Tampines and Gombak, 3rd and 4th respectively. The top 3 fought till the last round of matches, eventually resulting in a 2nd consecutive title for SAFFC Warriors, 1 point ahead of Home Utd and another ahead of Tampines Rovers.

SAFFC 77 pts
Home U 76 pts
Tampines 75 pts

How near, and how far for the others. But this season, we are witnessing a shift in power.

The Dad's Army, Tampines Rovers, is slipping off the radar. They saw 3 of their top strikers leave. Peres Oliviera left for Home Utd, Noh Alam Shah was banned, and S-League's all-time top scorer, Mirko Grabovac, left for strugglers Sengkang Punggol.

No more natural finishers, and this could result in Tampines ending the season in mid-table.

Here we see a new and transformed team called Super Reds. Super Reds? The team with a measly 18 points last season? Yes, Super Reds. They have now won 4 matches out of 4, and are joint top with SAFFC, just inferior in goal difference. They had won all their matches by a 1-goal margin, but that's surely better than getting whacked 4, 5 or 6 goals right?

I tip Super Reds to break the Big Three's threshold. They won't win the title, but they have the ability to better Albirex's 5th place, for the best finishing by a foreign team. Why not 2nd or 3rd?

Soccerproject new season

I have updated my targets on the right side. Yes, 55 points.

It won't be easy but I will try to use my tactical brain and make shrewd transfer moves.

Farhan Kamsan shouldn't stay for too long, Kim Wee is ageing, so is Sharif, so this season will be one that provides a complete makeover for my frontline.

As for the midfield, I have given up on M Amir, so I am plannng to sack him real soon. No one wants to buy him on the transfer market! Twice already! And Stancioiu, who has done pretty well, but never getting past a match rating of 55, will soon prove to be not good enough for the squad. It will be good if he can fetch some price.

Defence-wise, I am quite satisfied with what I have on the left, in the middle, but not on the right. Bartholomeusz has a global rating of 71. Zulaloglu, one of my earliest signings, has a global rating of 73. Their performances will NEVER push past 60, which is why their positions in the squad is not secure. This is further consolidated, as I bought Fernando Gomez Perreira, and he is proving to be a great player whose global rating should be >75. Denis Iensci could be sold, as I have too many players in his position.

Overall, this season is one for renewal, and I hope I can excel and be in the top 5, so as to be on track for my promotion hopes next season.