S-League

As the first round of the S-League draws to a close, I believe many people have a rough idea of what is likely to be the case for the rest of the season. As I offer my sincere and humble opinions, I do expect these opinions to come true, if not partially true.

As can be seen, Woodlands continued their remarkable start to the season with a 2-1 victory over last-season's Singapore Cup winners and league runner-up Tampines Rovers. Clearly, Tampines players are aging and they seriously need to draft in a new batch of young and energetic players to pose any serious threats to their title opponents. Meanwhile, Woodlands are a mix between youth and experience, or more like a team. They have lots of quality at the front, with Laakad Abdelhadi and Park Tae Won again scoring the goals. This is despite the departure of players like Agu Casmir and Itimi Dickson. Tampines should be wandering between 3rd and 6th when the July transfer window arrives, since they have not found replacements for the fast-aging Sead Muratovic, Mirko Grabovac, who struggled in the Beep Test.

Next, proceed to the match between last year's champions SAFFC and last season's wooden spoon awardees Sengkang Punggol. This match appears a total mismatch, but it ended 1-1. It can be considered a fluke, but you have to give Sengkang credit to even pull off this task, after managing a mere 18 points last season. It proves that their run to the League Cup final was no fluke. However, SAFFC have to seriously buck up, and awake from their hibernation, having just mustered a loss and a draw in this season's official matches. They too, have to find replacements for the older quality players, like Therdsak Chaiman and Aleksander Duric, if not they could end up like Tampines Rovers this season. When Therdsak left SAF seasons ago, SAF struggled, and only revived when this talismanic Thai returned to help pull the strings.

The match between Gombak and Geylang must be considered the least exciting of the matches this week, but seriously admit that this two teams are showing that they are capable to challenge for the top half of the table. For Geylang, it's a case of returning to the glory days, but they still have to work hard, and with skilful players too. Gombak have shown last season they can fight, and finished the season ahead of foreign outfit Sporting Afrique, and near Balestier Khalsa in the point tally.

Now, to the foreign teams. As I have already said, Korean Super Reds are really struggling, and surrendered easily to Home United. My prediction have been deemed invalid, as I ranked them a possible top 3. Now, I rank them in the bottom half of the table. As I say, you cannot judge a team based on just few matches. Maybe, if they win their next match, people will suddenly say they are good and rank them high. So mid-table is a high possibility. Home have shaken off their inconsistency in the League Cup and could easily end up as serious challengers for the title. I make them out as top 3, or even top 2.

Liaoning versus Young Lions bring out an interesting clash between Singapore's future prospects against Liaoning's future prospects. Young Lions did us proud by winning this 3-2, preventing any good start for the foreign teams. However, they are still unstable and I can't see them in a good position like they are at the start of last season. Maybe they will end up 5th. For Liaoning, I must say they did marginally better than their Korean counterparts. However, I can't see them picking any points against Home United in the first televised S-League match of 2007 on Channel 5. They should end the season challenging with Albirex and Gombak for 7th.

Lastly, Albirex versus Balstier. This match presents the best chance for the foreign teams, yet Albirex could only muster a weak 1-1 draw against Balestier, who are suffering from injury problems at such an early stage of the season. They should learn to be better, as their main team in Japan's division 1 just did recently: Hold Champions Urawa Red Diamonds to a 2-2 draw, scoring their two goals only in the last few minutes. Albirex could end up 7th. Balestier, with injury problems, could muster a late season charge, but should finish in the bottom three.

As I round up my points, these are the likely positions the teams will end up in.

Top 3: SAFFC, Home United, Woodlands Wellington
4-6th: Tampines Rovers, Young Lions, Geylang Utd
7-9th: Albirex Niigata, Gombak Utd, Liaoning FC
10-12: Korean Super Reds, Sengkang, Balestier

I end up saying, these predictions are subjective. I am likely to give more accurate ones in mid-season, when the transfer window opens.

Final matches

As Season 18 draws a close in the league matches, I found myself wondering whether I had a future in my series IV.4. With so strong teams in this series, I could sense myself struggling to be the top 4 in my series. This season 18 concluded with my results being 5 wins 0 draws and 9 losses. My 5 wins come from: 2 against Posers, 1 walkover against the now liquidated Bukit Panjang XI, 1 shock against WhiteSandsMechs and the last against Squeeling Jets.

Despite a haul of 15 points, more than last season's 13, I remained at 6th position. I lost out on goal difference against WhiteSands, with a goal difference that is 6 inferior. Never mind, it does not even matter about who finishes 5th, the end of season bonuses are only awarded to the top 4 in each series.

I am quite some distance from 4th placed Mantissa FC, who finished with 22 points. My last match ended in a 4-0 victory, and the only achievement I had was in boasting a player in the top scorers list, with Francesco Uboldi, who I acquired around in the middle of the season, with 7 goals. The top scorer, was, however, long and away with 21 goals. Second-placed scorer was, I think, with 14 goals.

My friend, owner of Red Chaos, ended the season in style, coming behind to win 2-1 against Norwich City and got promoted automatically. Good luck for this friend in the future, whom I had received lots of help from.

Targets for next season:

5th place
18 points

I still have a match against a 'bot', and it is a foregone conclusion. I am definitely going to win that and stay in my series!

Points to remember for this season:

Best of 15 points.
Defeated WhiteSandsMechs for first time.
Posted a double digit victory aganst Darkonian FC in a friendly. 10-0 win.
First draw, again a friendly, against Team Posei. 1-1.
Farewell with Red Chaos in the league.
Had a player in top scorers' list. 7 goals.
Increased skill for some players. 3 playmakers. 2 from passable to solid, 1 from solid to excellent.
Had players with 3 stars. Had a high of 28 or more stars for a match.
Form of some players reached excellent for some while.

Bye for now, more stuff arriving soon!

Matches

I was brought down to Earth with two defeats. The friendly loss was the first for me this season in the schedule, though it was really deserving of me to lose that match. The league match was totally expected, so nothing to say about...

Kanu United 5-1 Battler United

Wonderful loss. First time I am happy with a loss. Why? I shall not disclose detailed information, but I shall mention my opponent is someone I know. Losing means nothing, except that he is much stronger, and I realised he had spent 186,000 on a single player, after being demoted to Division 5 from last season. My biggest signing still stands at 60,000, but my inner midfielders are fast improving; three passable playmakers, whom I bought atprices of less than 10,000, increased to solid, while a solid playmaker whom I got at a bargain price of 30,000, increased to excellent. They are worth a lot now, but I guess I will hold on for a while more before releasing them. End-of-season sales are not high, unlike the start of seasons.

Norwich City 8-0 Battler United

I was crushed, but I improved from my 0-9 hammering near the start of the season.

Now, I shall be mentioning that I have managed to stave off automatic demotion, but is stuck at 6th place, and require a big win in my last match coupled with a big loss for current 5th place WhiteSandsMechs, to have a chance of 5th. 5th has no end-of-season bonus, though.

I have currently amassed 12 points, and has hopes of raising it to 15 provided I defeat current bottom place and newcomers Squeeling Jets, who claimed a win at Posers, but still remained bottom.

To end, I would like to congratulate Red Chaos for currently occupying top spot, but have to avoid a defeat at Norwich City in the top of the table clash to successfully get promoted.

Result of First Clash

As I had mentioned in my previous post, I am hoping that the Super Reds could pull off a great job by holding the seemingly unconvincing Home United to a draw. I was terribly wrong. I take back my criticism of Straits Times and the public. The foreign teams aren't making a big impact anyway.

Another issue. After the 1-5 hammering, I realised that despite being recipients of several proposals for participating in the S-League, there are not really good teams coming along. Sinchi FC came and went. So did Sporting Afrique, who seems a rather good team in attack but lacks the defensive ability to make much of an impact. I hugely suspect that of Liaoning FC and Korean Super Reds, one or both could end up out of the S-League. Why? Despite boasting Chinese and Korean names, in the S-League, they are only sending in a feeder club and the quality of football is not clearly shown. I am hoping the FAS could do their best to accept offers that could boost the quality of football in our native league. Adding to that, we should also have more local teams and expand the league size. Local teams give local players more chance, while expanding the league size again is definitely necessary. However, due to the problem of the number of matches that could be played due to expansion of league size, we should, in fact, have a promotion and relegation system, whereby perhaps 12 teams in the top tier and 12 or 14 in the bottom tier, with one team automatically relegated or promoted, and the second best and second worst of 2nd and 1st tier square off. Winner of this playoff will gain entry to the top tier next season. Isn't this idea more feasible, so that only the best can survive, and the worst could fight as hard as they can for survival and more benefits?

Just look at the season in 2005. Then, there is one team who stands out greatly. No, not Tampines Rovers, who claimed the title a second successive time, but bottom club Paya Lebar Punggol, who, out of 27 matches and a possible 81 points, amassed only a single win and a single draw for 4 points. This is totally unacceptable. They should be relegated, but they merged with Sengkang United and formed Sengkang Punggol, but ended up last again, with 18 points from 30 matches, due to a sudden surge at the end of the season by Geyland United, who won their last two matches to go five points ahead of Sengkang, including a gritty 3-2 victory over already crowned champions SAFFC.

Last point to make before ending. Why is Woodlands Wellington called the Chelsea of Singapore last season and now it is Home United's turn? Why Chelsea? Chelsea spends a lot of money, while we have never ever heard of any transfer fees, because the clubs get players from overaged players from the Young Lions. FAS should implement a system that you should be paying transfer fees for players. Home United did not spend a lot of money, in fact almost minimal, and the comparison should not stand. Therefore, call them something nice, while they could just change their nickname, from the current Protectors, to a more selling name.

Start of S-League

Today is the day when Home United square off with newcomers Korean Super Reds. Home United had offered free admission into their 4,000 seater in the Bishan Stadium for this opening match of S-League 2007. Does this prove to be the new era for S-League, with more supporters being attracted by SIngapore football?

As S-League embark on their 12th season since its inauguration in 1996, who shall top the league? Who shall make good or bad impressions? Let us have a closer look. But before that, I challenge The Straits Times' prediction for the final rankings in this season. The writer had written that the three foreign teams, Albirex Niigata, Liaoning Guangyuan FC and Korean Super Reds, finish in 8th, 9th and 10th respectively. Is he belittling the ability of the foreign teams. Let me ask a question. What are the foreign teams introduced in the league for? They are supposed to challenge for the title or at least up the standards of soccer here. So, let me ask this writer, you may be predicting according to your real thoughts, and I don't challenge that, but please show some belief in the foreign teams. Korea, Japan and China are not that poor anyway.

The Singaporean public all support the local teams. So, while supporting the locals, please also give the foreign teams their due respect and not belittling them, just like predicting Home United would triumoh by at least 3 clear goals. Thye have only played 1 official match here, and that is a 0-2 defeat tp eventual League Cup champions Woodlands Wellington. We should not jump to sweeping generalities, and should instead hope that this foreign teams produce good stuff on and off the field and raise Singapore's football standard. We don't just want to be Asean champions and cannot qualify for the Asian Cup and Asian Games.

Predictions:

1 ) SAFFC
2 ) Home United
3 ) Woodlands Wellingon
4 ) Tampines Rovers
5 ) Young Lions
6 ) Korean Super Reds
7 ) Albirex Niigata
8 ) Geylang United
9 ) Gombak United
10) Liaoning Guangyuan FC
11) Sengkang Punggol
12) Balestier Khalsa

These are the predictions. I truly hope for the best of Singapore football in many years to be displayed this season.

And, Home United shall be held to a shocking draw 1-1 by Super Reds.