Battler united 0-5 Red Chaos
Firstly, I would like to mention that my predictions were mostly rather accurate. I had a 5-goal loss to Chaos, as predicted. Bravo were held to a draw to Norwich, WhiteSands defeated Posers and Mantissa had a walkover.
I would not talk much about the outcomes of this round's matches. I would just mention that my position in IV.4 dropped to fifth, as WhiteSands moved ahead of my team to 9 points. Mantissa moved to sixth as Posers dropped to seventh after their five-goal collapse at WhiteSands. Chaos saw themselves moving up to second, courtesy of the 1-1 draw between Norwich and unbeaten Bavo. Bravo currently are on 13 points, a single point ahead of Norwich.
Predictions:
Bravo 5-0 walkover Panjang
Mantissa FC 2-2 Battler United
Norwich City 9-0 Posers
Red Chaos 4-0 WhiteSandsMechs
My friendly match would be against Woxingwosu FC, with me expecting a solid victory, perhaps by a 2 or 3 goal margin.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Monday, January 08, 2007
Singapore Soccer 2006
Singapore football in 2006 is rather dismaying. According to statistics, Singapore had only a win and 5 draws with 8 losses. Ironically, the single win was against powerhouses Iraq---a shocking 2-0 win. Yet Singapore can only manage 2 penalty-shootout wins against Malaysia. They failed to even beat Palestine.
Despite this terrible record, Singapore had a good year whatsoever in football. They manage to push Iraq and China, 2 strong teams in Asia. Credit is due to keeper Lionel Lewis, who managed a 10-man shortlist for the AFC player of the year award. He was the only Singaporean and the only goalkeeper to make that list.
We would have to give most credit to Referee Shamsul Maidin, who did us Singapore so proud by officiating 3 matches as the main referee at the 2006 World Cup. He did not make the quater-final stage though, due to a lack of experience. Still, popular soccer website Soccernet rated him as the best referee. Hope he would officiate at higher levels!
In the S-league, 2-time defending champions Tampines Rovers suffered from a hectic schedule and eventually finished a credible second. The champions are SAFFC. They had a passable streak under their first manager, but when long-time assistant manager stood up to be the manager, he proved a revelation by leading SAF to an amazing unbeaten streak to lead them to the title by more than 10 points. Young Lions, who were the forerunners, seemed certain to win the league after maintaining unbeaten to lead by many points. However, their inexperienced side had a mid-season collapse and it became clear who would win the title eventually. Young Lions finished 3rd. Home United finished fourth and Woodlands 5th. Foreign sides Albirex Niigata and Sporting Afrique finished 6th and 10th respectively in the 11-team league.
In 2007, the S-league will expand to 12 sides, with Liaoning FC of China and Korean Super Reds joining the league. Sporting Afrique pulled out of the league due to financial constraints. I hope for more competition from the foreign sides. The best position achieved by a foreign side was 5th, twice by Albirex Niigata.
As the AFF Cup draws nearer, Their strikeforce is out of form. However, in a recent friendly against Phillipines, Singapore managed a 4-1 victory, with Indra Sahdan, the main striker, netting a brace after returning from injury just last month. Khairul Amri, a forward/winger, netted another goal while free-kick specialist Daniel Bennett, who netted some important goals from set-pieces at the Tiger Cup last time out, scored another from a free kick. This was certainly welcome news for Singapore, though the strikeforce still have much room for improvement against stronger sides like Vietnam and Indonesia in their group matches.
Despite this terrible record, Singapore had a good year whatsoever in football. They manage to push Iraq and China, 2 strong teams in Asia. Credit is due to keeper Lionel Lewis, who managed a 10-man shortlist for the AFC player of the year award. He was the only Singaporean and the only goalkeeper to make that list.
We would have to give most credit to Referee Shamsul Maidin, who did us Singapore so proud by officiating 3 matches as the main referee at the 2006 World Cup. He did not make the quater-final stage though, due to a lack of experience. Still, popular soccer website Soccernet rated him as the best referee. Hope he would officiate at higher levels!
In the S-league, 2-time defending champions Tampines Rovers suffered from a hectic schedule and eventually finished a credible second. The champions are SAFFC. They had a passable streak under their first manager, but when long-time assistant manager stood up to be the manager, he proved a revelation by leading SAF to an amazing unbeaten streak to lead them to the title by more than 10 points. Young Lions, who were the forerunners, seemed certain to win the league after maintaining unbeaten to lead by many points. However, their inexperienced side had a mid-season collapse and it became clear who would win the title eventually. Young Lions finished 3rd. Home United finished fourth and Woodlands 5th. Foreign sides Albirex Niigata and Sporting Afrique finished 6th and 10th respectively in the 11-team league.
In 2007, the S-league will expand to 12 sides, with Liaoning FC of China and Korean Super Reds joining the league. Sporting Afrique pulled out of the league due to financial constraints. I hope for more competition from the foreign sides. The best position achieved by a foreign side was 5th, twice by Albirex Niigata.
As the AFF Cup draws nearer, Their strikeforce is out of form. However, in a recent friendly against Phillipines, Singapore managed a 4-1 victory, with Indra Sahdan, the main striker, netting a brace after returning from injury just last month. Khairul Amri, a forward/winger, netted another goal while free-kick specialist Daniel Bennett, who netted some important goals from set-pieces at the Tiger Cup last time out, scored another from a free kick. This was certainly welcome news for Singapore, though the strikeforce still have much room for improvement against stronger sides like Vietnam and Indonesia in their group matches.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Casual Post
Since for the moment I had nothing to talk about, I would be talking about random stuff, though related to soccer and Hattrick.
Hattrick:
I am playing friendly matches with a few other teams. There are eight teams in this assigned league. I missed my first match, then started on my second match, which is my 4-1 win over TEAM KHC. I know some of the owners of these teams, I think I know four of seven other teams. This is one of them. My next scheduled friendly match would be against Woxingwosu FC, another one I know.
Some of the targets I had lay out for Season 18:
5th in IV.4
Finish as top 2 in this friendly league
AFF Cup:
In Hattrick, I opened a conference about AFF Cup, and to my pleasance, within a day, there were already 5 additional posts! A great achievement for me in my first time opening and setting up a conference. However, I had high hopes of some response, as there must be people concerned of Singapore football, and no similar conference had been set up.
Targets:
Singapore to reach finals at least.
Singapore to defeat Malaysia in a possible semi-final clash.
Hattrick:
I am playing friendly matches with a few other teams. There are eight teams in this assigned league. I missed my first match, then started on my second match, which is my 4-1 win over TEAM KHC. I know some of the owners of these teams, I think I know four of seven other teams. This is one of them. My next scheduled friendly match would be against Woxingwosu FC, another one I know.
Some of the targets I had lay out for Season 18:
5th in IV.4
Finish as top 2 in this friendly league
AFF Cup:
In Hattrick, I opened a conference about AFF Cup, and to my pleasance, within a day, there were already 5 additional posts! A great achievement for me in my first time opening and setting up a conference. However, I had high hopes of some response, as there must be people concerned of Singapore football, and no similar conference had been set up.
Targets:
Singapore to reach finals at least.
Singapore to defeat Malaysia in a possible semi-final clash.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
AFF Cup qualifiers
Upon doing some research on the AFF Cup on Google, I finally found out more on this competition. In this post, I would mention briefly about the qualifiers.
The standings of the qualifiers:
Laos 10 pts
Phillipines 9 pts
Cambodia 5 pts
Brunei 4 pts
Timor Leste 0 pt
The top 2 teams qualify for the main competition.
As can be seen, there are 11 South-East Asian countries. All wanted to take part in the competition. As the competition would be made very hectic and gruelling, the organisers decided on a qualifying tournament, so as to prevent players from over-exhausting and attract more interest as the tournament would be a competition of the elite.
However, this act would cause weaker teams like Brunei and Timor Leste never to have a chance to qualify for the tournament. Therefore, no competition means no improvement. These would result in these countries, with small populations, to lose hope as their national team is unable to take part in any tournament.
Meanwhile, Cambodia, who had been participating regularly, had been kicked out before the main tournament begin on 12 Jan. Is there hope for the poor country? Laos and Phillipines progressed to the main draw deservedly.
As the qualifying tournament had ended in November last year, the main draw had already been given. Therefore, they would join the 6 teams who automatically qualified. They are: Holders Singapore, Runner-up Indonesia, semi-finalists Malaysia and Myanmar, traditional kings of South-East Asia Thailand and Vietnam. With these teams, they form 2 groups, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar and Phillipines in Group A, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Laos in Group B.
Both groups would be very competitive, as Myanmar and Malaysia battle for a place alongside favourites Thailand. Holders Singapore and runners-up Indonesia would receive stiff competition from an improved Vietnam.
At the recent king's Cup which Thailand, the hosts, lifted, Vietnam defeated Singapore 3-2 in a match. This suggests that Vietnam would fire from all cylinders to try and regain the glory and repay their fans' support for their national soccer side.
As the competition inches nearer, I would make a pre-tournament prediction that Thailand and Malaysia would progress from Group A and Singapore and Vietnam progress from Group B.
Happy catching the AFF Cup starting from 12 Jan this year!
The standings of the qualifiers:
Laos 10 pts
Phillipines 9 pts
Cambodia 5 pts
Brunei 4 pts
Timor Leste 0 pt
The top 2 teams qualify for the main competition.
As can be seen, there are 11 South-East Asian countries. All wanted to take part in the competition. As the competition would be made very hectic and gruelling, the organisers decided on a qualifying tournament, so as to prevent players from over-exhausting and attract more interest as the tournament would be a competition of the elite.
However, this act would cause weaker teams like Brunei and Timor Leste never to have a chance to qualify for the tournament. Therefore, no competition means no improvement. These would result in these countries, with small populations, to lose hope as their national team is unable to take part in any tournament.
Meanwhile, Cambodia, who had been participating regularly, had been kicked out before the main tournament begin on 12 Jan. Is there hope for the poor country? Laos and Phillipines progressed to the main draw deservedly.
As the qualifying tournament had ended in November last year, the main draw had already been given. Therefore, they would join the 6 teams who automatically qualified. They are: Holders Singapore, Runner-up Indonesia, semi-finalists Malaysia and Myanmar, traditional kings of South-East Asia Thailand and Vietnam. With these teams, they form 2 groups, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar and Phillipines in Group A, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Laos in Group B.
Both groups would be very competitive, as Myanmar and Malaysia battle for a place alongside favourites Thailand. Holders Singapore and runners-up Indonesia would receive stiff competition from an improved Vietnam.
At the recent king's Cup which Thailand, the hosts, lifted, Vietnam defeated Singapore 3-2 in a match. This suggests that Vietnam would fire from all cylinders to try and regain the glory and repay their fans' support for their national soccer side.
As the competition inches nearer, I would make a pre-tournament prediction that Thailand and Malaysia would progress from Group A and Singapore and Vietnam progress from Group B.
Happy catching the AFF Cup starting from 12 Jan this year!
Friendly Match
Battler United 4-1 TEAM KHC
Another handsome victory in a game which saw only 373 spectators. My opponent is not a weak one, in fact I would have rated it 70% as good as the team who knocked me out of the Singapore Cup with an edgy win, Seventh Mavericks. I did not put some of my main players for the atch and was expecting a close encounter. However, I did expect to carve a result. My midfield is significantly better than his. Mine was at poor (low), one of my higher ratings, while his was at disastrous (high). My four goals again come from 4 different players. I dominated the match with 80% of ball possession due to my largely superior midfield. My opponent had only three midfielders while I had a typical 5. His defence is stronger than my attack while my defence is on par with his attack. Hence, the deciding factor is the midfield.
I'm largely boosted by the win. However, my confidence will not be replaced by optimism of a result against Chaos. I would be glad to avoid a heavy defeat. Not anything like 9-0 or 7-0.
Predictions:
Battler United 1-6 Red Chaos
WhiteSandsMechs 3-1 Posers
Bravo Warriors 2-2 Norwich City
Bukit Panjang XI 0-5 walkover Mantissa FC
I'm expecting this to be an interesting week, with title contenders Norwich lining against in-form Bravo. Shall it end in a draw or a defeat for Bravo, Chaos could be the biggest winners. WhiteSands would ascertain their position in the league shall they defeat Posers and condemn them to demotion.
On my coming posts, I would be including comments and predictions on the matches of the upcoming AFF Cup, previously known as Tiger Cup, for South-East Asian nations.
Another handsome victory in a game which saw only 373 spectators. My opponent is not a weak one, in fact I would have rated it 70% as good as the team who knocked me out of the Singapore Cup with an edgy win, Seventh Mavericks. I did not put some of my main players for the atch and was expecting a close encounter. However, I did expect to carve a result. My midfield is significantly better than his. Mine was at poor (low), one of my higher ratings, while his was at disastrous (high). My four goals again come from 4 different players. I dominated the match with 80% of ball possession due to my largely superior midfield. My opponent had only three midfielders while I had a typical 5. His defence is stronger than my attack while my defence is on par with his attack. Hence, the deciding factor is the midfield.
I'm largely boosted by the win. However, my confidence will not be replaced by optimism of a result against Chaos. I would be glad to avoid a heavy defeat. Not anything like 9-0 or 7-0.
Predictions:
Battler United 1-6 Red Chaos
WhiteSandsMechs 3-1 Posers
Bravo Warriors 2-2 Norwich City
Bukit Panjang XI 0-5 walkover Mantissa FC
I'm expecting this to be an interesting week, with title contenders Norwich lining against in-form Bravo. Shall it end in a draw or a defeat for Bravo, Chaos could be the biggest winners. WhiteSands would ascertain their position in the league shall they defeat Posers and condemn them to demotion.
On my coming posts, I would be including comments and predictions on the matches of the upcoming AFF Cup, previously known as Tiger Cup, for South-East Asian nations.
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