Contract dispute between Nelson and Home?

After claiming Chilean playmaker Nelson San Martin is set to leave Home United on amiable terms and he is only training with the club to keep his fitness level up, it seem it is not the case now with S-league website reporting of a contract dispute.

Protectors assistant coach Subramani was quoted by the official site that the midfielder still remain on the club’s books.

“Nelson is still with us, as nothing has been confirmed and he still has a contract with us,” he stressed.

“Until it is sorted out, he is still part of the team and will contribute in matches for us.”

If this is not solved by the end of the transfer window on 30 June, then one guess Home just have to dis-register Nelson from the squad while still paying him his salary.

SAFFC linked with ex-DPMM midfielder

With the departure of Niklas Sandberg, SAFFC have been linked with Croatian midfielder Ivan Jerkovic, who played for Brunei DPMM in the S-League last year.

The 31-year-old Jerkovic impressed with 12 goals in 31 games in all competitions for Brunei DPMM. He also helped the club become the first foreign team to lift the League Cup.

Kok confirmed the club's interest in Jerkovic, but was coy when asked to comment further.

'It is true we are getting another player so that we will not be weakened by the loss of Niklas, and he (Jerkovic) is one of the players we are looking at,' he said.

But there are another two weeks to go to June, and with these things, whatever can go wrong might go wrong. Until the player signs on the dotted line, only time will tell.'

Tampines and Etoile marches on

Tampines Rovers and Etoile FC continue to march on at the top of the table.

The Stags crushed Albirex Niigata (S) 3-0 at the Tampines Stadium with one from Akihiro Nakamura and a brace from Aleksandar Duric.

As for Etoile FC, they once again failed to turn their dominance into goals as they just edge Sengkang Punggol 1-0 at the Jalan Besar Stadium.

The winning goal came from Daniel Nna 14 minutes from time.

Tampines Rovers
Hassan Sunny (GK), Seiji Kaneko, Jufri Taha, Benoit Croissant, Akihiro Nakamura, (Fathi Yunus) Imran Sahib, (Khairul Amri) Aliff Shafaein (C), Shukor Zailan, Ismadi Mukhtar, Aleksandar Duric, (Jamil Ali) Qiu Li

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Sengkang Punggol
Fadhil Salim (GK), Sim Li Ming, Jasper Seet, ((Zul Nor Farahin) Jala) Farizal Basri, Nor Azli Yusoff (C), Faizal Amir, Duncan Elias, Abdoulaye Diallo, (Jordan Webb) Sobrie Mazelan, Murphy Wiredu, Ryan Fante

Champions release Sandberg

Former Swede international Niklas Sandberg is set to leave SAFFC after he has been released from his contract.

From media reports, it seem the 32-year-old has been affected by his family inability to adapt to the lifestyle and surroundings of Singapore and is seeking to return to Europe.

That could explain the drop in performance of the Swede recently; with him unable to impose himself in games like the start of the season.

The Champions have, therefore, decided it was better to part way now with the S-league transfer window opening in a month time and they needed to find a replacement while the Swede can return to Europe now, which is in the close-season, thus allowing him time to find a new club.

Sandberg had a two-year contract with SAFFC.

Tigers defeat 10-men Bulls

Gombak United once again falter to deceive as they went down to 10 men and suffered a 1-0 defeat to Balestier Khalsa at the Jurong West Stadium.

Ridhwan Jamaludin was the culprit as he got himself send off before halftime after picking up 2 yellow cards.

The Tigers took full advantage with Nurhilmi Jasni hitting the winner.

Gombak United
Zaiful Nizam, Jaslee Hatta (C), Bah Mamadou, Obadin Aikhena, Jeremy Chiang, (Zulkiffli Hassim) Ruhaizad Ismail, Ridhwan Jamaludin, Fazrul Nawaz, (Hamqaamal Shah) Agu Casmir, Park Kang Jin, (Shafuan Sutohmo) Chang Jo Yoon

Balestier Khalsa
Joey Sim (GK), Sofiyan Abdul Hamid, Daniel Hammond (C), K Sathiaraj, Ishak Zainol, K Vikraman, Poh Yi Feng, (Syaqir Sulaiman) Anantha Rajan, (Andrew Tan) Nurhilmi Jasni, (Han Yiguang) Vitor Borges, Rivaldo Costa

S-league Preview

S-league Preview - 4 right with 1 perfect score and 4 wrong

Gombak United vs Balestier Khalsa
Go Tigers. That my belief for this match. Yes, Rivaldo will always be a concern on whether he take to the field but the Bulls have a scoring problem as their Koreans are nothing compared to the Africans they had. This show where Darren should look next season when he seek new foreigners. But, let not lost focus and as long as Rivaldo take to the field at some point in the game, the Tigers can edge this one. 1-0 to the Tigers

Tampines Rovers vs Albirex Niigata (S)
The Stags should extend their lead at the top after this match as the White Swans cannot compete at all levels with the Stags and this time Khariul may not even have to be the hero. 3-1 to the Stags.

Sengkang Punggol vs Etoile FC
The Dolphins are not a great team but they may stand a chance as the French side are inconsistent. The Hougang side though have to build a Great Wall defence with their attack are not actually brilliant. That may be a problem for their defence is not watertight. So the French may win it by a goal. 1-0 to Etoile FC

Young Lions vs Home United
Can the Protectors win this one. They should but they may end up not doing that yet again. Under Lee, the Protectors can claim to have lost twice in the league and that is not much worse than previous season but looking more closely, we see they have won only twice as many. The draw are killing them and that where Lee is failing the Protectors. He is leading them to too many draw so here one more. 1-1 draw.

Tampines Rovers vs Gombak United
With them underdogs again, will the Bulls stand up. They may but the leaders are a different kettle this season and the Stags can defeat the Bulls who may have a problem even breaching the Stags defensive wall to do any damage. On the other hand, even with a watertight defence, can the Bulls stop the 3 musketeers - Qiu Li, Khariul and Duric - of Tampines Rovers. 2-0 to the Stags

Balestier Khalsa vs Geylang United
The Tigers should be confident of even defeating the in-form team of the moment, Geylang United. The Eagles are winning their matches but let be honest and admit that they are not doing that playing brilliantly. So they do give their opponents a chance and with Rivaldo and a better defence this season, the Tigers can take advantage. However, we should not belittle the in-form team of the moment and the Eagles have shown they can shut out teams themselves. A tough one so a 2-2 draw then

Sequence of draw continue

There were more draw games on Friday and Saturday night with the Eagles and Bulls drawing 0-0 while Beijing fought out a 1-1 draw with Dolphins with 10-men.

On Friday night, in what can only be described as a drab of a game, the Eagles had the best chances to extend their winning run to 5 games but substitute Hafiz Rahim failed to take especially at the death when he was put through and facing the Bulls keeper Zaiful Nizam one-on-one.

He failed to beat the keeper and that was it with the game finishing 0-0 at the Jalan Besar Stadium.

The next night at Yishun Stadium, Beijing Gouan got a 1-1 draw with Sengkang Punggol despite going a men and a goal down.

Canadian import Ryan Fante scored for the Dolphins in the first period while Beijing Ma Chongchong got send off in the second at the hour mark.

That looked like it for Beijing but Yu Tianzhu scored for them with minutes to go until the final whistle.

Geylang United
Siddiq Durimi (GK), Salim Rahim, Walid Lounis, Jonathan Xu, Rastislav Belicakm (C), Vasile Ghindaru, (Yasir Hanapi) Miroslav Latiak, (Masrezwan Masturi) Syed Fadhil, Shah Hirul, (Hafiz Rahim) Itimi Dickson,
Peter Tomko

Gombak United
Zaiful Nizam, Jaslee Hatta (C), Bah Mamadou, Obadin Aikhena, Jeremy Chiang, (Zulkiffli Hassim) Ruhaizad Ismail, (Agu Casmir) Ridhwan Jamaludin, Goran Subara, Fazrul Nawaz, Park Kang Jin, (Fazli Jaffar) Chang Jo Yoon

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Sengkang Punggol
Fadhil Salim, Shahir Hamzah, Jasper Seet, (Farizal Basri) Jordan Webb, Nor Azli Yusoff (C), Faizal Amir, Duncan Elias, Mamadou Diallo, (Jala) Sobrie Mazelan, Murphy Wiredu, Ryan Fante

National setup should be based on meritocracy

National coach Raddy has hit out at those who criticised FAS for employing too many Serbian in the National Setup after the appointment of Dejan Gluscevicthus as it new NFA U14 coach thus ‘depriving’ locals a chance.

I am on the side of Raddy on this one - not because he is Raddy - for those who read what I written before; my stand on two matters - match-fixing and meritocracy for National setup - is set in stone.

That why I do not wish to see Abbas ever coaching any level in Singapore as his ideas of match-fixing is much different from locals and it is no different now with talks FAS should set aside jobs at the National setup specially for locals.

One have to ask if that is indeed the right choice as the defence for such actions is giving locals their chances but why can’t they start with local clubs at the S-league level.

That is what S-league is also meant for; besides giving young players their break.

After all, when FAS appoint any person, whether local or foreign, to the National Setup, that person has to get to work immediately as this is where the top local players are and their potential cannot wait while the person ‘learn’ on the job.

If Gluscevicthus main contest is indeed with Nasri Nazri, then there is no contest.

We only need to look across the Causeway to see what happen when one considered factors other than the development of our youths.

It is no secret FAM have a system whereby plum jobs in administration and coaching are left to their well-connected local players without consideration of whether they fit the job or if it in the best interest of the youths.

That why their youth development have suffered for who can forget the debut of Indra Putra back in the 2002 Tiger Cup as a 20-year-old and he is often described as the best player of his generation but the player have never scaled the height of 2002 again.

After that kind of experience, it was no surprise, after winning the SEA Games gold medal, FAM decided not to hand those youngsters back to their coaching staffs at state level and that included those at FAM; showing how much faith they have of their own staffs.

For those coaching staffs at FAM, according to a Star news report, were paid RM$20000 a month with one staff admitting he is not good at it but he will not quit as it was too well-paid a job.

Is it really the best for FAS or even Singapore football then if we were to follow the actions of FAM and left our youths in the hands of, not the best but rather, the ‘well-connected’.

It should also extend to all top level of our football system, including our National Team coach, as after this outburst from Raddy; he will no doubt be hit by more critics who will clamor for a local.

And one popular option will be Fandi Ahmad but looking at his record with Indonesian Super Liga (ISL), where other than a couple best of mid-table finishes and bringing his club to the first Division (He will not have that on his resume as he is currently put on ‘compassion’ leave), what has he done.

If he was not a local, with such a record, will he even be mention for our top post and Fandi cannot be considered among the best of the local coaches as Richard Bok has a better record in the S-league and Asia than our famous footballer.

This show how we be ruled by such sentiment when it come to reserving jobs for our locals and those who end up getting it may be the ‘well-connected’ or famous and it is us who get hurt in the end.

That what happen in 1998 as in our desire to get a local to be our Lions coach, we went for Vincent Subramaniam without any consideration if he was really fit for the job.

We got our answers at the SEA Games and Tiger Cup campaign of 99 and 2000.

Let learn from 1998 as well as the lessons of FAM for we are surely not that dumb.

Locals should be proven at S-league level for a period of time (Like 7 years which most Italian coaches have to prove first at the lower level) before they are even considered for the National Setup and it should be based on meritocracy and nothing else.

FAS announced series of games for Lions

FAS has announced a series of friendly games for Lions starting from July (Some not yet fixed in stone)

Cardiff City and Burnley - Part of their Asian tour - July (Not yet fixed)
Thailand vs Singapore - National Day Challenge Cup - August 11
Serbian Olympic and two Serbian Div 1 teams - Lions training tour of Serbia - August (FAS is still seeking teams)
Vietnam Friendly Cup - Nov 2-6

Another korean arrived at Home

Another Korean player have arrived at Home United as Home coach Paul Lee seek to protect his job by riding himself of South American flair and replacing them with Korean steel.

The South American victim this time is Chilean playmaker Nelson San Martin with Paul Lee explanation being Nelson not having met his high expectations as a foreign player.

One wonder if that is indeed the case as his falling out with his flair players - to be replaced by Koreans - have led to questions been asked if he is purposely seeking out Koreans to be his foreign players especially as first, Peres, and now, Nelson is gone.

Both were players who have performed in the region until he came along and one wonder they cannot do it now.

But one thing is for sure, Jeon Jae Woon, 29, will have to perform for Home if such suspicions are to be suppress especially when his team is not doing well under his term.

The 29-year-old Jeon may have a good resume - having represented his country at the national Under-18, Under-19 and Under-23 level and have a wealth of experience in the K-League, having played for Ulsan Hyundai, Suwon Samsung, Jeonbuk Hyundai and Jeju United - but all that is useless if he flopped as Home have now released two proven players - Peres and Neslon - in the last two months under Paul Lee term.

RHB Singapore Cup 2010 fixtures

Monday 24 May
YOUNG LIONS VS HOME UNITED
Jalan Besar Stadium

Tuesday 25 May
BALESTIER KHALSA VS GEYLANG UNITED
Toa Payoh Stadium

Wednesday 26 May
SOUTH MELBOURNE VS GOMBAK UNITED
Jalan Besar Stadium
('LIVE' ON STARHUB CHANNELS 201 & 222)

Thursday 27 May
SAFFC VS BANGKOK GLASS
Choa Chu Kang Stadium

Friday 28 May
PHNOM PENH CROWN VS ETOILE FC
Jalan Besar Stadium
('LIVE' ON MEDIACORP CHANNEL 5 AND STARHUB CHANNELS 201 & 222)

Saturday 29 May
SENGKANG PUNGGOL VS ALBIREX NIIGATA (S)
Hougang Stadium

Sunday 30 May
TAMPINES ROVERS VS WOODLANDS WELLINGTON
Tampines Stadium

Monday 31 May
BEIJING GUOAN (S) VS KITCHEE
Yishun Stadium

Draw night as both matches end 1-1

Two matches were played in the Great Eastern-Yeo's S-league and both matches ended in 1-1 as all four teams were unable to get a winner.

The greatest losers were SAFFC and Home United as it meant they fall further behind in the title race.

It did not looked this way as Home United had taken the lead through Shahril Ishak after just 8 minutes in the Uniform Derby.

But the Warriors came back within 8 minutes of that goal as Federico Martinez fired in a penalty.

After 2 goals in less than a quarter of the game gone, it looked like it could be a classic but no more goals were scored after that.

For the Woodlands Wellington-Young Lions match, it was in reverse as the Rams only took the lead in the last 5 minutes from Syed Karim before Khairul Nizam fired the Cubs back into the game in injury time.
Home United
(Ridzuan Fatah Hasan) Lionel Lewis, Juma’at Jantan, Ismail Yunos, Valery Hiek, Shahril Alias, Shi Jia Yi, Shahril Ishak(C), (Nelson San Martin) Sherif El-Masri, Zulfadli Zainal Abidin, (Firdaus Idros) Firdaus Kasman, Choi Chul Woo

SAFFC
Shahril Jantan (GK) (C), Syaiful Iskandar, Ivan Lovric, Niklas Sandberg, Daniel Bennett, Noh Rahman, John Wilkinson, (Mustaqim Manzur) Ahmad Latiff, (Erwan Gunawan) Federico Martinez, Indra Sahdan, Taisuke Akiyoshi

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Woodlands Wellington
Hafez Mawasi (GK), Winston Yap, Anaz Hadee, Sahairi Ramri, Luis Eduardo Hicks, Syed Karim, Nigel Vanu, Sazali Salleh, (Shahri Musa) Azlan Alipah (C), (Guntur Djafril) Rizawan Abdullah, Abdelhadi Laakkad

Young Lions
Jasper Chan (GK), Safuwan Baharudin, (Khalili D'cruz) Hafiz Abu Sujad, Shakir Hamzah, Faritz Abdul Hameed, (Shahfiq Ghani) Luka Savic, Hariss Harun (C), Izzdin Shafiq, Seo Su Jong, Khairul Nizam, (Fazli Ayob) Eugene Luo

Amri lead Stags to a dramatic win

Singapore international Khariul Amri came off the bench to lead the Stags to a dramatic 3-2 win against Balestier Khalsa after the Eastern giant had thrown away a two-goal lead.

The final result should not have looked so dramatic to the average fan after Aleksandar Duric and Aliff Shafaein had given the Stags half-time lead of 2-0.

With the meanest defence in the league, it would have meant the end of the Tigers if not the match but whatever Tiger coach Nasarudin had said to his team since to work in the second period.

The Tigers strike back as the Stags appear content to keep what they have and they were not stunned awake even when Nurhilmi Jasni got the first Tigers goal.

It was only the second goal from the Tigers own substitute hero Rivaldo Costa that really stunned them but by then the Stags were in a mess already and unable to get themselves back into the match.

That why the winner from Khariul must have came as a relief to the Stags who have now extend the lead at the top of the table.

The night before, Etoile FC and Beijing Gouan (S) played to a 0-0 draw at Queenstown Stadium.

Tampines Rovers
Ridhuan Barudin (GK), Seiji Kaneko, (Jufri Taha) Zulkarnaen Zainal (C), Benoit Croissant, Akihiro Nakamura, Imran Sahib, Aliff Shafaein, (Ismadi Mukhtar) Shukor Zailan, Jamil Ali, Aleksandar Duric, (Khairul Amri) Qiu Li

Balestier Khalsa
Joey Sim (GK), Paul Cunningham, Daniel Hammond (C), K Sathiaraj, Ishak Zainol, (Andrew Tan) Kamal Nasir, K Vikraman, (Syaqir Sulaiman) Anantha Rajan, Poh Yi Feng, Nurhilmi Jasni, (Rivaldo Costa) Vitor Borges

Eagles and Warriors triumphed

Geylang United have won their fourth match in a row to be in shock position to challenge for the S-league title with 1/3 of the season gone.

However, they were lucky to get that win as the White Swans had taken the lead and until the sending off of Keisuke Matsui, the Eagles did not look like drawing let alone winning.

Afterall their goals came in the last 5 minutes of the game with Rastislav Belicak and Hafiz Rahim getting them after Tatsuro Inui had score for the White Swans.

Not that it matter to the Eagles as they have now collected 18 points - to be only 3 points behind leaders Tampines Rovers.

On the same night, champions SAFFC defeated Woodlands Wellington 3-1 at the Choa Chu Kang Stadium.

Their goals came from Federico Martinez, John Wilkinson and a Woodlands Wellington own goal while the Rams sole goal came from Kazuki Yoshino.

Geylang United 
Siddiq Durimi (GK), Salim Rahim, Walid Lounis, Jonathan Xu, Rastislav Belicakm (C), Vasile Ghindaru, Hafiz Rahim, (Miroslav Latiak) Syed Fadhil, (Masrezwan Masturi) Shah Hirul, (Yasir Hanapi) Itimi Dickson, Peter Tomko 

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SAFFC
Shahril Jantan (GK) (C), (Syaiful Iskandar) Razaleigh Khalik, (Ahmad Latiff) Ivan Lovric, Niklas Sandberg, Daniel Bennett, Noh Rahman, John Wilkinson, (Ruzaini Zainal) Mustaqim Manzur, Federico Martinez, Indra Sahdan, Taisuke Akiyoshi 

Woodlands Wellington
(Hafez Mawasi) Fajar Sarib (GK), Anaz Hadee, Kazuki Yoshino, Sahairi Ramri, Luis Eduardo Hicks, Syed Karim, Nigel Vanu, Sazali Salleh, Noor Ali (C), (Shahri Musa) Guntur Djafril, (Rizawan Abdullah) Abdelhadi Laakkad

Waste of Time FAM-FAS Series is really a waste of time now

After all the brave talk that the FAM-FAS Series is here to stay, we now have a situation where the first (or second if one count 2005 version) one may not even get off the ground.

TODAY have reported finances seem to be a stumbling block much like in 2006 when due to lacked of funds the FAM-FAS Series was postponed time and time again.

One cannot expect clubs to play the competition just for a shining cup as a reward at the end of it all as bonuses have to be paid.

RHB Singapore Cup draw

RHB S'pore Cup draw

Round 1
Tampines Rovers vs Woodlands Wellington
Balestier Khalsa vs Geylang United
Phnom Penh Crown vs Etoile FC
Beijing Guoan Talent vs Kitchee SC
South Melbourne vs Gombak United
SAFFC vs Bangkok Glass
Young Lions vs Home United
Sengkang Punggol vs Albirex Niigata (S)