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Teams in the S-League 2005
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Format
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History
of the 2005 season
The 2005 season oversaw the remaking of the
order of the S-league Big Three.
Geylang United, one of the pillar of the
Big Three since 2001, fell from grace as their Eastern rival Tampines Rovers
finally confirmed their new status of Kingpin with the Stags second league
victory in a row while the Eagles slide towards mediocrity with a bottom three
finish.
Before 2005 season started though,
Tampines Rovers once again had to answer it critics who were questioning if the
team were too old now and last season was it final fling with success as the FAM-FAS
League Champions Cup saw it destroyed 5-2 by Pahang over two legs.
But it was the right question to the wrong
team as it was the Stags main challengers last season, Home United, that had kept their team together for too
long as Thai midfielder J.Surchai show his age over the course of the season at
the heart of the Protectors engine room despite the Protectors winning the FAM-FAS
Cup Champions Cup with them
defeating Perak 4-2 overall.
For Tampines Rovers, they had
build their engine room around a much younger man Fahrudin
Mustafic, the 2005 Young Player of the Year, who was able to carry them across the
finish line as the club saw it promising forward, Ismail Fitrey, announced his
retirement as the former Stallions and Stags forward failed to recover from his
back injury despite him being just 25 year-old at that time.
The tenth season of the S-league also saw the bow out of another
historic club; Tanjong Pagar United aka Tiong Bahru United, who had a longer
history than the league itself with two League titles and nine Cup trophies
from amateur time to the professional era.
But it was inevitable as last season the Queenstown club had only
save itself at the last moment when it secured it sponsorship with JVC (That
was cut in half from previous years) that saw Jurong FC bow out instead of
itself.
However the 2004 season was a disaster and this time JVC chose not
to continue it long-term partnership with Tanjang Pagar United anymore and
chairman Richard Woon could do no more to save the club.
In a way it demise was a remnant from amateur time in which the
chairman was too closely linked with it success and failure as Richard Woon
admitted problems started way back in 98 and yet he never got down to solving
it hoping instead for a white knight to come to it rescue like Woodlands
Wellington in 2002 when SembCorp took over the rein of the Northern Club.
It was like striking the
lottery and Tanjong Pagar United had no such luck.
Therefore it was hard to
accept Richard Woon management style of the Queenstown club but his failure
meant the club had to follow his out of football forever as he ‘selfishly’
proclaimed the club is his life work and no other can take over it.
The pain of losing such a
historic club could have been lessen if the team coming in for it was at least
a mini-success but instead the S-league got it worst-ever team in it history as
Paya Lebar Punggol managed only four points all season.
The Seahorse coach, Malaysian
Chow Kwai Lam, who had lead Tampines Rovers to it first ever trophy the
Singapore Cup in 2002, lamented his
players as "the best of the worst" and it was no surprise as
the club only got it entry in December and by then most players have been
signed by other clubs leaving the Hougang club with no alterative.
However it did not change his club or his fate as the remark cost
him his standing within the club, and he eventually quit in mid-season, leaving
the Seahorses without a single point.
Returning back to the Big
three and the King of Kings, SAFFC appointed ex-Young Lions and FAS Under-18
coach Kim Polusen to take over Jimmy Shoulders, who paid the price for the
Warriors disappointing 2004 season, as the Choa Chu Kang club looked to end
their barren spell as the club have now gone two years without a trophy and
that was unprecedented in the club history in the professional
era.
It was no surprise then that
Kim Pouslen will recruit from the Young Lions squad
as the likes of Seric Vladan, Farizal Basri, Mustaqim
Manzur and Shaiful Esah joined the Dane at
Choa Chu Kang.
But the biggest joy to Kim
will be the return of 2002 Player of the Year, Therdask Chaiman, to the
Warriors after two horrible years in the V-league for the Thai playmarker as
the Warriors immediately looked like title challenger.
However the Thai got into
trouble before the start of the campaign as it was discovered the Thai had
faked his documents when joining the Warriors back in 2002 and he was not 27
year-old but really 32 year-old already and the FAT had faked his age so he
could play in youth competitions like FIFA youth World Cup and the SEA Games.
Chaiman was fined by the
S-league but not banned bringing a smile to the Warriors who were worried how
severely the Thai midfielder will be punished.
The tenth edition of the S-league then got started and this season the
champion, Tampines Rovers, got off to a superb start with three straight win to
add to their end of the season twelve straight win for a league record total
fifteen straight win.
SAFFC matched the champion as they also opened their league campaign with
three straight win and it was only Home United that struggled as the Bishan
failed to win until their fourth match and it was against the worst-ever
S-league team Paya Lebar Punggol and immediately after that the Protectors was
trounced 0-4 in the next match by Albirex Niigata (S).
It looked like a struggle for the Protectors in 2005 and stories started
spinning that coach Steve Darby will not last beyond 2005 as the club
management was concerned the Englishman was more focus on his television work
than the club and it was affecting the team performances on the pitch.
They were not just struggling in the league but also in Asia although
they reached the AFC Cup knockout stage again but this time Home United will go
down meekly to Lebanon club Al
Nejmeh in the quarter-final.
It was not
acceptable for the high standard set under Darby reign.
One coach who
did lost his job early was Woodlands Wellington coach Matt Brown as things
started out as badly for Woodlands Wellington as it was for Home United but for
this Englishman, he did not have a resume of one league title and one Cup
trophy as well a Asian semi-final to buffer him as they were whipped 5-1 by
SAFFC and 4-1 by Geylang United and signs were there that the team was not
functioning as a unit despite the big spending under his reign with signings
like Ahamd Latiff, Park Tae Won and Jonathon Angelucci etc.
Matt Brown was dismiss after just four games into the season, with
former Tanjong Pagar United coach Karim Bencherifa, who did a more than a
decent job at the Queenstown club despite the resources and problems given,
named as the Englishman's replacement.
Under Bencherifa, the team started to gel together and during the
transfer window the Moroccan brought in two recruits, French combative
midfielder Essa Basile and towering Romanian defender Dronca, both whom will make an impact on the Rams charge up the
table and in the Singapore Cup run to the Final.
The team had improved so much under Bencherifa
that they did not lose a game in the second series of games where in the first
series they had lost four of the nine games and in all those games, they had lost by no less than three goals and
more.
But it was too late for the Rams in the league which was shaping up to be
between Tampines Rovers and SAFFC.
The Warriors was clinching on the tail of the Champions who were threatening
to break away from it nearest challenger a number of times but the Warriors
always got the desire results to stay close especially when squaring off
against the Champions.
The Champions had returned to league action by the start of August after
their triumphal time in the ASEAN
Club Championship in
The Stags were most likely still deep in thoughts back
at Brunei as presented with a golden chance to pull further away after SAFC
shocked 0-1 defeat to Sinchi, the Champions threw away their chance as they
drew 2-2 although in the Stags defence, they were up against the form team of
the Series Woodlands Wellington.
That meant the Warriors will now go to fortress
Tampines, where the Stags have not lost a league game since October 2003
against Sembawang Rangers, needing to seek a difficult if not
near-to-impossible win to open up the championship.
The nature of the game meant the Warriors will not sit
back as they needed a win while Tampines Rovers, with the deadly duo of Noh
Alam Shah and Mirko Grabovac, were also not looking to sit back as a victory
will surely ended the championship hopes of the Warriors even with two months
of competition left.
All this surely meant an attacking match between two
of the best attacking sides in the league will be up on display.
That how it paned out as the game will surely be
ranked as the game of 2005 as both displaced their attacking poweress right
from the whistle goes.
Chance after chance fly by from both sides who were
putting each other water-tight defence under tremendous pressure before a
breakthrough finally came through with Mirko Garbobac grabbing the goal as the
forward headed the ball past the Warriors keeper from a freekick on the half
hour.
The lead though did not last long as Aleksandar Duric
put through by a Chaiman moment make no mistake blasting the ball past Rezal
Hasan, the best keeper of 04 and 05 in term of stats as he kept more clean
sheets than any other during these period, and leveling the game up almost
immediately.
After all that, it was the moment for Chaiman time as
the Thai took charge first with a free-kick that had Rezal Hasan beaten all the
way and then the second from the Thai was out of this world as he took the ball
in midfield and then went on to lose his marker with a turn that had the player
losing lost and for that brief moment with Chaiman free, the Thai took the ball
up a free more inches before firing a shot, that Rezal Hasan could even react,
into the top corner and the Warriors were up 3-1 to at half-time
The start of the second period were certainly less
excited than the first as the Warriors had the lead and were not as adventurous
as the first but the Stags, with nothing to lose, went on an all out attack
that the Warriors kept out before Grabovac
shot the Stags back again.
The Warriors could not stand back any longer as the
Stags were threatening a third that will draw the game level and then all the
Warriors hard work will be wasted.
It was up to Chaiman to step up again as the Thai
played a one-two with Duric to open a small gap on the edge of the Stags box
and the Thai fired a shot past Rezal once again who could not keep out anything
that the Thai with on fire on that night.
Mirko got his third as well ten minute from the end
but the Warriors got their fifth from Farizal Basri who came on as a late
substitute deep in injury time.
After such a brilliant display from both sides on the night, it was
surely the time for both sides to step up and make a race of the remaining
championship season but instead it seem as though both sides did not want the
championship as the Stags lost two of their next three league games to Young
Lions and Albirex Niigata (S) while the Warriors lost their next two games to
Home United and Woodlands Wellington
During that period of bad form by both the Stags and Warriors, Home
United and Woodlands Wellington took advantage as both defeated Tampines Rovers
and SAFFC respectively in the semi-final despite both the Stags and Warriors
having done well in the first leg.
Tampines Rovers had won 3-2 at Bishan but they were defeated 2-0 at
Tampines as Home United forward Egmar Gonclaves scored twice to take the
Protectors to the Final with a 4-3 victory overall.
As for SAFFC, they had held Woodlands
That had meant the Stags and Warriors were fully
focused on the league with the Cup competition out of the way.
At this point, both Tampines Rovers and SAFFC appeared
to find their feet as both started to win their matches again but just a
championship race appeared to be on the card until a story broke out that SAFFC
coach Kim Polusen was on his way out as he will return to his homeland.
At this point, results started to go against the
Warriors as they unexpectedly started to draw one too many games as remarked by
Kim Polusen at the end of the SAFFC-Geylang match; which killed off their
championship hope with one game to go.
One wondered if it has anything to do with the
departure of the Dane who was known to be popular with his players but it was
true the Warriors drew too many matches as they lost fewer games than Tampines
Rovers but were five points behind at the end of the campaign.
Home United and Woodlands
For his 150 match in charge, it ended in glory as Home United
overcame an early deficit to force the tie level through brilliant work by
national marksman Indra Sahdan. Woodlands
Then in
injury time with the tie deadlocked at 2-2, Indra
struck once again for Home United as Fadzu speed down the flank and beat his
defender before squaring the ball across the box to Indra who came in late in
the box to fire the ball into the net.
This was the most successful period of the
Protectors era for any Protectors coach with one league title and two Cup
trophy as well as an AFC Cup semi-final.
With the conclusion of the 2005 season, one can tell
the order of the S-league have changed and Tampines is now the King of the East
and a member of the S-league Big Three alongside SAFFC and Home United and
Geylang United is the past.
2005 S-league Table
|
Teams |
P |
W |
D |
L |
GF |
GA |
Points |
GD |
|
Tampines Rovers |
27 |
18 |
3 |
6 |
77 |
35 |
57 |
42+ |
|
SAFFC |
27 |
15 |
7 |
5 |
54 |
41 |
52 |
13+ |
|
Woodlands |
27 |
15 |
5 |
7 |
57 |
44 |
50 |
13+ |
|
Home United |
27 |
14 |
4 |
9 |
62 |
44 |
46 |
18+ |
|
Albirex Niigata (S) |
27 |
12 |
8 |
7 |
50 |
33 |
44 |
17+ |
|
Young Lions |
27 |
12 |
6 |
9 |
44 |
37 |
42 |
7+ |
|
Balestier Khalsa |
27 |
10 |
6 |
11 |
45 |
52 |
36 |
-7 |
|
Geylang United |
27 |
7 |
5 |
15 |
38 |
57 |
26 |
-19 |
|
Sinchi |
27 |
7 |
3 |
17 |
27 |
56 |
21 |
-29 |
|
Payar Lebar Punggol |
27 |
1 |
1 |
25 |
23 |
78 |
4 |
-55 |
Top Scorers (S-League & Singapore Cup)
|
No
of goals |
Player |
Club |
|
28 |
Mirko Grabovac |
Tampines Rovers |
|
24 |
Indra Sahdan |
Home United |
|
23 |
Egmar
Gonclaves Jonathon Angelucci |
Home United Woodlands |
|
21 |
Noh
Alam Shah |
Tampines Rovers |
|
20 |
Kengne Ludovick Aleksandar Duric |
Balestier Khalsa SAFFC |