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Teams in the S-League 2006
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Format
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History
of the 2006 season
The return of the King of Kings, SAFFC, to
it throne after a four-year absence as well as another ASEAN crown for the King
of ASEAN
Like the Lords of the Ring trilogy where
the final chapter is the Return of the King, S-league 2006 saw the return of
the King of Kings SAFFC, as no other have won more than the Choa
Chu Kang club ,and the journey have been a tough one.
S-league Big Three rival and two-time
defending champion Tampines Rovers were not about to
give up their throne that easily without a fight as they recruited 2003
S-league of the player, Peres De Oliveria, to add to
their already impressive squad.
The Stags now have two players - Noh Alam Shah and Peres – who have scored more than 100
S-league goals and another, Mirko Graboavc,
who have scored more than 200 S-league goals
Together the trio combined for an
impressive 416 goals in the domestic league in their career.
Surely no team in the S-league could match
up to the Stags now with such a powerful frontline.
Yet at this point with the talk on the age
of the ‘Daddy Army’ receding this year as the champions have proven time and
time again their abilities to defy the age issues the last two season with two
league crown and one Singapore Cup, the Stags core midfield and defence start to show it age.
Midfield anchorman Mustafic Fahrudin, who carry the team over the last stretch of the
leg last season, now find himself carrying the entire burden from the start and
rebuilding looked unavoidable.
The
likes of Rafi Ali, Nazri Nasir and Zulkarnaen Zainal etc were showing
their age and even Sead Muratovic,
at 27, looked stale with the Serbian defender, at the heart of Tampines Rovers defence since
2000, producing his worst return, in term of goals, in recent years with only
five goals and have a ‘wobble look’ at the back.
With one main rival ageing, the other - Home United - make the
biggest mistake since 2002.
With fellow Big Three rival Home United,
having gone through their most glorious period under Steve Darby reign of three
and a half years with one league crown and two Cup trophies, what was to come
was a nightmare and questions must be asked what drove Home United management
to even though of appointing ex-Protectors Zsolts Bucs as a coach.
As a player, the former Hungarian
international had few peer as he had been the driving force behind the
Protectors first ever league crown back in 1999 but have nothing been learnt of
the Jason Withe experience (or inexperienced in this
case).
The Hungarian had none of the coaching
experience, having just coached the youths back in his homeland, and with no
track record to speak of, how could Home United management believed he could
take on the job of one of the Big Three of the S-league.
Immediately the faultline
started to show as Home United saw the shockingly departure
of playmaker Gabor Boer,
before the Hungarian even kicked a ball, and it was a terrible loss as the
player was a major reason why the Protectors let Peres depart.
Bucus was convinced his fellow countryman was more talented
than the Brazilian and that Home United should be building a new core around
the Hungarian midfielder but now Bucus
admitted Boer, who had never been far out of his country, was
not in the right state of mind.
The crack got bigger as another Hungarian
recruit brought in depart as defender Checzy Zoltan, had in the two games he played, show he was not the
‘right’ defender to play beside S Subramani and the Protectors was dealt another body
blow for they had let their long-time servant Aide Iskandar
depart to Johor, after a wage dispute, as they
believed Bucus had found the defender to replace
Aide.
Surely
nothing else could go wrong and the answer was wrong with Thai midfielder Anuruck Srikerd departing as well but the situation could still be saved
if Bucus brought in the right replacement but the new
foreigners he brought make little impact other than on the treatment table
where they spend most of their time.
His time at Bishan will be longer than Jason With, until the tailend of the season, but not
that much longer as the Protectors management rebuild for 2007.
With the problems with their Big Three
rivals - Tampines Rovers and Home United, SAFFC nearly trip up as well with
new-appointed coach Peter Butler showing his man-management skill in coaching
but more on that later as S-league welcomed back former S-league members.
One got
back through a merger as Paya Lebar Punggol,
the worst team in S-league history, looked set to depart the S-league and it
was not surprising for funding problems had crept in almost since their arrival
but unwilling to just disappear, like all the other teams, they approached
former Hougang occupant Sengkang
Marine to form a merger.
Sengkang
Marine was eager as they had been seeking a way back since 2004 and now the
door was open and a birth of a new club Sengkang Punggol.
For Gombak United, they returned as chairman John Yap took the
past three years to rebuild and sort out the club finances and by now the club
were in back in the pink of health. Also mistakes learnt from the early 2000s
when the club debts started to pile up meant the club was now run on a tight
budget and safeguarding it S-league status more preciously now.
However the club still manages to get national player Precious Emuejeraye or those
on the fringe like Sevki Sha'ban to sign on and their foreigners were in the
words of John Yap ‘cheap but good’ as he recruited Africans as he believed they
offered the best return, on the Bulls tight budget, for they combined well with
locals as they had the technical skill but not the tactical understanding.
It was certainly sound advice for another S-league
team entering the fray this year
It was Sporting Afrique, a team make up of
African players, set up by ex-Singapore manager and MaediaCorp actor Colin
Chee.
The team had the technical abilites but none of the
tactical understanding to play professional football as they were exposed time and time in midfield and at the back due to indiscipline marking. As a result, it will
be an indifferent season for the debutant.
With the entry of one foreign team saw the departure of another as
the club which started the foreign experiment back in 2003, Sinchi
FC, folded. They announced that they would suspend their involvement from 2006
onwards.
Sinchi
had been embroiled in controversy since their entry back in 03 with poor
results and players problems and last year it got worse as they led a mass
walkout following a last-minute defeat against Geylang
in October.
However their efforts to contribute to
The globe does not stop spinning for anything and so do the
S-league thus back to the action.
As promised, the spotlight now fall on SAFFC coach Peter Butler
'Competing'
was the right word too, with several clubs looking strong in their respective
bids to land the title this year. Tampines Rovers,
SAFFC, Woodlands Wellington and Home United, who made up the top four the
season before, all had serious credentials from the very beginning.
But they had
reckoned without the ultimate dark horse – Fandi
Ahmad's Young Lions, who registered a sensational 12-match unbeaten run early on,
beating all and sundry at home as they enjoyed an extended run in the Malaysian
FA Cup, before falling to a wily Perlis side in the
two-legged semifinals.
At the other
end of the table, Sengkang and rebuilding giants Geylang United were locked in a race to the bottom as they
struggled to get their act together and muster a meaningful challenge against
the other sides.
Gombak and Sporting both had problems clocking wins on the
field as well, but neither was in danger of being sucked into the cellar scrap.
Sengkang in particular endured a seven-match losing
run, and the season's first coaching casualty appeared on the cards as early as
May if they were to lose an eighth game. But when they mustered a 1-1 draw
against SAFFC at the neutral venue of Jalan Besar, it was Warriors coach Peter Butler who handed in his
resignation instead.
May saw the
return of the Sultan of Selangor's Cup exhibition
friendly to
Weeks later,
The
Protectors recovered well from the blow, which was only their latest in a
season marred by untimely injuries to various key players. At the end of June
they registered what was deemed the shock of the season, halting the Young
Lions' seemingly unstoppable charge to the title with a 3-2 victory at Jalan Besar.
As Home
continued to grow from strength to strength and consolidated their place in the
top order, the Young Lions, shaken by the body-blow, lost momentum and slipped
out of title contention. Undoubtedly this had partly to do with the
distractions from FAS' protracted bid to include football in
SAFFC and Tampines exploited the opportunity to haul themselves into
the title race, and the Warriors, now helmed by long-serving ex-player Richard Bok, knocked the Young Lions off their perch in late July.
Vorawan Chitavanich's Stags, bidding
to become S.League champions for the third straight
year, were rather slower coming into the game, as they reached the AFC Cup
quarterfinals for the second straight year. There they fell to Jordanian side
Al Wihdat, losing by a single goal at home before
being routed in
As the rest
of the contenders fell by the wayside, it came down to a clash between both at Tampines Stadium in late October. John Wilkinson's 35-yard
strike for the Warriors settled the war, although Ahmad Latiff,
back in the S.League on loan together with Aide after
Johor FA's season ended midway through the year, was
able to preserve some pride for his new side with a late equaliser.
SAFFC thus claimed its record fifth title, and Tampines
had to turn to the RHB Singapore Cup for one last source of comfort.
Their
opponents in the final were involved in a fairytale of their own. Chonburi Province FC of Thailand were one of five invited
sides in this year's competition, and became the first invitee to reach the
final, beating Cup holders Home, Albirex Niigata FC
(Singapore) and Balestier Khalsa
along the way.
Led by
former
The message
from that Cup final, and from other results throughout the year, was crystal
clear: In the face of overseas opposition,
2006 S-league Table
|
Teams |
P |
W |
D |
L |
GF |
GA |
Points |
GD |
|
SAFFC |
30 |
20 |
8 |
2 |
71 |
36 |
68 |
35+ |
|
Tampines Rovers |
30 |
16 |
9 |
5 |
70 |
42 |
57 |
28+ |
|
Young Lions |
30 |
15 |
7 |
8 |
67 |
43 |
52 |
24+ |
|
Home United |
30 |
15 |
6 |
9 |
49 |
40 |
51 |
9+ |
|
Woodlands |
30 |
13 |
8 |
9 |
60 |
45 |
47 |
15+ |
|
Albirex Niigata (S) |
30 |
12 |
9 |
9 |
52 |
44 |
45 |
8+ |
|
Balestier Khalsa |
30 |
10 |
7 |
13 |
50 |
61 |
37 |
-11 |
|
Gombak United |
30 |
8 |
8 |
14 |
48 |
54 |
32 |
-6 |
|
Sporting Afrique |
30 |
5 |
9 |
16 |
36 |
58 |
24 |
-22 |
|
Geylang United |
30 |
6 |
5 |
19 |
22 |
62 |
23 |
-40 |
|
Sengkang Punggol |
30 |
4 |
6 |
20 |
32 |
72 |
18 |
-40 |
Top Scorers (S-League & Singapore Cup)
|
No
of goals |
Player |
Club |
|
27 |
Woodlands |
|
|
24 |
Aleksandar Duric Kengne Ludovick |
SAFFC Balestier Khalsa |
|
22 |
Khairul Amri |
Young Lions |
|
21 |
Mirko Grabovac |
Tampines Rovers |
|
19 |
Qiu Li |
Young Lions |