Stat Attack: November 2011
A. Ong
info@sleague.com
So all twelve teams have crossed the finishing tape. Sprays of confetti have rained down, medals have been given out, end everyone who was present at Awards Night had a good feast of food and drink, as people always do at any celebration party.
Now that everything is done, though, it is time to sum up. Without exception, every club would have something to offer to the knick knacks, the numbers and patterns that would make for curious and intriguing reading at the end of a season that most people would remember for emotional rather than factual reasons. And that is why there is a need for a different perspective.
With the season wrapped up on both the league and cup fronts, a bumper compendium is in order. Each club will have not two, but three pieces of information to present, while the summary of the S.League and the RHB Singapore Cup will have a whopping seven. That should be more than enough to feed the appetites of the hungry S.League reader.
On that note, have a good December, and stay tuned for the roundups that everyone else at sleague.com and other places will surely have for you.
(Statistics are taken from the entire 2011 season.)
S.League & RHB Singapore Cup General Stats
- In the first eight league games in November, no goals were scored by the home side in the first half. In those eight games, Tampines Rovers were the only one to record a home victory – that crucial 1-0 win over Home United.
- A total of 616 goals were scored in the league this year, compared to just 464 in 2010. Last season, Frederic Mendy’s haul of 21 goals was enough to bag him the Top Scorer award. His tally was identical this year, but it was only good enough to place him fourth. Last season’s runner-up Aleksandar Duric improved from 20 to 26, but finished second once more, this time to Mislav Karoglan’s 33.
- A total of 817 yellow cards and 47 red cards were shown in the league this season. This works out to just over four bookings shown per game, and a sending-off every four games or so.
- 77.8% of all penalties were converted successfully in the league this season. SAFFC were the main recipients, scoring 10 times from the spot.
- This season was the sixth occasion where the destination of the S.League title came down to the final match. On all six occasions, the team leading the table on the last day eventually lifted the S.League trophy.
- The RHB Singapore Cup final has never been decided by penalties. Interestingly, the final has gone to extra time on four of the last eight editions.
- The RHB Singapore Cup has been kept within the trio of SAFFC, Tampines, and Home for 12 out of the 15 years of the tournament’s history.
- Six of the White Swans’ eight cup ties this year went to extra time. This includes the last three rounds of the RHB Singapore Cup. Of course, the only of those games to end in defeat was the RHB Singapore Cup final.
- Full deserving of the Fair Play award, Albirex players saw themselves shown just 34 bookings, the lowest in the whole league. The White Swans are the only team not to have any players sent off in the league this season.
- If all matches ended at half-time, the White Swans would be 14 points worse off.
- Balestier are the only team not to earn a single penalty this season.
- Goal of the Season winner K. Vikraman finished the year with just two league goals. This matches his total from the last two seasons combined.
- Kim Young Kwang and Mark McGough combined for 16 goals this season in the league, more than half of Balestier’s overall tally of 28.
- The Young Lions only gained one point from losing positions all year. This is the joint lowest total, together with Tanjong Pagar.
- 10 red cards were shown to the Young Lions in the league this season, the highest of all teams.
- The lowest goal tally for a club top scorer belongs to the Young Lions’ Fazli Ayob, who led his club with just five goals.
- With Kevin Lefranc’s last-gasp goal over the Young Lions, Etoile became the fourth and final team to record at least one win over every other team in the league this season. The Stars join the league’s top three teams in that exclusive group.
- Etoile lost 18 points from winning positions this season, the most amongst all teams.
- Of all the goals conceded in the league this season by the Stars, just 30.6% came in the first half of their games.
- The Eagles have now lost to the Protectors in eight consecutive league games. Their last win over Home came in a 1-0 result in April 2009.
- Geylang are the only team whose league games did not see more goals scored in the second half compared to the first. Goals in Eagles games are split evenly – 50% in either half.
- This was Geylang’s lowest league finish since 2006, when they finished tenth in an 11-team table.
- Obadin Aikhena’s injury-time strike against SAFFC was the second time the defender had rescued a point for his team this season after regulation time was up. He had done the same against Albirex in October.
- If all matches ended at half-time, the Bulls would have finished the season below both Hougang and Geylang.
- Gombak have lost just three points after taking the lead this season, a record bettered only by Home.
- With his three goals in the Protectors’ last game of the season, ex-Geylang man Masrezwan Masturi ended the season with more goals for his new team than his former. The attacker notched up just one other goal for Home, the opener in their 2-1 win over Woodlands in October.
- With their RHB Singapore Cup triumph, Home became the first local team to lift a trophy since 2009. All trophies in 2010 went to foreign teams, and the League Cup was lifted by Albirex this year. This was incidentally Home’s first silverware since winning the same competition in 2005.
- The Protectors were on a superb run at the end of the season, winning eight out of their last nine games, the only exception being that defeat at Tampines Stadium.
- Digeo de Oliveira’s quickfire hat-trick against Tanjong Pagar was completed in the space of four minutes, making it the fastest hat-trick this season. The next fastest was Shotaro Ihata’s 12-minute blitz against the Cheetahs back in July.
- In their last game of the season, Hougang’s total bookings for the season topped the 100 mark. The nearest challengers to their haul of 101 yellows are far behind on 86, namely Etoile and the Young Lions. It must also be noted that the Cheetahs also drew the most bookings for opponents, 87 in total.
- Hougang have rescued 14 points from losing positions this year, the best tally in the league.
- Shotaro Ihata’s penalty against the Warriors was the first that SAFFC have given away all season. Hyrulnizam Juma’at’s save made sure that the Warriors remained the only team not to concede via a penalty this year.
- Mislav Karoglan’s haul of 33 goals makes him the highest-scoring top scorer not playing for the league champions since 2001, when the 42 goals scored by Mirko Grabovac were not enough to win SAFFC the league title.
- Indra Sahdan Daud passed the 200-goal milestone earlier this year with his brace against Woodlands in March. He now stands on 207 goals, and was also amongst the few players to score in all three domestic competitions this year.
- That 1-0 win over Home was the Stags’ first league win over the Protectors in the past three years. Their last win over Home came in August 2008.
- This was the Stags’ first trophy since winning the RHB Singapore Cup in 2006. They have now overtaken Home with their three league titles, but the Stags have a long way to go to catch up to SAFFC’s eight league titles.
- Despite the good on-field behavior shown by Albirex, matches involves Tampines saw the least number of bookings shown to both sides. An average of 3.33 yellow cards was flashed in league games involving the Stags.
- Tanjong Pagar lost five points from winning positions in November.
- Patrick Paran, who was called up to the national team for the first time in November, finished the year with two goals to his name, both coming in the last two months of the season.
- Though they did not finish bottom, Tanjong Pagar had a lower points total than their last campaign back in 2004. They got 17 points back then, but one fewer win this year left them on 14.
- Hyun Jong Woon’s strike against Gombak on the last day of the season was his first and only goal for Woodlands since joining them from Tanjong Pagar.
- 72.7% of Woodlands’ goals came in the second half of their league games this season. This is by far the highest amongst all teams.
- Despite joining midway through the season, Moon Soon Ho led his club’s goalscoring charts with eight goals, which would account for more than a third of the Rams’ total goals for the league season.
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