A. Ong
info@sleague.com
Hotshots Mislav Karoglan and Fazrul Nawaz fired SAFFC to the top of the S.League standings as the Warriors won 2-0 at Toa Payoh Stadium to put an end to Balestier Khalsa’s unbeaten start to the season.
Karoglan’s first-half penalty also put him at the top of the goal charts, while substitute Fazrul truly made the game safe with a close range tap-in 15 minutes from time.
But the final scoreline gives no clue of the impressive start that the Tigers had made, and better finishing from the home side might have taken the game in a very different direction.
Vitor Borges had squandered one chance early on by miskicking on the edge of the box, but he was to come agonisingly close to opening the scoring after only nine minutes.
SAFFC were slow to realise the danger posed by the 22-year-old, and he unleashed a long-range rocket of a shot that crashed off the crossbar with Warriors goalkeeper Shahril Jantan beaten all the way.
Just three minutes later, the Tigers were left rueing yet another missed opportunity.
K. Vikraman, restored to the lineup for this match, swung over a corner which found Lim Young Woo free in the box. The Korean’s header was firm but too close to Shahril, who gathered the ball gratefully.
“We were well prepared, and we had clear chances early on,” said Balestier head coach Salim Moin as he reflected on those misses.
“We had the numerical advantage when we went forward, but we just failed to convert our chances.”
And how they would regret those near misses when SAFFC went ahead on 19 minutes.
A powerful grounder by Ivan Jerkovic was parried by Tigers goalkeeper Joey Sim, and when the Balestier defence failed to clear, Karoglan found himself in the right place to pounce on the loose ball after Indra Sahdan too had failed to beat the custodian.
However, the Croat went down with Ishak Zainol in close attendance, and referee Johan Jahari pointed to the spot to the dismay of the home crowd.
Karoglan duly sent Sim the wrong way for his fifth goal of the season and, more importantly, swinging the match in his side’s favour in so doing.
The goal seemed to deflate the Tigers’ efforts in the attacking third, though they continued to take the game to the visitors.
But Balestier were constantly repelled by the unorthodox back three for the Warriors, with Daniel Bennett putting in a solid shift in his return to the first team.
It was an interesting tactical move from SAFFC head coach Richard Bok, who had left Shaiful Esah and Hafiz Osman on the bench while putting Bennett and Bah Mamadou either side of Razaleigh Khalik, who was deployed as sweeper for the night.
“We must be flexible, as we can play three or four at the back,” explained Bok of his plan.
“It depends on what sort of players we have, and which team we are playing.”
Bok would have been pleased with the scoreline at the break, given that the team his Warriors were playing were on a run of three consecutive clean sheets.
Even so, the one-goal lead should have become two just after the restart.
Shahril’s long punt upfield put Indra free of the last defender, but the normally clinical striker saw his shot rebound off Sim’s legs to safety.
The Tigers had won their last game thanks to goals from set-pieces, and they would nearly drag themselves back into this game in similar fashion.
This time, though, the threats came directly from the set-piece takers themselves.
Balestier captain Paul Cunningham’s brilliant effort on 64 minutes was tipped over by a stretching Shahril to preserve the Warriors’ one-goal lead.
Right at the death, Borges had a virtual mirror image of Cunningham’s earlier attempt, but once more the SAFFC goalkeeper was to come out tops in that battle.
Of course, by then the match had already been sewn up, thanks to substitute Fazrul.
Just five minutes after coming on, the striker was on the receiving end of Ruzaini Zainal’s excellent low cross, and he finished with aplomb to seal the points for the Warriors.
Equally cool finishing from Balestier substitute Nurhilmi Jasni might have made for a more exciting finale, but the midfielder could only blast wastefully over eight minutes from time, after having been put through by Vikraman.
Fazrul would make it three one-on-one chances squandered in the match, shooting wide after latching on to Shaiful Esah’s long ball in the final minute of regulation time, but the away team’s work had already been done.
Salim was to sum up his interpretation of the match with one succinct line: “We lost today because of the referee!”
The Tigers head coach declined to elaborate further on his comment, though his skipper Cunningham added afterwards that he felt Ishak had gone for the ball and reached it at the same time as Karoglan during the penalty incident.
His opposite number Bok had a different view of the incident, claiming that Karoglan had been bundled, but quickly moved on to focus instead on the positive performance from his charges over the length of the game.
“Overall we played a good game, and on a whole we defended very well. I’m very happy at the clean sheet!” said the 41-year-old.
He did have one area of concern that he picked out for improvement ahead of SAFFC’s next match, a titanic clash at home to old rivals Tampines Rovers.
“We gave away too many fouls outside the box. We know Balestier are dangerous from set-pieces, but we still gave silly fouls away.”
With Tampines boasting a number of good set-piece takers like Shahdan Sulaiman and Aleksandar Duric, Bok will be keen not to see his team make the same mistakes against them.
The next seven days will thus see him put his charges through plenty of training, while Balestier have an extra day to prepare for their upcoming televised clash with a gritty Gombak United side at Jalan Besar.
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