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The biggest clash of the Great Eastern-YEO’S S.League season thus far has to be Thursday night’s showdown at Choa Chu Kang Stadium between SAFFC and Home United in the traditional ‘uniform derby’.
There is no game either club wants to win more than this one, which is the third of a series of meetings among the four former title holders, the pair on show this evening and Tampines Rovers and Etoile FC who meet the following night.
Much may well become clearer once these two matches on successive nights are decided, though Etoile’s clashes with both Home and SAFFC are both to be played before the end of the month as well, making April a month to remember by any yardstick.
Home needed a late equaliser to nullify Tampines six days back at Jalan Besar Stadium in a game that finished 1-1, and while both sides remain unbeaten, the points the pair of them dropped did allow both SAFFC and Etoile to stay hot on the heels of the first two on the ladder.
That is despite both being beaten already, the Warriors twice, as it happens.
Playing at Choa Chu Kang should work to the Warriors’ advantage, as it is a long time since Home had won there – 2004 in fact, when Indra Sahdan was in his pomp and scored a hat-trick along with his former Brazilian ‘partners in crime’, Peres de Oliveira and Egmar Goncalves.
Now Indra is playing for SAFFC and would surely relish putting one over his old club, and he would definitely like to score more goals as he powers his way well past the 200 mark and sets off on his next century of goals!
Two objectives SAFFC coach Richard Bok had when the season started were winning the home games and keeping as many clean sheets as possible.
So far the Warriors have already lost once at home from three appearances, to Tampines by a 0-1 margin, and of their seven matches played thus far they have managed clean sheets only four times.
“We definitely want to win our home matches,” said Bok ahead of the game.
“It’s most important that we do that.”
Without Croatian striker Mislav Karoglan for the second game of his two-game suspension the three-time MIKASA Coach of the Year will be hoping Indra can deliver the goals with former national teammate Fazrul Nawaz offering solid support.
Of course it is not known who will start on Thursday for the home team, as the coach is naturally keeping his cards close to his chest.
But he did reveal that the formation he used successfully at Jurong West Stadium against Gombak United ten days previously, which yielded a satisfying 1-0 win, would almost certainly be deployed again.
“The ‘flat back four’ of Hafiz Osman, Daniel Bennett, Bah Mamadou and Shaiful Esah worked well, and I see no reason to change it,” he said.
There is still a question mark about the identity of the players in his starting lineup as Daniel Hammond was left out last time, allowing for Luka Savic to take his place in the midfield, albeit in a screening role.
The team had trained well since the last match according to the coach, and the players had a light session on the eve of the game.
“I know in my own mind already the team I will use, but I’ll wait until the day of the game to announce it,” Bok said.
With only three foreign players allowed (with Karoglan suspended) making room for Hammond could be tricky as Japanese winger Taisuke Akiyoshi, who came in last time at the expense of the Englishman Hammond, had a big match and seems unlikely to miss out.
Ivan Jerkovic and the young Savic are other contenders to make way for Hammond, but it does seem from Bok’s plan to maintain the status quo in terms of his formation that Hammond may have to wait a little longer to make his way back again, having only recently returned from a hamstring injury.
As for the Warriors’ opponents the Protectors, who remain unbeaten and look like holding sway at the top of the ladder just a little longer yet, this is a massive match.
With Tampines hoping for a slip-up by either side, especially Home, the stakes are definitely as high as they can go.
As for there being any home team advantage, Home assistant coach S. Subramani felt the pitch would not offer the Warriors too many favours.
“Our pitch at Bishan Stadium is in poor condition, just like the one at Choa Chu Kang,” said the former national defender.
“The surface is more or less the same at both stadiums, so it will suit us just as much as it should suit them,” he ventured.
“We are hoping to continue with our previous form; it’s important for us to keep the momentum going now.
“In the last match the players were a little awed by Tampines and never really got going until after half-time. Then we played very well, but we will need to be more confident from the start on Thursday and get some early advantage if we can manage it.
“These are our traditional rivals and it’s been this way for many years already,” he observed.
“We do need to be cautious against them, though we must concentrate on playing our natural game as much as possible.
“Given the results we have managed so far, we should be confident of success, and the derby nature of the game simply gives us extra motivation for this one,” he added.
Subramani also said that, subject to a late fitness test, he expects South Korean star midfielder Kim Dae Eui to be ready to play.
“We’d like to start him of course, but he’s certainly going to feature in the game at some stage or other at the moment, I would say,” he confided.
“We need to assess him as well as Sherif El-Masri, who also had a hamstring problem in the last match.”
While Kim missed the last game and came off early in the Protectors’ previous 2-0 home win over Woodlands Wellington, having all the players available for selection would help enormously.
Prime League midfielder Firdaus Kasman, who has featured off the bench a number of times and had a good season in 2010 as well, seems certain to come into calculations for team selection once again.
“Even though it is not a home game for us,” said Subramani, “I do encourage our fans to come down in large numbers to Choa Chu Kang Stadium to urge the players on.
“They will always respond to strong support.”
Given the interest in the game, the attendance could well eclipse the crowd for the SAFFC-Tampines game, also played on a Thursday night, which drew a season-best crowd of over 3,000.
Thursday night football certainly looks a very attractive proposition this week.
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