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For a while on Sunday night, it looked as if the enterprising Albirex Niigata (Singapore) might be able to do enough against unbeaten Great Eastern-YEO’S S.League leaders Tampines Rovers to spring an upset.
But once the Stags, playing in front of their faithful at Tampines Stadium, had hit the front on 28 minutes, the challenge from the fifth-placed White Swans began to fizzle out.
Eventually Tampines were able to win 3-1, the last goal a mere consolation during stoppage time for the Japanese side.
A very lively opening spell nearly led to a quick breakthrough for the visitors, however, in only the second minute, when Tatsuro Inui sent a long ball in behind the Tampines defence that was read perfectly by the speedy Atsushi Shimono.
As the latter rushed through, from very deep, down the middle of the park and then raced to within a few yards of the penalty area, Stags goalkeeper Hassan Sunny, left exposed, rushed out to stop the Albirex man, and the two collided in mid-air, both coming to grief.
A free kick was then awarded by referee Abas Daud to Albirex, as Hassan was attended to for a bang on the head and a sore hand.
Two Tampines defenders had rushed back to protect the goal in the incident, thus a yellow card rather than a red was the verdict and the free kick, when it was taken nearly four minutes later, saw Hassan parry the ball uncertainly and then relying on his fellow defenders to clear before any of the predatory White Swans could get there first.
Inui was to find only the side-netting with one of two ensuing opportunities he shared with Shotaro Ihata, but with those chances gone it was soon time for Tampines to take over.
Aleksandar Duric got to the near post on 12 minutes to latch on to a nice ball played there by Park Yo Seb, but the snap-shot was deflected narrowly wide and the Stags still had to wait a little longer.
Four minutes later Bruno Suzuki Castanheira found Ihata, who clipped the ball just over the bar, missing by the narrowest of margins, but it was another chance that had gone begging all the same.
Ben Croissant made a huge run from deep on 21 minutes for Tampines, and as he reached the six-yard box he got a shot well on target only for White Swans goalkeeper Yoshito Matsushita to turn the ball around the post.
From an excellent Ahmad Latiff Khamarudin pass Duric looked set to score with 26 minutes gone, but a defender robbed the skipper of the ball close to goal.
Then came the opening goal, as Albirex allowed Akihiro Nakamura to waltz through the middle and line up a shot from 20 yards. The ball whizzed through a crowd of players, and it looked as it Matsushita was probably unsighted and caught out by a slight deflection as the one-time White Swans midfielder slammed the ball low into the net.
Later it emerged that the referee had awarded an own goal to Albirex defender Takuya Hidaka.
The Japanese side responded quickly, however, again forcing a corner at the other end, but when Inui’s measured cross arrived at the near post Ihata got his head to the ball only to see it miss the post by mere inches.
Another glancing header by Ihata on 36 minutes, coming after an Inui 25-yard shot that Hassan brilliantly tipped over the bar, illustrated that this was not going to be Albirex’s day.
Things only got worse for the team in all-white after the break.
The Albirex defence stood off Shahdan Sulaiman on 47 minutes, allowing the talented midfielder to pick his spot from 20 yards and make it 2-0.
Thereafter the resistance began to fade rapidly.
Latiff and Duric both had good chances in the next few minutes, with their efforts going narrowly wide, but by 57 it was 3-0 and all-time S.League top scorer Duric was once again the man to show the younger players from Albirex how it was done.
His twelfth S.League goal of the season came with a simple headed finish to a cross provided by Imran Sahib, who had made a lightning-fast move down the right flank.
Albirex, by now three down, had a few chances to score as the Stags began to ease off a little, Castanheira and substitute Yosuke Saito both going close before the latter netted in stoppage time with a fierce close-range volley, after a nice cross from the right.
Tampines coach Steven Tan attributed the strong showing largely to being back on home soil again after a series of games played at Jalan Besar Stadium during the election period, as well as their recent trip to Bangkok to play Muang Thong United in the AFC Cup.
“I think the last time we played here was a month ago against the Young Lions, and the team really appreciated playing on their home pitch,” he insisted.
“We had to weather the Albirex storm for a while, but once we settled down we showed our true abilities.”
Albirex coach Koichi Sugiyama had few excuses for his team’s 1-3 loss.
“This is not the end for us as we have to play Tampines again later in the season,” he said.
“They are a good side, as we know, and perhaps we will do better in our next game against Home United. Then we can stay in touch with the leaders.”
The coach did not want to comment on the second-minute incident, other than to say that if the referee awarded a free kick to his side and a yellow card to Hassan he had to accept it.
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