RHB Singapore Cup: South Melbourne return stronger

Source

Paul Green
info@sleague.com

Possibly one of the more attractive fixtures in a nice array of RHB Singapore Cup preliminary round games is Sunday’s affair between Victorian Premier League side South Melbourne and one of the Great Eastern-YEO’S S.League’s most improved teams this season, Albirex Niigata (Singapore).

Last season the Australian visitors bowed out in the quarterfinals after a strong showing over two legs against eventual tournament winners Bangkok Glass.

With the holders not taking part this year, South could arguably be seen as the best-credentialled of the overseas visitors in 2011.

They have been handed a tough task first up, however, with a game against the White Swans.

Eddie Krncevic, the Geelong-born South coach who took them in the quarterfinal games last season after New Zealander Vaughan Coveny had secured an opening-round win over Gombak United, felt the team he has brought over this time is stronger than last year’s outfit, more than useful as they already were then.

“They are stronger physically, and I think we have a quicker side than we had last season,” he explained.

South have done well to collect 28 points from their Victorian Premier League campaign so far. With eight games left to play, they are in third spot, just two points behind the joint leaders of that competition.

“Considering we have played all of our games away from home while our own home ground is being redeveloped, I think we’ve done very well,” said the urbane Krncevic.

“We’ve played all our home games at Northcote City, but that’s not in our part of town and our supporters have not come in their usual high numbers to see us there, while Bob Jane Stadium is undergoing massive renovations.

“It will be great when it’s finished, an all-seater stadium, but for now we are nomads, until maybe November when it’s finished.”

The Victorians have not only been competing in the state league, but also in the Mirabella Cup for the last couple of months.

They went down on Wednesday night 1-2 to a lower division side, Port Melbourne, in the fifth round of the statewide knockout competition, having fielded a weakened team due to ‘cup-ties’ and injuries.

There are a number of new players in the squad this year, including 22-year-old ex-Sydney Olympic goalkeeper Zaim Zeneli, 31-year-old Brazilian defender Junior de Camargo and fullback Thomas Matthews, who joined the club from division rivals Bentleigh Greens.

Steven Weir and Daniel Dragicevic, both of whom turn 23 in October, offer fresh attacking options for Krncevic to choose from.

Regular skipper Steve O’Dor, who was part of the 2010 squad, cannot travel this time due to exams, but hopes to be in Singapore for the quarterfinals if the team can overcome Albirex without him first.

Serving in his place as captain on Sunday will be one of last season’s star players, 26-year-old midfielder Carl Recchia, who wears the No.8 jersey.

The former Melbourne Victory and Queensland Roar (now Brisbane Roar) man is expected to partner Junior in the centreback positions, something of a new experience for the man himself.

“We haven’t played together at the back before,” admitted Recchia when sleague.com caught up with the team at their Singapore hotel on Saturday morning.

“I’ve played there before myself, when Steve was injured earlier in the season, but Junior has not been with us very long, so we haven’t formed an understanding yet. He was cup-tied on Wednesday night, too.”

The pairing will offer some height, with Recchia standing at around 5’11” and the Brazilian just over six feet.

“Junior is a very good footballer,” said Krncevic, who was obviously impressed with his recent recruit off the shelves of Melbourne Knights.

Only half a dozen of last year’s players are still with the squad, and a few others are out injured, most notably Joe Keenan, who could also be available for the next match later in the year, having been out of action for seven months so far and marked as due back next week.

In his absence the attack could be led by Jesse Krncevic, son of the coach himself and current leading scorer for the club with six goals.

The younger Krncevic was part of the squad that lost to the Thais, as was Recchia, Kyle Joryeff and Sebastian Petrovich, not to mention Daniel Vasilevski.

Vasilevski will be the name most Singaporeans would remember, having scored both the goals that sank Gombak United in the first round.

Last year’s captain Ramazan Tavsancioglu has moved on to Oakleigh Cannons, while goalkeeper Peter Zois has done likewise.

Yet even without the duo, both of whom have experience playing higher-level football, Recchia thought the current team can do better this season.

“We did not know what to expect when we came over last time to play Gombak, but we won the game, and by the time we met Bangkok Glass we had a much better idea,” he remarked.

“That said, though, it was still hard with the humidity, especially towards the end of the games. We lost the first leg 1-3 but led in the second, only to draw 3-3 and go out on aggregate.”

Krncevic admitted he knows very little about Albirex, and that was where his acting captain provided some backup in terms of insights.

“I’ve gained an impression of their style of play from watching them on DVD, and it’s obvious that they like to play the ball out from the back,” noted Recchia.

“We are going to need to be compact. We know they like to make their runs in behind defenders, so we’ll be wary of that.

“It’s been hard for us preparing for this game, as we played on Wednesday night after a hard derby against (fellow-Greek-supported club) Heidelberg United on the Sunday, which we drew 0-0.

“We’ve had four games in the last two weeks and we’ve focused mostly on recovery because of that.”

Meanwhile, Albirex are very much looking forward to the game as well, since the RHB Singapore Cup represents possibly their best chance at gaining some silverware.

Currently fourth on the S.League ladder with 31 points from 16 games, they may be strongly placed for the league title, but with plenty of work still to do there, challenging the teams above them may not be so easy.

The Cup thus offers a different avenue to their first trophy since coming to Singapore in 2004.

White Swans coach Koichi Sugiyama made it clear that his main concern was for his players to do their very best in every game, including this one against the Australians.

“They are very strong, so we must be very strong too,” he said.

Asked how far he thought his team could go this year, though, he was caution itself.

“Let’s see where we go in this game, and then we will see where we go next,” he ventured.

“South Melbourne are tough opponents, but the other foreign teams in the same half of the draw we are not familiar with yet, so it’s hard to say if they are the toughest foreign team this year. SAFFC and Hougang are strong teams too, but let's not look too far ahead just yet.”

There are no injuries or suspensions carried over from last season for Sugiyama to worry about, so he is likely to have his usual dilemma of whether to play Bruno Suzuki Castanheira or Yosuke Saito in attack, and which two to pick between Atsushi Shimono, Musashi Okuyama and Shimpei Sakurada in midfield.

“To beat this team, who have huge players, we will need to match them in both size and skills,” Sugiyama noted.

“We will still try and play our normal game, though, and let them worry about us.

“Their No.5 (Vasilevski) is very good, and so are one or two others, from what we have seen.

“It’s South Melbourne’s home game, but we are happy playing at Jalan Besar as it suits our style of play.”

In fact, having familiarised themselves with the Jalan Besar pitch, Albirex could arguably gain much advantage from their knowledge of local conditions.

Still, tactics hold the key, and on this score Krncevic could leverage his 15 years of experience as a coach to find a way to nullify whatever Sugiyama has to offer.