By Song Sung Hai

After a thrilling win, the Jaguars suffered a relapse of our goalscoring woes and conceded three points to hosts Albirex Niigata (S) FC after going ahead at Jalan Besar Stadium.

Kazuki Sakamoto once again proved to be the bogeyman for the Jaguars as he came on in the 74th minute to score the winner for his side, making it four goals in five matches against the Jaguars.

Both sides started off strong and but it was Albirex that got their first shot in when Keisuke Ota’s attempt swerved just wide of goal in the first minute.

The White Swans kept this up for the next ten minutes with several attempts in by the likes of Kento Nagasaki and Kazuya Okazaki coming close.

It took twenty minutes for the pattern to break and suddenly the Jaguars began swarming over the White Swans. Sebastien Etiemble combined well with both Asraf Rashid and Firdaus Idros to torment the Albirex defence.

Despite all that, the Jaguars barely troubled the Albirex custodian thanks to some resolute defending by the White Swans.

The second half began with the Jaguars mounting increased pressure on the opponents and they finally cracked in the 59th minute.

A swerving cross in from Masrezwan Masturi off a corner kick by Asraf Rashid was headed into his own goal by Soichiro Tanaka to give the Jaguars the lead.

The Jaguars continued pressing for the second goal but it never came. What came instead was Kazuki Sakamoto in the 74th minute, replacing Kento Nagasaki and everything changed from then on.

The White Swans turned the table and forced the Jaguars to be on the defensive end of things. The equaliser came in the 77th minute, also from a corner-kick, this time with Shuhei Hotta jumping unchallenged to head the ball in.

The winning goal came in the 83rd minute when an unmarked Kazuki Sakamoto spotted Aurelien off the line and lobbed the ball in to extend the White Swans’ unbeaten streak against the Jaguars in all competitions.

Head Coach Patrick Vallee felt that both sides played good football and that the result was an unfortunate one for his lads.

“I think we did well to handle the Albirex style of play, especially in the second half. We played well and we fought to win the game but I think we gave them chances to come back into the game.”

Patrick also expressed disappointment with the result as he felt his team did not deserve to lose.

“The way both teams played, I feel that the a draw would have been a fairer result. Tonight, Tanjong Pagar United did not have the luck but it is football. We will not give up and we will prepare very seriously for the next game. We will bounce back and try to get a win again.”

The Jaguars definitely showed enough quality to have gotten the win but perhaps it simply was not our night.

Till the next game!

LINE UPS:
Tanjong Pagar United: Aurelien Herisson, Anthony Aymard, Hafiz Osman, Nor Azli Yusoff(Ruzaini Zainal), Masrezwan Masturi, Sebastien Etiemble, Asraf Rashid(Lucas Jester 90+1’), Firdaus Idros, Sazali Salleh, Tengku Mushadad, Monsef Zerka
Substitutions: Shamsudin Hashim, Hanafi Salleh, Ruzaini Zainal, Shafiq Noh, Justin Khiang, Lucas Jester, Firdaus Ali

Albirex Niigata(S): Kenjiro Ogino, Taiyo Nishida, Kento Fujihara, Koki Akasaka, Itsuki Yamada, Keisuke Ota, Kosuke Matsuda, Kazuya Okazaki, Kento Nagasaki(Kazuki Sakamoto 77’), Soichiro Tanaka, Shuhei Hotta
Substitutions: Yusuke Ueda, Koya Yoshida, Yoshinaga Arima, Kazuya Fukuzaki, Hiroki Morisaki, Kazuki Sakamoto, Kazuki Kishigami

Referee: Ahmad A’Qashah
Asst Referee 1: Lim Kok Heng
Asst Referee 2: Manoj Kalwani
Fourth Official Muhd Syawkawi