By Song Sung Hai

Tanjong Pagar United 1-2 Hougang United
Sebastien Etiemble 27’ (pen), Igor Cerina 37’, Geison Moura 88’
27 February 2014
Queenstown Stadium

An overtly sun-kissed and parched Queenstown Stadium pitch was the site of a massive tussle between hosts Jaguars and Hougang United FC yesterday. The match told a tragic tale of how a score-line did not reflect the truth of the matter. It took a late opportunistic goal by Geison Moura that saw the Cheetahs bring home three points with a 2-1 victory.

The Jaguars took control from the get-go and were soon swarming the Cheetahs’ half of the pitch with relentless attacks despite missing players like Kamel Ramdani, Nor Azli yusoff and Ruzaini Zainal. The mostly brown pitch was hard from the lack of rain on this island but it did not stop the Jaguars from marauding into Cheetah territory.

Masrezwan Masturi fluffed a perfect opportunity in the 2nd minute with only Cheetahs custodian, Fadhil Salim, to beat as his shot rocketed skywards. Asraf Rashid was tasked to hold the center of midfield alongside Tengku Mushadad and the duo were practically unbeatable, forcing the Cheetahs to pump the balls up and bypassing play in the midfield on the counter but to no avail.

Anthony Aymard was a Jaguar possessed and any Cheetahs headed his direction were pawed away. Backed by the ever-passionate Captain Hafiz Osman, the Cheetahs were forced to take shots from outside the box. Any such attempts though, like Fairoz Hassan’s in the 19th minute, were handled with ease by the reliable Aurelien Herisson.

The Jaguars got our goal first in the 23rd minute when a spinning cross in by Monsef Zerka hit the hands of Wahyudi Wahid and the referee had no reservations in pointing to the spot. Sebastien Etiemble had no problems converting and sending Fadhil Salim flying in the wrong direction along the way.

It was against the run of play that the Cheetahs managed to steal an equaliser. Igor Cerina leapt above all to head in a corner-kick from Fazli Jaffar in the 37th minute to stun the home crowd.

A consequential incident occurred in the 54th minute when Anthony Aymard hobbled off the pitch and could not continue after pulling his hamstring as a result of a misstep on the petrified soil. Seah Si Hao came on for Anthony and Tengku Mushadad took up Anthony’s duties.

Despite the set-back in defence, the Jaguars maintained the incessant incursions into Cheetahs territory but wasteful finishing and some heroics from Fadhil Salim denied the Jaguars our second goal. The closest to a goal was when a Firdaus Idros through ball was met by an onrushing Masrezwan Masturi, who tried to flick the ball over the goalie but the ball just missed its mark by the narrowest of margins.

The final ten minutes of the game saw Fadhil Salim winning one-on-one encounters against the likes of Sebastien Etiemble and Firdaus Idros. How costly for the Jaguars were Fadhil’s actions!

With only two minutes of regulation time remaining, Hanafi Salleh failed to contain Fazli Jaffar down the left flank and the latter’s cross met the head of a leaping Geison Moura who directed the ball into goal to give the Cheetahs their first win of the season.

A calm Jaguars Head Coach Patrick Vallee found himself with conflicted emotions after the match. While the defeat was not easy to accept, he found much joy in the way his lads played.

“The movement in attack, especially in the first half, was very good. I have never seen them play like that before! That made me very happy,” said Patrick. “As such, I don’t feel my team deserved to lose tonight but the result is what it is. I am not saying we deserve to win but we deserve a better outcome.”

Patrick also rued the myriad chances not seized by the Jaguars to score but explained that it was he who pushed his players to keep on playing for the win regardless of the score-line.

“I am not like other coaches who might be happy with one goal, telling my players to sit back and defend,” added Patrick Vallee. “ But after tonight, maybe I will!” he chuckled.

“Anyway, it is only two games into the season, the league is still open and we will definitely be working harder for the win next time.”

The Jaguars will now have a two-week break before we travel to Toa Payoh Stadium to face Balestier Khalsa FC on the 13th of March.

Here’s hoping for some rain before then to slake the thirst of football pitches island-wide. Either that or some measures are taken to fix the pitches and prevent players from injuring themselves just from running on them.

Till the next game!

Lineups:

Tanjong Pagar United: Aurelien Herisson, Anthony Aymard (Seah Si Hao 54’), Hafiz Osman(c), Hanafi Salleh, Zahid Ahmad, Sebastien Etiemble, Asraf Rashid, Firdaus Idros, Tengku Mushadad, Masrezwan Masturi, Monsef Zerka

Substitutes: Chua Lye Heng, Sazali Salleh, Shafiq Noh, Seah Si Hao, K Selvendhran, Jasvinderpal Singh, M Arvin
Head Coach: Patrick Vallee

Hougang United: Fadhil Salim, Fairoz Hassan (Diego Gama 56’), Wahyudi Wahid, Igor Cerina, Shunsuke Nakatake, Geison Moura, Fazli Jaffar, Faizal Amir, Erwan Gunawan, Azhar Sairudin, Durica Zuparic (Nurhilmi Jasni 23’)

Substitutes: Nazri Sabri, Syaqir Sulaiman, Benedict Chua, Diego Gama, Haidil Sufian, Nurhilmi Jasni
Head Coach: Amin Nasir

Referee:W Ravisanthiran
Assistant Referees:Ronnie Koh, John Doo
Fourth Official:Ahmad A’Qashah