By Song Sung Hai

Last Season’s Results

ANFC 1-1 TPUFC
TPUFC 0-0 ANFC
TPUFC 0-2 ANFC
TPUFC 2-1 ANFC (Pre-season Friendly)

Jalan Besar Stadium is the venue once again tomorrow night as the Jaguars take to the field to face the All-Japanese Albirex Niigata (S) FC for our next S.League clash. The Jaguars had managed to beat the White Swans during the off season but it remains that Head Coach Patrick Vallee has yet to beat them with the Jaguars.

Last week had the Jaguars embroiled in a mighty scrappy tussle with the Courts Young Lions but a hat-trick from Monsef Zerka allowed us to emerge the victors. Albirex Niigata (S) though will pose a different set of equations to solve. Tanjong Pagar United have met them 11 times in the S.League since 2004 and have not won even once. It is a tradition that the Jaguars will be happy to break tomorrow night.

Sazali Salleh have shown us why his nickname is “SuperSaz” with his brilliant holding ability in midfield ever since his comeback in the game against Balestier Khalsa FC. He has remained consistent and will look to be one of the players to make a difference tomorrow.

The brilliant Monsef Zerka finally inserted his name in the goalscorers’ list with a hat-trick and while it remains to be seen if that signals the start of a scoring spree, Monsef can never be ruled out as a dangerman. Masrezwan Masturi will be joining the team after serving a two-match suspension and his presence will give the team added quality.

Patrick Vallee will also be counting on Sebastien Etiemble for the killer passes while the temporary partnership of Captain Hafiz Osman and Tengku Mushadad continues to impress at the back. Kamel Ramdani will still sit this one out but Anthony Aymard looks close to recovering and may yet make the team sheet for this game.

Albirex Niigata have also had a rough start to their S.League campaign despite harbouring intentions of being crowned S.League champions come end of the year. The White Swans have only managed to collect eight points and sit in 8th position, one ahead of the Jaguars and only one point separating us.

Kazuki Sakamoto remains the prolific goalscorer he was last season and have garnered three goals in five games this year. He had also managed to score 3 goals against us in our last four meetings in the S.League and will definitely look to increasing that tally.

While Head Coach Patrick Vallee may have beaten the White Swans during the pre-season, he remains cautious of the Japanese side.

“We played against Albirex for the pre-season because they are a good team playing good football and it was good preparation for the season.,” he explained. “Now it’s the real game this Friday in the S.League. It’s an important game for us and we need to follow up on our good result against Young Lions. We will try to play like we did against the Young Lions and get a good result.”

Patrick Vallee also has a deep respect for the Japanese side and knows that any game against Albirex (S) will be a tough game.

He added, “They change a lot of players but every year Albirex is a good team. Also, all of them are Japanese so they can communicate well and it won’t be easy playing a team like that. They have been chasing the title these past few years but now I have to disturb them in that quest . We try to play as we want, focus on our game and hopefully we can have a few players back from injury to help get the result.”

If the pre-season friendly is anything to go by, the White Swans will surely not be giving the Jaguars easy passage up the table. Things are bound to get physical and fast, ingredients necessary for an entertaining and blood-pumping encounter tomorrow night which fans will not want to miss.

Jalan Besar Stadium is the venue and swan meat will be on the menu.

See you there!