SAFFC were left rooted to the bottom of the AFC Champions League
(ACL) Group G after a 1-4 defeat at the hands of Kashima Antlers at
Jalan Besar Stadium.
Masashi Motoyama opened the scoring for the visitors, but the
J-League champions were rocked by Hafiz Osman’s quick equalizer
before Atsuto Uchida restored his side’s lead shortly
before half-time.
Yuya Osako extended the Antlers’ lead with a neat header two
minutes into the second half, before SAFFC captain Aleksandar Duric
missed the chance to reduce the arrears for his side when his
penalty was saved by custodian Hitoshi Sogahata.
Daniel Bennett’s own goal in injury time then wrapped up a result
that saw Kashima move level on points at the top of Group G with
Korea’s Suwon Samsung Bluewings, who fell to a shock 2-1 defeat
against Shanghai Shenhua of China.
SAFFC coach Richard Bok chose to begin the match with a revised
defensive lineup as Shaiful Esah was left out of the starting
eleven, and the Singapore leftback took his place on the bench
alongside Japanese centreback Kenji Arai, who missed out on a start
against his countrymen with an ankle injury.
As a result, the young Zulfadli Zainal Abidin, a close-season
acquisition from the Young Lions, was handed a rare starting berth
– his second of the year – as was Razaleigh Khalik.
The artificial surface they were playing on and the humidity of a
Singaporean evening were both issues that Suwon barely
managed to cope with weeks ago, but if the Antlers were
struggling to come to terms with either of these, their game hardly
betrayed it.
The Japanese side took just two minutes to rattle the nerves of
their hosts, as Takuya Nozawa’s pass into the box was allowed to
run on by Motoyama, but Korean winger Park Joo Ho’s shot went
harmlessly over.
For all their billing as rank underdogs, SAFFC refused to play the
part of bystanders on local soil, as Park Tae Won’s free-kick two
minutes later went narrowly wide of Sogahata’s near post after
Therdsak Chaiman, employed in a more advanced role, was brought to
ground by Masahiko Inoha.
Therdsak was proving a thorn in the Antlers’ side, and on nine
minutes, the diminutive midfielder picked up the rebound off an
SAFFC defender from a Motoyama effort and sent a long ball upfield
for Duric, only to see the veteran striker remained
rooted to the spot.
The Antlers continued to pour forward in waves, with Therdsak happy
to orchestrate swift counter-attacks, but the lack of chemistry
between the former Thailand international and Duric was
embarrassingly apparent when the two were involved in a collision
on 11 minutes.
Therdsak’s first shot on goal following a pass from Masahiro
Fukasawa elicited rapturous applause from the adoring home crowd,
but the shot hardly tested Sogahata; the Warriors came much closer
on 14 minutes when Zulfadli’s superb cross-field pass found
Therdsak on the right, but the 35-year-old’s slide-rule pass into
the path of Duric was dealt with excellently by the last-gasp
sliding tackle of Daiki Iwamasa.
Kashima meanwhile were not letting up on the pressure,
and Uchida’s mesmerizing footwork on 19 minutes brought him
all the way into the box before Shahril Jantan was forced to save
at the feet of Marquinhos – and with 23 minutes gone, the
inevitable happened.
The visitors’ precision had been remarkable all game, and it proved
devastating when teenage prodigy Osako, given the nod by
Kashima’s Brazilian coach Oswaldo de Oliveira to partner Marquinhos
upfront, knocked the ball into the box where the unmarked Motoyama
was left with the easy job of side-footing the ball into the net
past a hapless Hafiz at the far post to draw first blood.
SAFFC, however, were far from stunned into inactivity, and
delivered a response as immediate as coach Bok could have demanded
as they demonstrated their refusal to allow the competition to
descend into an exhibition two minutes later.
Therdsak’s free-kick was floated alluringly toward the far post,
and Hafiz needed no invitation to rise above a static Antlers
defence and nod home to draw the defending S.League champions
level.
Marquinhos’s thunderous shot on the turn just evaded Shahril – and
the left upright – just moments after the restart, and the
custodian was called into action to tip a corner over the crossbar
and contain a powerful Takeshi Aoki shot from inside the penalty
area within minutes.
Nozawa was then culpable of missing a glorious opportunity to put
his side ahead on 34 minutes, when his hesitation on the shot,
after collecting the ball unmarked on the left of the box, allowed
Razaleigh to recover in time and clear the danger.
Duric found himself entangled with Sogahata and a Kashima
defender four minutes from half-time following another long pass
upfield by Therdsak, and all three turned and watched as the ball
trickled wide – yet it was the visitors who benefited from the
resultant corner as they pulled ahead once again.
Doing brilliantly well to capitalize on Razaleigh’s stumble from
the short corner, Nozawa dribbled down the expanse of the Jalan
Besar field unchecked; Marquinhos’s intelligent run drew a defender
away, allowing Uchida all the space he needed on the left of the
box and, receiving the pass from Nozawa, the defender duly sent the
ball into the corner beyond the outstretched arm of Shahril.
Kashima emerged from the dressing room after the half-time break
firing on all cylinders, eager to extend their lead, and the manner
in which they found the net a third time two minutes into the half
was beautiful in its simplicity.
Getting past Zulfadli on the right of the box, Marquinhos chipped
the ball into the centre, where Osako rose past Bennett to
establish a two-goal lead for his side.
The Warriors were handed a lifeline on 56 minutes when Iwamasa held
back Park Tae Won in a bid to prevent the Korean from getting on
the end of a cross by Hafiz, but Duric, who had looked out of sorts
throughout the game with a string of misplaced passes and missed
chances, disappointed once again.
The 38-year-old struck low to his left, but Sogahata guessed
correctly, diving to his right to preserve the Antlers’ two-goal
advantage and cap a miserable night for the S.League’s leading
all-time goalscorer.
The home side were granted little respite in the final 20 minutes
of the match as the Japanese outfit pushed forward incessantly in
search of a fourth goal, with Motoyama narrowly failing to connect
with a Marquinhos cross on 71 minutes after his team-mate had
surged down the left, and seven minutes later, it was the
Brazilian’s turn to miss as his venomous shot flashed wide of the
upright.
Osako’s pass to Marquinhos for that shot was his last contribution
of the night as he was taken off seconds later for Shinzo Koroki,
while Chikashi Masuda, who had himself come on for Nozawa minutes
earlier, saw his chip tipped over the crossbar by Shahril.
The custodian needed to be on top of his game in the dying minutes
of normal time to deny a Marquinhos toe-poke after the pony-tailed
striker had sprung the offside trap, and then the keeper used his
knee to keep out a Masuda shot after the Japanese midfielder had
done well to slalom into the box past three SAFFC defenders.
There was nothing Shahril could do, however, as the SAFFC defence
was breached for the fourth time three minutes into injury time,
this time by a member of their own ranks.
Having been a calming influence in the heart of the SAFFC rearguard
throughout the match, Bennett saw his attempted clearance from an
Aoki cross spin past himself and loop over his keeper before
nestling in the corner of the net to round up the third 4-1 result
of the group that leaves SAFFC still looking for their first ACL
point.
“I thought we played well at a certain stage,” said Bok after the
match. “Overall, in the ACL, we have given a good account of
ourselves, and we were unlucky to have lost to a better team, one
of a higher level.
“We always raise our game in the ACL, and I hope that translates
onto the S.League, where sometimes we bring ourselves a level
down.”
The former defender also sprang to the defence of his captain,
stating that he maintained full faith in Duric despite some
less-than-convincing performances in the ACL to date.
“He is still my captain, and gives his all in every game. He might
be going through a lean spell, but he is still a trusted
Warrior.”
Bok showed that his sense of humour was still intact as he drew
comparisons between his charges and the other three sides in the
group, but was decidedly more serious when he identified the gaps
between the teams.
“They’re all big teams, and Suwon and Kashima are definitely the
top teams in this group. Hopefully when Shanghai come (to
Singapore), we can give them a Shanghai surprise in
Singapore!
“The passing and movement of the three teams are things we can
learn a lot from, but another issue is the budget.
“We have less than $2m to work with every year, while Kashima have
a budget of $23m every year. But we really gave our best given the
resources we have.”
Visiting coach Oliveira was in a much less forgiving mood after the
match despite the win, as he lambasted the standard of the
refereeing during the match.
“The referee came here to arrange the game, gave a penalty that
wasn’t, and gave a lot of yellow cards to my players, you
know?”
The Brazilian, however, expressed his satisfaction with his
players’ performance, but stressed that securing the victory was
most important.
“We won the three points, and that was important for us. We came
here to win.
“Now we think of the next game, and the next three points. Our goal
is qualification for the next round.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFC_Champions_League_2009_group_stage