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| Home United's S. Subramani hopes to clinch the AFC Cup title this year. (AFP) |
A groin injury sustained in Home United’s 4-0 S.League win over Woodlands Wellington has seen the centre back sidelined since the beginning of April and he is unlikely to feature in Tuesday’s AFC Cup Group F clash with Valencia, having missed the 1-0 victory over the side from the Maldives in Male and subsequent domestic matches against Geylang and Sengkang Punggol.
But the Home skipper, whose captain’s arm band has been temporarily passed to Rosman Sulaiman, remains as focussed on the AFC Cup as ever in the hope of realising his ambition of adding some continental silverware to an already well-stocked trophy cabinet.
“I am fortunate enough to have won all the local competitions, as well as receiving the S.League Player of the Year award in 1998, but I really hope we can do well in this year’s AFC Cup so that I can get a winner’s medal before I stop playing,” Subramani told www.the-afc.com.
The 36-year-old’s individual accolade came in the year he helped the now defunct Tanjong Pagar United win the Singapore FA and League Cup and the national team to glory at the 1998 Tiger Cup, the first of three ASEAN titles he has won with the Lions.
The following year he joined Home United and won the S.League in his debut season as the Protectors finished the campaign undefeated. Since then, Home have won another league title (in 2003) and have taken top honours in the Singapore Cup on four occasions.
And Subramani is desperate to see Asian club honours added to the list before he hangs up his boots and focuses on continuing his football career in management, having reached the AFC Cup quarter-finals in 2008 and 2005 and the semi-finals of the inaugural tournament in 2004.
“I would say reaching the semi-finals, which we lost to the eventual champions (Al Jaish), was definitely my highest point while the lowest would have to be losing to Dempo last year,” Subramani recalled, reflecting on his four AFC Cup campaigns.
“We had a good first leg in India, drawing 1-1, but unfortunately we lost the second (4-3) in a match I wasn’t able to play in due to a broken metatarsal.”
Injury has once again struck the veteran defender but Subramani has no doubts the current Home United squad has the potential to go far in a tournament that has evolved considerably since he took his AFC Cup bow back in February 2004 when the Protectors hammered Hong Kong’s Happy Valley 5-1.
“We need to start playing to our true potential with this team especially since we have many great talents,” he said.
“The AFC Cup has become more competitive with increased standards as stronger teams participate in the competition with some teams coming in from the AFC Champions League.
“Home has had great success earlier but unfortunately, the last few seasons have not been as good as we would have liked them to be, and we have not won any silverware since 2005.”
And for Subramani s/o Shunmugham – a defensive stalwart of the Protectors for more than a decade – there would be no better way to end that run than by bringing the AFC Cup to Bishan Stadium.
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