Young Lions punish sloppy Balestier
Basil Yeo
info@sleague.com
A previously-anaemic Young Lions attacking line found its bite against Balestier Khalsa, notching up a 2-0 win at Jalan Besar Stadium on Monday evening.
Irwan Shah opened the scoring on 34 minutes, before Chinese import Yang Mu opened his scoring account half an hour later to seal the points.
It was only the Young Lions’ second win in nine attempts, and it might have come against a sloppy Balestier defence as both goals were scored in similar circumstances.
But that mattered little as Terry Pathmanathan’s side lifted themselves off the bottom three with the win, and the fact that they had scored more than once for the first time this year was cause for additional joy in the Young Lions camp.
The Tigers made the trip down south with a long injury list, as Jufri Taha and Ithamar Rangel were declared unfit to play after picking up complications on the artificial turf while training on Good Friday.
The duo’s absence added to long-term injury victim Julio Eduardo, along with Ednardo Moura’s suspension for a red card against Woodlands Wellington last week.
The Young Lions made a whopping total of seven changes to the side which faced Tampines Rovers on Thursday, starting an attack of Khairul Nizam and Yang, flanked by K. Sivaseshan and Eugene Luo, while Jasper Chan regained his place in between the posts from Izwan Mahbud.
In light of Isa Halim’s departure from the side, Fabian Kwok was brought on to fill the central midfield slot, while Obadin Aikhena was made captain.
Hafiz Abu Sujad was taken off early after dislocating his shoulder in a collision with Syaqir Sulaiman, who within two minutes of the substitution pounced on a poor clearance by Rahim As’ari and volleyed from close range but missed.
Then, it was the Young Lions on the attack as Khairul took the ball down the middle and waited too long to pick out Luo on the right. The 18-year-old found the ball swept from under his feet by Mushthafa Kamal as soon as he received it, but Irwan Shah quickly picked it up and whipped in a cross, but Luo’s header was off-target.
Anantha Rajan, wearing the armband for Balestier in place of Jufri, managed to trouble Chan with a well-taken shot midway into the first half, but it was his side which conceded soon after.
Mushthafa’s classy slide to dispossess Yang was collected by Khairul, whose second attempt to play the ball in deflected off Sofiyan Abdul Hamid’s leg and allowed Irwan a free shot into the roof of the net, leaving Hafez Mawasi stunned.
As half-time drew upon the teams, Balestier tried to beat a comeback, but after Chan had fumbled a free kick by Syaqir, Bryan Soane’s attempt to hook the ball back into goal merely made it easier for the goalkeeper to catch it.
Anantha held off Fabian and Eugene well enough moments later to fire away, but sent his effort to the wrong side of the post.
The second period began with Australian forward Soane again preying in the box, but his free header off Rhysh Roshan Rai’s cross was caught by Chan.
On the other end, Luo managed to find space for a shot, but sent it too high.
Substitute Hamqaamal Shah could have scored a wonder goal in the 59th minute when he stepped up to take a free kick on the left flank. On an attempt to curl the ball into the box where his team-mates were waiting, the ball swerved curiously towards goal, but Hafez was more than equal to it.
However, Hafez later stumbled from one side to the other when Sivaseshan pressured him into losing the ball to the left flank, where Mahmod Hashim failed to collect, resulting in Khairul managing a hopeful shot at goal.
The effort took a deflection off a defender and into the path of Yang, who slotted it past the unprepared keeper to score his first career S.League goal.
The hosts were now in control of the game and attempted to increase their lead with Khairul’s piledriver shot after collecting a deflection in midfield, which Hafez saved with consummate ease.
But the visitors came to life in the latter stages with a determined surge on the Young Lions, as Roshan took up the role of provider with a cross into the box on 72 minutes, which Faizal Amir slammed straight out of play.
Roshan also played a clever pass to substitute Muhammad Izuaan, who brought the ball out to the byline before taking a shot off Faritz Abdul Hameed’s leg and onto the post, sending the home defence into a late frenzy.
Only a desperate clearance ensured the Young Lions would keep their clean sheet, but Balestier were not totally done yet. The last action of the tie saw Anantha’s shot deflecting off Afiq Yunos’ leg, but the resulting cross was headed away the latter.
The Tigers’ downfall may have been a result of their lack of key players such as Jufri, Rangel and K. Vikraman, but head coach Nasaruddin Jalil maintained that there were “no excuses” for their performance in his post-match interview.
“Most of the players didn’t perform today,” he said with a calm but disappointed voice.
“We had injuries after training on Friday, probably due to the pitch, but there are no excuses as the Young Lions also played on the same pitch.
“We tend to run with the ball and it is quite difficult to run with the ball on this pitch. Maybe we were not quick enough in adapting.
“I think this is our worst performance this season,” continued Nasaruddin.
“Conceding sloppy goals doesn’t help the team. It makes the team more disorganized but hopefully we can learn our mistakes today and get something good out of it.”
Young Lions coach Pathmanathan, while happy with the result, was keen not to play up its significance.
“Performance-wise I want consistency but it’s not easy demanding this from these young inexperienced players,” he remarked.
“This is the first time we are scoring two goals and it doesn’t matter if one of them came from a defender.”
Pathmanathan also reflected on the departure of Isa, and noted that his stand-in Kwok still had some learning to do to become a viable long-term replacement.
“Obviously we missed the bite of Isa in midfield,” he said of his former skipper.
“Isa is a huge advantage to the team with his performances, and is probably a player any coach can rely on to do the job. Fabian stepped in quite well but still lacks that aggression.”
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