Football
Teo Teng Kiat 9y

S.League: Roskam strikes in Tampines tight win over Young Lions

Tampines Rovers FC made it two wins out of two in the S.League on Thursday night as they edged the Courts Young Lions 1-0 at the Jurong West Stadium.

The game was also notable for the appearance of 17-year-old Irfan Fandi, who started at centre-back instead of his usual position up front.

The Young Lions, who have not beaten Tampines in the league since 2010, enjoyed an encouraging start as they created the early chances. Afiq Noor proved a handful in attacking midfield and lashed two good chances over in the first half, while Suria Prakash also came close.

But the hosts soon stamped their quality on the game and started to take control of proceedings.

Jamil Ali, who had headed a good chance over, was pulling all the strings in the Tampines attack and he carved the visiting defence apart on two occasions with delightful flicks.

However, Young Lions goalkeeper Syazwan Buhari stood tall both times, first denying Mateo Roskam and then Fabrice Noel as they flashed low drives at him.

The first half petered out as the break approached. But Tampines stepped up a gear after they emerged from the dressing room in the second half.

A cut-back from Jamil on the hour mark narrowly eluded Roskam's sliding foot, while another neat lofted pass sent Noh Alam Shah down the left and the substitute fired his effort just past the far post.

In between those incidents, Irfan saw his debut S.League appearance come to an end with injury after acquitting himself well enough with a few no-nonsense clearances and tackles.

Ammirul Emmran went close with a curling effort from 30 yards in the 70th minute as the Young Lions had a rare sight of goal but it felt inevitable that Tampines would be the team to break the deadlock.

They came very close two minutes later when Roberto Alviz pounced on a loose ball in the box and took it past Syazwan, only for Al-Qaasimy Rahman to produce a fantastic block on the line.

But the Young Lions' resistance was finally broken on 77 minutes. It seemed like they had yet another escape when Alam Shah glanced a header off the bar, only for the rebound to fall to Shaiful Esah on the left. The fullback's precise cross was tapped in by Roskam at the far post for the Croatian's first Tampines goal, which proved to be the winner.

The game descended into a bit of a scrap in the remaining period, with M. Anumanthan dismissed for a straight red card, while Alviz copped a second yellow for a stray elbow.

Tampines coach V. Sundramoorthy lamented the number of opportunities his side failed to take after the game, although he was pleased that they were creating them.

"The most important thing is that we are creating the chances," he said. "If we had taken the chances, we should have closed out the game. "It's one of those days where the ball didn't want to go into the net, but a win is a win."

The Singapore legend also pointed out that it had been tough to play just three days after their opening 1-0 win against Albirex Niigata (S).

"In the game against Albirex, it was raining, the pitch was heavy and my players were drained out," he said. "We only had one to two days to rest."

Meanwhile, Young Lions' coach Aide Iskandar praised his team's spirit and felt satisfied with what he had seen in their first two games.

"The boys gave everything [but] unfortunately we conceded the goal," he said. "Having said that, they kept on pushing and did not give up. I hope we can play with this kind of spirit in the coming games."

Tampines Rovers: Joey Sim, Eddy Viator, Fahrudin Mustafic (C), Pedrag Pocuca, Shaiful Esah, Fabian Kwok, Roberto Alviz, Ridhuan Muhammad (Noh Alam Shah 56'), Jamil Ali (Indra Sahdan 69'), Fabrice Noel (Firdaus Idros 48'), Mateo Roskam. Courts

Young Lions: Syazwan Buhari, Al-Qaasimy Rahman (C), Sheikh Abdul Hadi, Irfan Fandi (Ammirul Emmran 62'), Farhan Rahmat, M. Anumanthan, Amirul Adli, Shamil Sharif (Adam Swandi 89'), Afiq Noor, Suria Prakash (Fadli Kamis 61'), Iqbal Hussain.

^ Back to Top ^