Football
Kenneth Tan 9y

Late Gama brace salvages League Cup point for Hougang

Hougang United came from two goals down to salvage a 2-2 draw against Geylang International in The New Paper (TNP) League Cup Group A clash at the Hougang Stadium on Saturday night.

Captain Jozef Kaplan and Bruno Castanheira scored in each half to give the visitors a commanding two-goal advantage. But Hougang striker Diego Gama dramatically popped up with a late brace in the span of six minutes. The Brazilian scored in the 88th minute and fourth minute of injury time to salvage a point for his side.

Buoyed by their emphatic 4-0 thumping of Singapore Recreation Club (SRC), Geylang started off the more dominant side as they created two opportunities inside the first 15 minutes.

Tatsuro Inui's 20-yard snapshot was parried by Ridhuan Barudin, before Kento Fukuda's close-range shot was hacked off the line by Atsushi Shimono.

Then, in the 19th minute, Inui was played through on goal by Hafiz Nor but his shot lacked the power to trouble Ridhuan in goal.

The Eagles' persistence paid off two minutes later when Kaplan slammed home the rebound from close range, after his initial shot from Castanheira's reverse pass was parried by the Hougang custodian.

Things could have got even better for the Eagles another couple of minutes later when Kaplan sped past Tengku Mushadad to go through on goal. But his curling shot crashed off the right-hand post. Off the rebound, Hafiz teed up Castanheira, who skied his shot high into the floodlights.

Hougang gradually settled into the game towards the end of the half, but continued to struggle to create clear cut chances as Gama and Fareez Farhan saw their ambitious attempts go off target.

The Cheetahs introduced Faizal Amir and Fazli Jaafar for Delwinder Singh and Fareez respectively for the second period. Stand-in coach Amin Nasir -- Salim Moin was suspended for this game -- aimed to bring more attacking flair to his side. 

That brought a slight improvement to their rhythm, as Kenneth Chang and Fairoz Hasan forced flying saves from Geylang keeper Yazid Yasin.

However, following a lapse of concentration eight minutes after restart, they went two goals down.

Inui's superb left-wing cross found Castanheira, whose downward header evaded Ridhuan and nestled in the bottom left corner of goal.

Hougang then replaced Fairoz with Nurhilmi Jasni after the hour mark in one last throw of the dice. But they were continually frustrated by the Geylang defence which was marshaled by the solid duo of Fukuda and Hafiz Osman.

However, they grabbed an unexpected lifeline when Gama challenged Yazid to a long ball, before slotting the rebound into an empty net.

That paved the way for them to complete their unlikely comeback four minutes into injury time when Gama rose the highest to nod home a Vuk Sotirovic corner.

The draw has now blown the group wide open going into the last round of fixtures on Thursday night. Geylang and Hougang are on four points while Brunei DPMM are closely behind with three after thrashing SRC 5-0 in a concurrent game.

Speaking after the game, Hougang team manager Matthew Tay praised his players' resilience that led to the comeback.

"We never stopped believing in the players even though we went two goals down," he said. "In the first half we gave them too much space and allowed them to set the tempo, which we couldn't handle.

"But in the second half, the players carried out our instructions and played to their strengths. They showed a lot of character and now we need to get the job done against SRC in our final group game."

Hougang United: Ridhuan Barudin (GK), Yuki Uchiyama, Kenneth Chang, Tengku Mushadad, Delwinder Singh (Faizal Amir 46'), Fairoz Hasan (C) (Nurhilmi Jasni 64'), Carlos Delgado, Atsushi Shimono, Fareez Farhan (Fazli Jaafar 46'), Vuk Sotirovic, Diego Gama.

Geylang International: Yazid Yasin (GK), Yuki Ichikawa, Hafiz Osman, Kento Fukuda, Syed Thaha (Anaz Hadee 83'), Nor Azli Yusoff, Khairulnizam Jumahat (Shah Hirul 60'), Tatsuro Inui, Jozef Kaplan (C), Hafiz Nor (Shawal Anuar 87'), Bruno Castanheira.

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