Football
Kenneth Tan 8y

Global's Bahadoran wants Singapore Cup crown to redeem poor year

After the 2015 Great Eastern-Yeo's S.League campaign came to an end last Saturday, the attention has shifted to the RHB Singapore Cup semifinals with the second legs played on Tuesday night.

While Home United will be looking to overturn their 3-2 deficit against Brunei DPMM, Global FC are similarly aiming to overturn their 1-0 deficit against Albirex Niigata (S) at the Jurong East Stadium.

The Filipino representatives created a number of good chances in the first leg at Clementi Stadium last month, but failed to put them away with Rion Taki's 52nd minute goal eventually giving Albirex a slender advantage going into the second leg.

Global captain Misagh Bahadoran wants his side to replicate their fighting spirit in the previous rounds and go through to the final.

"This is football -- we lost the game because of our own mistake," said the 28-year-old. "Our defender made a bad mistake and Albirex took advantage from there.

"We created so many chances especially in the first half, but did not finish them properly. (Mark) Hartmann missed a great chance towards the end which was really unlucky for us.

"But I believe it's still not too late and we definitely can bounce back in the second leg. In the first round, we trailed against Hougang (United) 1-0 but came back to win 2-1 in extra time.

"In the quarterfinals, we trailed 1-0 to Geylang (International) in the first leg but bounced back to win 4-1 in the second leg after extra time. That's why we're not worried and we'll do our 100 percent to win."

The Singapore Cup provides a good opportunity for Global to redeem themselves after a poor season which saw them finishing eight points behind surprise winners Cere and failing to retain their United Football League (UFL) crown.

To make things worse, they were also disqualified from the UFL Cup for fielding a foreigner as a local.

So this is a final chance for Leigh Manson's men to get their hands on some silverware this season.

Bahadoran believes that has given his side extra motivation going into this second leg against Albirex.

"Of course we want to win this badly because we haven't had a good year at all," said the Filipino international, who has 40 over caps to his name.

"It was difficult for us in the first leg because many players are already out of contract after our domestic season ended, leaving us with just two players on the bench.

"I don't know if the competition rules allow us to bring in new players, but we have to make do with it if we can't do so.

"I'm sure the players will be fitter after international duty and we'll be raring to go to make it to the final."

Albirex Niigata (S) Probable Lineup: Yosuke Nozawa (GK), Mikiya Yamada, Takahiro Saito, Kento Fujihara, Itsuki Yamada, Hikaru Mizuno, Shun Inaba, Fumiya Kogure, Yusuke Mukai, Atsushi Kawata, Rui Kumada

Global FC Probable Lineup: Patrick Deyto (GK), Jerry Barbaso, Masaki Yanagawa, Amani Aguinaldo, Richard Jr. Talaroc, Mario Clarino, Yu Hoshide, Paolo Bugas, Matthew Hartmann, Misagh Bahadoran (C), Mark Hartmann

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