Football
Kenneth Tan 8y

Albirex into Singapore Cup final after early Kawata goal vs. Global FC

Albirex Niigata (S) are through to their second ever Singapore Cup final after dispatching Global FC, of the Philippines, 3-1 on aggregate on Tuesday night.

After a 1-0 win in the first leg at Clementi Stadium last month, the White Swans completed the job with a 2-1 victory at the Jurong East Stadium.

Substitute Rion Taki scored eight minutes from time to settle the tie for the home side, after Azkals' forward Mark Hartmann had cancelled out Atsushi Kawata's early opener.

Global started off in decent fashion as they looked to level the score on aggregate. However, captain Misagh Bahadoran was unable to apply the finishing touch after a superb virtuoso run into the box.

Instead, the hosts showed how it was done on the 10th minute. Kawata played a neat little one-two with Fumiya Kogure before firing a gorgeous outer-foot finish past the fast approaching Global goalkeeper Patrick Deyto.

Buoyed by that early strike, the White Swans could have doubled their lead on the night 10 minutes later, but Deyto flung himself to parry Kogure's deflected shot.

Global ended the half the more attacking side though, with Mark twice lashing wide from range.

Leigh Manson's side carried where they left off after the break with Bahadoran and Mark both forcing Albirex custodian Yosuke Nozawa into action.

They continued to pile on the pressure and eventually grabbed a deserved equaliser on 66 minutes. After fluffing an attempted clearance, Nozawa redeemed himself by parrying Matthew Hartmann's close-range shot, but there was no stopping Mark from slamming home the rebound.

Both sides then threw on forwards in the form of Taki and Paulo Salenga respectively in the final 15 minutes to make the difference. Eventually, it was the latter who made his mark three minutes within coming on to finish off the tie.

Scorer Kawata turned provider by squaring across goal for Taki to tap past the stranded Deyto and send Albirex through to the showpiece final.

The White Swans now have a chance to add a second piece of silverware to their trophy cabinet this season after lifting the TNP League Cup in July.

"Of course I'm very happy to be able to reach the final," coach Tatsuyuki Okuyama told ESPN FC. "We actually wanted to win all three titles but we weren't able to win the league title.

"But this final will be a good opportunity for us to show everyone the strengths of this year's team and we'll be prepared to face Home United who have a lot of good players."

Albirex Niigata (S): Yosuke Nozawa (GK, C), Mikiya Yamada, Takahiro Saito, Kento Fujihara, Itsuki Yamada, Hikaru Mizuno, Shun Inaba, Fumiya Kogure (Ryuki Matsuya 90'), Yusuke Mukai (Rion Taki 79'), Atsushi Kawata, Rui Kumada (Kento Nagasaki 70')

Global FC: Patrick Deyto (GK), Jerry Barbaso, Masaki Yanagawa, Amani Aguinaldo, Daisuke Sato, Mario Clarino (Richard Jr. Talaroc 87'), Yu Hoshide (Paulo Salenga 77'), Dennis Villanueva, Matthew Hartmann, Misagh Bahadoran (C), Mark Hartmann

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