Football
Kenneth Tan 8y

Home kingpin Azhar eyeing SG Cup triumph to cap off tough personal year

Home United midfielder Azhar Sairudin will be looking to win the first trophy of his professional career when his side take on Albirex Niigata (S) in the 2015 RHB Singapore Cup final at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Friday night.

The 29-year-old is fuelled to achieve that objective after a tough and emotional year which saw him having to deal with a family tragedy in June.

"Of course I'm looking to win the Cup after being through so much this year," he told ESPN FC. "To win would mean so much to me and my family.

"It's been tough for me, but I managed to pick myself with the support from my family, teammates and coaches at Home United. Now I'm enjoying my football again.

"Also it'll be great for me personally to win something with this club, because I did not win anything in my first spell with them during 2009 to 2010."

On the field, Azhar has been braving on and producing the goods -- with eight goals and three assists in all competitions making him a vital cog in the Protectors engine room.

On Tuesday night where the uniformed outfit needed to overturn a 2-1 deficit in the second leg of the semifinal tie against newly crowned league champions Brunei DPMM, it was the midfielder who scored the opening goal to inspire a 2-0 win, sending Home to the showpiece final.

Azhar believes the result has set them up nicely for a tough 90 minutes (or more) in store against a classy Albirex outfit, which they have yet to beat on four previous occasions this season.

In the league, both sides drew goalless twice before Albirex produced a 2-1 comeback win at Yishun earlier this month. The White Swans also prevailed 2-0 in the TNP League Cup group stages back in June.

"Albirex is not an easy opponent to beat," acknowledged the former Hougang United man. "But this time round we're facing them in the final and that will be a different ball game altogether.

"We're going in with full of confidence and I really hope we can finally beat them on Friday night."

Despite some encouraging performances under coach Philippe Aw, the Protectors only managed to finish in the bottom half of the league.

Azhar believes a Cup triumph will be the perfect platform for the team to build on and mount a more serious challenge for the league title in 2016.

"It'll be a huge boost for this team to lift the Singapore Cup," he said. "I'm still not sure about next year, but we'll have a good chance to be league champions if we manage to keep all these players.

"If we continue to play this brand of football, there is no reason why it cannot lead us to better league standings."

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

Home United Probable Lineup: Shahril Jantan (GK), Juma'at Jantan, Abdil Qaiyyim, Sirina Camara, Sufianto Salleh, Kamel Ramdani, Yasir Hanapi, Stanely Ng, Azhar Sairudin, Fazli Ayob, Ken Ilso

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