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League Cup: Home crash out on injury-time penalty
Sazali Abdul Aziz
info@sleague.com
They might have been unable even to fill up their bench, but Home United pushed Gombak United all the way to the end in their League Cup quarterfinal at Clementi Stadium on Thursday evening.
The Protectors were missing eight players who were on national team duty with Singapore, while Gombak only had Fazrul Nawaz away with the Lions.
In the end, the hosts were perhaps a bit cruelly dumped out of the competiton, after Gombak defender Obadin Aikhena stroked the winning penalty deep into injury time. The penalty itself was also contentious, with both coaches refusing to be drawn into judging its validity after the game.
Bulls substitute Ruhaizad Ismail was attempting to control the ball in the box when he suddenly went down, with Home defender Shariff Abdul Samat shepherding him. The Protectors were livid when referee P. Pandian pointed to the penalty spot, and their Chilean playmaker Nelson San Martin was booked for contesting the decision.
Aikhena made no mistake from the spot, and barely a minute after the Protectors restarted the game, Pandian blew the final whistle.
Shariff and San Martin felt so aggrieved about the late penalty decision that, after the game, they confronted the referee to voice their displeasure. The two picked up yellow cards, and for San Martin, that also meant he was flashed a red soon after.
The Home fans even got into the thick of the action, crowding around the tunnel where the officials – who were being escorted by stadium security officials – would have to walk through, and hurling verbal abuse at them.
The drama in the last minute of the game, and indeed even after the final whistle, was a far cry from the dullness that was pretty much the rest of the game. In fact, the biggest talking point up till the penalty was that Australian defensive midfielder Goran Subara was leading the line for the Bulls.
He partnered Chang Jo Yoon – a last-minute replacement for Nigerian Ojimi Gabriel Obatola, who will be returning home after his Employment Pass renewal application was denied – in an attack which at times hassled the Home defence physically.
It was the Protectors who had the best chances of the first half though. Firdaus Idros almost capitalised on a Zaiful Nizam mistake on the half-hour, but Bah Mamadou was on hand to mop the situation up.
Sherif El-Masri then had a chance late in the half, when he cut inside Aikhena and fired a shot towards the far corner. Zaiful, however, did superbly to parry the shot wide.
Two minutes after the break, Subara demonstrated both his strengths and weaknesses as a forward. Having powerfully stolen in between Shariff and Valery Hiek to get to Chang’s pass, his touch then let him down as Ridzuan Fatah Hassan came out to easily smother the ball at his feet.
Then there was some confusion on 51 minutes. Home striker Choi Chul Woo clearly sent a shot crashing into the side-netting after Zaiful had palmed Hiek’s header into his path.
Curiously, the Home players began celebrating as they trotted back to the halfway line, with even the stadium announcer playing his usual song that accompanies goals.
Pandian, though, correctly awarded a goal kick to Gombak, with a few Home players half-heartedly appealing to the linesman.
Six minutes after that quizzical bit of play, a Firdaus snap shot forced Zaiful into a tidy save low to his right, and twelve minutes before the end, Chang fired over after Ridzuan flapped at a cross.
And just when it seemed as though the match would go to extra time, Ruhaizad went down under Shariff’s innocuous-looking challenge to earn the penalty that would prove to be the winner.
Gombak coach Darren Stewart said afterwards that he was satisfied with the win and the performance his players put in.
“It was a scrappy game, it’s very hard to play football on this field,” said the Australian. “The win was a great confidence booster.”
Of the penalty decision, he said he did not have a clear view of the incident, but added that “these situations even themselves out over the course of the season”.
He also praised Subara, who was playing in an unfamiliar attacking position.
“I thought he did well,” said Stewart. “It wasn’t a gamble, he is very very versatile, and I know what he is capable of.”
Stewart’s opposite number, Korean Lee Lim Saeng, was visibly disappointed but put up a brave face, preferring to praise his team instead of being drawn into commenting about the penalty or San Martin’s red card.
“I want to say congratulations to the winning team, and that we did our best,” he said. “We only had 15 players and had seven Prime League players in our squad today, but they played well.”
“I hope I can give more chances to the Prime League players,” he said. “What they need now is confidence, because they do not have a lot of experience.” |
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