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Beijing bubble bursts despite early lead
Paul Green
info@sleague.com
An early goal against injury-hit Tampines Rovers at Yishun Stadium on Tuesday evening gave Great Eastern-YEO’S S.League newcomers Beijing Guoan Talent the false hope that they might find things as easy as they had when beating Geylang United 3-1 four days earlier.
But the early competition leaders had other ideas.
Tampines may not have drawn level until after the hour mark, but they had signalled their intentions with the introduction of Singapore international Khairul Amri at half-time.
The forward was activated to play alongside Aleksandar Duric up front, with the big man’s first-half striking partner Qiu Li tucking in behind.
Sacrificing the nippy Aliff Shafaein, Stags coach Vorawan Chitavanich got what he expected: more impact in the opposition penalty area and two goals to take the match 2-1, clinching it with a powerful low drive from Qiu and a near-post header from Amri to show the Chinese youngsters their true class.
Tampines had been weakened defensively by an injury to Japanese rightback Seiji Kaneko, so when Korean Park Yo Seb failed a late fitness test a makeshift backline had to contend with the Talents’ latest recruits, Tan Tiancheng and Zhang Xizhe, who had both found the net against Geylang.
Tan suggested it was no fluke when he bulldozed his way through a static defensive shield half-heartedly erected by the Stags, as he advanced towards them menacingly and opened the scoring in the eighth minute.
The Chinese side appeared to hold the upper hand right away, with Liu Teng steering a low shot narrowly wide of the left-hand upright just two minutes later.
“Their goal came from our mistakes,” said Stags coach Vorawan.
“There was no communication and nobody was prepared to take charge of the situation at that moment, which made it easy for them.”
Beijing played well enough in the first half, though the necessary sense of urgency was lacking for much of the time according to their coach Zheng Xiaotian, when he discussed the match after the final whistle.
The ‘Talent’ team could have stretched their lead to 2-0 four minutes before the break when a booming shot from Zhang smashed against the Tampines crossbar, but Wang Hao could not keep his follow-up header down when trying to put away the rebound.
There had also been two headers in succession that narrowly cleared the bar around the half-hour mark by the Beijing side, while Tampines could point only to a Duric shot that was deflected for a corner on 23 and a Qiu volley that flew wide after a huge goalkeeper’s clearance from Hassan Sunny had reached deep into Beijing territory.
It was a different story after the break, however, with Duric taking a free kick around the edge of the box and striking the underside of the bar, unfortunate that the ball dropped down and hit the keeper without falling into the net, instead going out for a corner.
Substitute Amri, in doubt before the game, proved his worth to his side with a match-winning performance afterwards.
After taking some time to get his touch back following weeks off the scene, he showed great persistence on 61 minutes to narrowly get past the strong attention of Beijing defenders and cut a ball back from the right hand by-line to a waiting Qiu at the edge of the area.
The China-born man slammed the ball just inside the right hand upright in emphatic style to put his side level at 1-1.
Qiu, often missing from the attack when made to drop back and run the show from midfield, showed what he could do as a shooter with a strike of some quality.
Amri was not to be outdone though, deftly getting his head to a corner from the left by Shukor Zailan with a true striker’s touch to put his side ahead at last on 67 minutes.
Duric, who was very much a key part of the three-pronged attack, nearly added to his own tally of goals for his new club when steering a ball, laid on for him out wide on the left by Amri, across the face of goal from an acute angle 12 minutes from time, missing the target by only a whisker.
The Beijing team were looking decidedly jaded towards the end and appeared increasingly unlikely to bridge the gap, even with three willing substitutes thrown on towards the final half-hour.
“The players never really pressed home their advantage when the momentum was with them early in the game,” said their coach Zheng.
“They need to learn how to conserve their energy and to learn how to adjust to the different demands of the game, as and when they arise.
“They are young and immature. They pleased me with their fitness training before the game and I could not fault them in that regard, but their mental strength was lacking tonight.
“Our opponent did not beat us, we lost to ourselves,” he insisted.
Zheng also felt that the impact of Amri was not as significant as many had put forward, saying that the Tampines man had not really penetrated much with his speed over the length of the game.
Clearly, though, the 25-year-old had proved the game-breaker as control clearly switched from Beijing to Tampines comprehensively in the second half.
The foot had come off the pedal long before that, as Zheng pointed out, with his inexperienced youngsters expending far too much energy needlessly, rather than playing to their strengths.
Individually a few players shone, but the cohesiveness shown in previous games was just not there.
Facing Home United in their next match on Friday will ask a lot of the Beijing boys, something their coach recognises.
He may well bring in other members of his squad for the next match, though on their showings in their first two games Tan and Zhang are the most likely to retain their spots.
For Vorawan, the gamble of putting Amri on for the second half worked a treat.
“He’s been training hard for two weeks, with no ill effects and I had no difficulty using him for half a game,” said the Thai.
But he stressed that the striker was not a guaranteed starter, with the quartet of attacking options allowing him numerous combinations to choose from.
“It all depends on the opponents,” he noted.
“If the opponents are slow and tall, then we need players like Aliff who can play fast ground balls and one-twos. If the opponents are of another kind, then I need something else.
“I cannot say that just because this eleven won me the game, I must use the same eleven to start next time. Aliff, Qiu Li, and everybody else, everybody is valuable to this team.” |
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