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Warriors hit Dalian for six
Paul Green
info@sleague.com
As victories go it does not get much easier than this. S.League champions SAFFC kept up their early season form with a 6-1 thrashing of Chinese newcomers Dalian Shide Siwu on Thursday night.
The Warriors strolled through the 90 minutes at Queenstown Stadium and, apart from a brief scare when Dalian equalised, due largely to gross over-confidence by the visitors, Richard Bok's men never looked like letting their opponents into the game.
With John Wilkinson and Therdsak Chaiman commanding the midfield between them, Dalian were completely outplayed.
It was only 2-1 at the break, but then the Warriors took their foot off the brakes.
The travails of Dalian's Zhao Honglue, who had scored his team’s only goal but eventually gave in to cramp, summed up the Chinese side's night on a pitch made heavy by steady rain for much of the previous two days.
Aleksandar Duric scored the first two for his SAFFC side but could and should have had a few more, before substitute Ashrin Shariff shone with a hattrick and Jamil Ali completed the scoring late on.
His coach Richard Bok was happy with the result, but pointed out that his side could have been more clinical.
“It was a satisfactory result, though we missed a lot more chances again tonight,” he said after the game.
While Duric scuffed at a few, Ashrin came off the bench in the 59th minute to grab a hat trick.
The six goals conceded aside, Dalian were saved by the woodwork several times, particularly in the second half.
Their goalkeeper Wang Guoming also kept them in the game in the first half with some fine saves, until he had to leave the field with a calf injury with half an hour to go.
His replacement Gou Wei looked ill at ease and unprepared for the occasion and conceded three.
Questions are sure to be asked about Dalian’s competitiveness as they struggled for fluency and their marking was especially weak.
Duric opened the scoring in the tenth minute when Therdsak floated a free kick from the left onto the international’s head for a simple nod home.
Wilkinson had missed narrowly two minutes earlier and Duric himself had run onto a third minute Wilkinson through pass only to drive his shot wide.
In the 14th minute Norikazu Murakami botched a chance to add to the score when he descended on a Jamil Ali cross from the right, only to fail to connect cleanly with what looked a sitter and then the offside flag was raised to deny Jamil the chance to make amends from the rebound.
Dalian got on terms again after their keeper had saved well from Duric in the 29th and then booted the ball up-field to the speedy Zhao, who rounded the last defender Razaleigh Khalik and keeper Shahril Jantan before tucking the ball away.
It was a goal completely against the run of play and illustrated the importance of maintaining a defensive force at all times, even when in control of the game, as SAFFC clearly were.
Zhao had given due warning just three minutes earlier when he drove wide on the counter-attack and Jiang Jihong had seen a header stopped on the line by Razaleigh, so the defence really had no excuse for relaxing so early in the match.
After that goal went in however, the Warriors tightened the screws and soon, thanks to a Duric tap-in after more good work from Jamil Ali, they found themselves back in front, 2-1.
Traffic became increasingly one-way as the second half progressed, but Dalian were spared in the 54th when a Therdsak shot hit the post and bounced back into the keeper’s waiting arms.
Jamil clipped a shot over the bar in the 59th minute and around this time Ashrin came on for Murakami with devastating results.
Hafiz Osman, released down the right by Therdsak, put over an awkward cross that the keeper flailed at, but which Duric missed in the centre of the goalmouth.
A defender’s half hearted attempt to clear presented the ball to Ashrin who beat the keeper with ease to make it 3-1.
The keeper injured himself in the melee and had to be replaced at that point in the game.
Jamil Ali, continuing his excellent form this season, created the second goal for Ashrin in the 66th minute after a cross from the left, requiring only a tap-in from the substitute.
Ashrin had put another shot into the side-netting moments earlier, but he completed his hat trick in the 90th minute with his shot going in off the left hand upright.
Jamil wrapped up a fine night by accepting an unselfish pass from Duric before lifting the ball over the head of the stranded keeper in stoppage time.
The win was not unexpected, but Bok was not going to get carried away with the result.
“Dalian played well at times, but they lacked a leader on the field who could keep them in the game.
“I was pleased with how we played and with the AFC Cup game on Tuesday this was the kind of performance that will give us a lot of added confidence," he said.
SAFFC retain the lead in the NTUC Income Yeo’s S.League after four wins in a row and are giving the other teams, including the vastly improved Super Reds something to chase. |
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