TODAY’s resident Malaysian Super League expert Dan Guen Chin laments the fall of once-mighty Kedah, and believes the LionsXII will have no problems beating the Malaysian side.
The Lions will be playing in front of their home fans for the first time in almost a month, and the support from the stands might just swing the tie in favour of the LionsXII.
LionsXII goalkeeper Hyrulnizam Juma’at was rock solid between the sticks tonight as he denied Felda United a slew of goal-scoring opportunities throughout the 90 minutes.
The match got off to a slow start but both sides began to find their groove mid way through the half after raising the tempo. Shaiful Esah put the LionsXII ahead in the 32nd minute when his freekick eluded everyone in the penalty area to find its way past Felda’s goalkeeper Hamsani.
Felda were quick to regroup and tested Hyrulnizam several times. Their best chance of the match came in the 44th minute, but the LionsXII goalkeeper made an incredible save to stop a powerful goal-bound volley just over a metre away.
The LionsXII started the second half eager to attack and they came close to scoring in the 52nd minute through Khairul Amri, who made his first start since a long injury lay-off, when he struck a powerful shot from outside the penalty area. Felda’s Hamsani fumbled the save but was fortunate to get away with it.
Goal-scoring opportunities see-sawed between the two sides before the LionsXII extended their lead in the 77th minute. Skipper Shahril Ishak cut the ball back to the edge of the penalty area and the advancing Shahdan Sulaiman curled the ball into the top corner.
Felda refused to be beaten and kept pressing. The Malaysian side were incisive in their passes, but a lack of ideas in the final third proved to be their downfall. The LionsXII extended their lead over second placed Kelantan to five points with the win, but the Malaysian side now have four games in hand.
“LionsXII have a point to prove after they lost to Kelantan. I think they must bounce back, they will have to bounce back, and they can bounce back.” What is TODAY’s Malaysian football guru Dan Guen Chin’s prediction for the LionsXII-Felda match?
Teams lining up for the pre-match formalities. Photo by Shamir Osman
After three long weeks, the LionsXII are finally back in action.
But their return was marked with a defeat, after defending champions Kelantan trounced them 3-0, and in the process cut the visitors’ lead at the top of the Malaysian Super league to just two points. Continue reading ‘Match report: Kelantan vs LionsXII’
It was a re-match of last November’s friendly between the Parliament and Media teams.
But unlike the first match which the Media Team won 2-1, the Parliamentarians exacted some measure of revenge this time with a 3-1 win at the Jalan Besar Stadium last Friday.
The media team, with their new kits thanks to the kind folks at adidas Singapore. Photo by WEE TECK HIAN/MediaCorp Press Ltd
The Parliamentarians were missing some regulars, but still had captain in Minister of State (Trade and Industry) Teo Ser Luck (front row, extreme right). Photo by WEE TECK HIAN/MediaCorp Press Ltd
Despite missing a few regulars, the Parliamentarians still featured the likes of Minister of State (Trade and Industry) Teo Ser Luck, and Members of Parliament (MP) Janil Puthucheary, Edwin Tong and Zainudin Nordin, who is also president of the Football Association of Singapore, as well as “guest” players such as S-League chief executive Lim Chin.
The Media team were also missing some regulars due to work commitments, but still managed a decent turn-out with journalists from the major media organisations here, consisting mainly from MediaCorp’s TODAY and 938LIVE, as well as from The New Paper.
The Parliamentarians' Fu Cheng Wei (in red) impressed with his mesmerising skills. Photo by WEE TECK HIAN/MediaCorp Press Ltd
TODAY journalist Leong Wee Keat (extreme left, in white) attempts to stop Fu Cheng Wei on another one of his mazy runs. Photo by WEE TECK HIAN/MediaCorp Press Ltd
TODAY's Shamir Osman (centre) continued where he left off from last year's friendly -- with another no-nonsense, crunching tackle, this time on Minister of State (Trade and Industry) Teo Ser Luck (in red). Photo by WEE TECK HIAN/MediaCorp Press Ltd
An unfortunate own goal and deflected shot put the Parliamentarians 2-0 up at half-time, but the Media team pulled one back mid-way through the second-half.
But as the old adage goes, you’re at your most vulnerable when you’ve just scored, and that proved correct again as the Parliamentarians scored again almost immediately to lead 3-1.
We had numerous chances to even win it late on but for a mixture of excellent goalkeeping and bad luck.
Nonetheless, there’s still nothing quite like a game of football.
Until the next friendly match!
There’s currently a debate raging on about which Champions League match deserves the title of the “most epic” following Chelsea’s stunning victory over Barcelona in this year’s semi-finals.
Whilst Chelsea deserves all the credit for a magnificent display of grit and teamwork, Liverpool’s spectacular comeback in Istanbul against AC Milan and Man United’s incredible last-gasp goals against Bayern Munich were just as unbelievable.
So which match has your vote?
David Beckham's wonder goal against Wimbledon is among the nominees for the best goal award. GETTY IMAGES
The English Premier League is celebrating 20 seasons of existence and have published what they believe to be the top 10 goals scored so far.
Southampton legend Matt Le Tissier is the only player appearing twice, whilst the likes of Tony Yeboah, David Beckham, Eric Cantona, Paolo Di Canio, Thierry Henry, Alan Shearer and Wayne Rooney all make an appearance.
Here are the videos of the goals, and if you want to vote for your favourite, just visit http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/20-seasons.html
First XI team trooping out to a morning training session at Scarborough beach. Photo courtesy of First XI production team
So there were snores aplenty on the First XI team bus as we took to the road after stepping off a red-eye flight from Singapore to Perth on Saturday (March 30). A meeting with Perth Glory players at their training ground, followed by lunch and a unique challenge at Sandalford Estate did little to wake up the sleep-deprived bunch of MediaCorp Channel 5 producers, crew, players and media alike.
I had forgotten how painfully long filming work for television – and the First XI sports reality television series – was, and doing the shuffle in 10 deg Perth weather was no help to this coffee-deprived reporter.
The next three days of this whirlwind training trip with the First XI players were a blur of travelling, sleeping, waiting, and more waiting. Continue reading ‘Some things are best discovered in Perth’
Pragmatism.
It’s not a bad thing to have and it’s something intrinsic in everyone.
It enables us to make rational decisions that would seemingly benefit us in the long term, it keeps our sanity intact and it prevents our wallets from going too empty too often.
In fact, the whole idea of proposing to your significant other with the classic question “Shall we get a HDB flat?” is derived from the very essence of pragmatism, which essentially means to play it safe with the future in mind. Continue reading ‘Did you play the sport you love?’
