All for a good cause regardless what the final score will be. Once again, we are going to thank Peter Lim, or rather Singapore Olympic Foundation for bringing us another great level of football for all Singapore football fans earlier this evening!
The recent crowned King’s Cup Champion, Atletico Madrid was in town for Peter Lim Charity Cup. Singapore Selection hosted El Atleti at the Jalan Besar Stadium and when we thought that the El Atleti would whip the Singapore Selection team, it was actually the Singapore team which were constantly causing problem to the visitor.
I would love to say Sundram has really assembled a very balanced squad. With the main core structure of the team majority made up of current Singapore senior team players, the foreign players such as Home United’s Sirina Camara (no. 13), Geylang International’s Jozef Kaplan (no. 19) and Tanjong Pagar United’s Monsef Zerka (no. 20) were all equally outstanding!
Both Camara and Kaplan came close on scoring as early as 7th and 8th minute respectively. Camara attempted a shot which went across the goal mouth while Kaplan had his wicked deflection shot off the defender tipped away by Atletico Madrid’s goalkeepr Thibaut Courtois (no. 13). First half captain Shahril Ishak also saw his one-on-one with the keeper got parried away.
Comes 29th minute, young midfielder Saul NIguez (no. 28) sent the ball back into the 6 yards from the left and Raul Garcia (no. 8) was the first to react and tap in the ball beyond Izwan Mahbud (no. 18)’s reach to register the first goal of the evening! Singapore Selection pressed on but Atletico Madrid held onto the one and only goal into half time break.
Second half was another different ball game as Sundram took off all foreign players gradually and plotted a Singapore attack. To counter that, former Argentine great and current Atletico Madrid’s coach Diego Simone did a 8 players substitutions which of course included the biggest name of this trip, Radamel Falcao (no. 9)!
Game got heated up as Singapore’s number-2 Shakir Hamzah was shoved by Gabriel (Gabi) Fernandez over a fifty-fifty challenge in the 59th minute. Since that incident, the entire Stadium was booing Gabi everytime he had the ball! Probably, the aggressive game was a gentle reminder that Singapore was not a country for the King’s Cup Champion to show off their trophy! A game has to be played and you expect nothing less than 100% from Singapore football.
In the 69th minute, Brazilian Diego Cost (no. 19) nearly doubled Atletico Madrid’s lead when he controlled a deep pass from Gabi well but terribly fired his shot to the side netting. The obvious star of the team, Falcao also had his close range shot blocked off by Singapore Selection’s second half custodian Hassan Sunny (no. 1) in the next minute too.
To ensure Atletico Madrid an convincing victory, Diego Costa scored the team’s second goal of the evening two minutes from time when he connected well with a rebounce off Falcao’s attempt at goal! In the injury time, Singapore’s Ahmad Latiff (no. 7) also saw his effort from nearly 30 yards out hit the crossbar! That could well sum up the night for the Singapore Selection.
Final score, Singapore Selection 0 Atletico Madrid 2.
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