arkie

ooh yes Razaleigh... Bokemon should try him out too yar

Muahahaha.. the man for all seasons...

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Baring their hearts,oh those glorious souls
The mantra they chant, of "We WANT GOAL!!!"
Be it a triumph, a loss, they never felt sold
An ode to the fans, for Kallang still roars so behold!

roebuck89

we got a few quality RB, isa halim can play there, razaleigh can play there. both of this players i respect cause of their no-nonsense die die must get ball mentality.

jeremy chiang, jumaat jantan, noh rahman is good, but maybe his prime is fading away?

zeluis

Noh Rahman is good, and although some may say he is past his prime, it is even harder to find someone with the requisite international experience to find a way through Henan Construct (let alone Suwon or Gamba)

Anyway, here's a little lowdown on the danger men of the opponents' squad [this dossier does not include Obi Moneke, a Nigerian DF who will most likely be 'sacrificed' for their new signing Goran Gavrancic due to the 3+1 foreign player ruling]

GK:
1) Zeng Cheng (19): First choice for Henan, but not for China NT. But still, only 22 years old, has a lot of potential. Even taller than Fred Martinez, at 1.92m.

DF:
1) Goran Gavrancic (last mentioned in an earlier post): The obvious one to look out for. 135 starts for Dinamo Kiev from 2001-2008 (not to mention multiple appearances in the UEFA Champions League) and 28 caps for (joint) Serbia&Montenegro NT (before the split into Serbia and Montenegro NTs). Makes Niklas Sandberg (1 UCL season each for AIK and Cluj; a handful of NT appearances) looks like small-fry. Wealth of experience cannot be denied, although how fast he can gel in with his new team would be crucial

2) Zhao Peng (4): China NT DF , of which Noh Rahman and a few Singapore NT players would have encountered in the National Day Challenge (Singapore vs China) last year. Height is 1.82m, which means that we would have to depend on Federico Martinez more than ever since I suppose he would have towered above most of the Lions

MF:
1) Xu Yang (18): like the goalie, a fringe member of the China NT, and also 22 years old. Not much tried at NT level. played as a left winger in his only cap against Iran. Had trained in Serbia though, while in the youth setup of his former team Shandong Luneng

FW:
1) Emanuel Olisadebe (5): The first black player for the Polish NT, and the most famous Henan player before being eclipsed by new signing Gavrancic. Has been quite prolific for Henan, with 22 goals in 42 starts (10 in 2009, 12 in 2008), and top scorer for past 2 seasons for them.. Like Gavrancic, also seen Champions League action with Panathinaikos (very fruitful stint in 2001-2005, where he helped them won Greek league). One wonders why he flopped at Portsmouth (2 matches in an injury-ridden stint). Career was nearly on a freefall since 2006 until Henan bought him. One of the key scoring talents for Henan, the other being....

2) Leandro Netto (9): What do you expect when another team pops out with a Brazilian player? goals and maybe more (histronics not guaranteed). Scored 8 for them last season. Enough said about the abilities of Brazilians in general--if SAFFC can't contain him, forget about resisting the even more furious attacks of Suwon (Reinaldo and Jose Mota) and Gamba Osaka (Lucas Severino, Ze Carlos, Pedro Junior/Dodo), who have more than one Brazilian striker deadlier than this mild example

Team in general: a rather youthful team, with quite a few players under 25. SAFFC would do well to train up their endurance levels since IMO, the stamina is there for Henan to last longer on the pitch...

faris.k

great writeup

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the lions need you like never before as they attempt to go to the promised land. will YOU be there?
- jose raymond

Hitman

agree. not to forget, isa halim can also play as right back

baosheng89

err..wat abt tan sio beng from SCC? =)




just jking..haha...9 more days to Henan Construction vs SAFFC.

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Khairul Amri, Sharil Ishak, ???....

Messi, Ronaldo, Rooney, Fabregas, Drogba, ???...New regens?

zali

Dunno what shape Warriors will be in since they have a clash against Tampines on Friday. Interesting to see if Bok Bok maintains his rotation policy even for big games...

civotarum

his priority is to get into the champs league group stage -- already acheived..

and they target to get more points this season in acl -- realistically they could be looking at home games..

furthermore, what better way to start the defence of your title with a win over your rivals..

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hairi33

put their hearts into this game, SAFFC might just nick a draw from this game!

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"I will not die for my country, I will make the enemy die for his." A wise man.

zeluis

to answer all the threads...

zali on Rotation Policy: rmb Park Tae Won? he wasnt registered for the Asian Champions League (that slot went to Taisuke). he is going to feature very heavily in the Tampines match. should Fred Martinez get well in time, he might be looking at a sub appearance. Other than that, Tampines is too important for RB to have a sea-change of starting lineup; we'll be looking at at least one or two first teamer to start (that's when Ivan Lovric and Taisuke comes in handy since they can recover faster, given they're younger than the main engine of the team)

hairi33 on SAFFC getting a draw: possible. SAFFC are a 'marathoner' side. They aren't exactly the quickest off the blocks, but once the season gets underway, they have the requisite strength to regain ground

civotarium on objectives/priorities: now that the priority is achieved, it's time to start on a bang. A win against Tampines would be a show of strength, but as it goes, they have one eye on ACL too, since they're more or less Singapore's reps and they will be keen to impress further. And being smart, RB probably knows that there is less pressure on them to succeed in ACL than in AFC Cup,

Why is there less pressure on SAFFC after they qualify for the ACL?: barring a major loss of form for Henan, Suwon or Gamba, they won't really be contenders for the knockout stages due to the strength of the latter two, though they may cause a shock or two. Perhaps with that in mind, and the group games ending before May 2010, they can focus on the S League after that.

[the other situation, had they been AFC Cup, would mean they will be pressured to go further on continental glory given that their squad is quite good compared to most AFC Cup contenders, but that may take a toll in their league form. given that only the winners of the S League qualifies for the ACL playoffs and the winners of the AFC Cup to the ACL Group Stages, the gamble/risk is bigger should they end up empty handed]