Sunday, January 11, 2026
Quality Late Strikes Hide Stags Blushes
It took two late, quality finishes deep into the second half of extra time to give Lion City Sailors their third successive Singapore Cup, but unfortunately, the game will probably be best remembered for a few moments in the second half of normal play when Tampines fielded an illegible player.
You would think in this day and age, with all the support staff in the dugout, even in Singapore, coaches would be aware, or would be made aware, of regulations during their decision-making process but despite the player being replaced seemingly pointing out the error, the Stags coach Noh Rahman went ahea,d meaning his team had too many foreigners on the field.
It was an error quickly rectified, but an error all the same, and one the coach owned up to after the game. Fair play, he held his hands up after the game and admitted he was at fault, but it left the final with a massive question mark hanging over it.
There was a lengthy delay after the 90 minutes as officials, them in the suits, wondered what to do next while the players sat around feeling confused. Eventually, it was decided to play on, but you can't help imagine what was going through the Tampines players' mind knowing that even if they managed to hit six without reply, chances were high the result would be written off.
On 115 minutes and with penalties seemingly inevitable, Lion City Sailors broke the deadlock, a lovely finish from Hami Syahin before Anderson Lopes confirmed LCS' triumph in injury time.
It was a fitting end to a game which had started brightly with Lion City Sailors showing plenty of pace and movement up front, even without the recently departed Maxime Lestienne while Tampines, faced with an impregnable Sailors defensive rearguard were more measured in their build-up play.
Even without the imperious Frenchman, surely one of the best foreigners in recent years to grace the game in Singapore, LCS just had too much quality with the likes of Shawal Anuar, Lennart Thy, Bart Ramselaar and Song Ui-yong. And in former Stag Kyoga Nakamura they had the perfect pantomime villain.
The game may yet be awarded 3-0 to LCS as a result of the cock-up and before ever marked in the history books, well, Wikipedia, with an asterix, but let's hope not. Lion City Sailors deservedly won, but Tampines, who could have been forgiven for 'giving up', battled to the end, and their efforts alone deserve more than a * and a footnote.
# posted by Me @ 5:58 PM 
