Geylang International will kick off their The New Paper (TNP) League Cup campaign on Tuesday night with a relatively easy Group A game against semi-professional side Singapore Recreation Club (SRC).
The match is the second successive Cup game for the Eagles, who played Lao Police Club in the preliminary round of the RHB Singapore Cup towards the end of last month.
The month-long international break that followed the Singapore Cup game has rejuvenated the team according to Geylang goalkeeper Yazid Yasin.
"The team is feeling fresh, but we are a little rusty and lacking in match sharpness," Yazid told ESPN FC. "We are working on this in training and will be ready for Tuesday."
The veteran custodian will find SRC familiar opponents, having been on the bench against them in last year's edition when he was in Woodlands Wellington colours.
Then, the Rams could only manage a 1-0 victory against the National Football League (NFL) Division 1 side, who lost both games to finish bottom of the group.
SRC will return to play in the League Cup for only the second time this year and Yazid knows that his team cannot take them for granted despite their semi-professional status.
"We will approach the game in the same manner as we take on another S.League club," said the 35-year-old custodian.
"We need to be disciplined and put in maximum effort to win the match. We cannot be complacent and think that we can just turn up and collect three points without putting in the hard work. We will be in for a surprise if we do that."
It is hard to look beyond anything but a win for the Eagles, whose attacking stable of Jozef Kaplan, Bruno Castanheira, Tatsuro Inui and Hafiz Nor should ensure that the goals flow in during the night.
A more difficult challenge for the 2013 quarterfinalists will be to clinch a two top finish, with Brunei DPMM and Hougang United being the other two Great Eastern Yeo's S.League teams in the group.
DPMM, who have won the trophy a record three times, will be fancied to take top spot. They have made the final on all four occasions they have been involved, notably beating Geylang in the 2012 edition.
The Bruneians came out on top again when both met in the semifinals last year, where Geylang missed their first three spot kicks in a 3-0 shootout defeat after a 0-0 deadlock.
But Yazid believes that Geylang have what it takes to make it out of the group stages for a fourth consecutive time.
"DPMM are the favourites to top the group but all the teams have an equal chance of qualifying to the next round," he said. "I am confident that if we play our cards right, we will be one of them."