Football
Gabriel Tan 9y

Impressive White Swans march into TNP League Cup final

Albirex Niigata (S) are through to the 2015 TNP League Cup final following a commanding 3-0 semifinal win over Geylang International at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Sunday.

Atsushi Kawata got the White Swans on their way with an 11th minute header, before late strikes from Kento Nagasaki and Fumiya Kogure made sure of the win.

The result keeps alive their hopes of repeating their League Cup triumph of 2011, which remains the only piece of silverware they have won since their debut in Singapore football back in 2004.

The Japanese outfit entered Sunday evening's clash in good form after beating Home United and GFA Sporting Westlake to finish top of Group C, but they were coming up against an Eagles side who have been the surprise package of this tournament.

However, Albirex managed to settle any nerves they might have had as they took the lead after 11 minutes.

An alert Kawata nipped in ahead of Yazid Yasin to meet Fumiya Kogure's free kick with a header into the unguarded net.

The White Swans continued to enjoy the better of the proceedings after the break, and looked the likelier of the two teams to score, but their failure to convert their opportunities meant Geylang were always in with a chance of levelling the scores.

Nonetheless, Albirex finally netted the crucial second goal in the 82nd minute when Nagasaki wriggled his way past a defender before firing a 30-yard stunner past Yazid.

And they wrapped up the win three minutes from time, courtesy of Kogure, who curled a sublime free kick into the top corner to seal a dominant display from his side.

Speaking after the match, Albirex boss Tatsuyuki Okuyama said: "Geylang are a very good team and we're happy to have faced them in the semifinals.

"I think we showed our spirit and desire that we really wanted to make it to the final, so I'm very happy to win today (Sunday)."

Meanwhile, Geylang boss Jorg Steinebrunner lamented his team's hectic fixture schedule, having only had two days of rest since their win over DPMM, while Albirex's last match had been on June 26.

"I'm not trying to find excuses but you could see my players were tired," the German said.

"At this level, one day more of rest can make a big difference, but there are also a lot of positives to take from our three other games in the League Cup."

Geylang International: Yazid Yasin, Anaz Hadee, Hafiz Osman, Kento Fukuda, Syed Thaha, Nor Azli Yusoff (Mustaqim Manzur 79'), Yuki Ichikawa (Khairulnizam Jumahat 88'), Hafiz Nor (Shawal Anuar 70'), Tatsuro Inui, Jozef Kaplan, Bruno Castanheira

Albirex Niigata (S): Yosuke Nozawa, Mikiya Yamada, Takahiro Saito, Kento Fujihara, Itsuki Yamada, Hikaru Mizuno, Shun Inaba, Fumiya Kogure (Ryuki Matsuya 89'), Rui Kumada (Shotaro Ihata 60'), Rion Taki (Kento Nagasaki 79'), Atsushi Kawata

^ Back to Top ^