Football
Gabriel Tan 9y

Severe haze wreaks havoc as Home United denied victory in S.League

Home United were denied victory in the Great Eastern Yeo's S.League on Wednesday after hazy conditions at the Yishun Stadium caused their game against Tampines Rovers to be called off.

Officials brought a halt to the game at halftime with Home leading 2-1 because of fears over safety because of the severe pollution. It's the second S.League match to be affected by the haze this month.

The Protectors had made a bright start to the contest and broke the deadlock after just 10 minutes when Azhar Sairudin's brilliant pass sliced open the opposition defence and found Ambroise Begue. He played in a first-time cross for Ken Ilso to finish off from two yards.

Home continued to look dangerous and Stags' goalkeeper Rodrigo Pacheco did well to keep out a blistering freekick from Ilso, before producing an equally impressive save to tip over a dipping 30-yard effort by Yasir Hanapi.

But against the run of play, Tampines then levelled the scores in the 23rd minute. After winning a freekick on the edge of the box, Shaiful Esah producing one of his signature free-kicks by curling a lovely shot beyond Shahril Jantan into the far corner.

The game then took a controversial turn when the hosts won a penalty two minutes before halftime after Yasir Hanapi was fouled, only for the referee to reverse his decision and award a freekick on the edge of the box.

Nonetheless, it mattered little as Kamel Ramdani proceeded to knock a sublime strike from an acute angle into the top corner to restore Home's lead.

However, the hazy conditions currently plaguing Singapore worsened at the halftime break and following a 90-minute delay, the decision was made to call off the game and replay it on an as yet unspecified date.

Although Protectors boss Philippe Aw admitted it had been a shame his side were not able to finish off their good work, he was not overly perturbed by the fact that the match will eventually be replayed from the start with the score at 0-0.

"I was always confident we would win and the boys showed they were really up for it," he told ESPN FC.

"We prepared well and it's disappointing we couldn't finish off the game, but nature is something beyond our control.

"It does add to our fixture pileup but our fixtures have been like this throughout the season, playing two games in the space of four days regularly.

"We're used to it and we can still take heart from our display in the first half as we head into our two RHB Singapore Cup semi-finals against Brunei DPMM FC."

Home United: Shahril Jantan, Ang Zhiwei, Abdil Qaiyyim, Noh Rahman, Juma'at Jantan, Yasir Hanapi, Song Ui-young, Ambroise Begue, Azhar Sairudin, Kamel Ramdani, Ken Ilso.

Tampines Rovers: Rodrigo Pacheco, Ismadi Mukhtar, Predrag Pocuca, Jufri Taha, Shaiful Esah, Firdaus Idros, Fabian Kwok, Naeem Rahimi, Zulfadli Zainal, Mateo Roskam, Rodrigo Tosi.

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