Eagles dealt yet another friendly defeat

Geylang United FC 2-3 Woodlands Wellingtion FC

37” Vasile Ghindaru , 47” Miroslav Latiak

36” 62"Lakkad Abdelhadi, 50” Kazuki Yoshino

Date: 23 January 2010
Location: Bedok Stadium

A double strike by Moroccan Lakkad Abdelhadi consigned Geylang United to a second friendly loss in a week as it enabled Woodlands Wellingtion to come away from Bedok with a 3-2 victory on Saturday.

This result meant that the Eagles have achieved only one win out of their six pre-season friendlies and that came against amateur side Singapore Cricket Club.

The 5pm kickoff time meant that the first half was played under scorching heat conditions and it took both sets of players awhile to settle down.

With regards to the Geylang starting line-up, it had a familiar look to it with only defensive lynchpin Rastislav Belicak (injured) and star forward Masrezwan Masturi (bench) missing. In their places came Jonathan Xu and promising starlet Yasir Hanapi.

In the 12th minute, the Eagles had their first shot at the Rams’ goal after good approach play by Miroslav Latiak resulted in Yasir producing a beautiful curling attempt that was pushed away by the Rams’ keeper Hafez Mawasi for a corner.

Five minutes later, new signing Itimi Dickson whipped in a brilliant effort direct from a free-kick out from the left which needed a goalline intervention by the Woodlands’ defence.

Slowly, the away team was beginning to threaten with former Geylang trainee Sazali Salleh and Lakkad looking to do damage.

In the 36th minute, the Woodlands’ pair dealt the Eagles the first blow. After Sazali broke into the danger area, the ball was laid off for Lakkad whose shot took a wicked bounce which deceived Eagles custodian Yazid Yasin and into goal.

However, the Rams’ joy did not last long as Geylang pulled level almost immediately.
Syed Thaha swung in a free-kick from the far side which was met with a looping heading into the far post from new Romanian signing Vasile Ghindaru. At half time, the score stood at one apiece.

The Eagles went into the lead two minutes after the break. Masrezwan, who had replaced the ineffective Peter Tomko, produce a decent attempt which was deflected out for a corner.

Off the resulting set piece, Latiak put the Eagles ahead 2-1 with a shot from outside the box after the Rams’ defence failed to clear their lines.

This time round, it was the Eagles who could not hold on to their lead for long.

From an initial corner situation for Woodlands in the 50th minute, the Geylang backline could not clear convincingly. This led to Rams’ centrehalf Winston Yap teeing up his partner in defence Kazuki Yoshino. The Japanese kept his composure to steer a stinging shot into Yazid’s goal to pull the scores level once again.

The equaliser seemed to galvanise the Rams as they started to look more dangerous.
In the 62nd minute, former Eagles captain Noor Ali led a raid down into the Eagles box where he was upended by Jonathan.

Lakkad stepped up to net the Rams’ third goal for the evening which turned out to be the winner.

Along the way during the second period, Coach Mike Wong made several positional changes to the players in search for the right formula with Ghindaru, Syed Fadhil and Shah Hirul all inter-switching positions.

But it seems that tactical switches and substitutions were to no avail as the Eagles struggled to find a reply.

There was a fine chance in the 82th minute when Masrezwan combined well with substitute Hafiz Rahim to set up Latiak, whose attempt on his weaker right foot was pushed away by the Rams’ keeper.

On the stroke of full time, it was Latiak again with the shot but this time it was off target and the referee ended the game soon after.

Coach Mike Wong revealed post-match that the team needs to improve on aspects like tactical awareness and team cohesion and that it is crucial to put these issues right on the training ground before the campaign begins.

The Eagles will next face Sengkang Punggol in their last pre-season friendly on Tuesday, 26 Jan, at the Hougang Stadium. Kick-off will be at 5pm.