The Prodigal Son of Lion City speaks up

It's time for Raddy to go

Former national star Ahmad Latiff opens up on the Lions, coach Raddy Avramovic and the recent criticism of the ISL

BEFORE Ahmad Latiff spoke on the subject of the national team and its current under-fire coach, he made sure to set the record straight:

'My disagreements with Raddy (Avramovic) aside, he's a good coach. He's won two Tiger Cups and brought fame and recognition to the national team.

'But after what happened at the AFF (Suzuki) Cup, why are all the other coaches saying he shouldn't go?

'When you know something is wrong, why don't you change it?'
Latiff, who recently signed a two-year contract with Tampines Rovers, has never been one to mince his words.

Once touted as the bad boy of Singapore football, the 31-year-old has had his share of falling-outs throughout his 14-year career - most significantly, the bust-up with Avramovic in 2006.

Latiff was dropped from the national team for swearing at Avramovic when he substituted him in a match against Iraq after just 25 minutes.

Immediately after the incident, the coach said he would never pick Latiff for the national team again, and has since kept his word.

Latiff has his side of the story of course, and while he never explicitly said that he regretted the incident, he still wants to play for Singapore, in the belief that he could still contribute to the team.

'Sometimes I think of calling Raddy, and asking him to let bygones be bygones, but I just can't do it.

'My (SAFFC) coach Richard Bok has also asked him about picking me, but maybe Raddy has his ego also.'

For now at least, Latiff finds himself in the viewer and critic's chair. And he sees many things amiss with the national team and local football on the whole.

Referring back to The New Paper article on how most coaches here insist Avramovic should stay, he said: 'All those coaches who said that are inside FAS (Football Association of Singapore).

'The only one who said he should go is Tohari Paijan, who is not under FAS. Think about it.

Young talent
'I just feel that somebody should speak up. I mean, how can he (Avramovic) say there are no talented young players here? If you don't try (new players), you will never know.'

Latiff also questioned the coach's decision to play defender Safuwan Baharudin in midfield during the AFF tournament when he had natural midfielders like Isa Halim in the squad.

He said: 'I was surprised to see the same players again. What's the point of having all those training tours and trying out so many new players when you still choose the same team in the end?

'It's not that those players are not good, but you also have to see who really wants to play.
'The problem is that some players have been in the team too long, and they have a tendency to think that the coach will always pick them.

'Even when they show up late, they get fined but nothing else happens - they still get chosen in the end.'

Having played in the Indonesian Super League (ISL) in 2001, Latiff also shared his opinions on whether the ISL clubs' sub-standard training regimes affected the players' (eight of them) fitness heading into the AFF tournament.

'Training over there is not standardised. There is no proper equipment or a gym and I don't think the club trainers are too advanced.

'But the travelling part is what really affects the players. The arrangements are not very proper.
'Once, we travelled a whole day on a ship because the club could not get a flight.'

But Latiff refused to say if the standard of football in the ISL was higher than the S-League.
Instead, he raised question marks over the recent trend of local players moving there.

He said: 'Indonesian clubs now have this Asean quota to meet. Singaporean players are cheaper than the other countries.

'If the clubs didn't have this quota, do you think they will look at our players? I don't think so.
'But our players should get better playing there. They play in front of a bigger crowd and under bigger expectations, because they are there as foreign players.

'Whether they bring that (improvement) to the national team is up to them. Everyone can demand 110 per cent from them, but there's no point if they don't want to give it.

'And this is what the coach must see. You can't just select the players with names and who play overseas - you have to choose the ones who really want to play.'

Credits TNP article by Ali Akbar Kasim, Image by Jovan Lim (soccerofsingapore.blogspot.com)

Lookback: Former kingpins of Singapore football

Recollection of my younger days as an Eagle fan..

100 Goals Award: Mohd Noor Ali - The ever smiling joker of the pack

Recapturing S.League everpresent Mohd Noor Ali's 15 year stint in our local league which cumulated in his 100 goal achievement in 2010.

Geylang United: 2000-2004
Champion in 2001

Geylang United: 2008-2009

Champion: RHB Singapore Cup 2009

Two S-League titles & 1 Singapore Cup with SAFFC (2005-2007)

Winner of Tiger Cup 1998

We often hear that a hardworking man will be bound to get his due reward. On S-League Awards Night 2010, a man who has given almost all his playing career to the S-League since its inception - Mohd Noor Ali, finally got his dues.

“It is always a dream for a player to come to Awards Night and receive an award. It is something that I have been looking forward to and it is nice to get it exactly at the age right now”, he beamed.

Then in his usual tongue-in-cheek style, he added, “I definitely can’t wait another 14 years to score another 100 goals right?”

Despite a paltry return of just three goals this season in all competition, the evergreen attacker was helped by his work in his earlier years as he became the tenth player to join an exclusive club of names who have notched 100 goals in the local game.

Noor Ali started out as a raw winger on the roster of Tampines Rovers when the league was formed in 1996. Impressive performances in the following seasons for the Stags earned him his international break which hit a high when he was part of the Tiger Cup winning squad of 1998. In 2000, eastern giants Geylang United came calling and along with his best friend Azhar Baksin, Noor Ali made the switch to Bedok.

A year later, with the Eagles under the tutelage of Malaysian Cup stalwart Jang Jung, Noor Ali clinched his first S-League medal as Geylang finally broke the stranglehold of the uniformed groups that year.

It proved to be his only piece of silverware at club level before his SAFFC stint between 2005-2007. Along the way, he also suffered a low when he was suspended for the entire 2003 season due to breaking of the players’ conduct rulebooks.

However, the man came back hungrier and with a point to prove, he raised his performances as he captained SAFFC to two more titles and a Singapore Cup trophy. Noor Ali then spent his next two seasons back at Bedok where he clinched another RHB Singapore Cup in 2009 before heading north to Woodlands for this recently concluded campaign.

Revisiting his goalscoring exploits in the earlier seasons, the man was adamant that it was his first stint with the Eagles which ultimately led him to this award.

“The best period for me was during my time at Geylang. That was the time where I scored a lot of goals, between 2000 and 2004”, Noor Ali said.

Over the years, we have seen less of his aggressive nature on the field that was common in his younger days. Perhaps married life and the captain’s armband has calmed him down more. Nowadays, Noor Ali is always seen as an easy going personality, the joker among the pack.

“I am always happy wherever I go, even at Woodlands now”, he quipped.

“After I came from my suspension up till now, I have keep on been winning things. I really have to thank all my family who have been supporting me”. Indeed family is always a word the man has on his mouth in recent years when the media reflects on his good performances.

As to upcoming plans for him, Noor Ali said, “Actually I can retire now, but I don’t intend to, as long as I can pass my Beep test”.

Unable to curb his itch for a dig at his good friend who stepped into the media zone, he exclaimed, “If Aleksander Duric can play till forty with his i/c (identification certification) change, I will try to play on!”

“But if there was an award for 600 misses, Aleks would have won it by now. He should have won the top scorer award if not for that”, Noor Ali chuckled.

“He is one player that we always look forward for motivation. It is an honour for me to go up on the same stage as him.”

Upcoming plans

On a more serious note, Noor Ali expressed his desire to continue in the game after his eventual retirement.

“I am doing my ‘A’ licence in March. But not too fast as I still want to enjoy the S-League.”

At the moment, he is keeping his options open to new offers and indicated that a player-assistant coach role would also suite him fine as it would be a good opportunity to learn the management side of the game.

“I am happy when I see the younger ones coming up and do well. I hope to pass on my knowledge and experience to the younger ones”.

National team

When quizzed whether his had regrets about not making more appearances for the national team, Noor Ali replied confidently, “I have no regrets in whatever I do. I quit the national team in 2005, I am happy that they are doing well and winning things. At that time, there were also a lot of young players coming in, which was a fantastic thing.”

“I have done my part for national team. I have played in the SEA Games, played and won the Tiger Cup. So right now it is time for me to pass down all my knowledge.”

Expect to see more of this wily veteran attacker for a couple of more years to come. With players sorting out their contracts in the coming weeks, would anyone dare to rule out a return to Tampines for a final Noor Ali-Duric combo in the 2011 season?

(courtesy of http://www.sleague.com/)

If you get another chance ,dun waste it ALIFF!

I hope the recent incident on Cup Final morning can wake Aliff up. Just have this feeling perhaps the Stags will give him one final chance to wake up his idea, especially if they cant add on quality players. If Aliff is desperate, punish him with a lower fixed package but with add-ons if he changes for the better. If not, based on tactics, I would want to see him at Geylang playing the in the 'hole'. Coach Mike, Lieutenant Lim & General Seak have the potential to whip him into shape.

"The Little Master" definitely is talented, the pictures which i went to dig my magazines dates back to a 1995 street soccer tournament when he was selected to represent Singapore in Berlin and impressed the contestants there as well.

This was a player whom Jita Singh roped into his Police FC in the inaugural S.League season for his junior team at the age of 14 along with two 16 yr old Indra & Ahmad Latiff.

Aliff,

I think many of u hope to see u back on the pitch soon, a changed man. Don't let us down. I hope these recollection of images can spur you on to focus on doing what u do best, playing good football, entertaining fans while staying out of trouble.

Your fan

(to readers of this article, if u can get the man to read this piece, pls do so as a favour to me. Thanks.)

Room for improvement, Etoile FC

First, congrats to Etoile and their fans on clinching the league title.

I know many in the local football fratenity would have preferred a local team to win it, myself included. I can understand their allegiance since we are Singaporeans and this is our league. The only thing I am disappointed is that the $100,000 prize money is not kept within a local club for bonuses or improving its finances.

Etoile have brought a new brand of football to the local league and challenged the teams here to do better, which is great for the league on the whole. If this allows local clubs, league/FAS top managment to crack the whip and strive harder to improve, I am sure local fans would gladly give up the 2010 SLeague trophy to Etoile.

Now to the not so nice things.

Why do Singapore football followers generally dislike Etoile so much as it seems?

(This section is really for Etoile fans, players, Johan, Patrick and now Jorg. I am not throwing cold water at your celebrations. But to seek your cooperation in improving our league)

From the start, it is easy to say bcos Etoile have been winning games, beating teams that we support, thats why we dislike you. This is definitely not true, at least for me.

To me, there is 1 CLEAR REASON why Etoile have not gathered the respect of Singapore fans and followers like Albirex have done.

Its the behaviour of players and coach.

So much that Etoile's football in general is impressive, there have too many an incident of dissent happening on the pitch and off the pitch.

Yes, refereeing standards sometimes, or most time sucks. But all teams suffer from it, not just you. I am not sure if its the language issues, but I doubt so when I watch Etoile games.

Recall the 1-1 with Tampines in March or April at Tampines Stadium. Etoile spent much time chasing the game after going down to sublime Qiu Li freekick. In the process of it, I saw players losing their heads, overly rough tackles and a ball boy getting f***** literally by Patrick. It was not still injury time that Patrick was sent to the stands and Michelini had equalised. Initially i put that down to a typical Frenchman's passion and emotions, especially when they were on the losing end. But having it too frequent is too convenient an excuse.

There you have it, u made your first enemies at Tampines.

What was to follow during the season were issues like arguing with referees, complaining, acts of dissent and diving.

When decisions go against Etoile, it was the same players who would be making noise. From rightback, you can bet Julien Delatraz will be the first at the scene, having a go at the officials. Leclerq, Lakehal, Vershave are the others.

Diving - there is only 1 culprit. So much so a new chant of "Frederic Mendy's falling down, falling down" came by.

Patrick needs to stop his incessant arguing on the sidelines. I do agree that the 'closing of one eye' by the officials sometimes encourage him to go on and on. There are proper ways to lodge complaints. But do we expect higher standards for a professional who hails from Europe?

Talks now are that there will be major reshuffle of the team, but whoever that comes it, Etoile need to do better in their behaviour, Patrick included, especially now that Etoile will be the defending champions in 2011. You got to show some standards. I challenge you to be in the top 4 in the 2011 Fair Play table.

Soccer Marathon 7 & 8 Nov

Started with the Asian Games soccer where the Cubs played Qatar in the opening group game.

Izwan, Safuwan in defence and Nazrul on the left wing impressed me aided by the more experience Shahril who led the line. The Asian handicap was around +1.25 but the Cubs did well to overcome it.

Was hoping to see the boy I tout as Singapore's version of Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere - Hafez Abu Sujad (above) in action. Too bad he didnt appear. I have watched him a few times and have been thoroughly impressed by this boy.

Overall a good team performance by the Cubs despite a difficult last 25 mins where the Cubs were under absolute intense pressure. We actually had the Chinese crowd behind us for much of the game. Cries of 'Xing jia po jia you!' (Come on Singapore!) could be heard during attacking set piece situations.

Current Chinese coach and ex-Tiong Bahru CSC striker Gao Hongbo was also in attendance.

Dutch Co Adriaanse, the Qatar coach, quoted in Lianhe Zaobao criticised the Cubs performance, he commented that we should have stayed in the hotel had we wanted to play tat way.

Wait a minute, didnt Bert Van Marwijk stifle Spain in the WC final too?

But hey, a result is a result, when you support your HOME COUNTRY, that is all it matters! Play is secondary to me when I support my nation. As a club supporter u can choose, but u don't go around choosing a home country to support right?

Come on Cubs, continue to play as a team and try progress as far as possible and gain the exposure to big stage games. This will definitely help in future.

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Summary:

Big guns in Europe generally faltered their handicaps except in Spain
- Bayern, MU, Chelsea, Arsenal, Ajax, Inter, Lazio
-Resolute Magpies performance hindered Gunners
-Ranieri completes a week of turnaround in fortunes as his twin strikers on-loan Borriello and Vucinic converts a pair of penalties
-Zenit falls 2 behind in 11mins, equalises by 15min, and go on to score 3 in the 2nd half to win 5-2.
- Twin terror Falcao and Hulk leads Porto to 5-0 thrashing of Benfica

Excerpts from Patrick Barclay's 2005 book: Mourinho - Anatomy of a Winner

1. Why did Mou behave the way he did on his 1st return to Barcelona as Chelsea mgr?
The answer came from conversation with Van Gaal. Although Mou will not admit it, he had unfinished business with the Catalan club. For all his years there gave him the perfect grounding for a top coach, he was often treated dismissively in Barca, referred to among the club's large media entourage (& even some within the club) as "The Translator". Thats why he boasted about having won as many titles as Barca (as of 2005).

2. After the league cup final with Liverpool:
He did smt different from other mgr. He toured the dejected Pool ranks. By grativating towards the pitch, was he seeking the share of limelight he never had as a player?
In essence, answer is yes. There is a passage in the book he produced with his journalist friend Luis Lourenco about how when he returned to Benfica as Porto coach, he milked the abuse of a huge crowd before the match: 'I made a point of walking on alone, before the team... It was fantastic, an amazing feeling. I had never been a first class player who could feel, for eg, what Figo had felt upon returning to Barcelona (with RM), ans so i had no idea what it would be like to have 80,000 people whisting and jeering at me. I believe tat when we are mentally strong, pp who seek to intimidate and disturb us wd have exactly the opposite effect. Upon hearing he whistles and jeers... I felt as if I were the most important person in the world.'

3. Poor marks in Maths disqualified him from entering uni at the first attempt

4. He listened intently to philosophy lectures of Manuel Sergio, whom he began to derive a fascination for playing with people's emotions. The prof remembers him as a voracious student: 'He looked like a cat catching birds.'

5. Hello Mister, Im Jose Mourinho - this was his introduction to Sir Bobby at Lisbon
About his translation, Sir Bobby said, 'I always had the feeling that he was saying it the way i would have said it. That was his knack. The players responded as if I told them. I could see. It was the same reaction.

6. He advised Sir Bobby to take up an offer from Porto.

7. He split his UEFA coaching licence into 2 parts in 1988 and 2000 (normally a coach does 2 parts in consecutive summers) as he was spending the rest of the years learning at football's university of life, and he worked daily with the likes of Figo, Rivaldo & Ronaldo. It were the 2 years he was between jobs.

8. He never bragged abt his achievements in 2000 when he did the second part, even in the pubs with his mates after finishing the day. He listed in his application he had been "assistant coach" to Robson at Porto and that was not taking too much of a liberty, though techincally he was not. But his work actually emcompassed more than that.

9. Key figures in Barca's dressing room came to accept he had a lot to offer when he was Sir Bobby's assistant. eg skillfully edited videos showing opp's strengths/weakness. This was appreciated among those, by Pep Guardiola. Jose built up a relationship with Pep knowing Pep's status at the club.

10. He got along well with Hristo Stoichkov too.

11. He was pissed when Barca moved Sir Bobby upstairs to make way for Van Gaal. Sir advised LVG to keep him, and Mou benefitted bcos LVG got him to do more work as LVG was one of those who like to stand back, unlike Sir Bobby who was totally hands on.