Story by REDintern Christy Ong. Pictures by REDintern Maryam Nasihah.
Jalan Besar Stadium, Wednesday, July 9, 2008 - Favourites Singapore Sports School showed why they were the undisputed champions when they retained the B Division Football Championship title with a comfortable 4-0 win over rivals Victoria School. Sports School, having won the same title for the first time last year, were gunning for another win against the black horse of the competition, Victoria.
Despite it being a final, both teams started out as dreary as the gloomy weather, with the game feeling more like a ping-pong game rather than a football match as both teams struggled to keep possession of the ball, the ball ricocheting between them. Still, there were moments of brilliance from the Victoria playmaker Dilip Thapa (#10) whose remarkable dribbling threw the Sports School defence into disarray. However, his attempts at goals were either all near-misses or foiled by the Sports School goalkeeper. Moreover, despite the numerous numbers of free kicks and corner kicks awarded to both teams, neither team seemed to be able to convert the chances into real goals.
Ironically, although the initial comfortable weather did not bring out the best in both teams, the light drizzle that started 35 minutes into the game seemed to shake both teams out of the comfort zone. Two minutes before half time, Aliff (Sports School, #18) received a beautiful pass from a Muhamad Syafiq (Sports School, #9) and hit a low ball which bounced into goal, surprising the VS goalkeeper. Aliff commented on his very first goal, as “unexpected and the first step to securing a win for Sports School." True enough, it was the start of many goals to come. Although VS had a perfect chance to equalize in the very next minute, it was a near-miss again. At half time, the score stood at 1-0 to Sports School.
Immediately after half-time, Sports School started with a bang. Barely two minutes into the second half, Aliff again punished Victoria for the lapses in defence and slotted a low ball neatly into the corner of the net. The next goals by his teammates Naresh (#19) in the 32nd minute and a fourth goal from Aliff (#18) in the 34th minute were the same in style and nature - both exploited holes in the Victoria defence. Probably due to jitters, the Victoria defenders were inept at clearing the ball once the ball was in the penalty box. Furthermore, though the Victoria goalkeeper was exceptional in saving high balls, his height perhaps made it difficult for him to save the low shots. Indeed, Sports School used this to their advantage and scored all four goals with grounders while in the penalty box.
Nonetheless, credit should be given to both the Victoria team for never giving up and pushing on to get a goal until the very last minute, with thunderous cheers from the Victoria School supporters. Still, in a game with equal opportunities for both teams, it was the team with better finishing that won the match.
It was the best present for birthday boy and Sports School captain Aqhari (#17) who remarked proudly about winning, "The feeling was great as it would be my last competition for Sports School before I graduate. I am glad we were able to defend the title and win it for a second year."
Indeed, kudos to Singapore Sports School for retaining the title so convincingly.
Editor’s note: If you recognise yourself or your teammates in any of the photos, feel free to leave the names behind in the comments section and we will update the captions accordingly. Thanks!
the bottom line is that sports school won and its long over.come on guys.put dilip in the national side and he will freeze,for sure.
well.he’s a great player since he was like 12yrs old back then…experience play a big part in his sec school career..but i believe there are other better players out there!
i think for someone to blame the sss#5 player make dhilip look good is fair because dont forget football is a team game, if everyone wants to talk about only one player look good then there’s nothing wrong for anyone to talk about a lousy player!!rite??? c’mon it’s the final there are many people watching, you nonsensical comment can spot the good and the lousy player rite!!!!
5-7? lol. 4 players to be exact. alright i’m gonna have to agree that dillip is a good player. i’m not gonna even deny it. but then again there is a point that the players he faced were younger kids. try putting him up against someone of his age from the national age group and we will see.. sure he could perform average-ly but you can bet not to see him breaking through a few times like he did the lsat game.
basically, some of the sss boys then lacked experience and it was their first time playing in some a atsomsphere. clearly, that could be seen from the start when apparently there was almost not a single supporter for the SSS side as compared to the overwhelming crowd in the opposing VS team. its no secret that the occasion got to them alittle.
conclusion- dillip is a good player. but try putting him up against a nfa player. we will see then
to die-hard.
fyi, about 5-7 of the sss first team are 17 yrs old.
Hey nonsensicalcomments! agreed dilip did breach sss defence a few times but did he manage to trouble sss goalie not to mention score one? Dilip (a Nepalese) is a damn good player no doubt about it, but at the same time please also give credit to our LOCAL sss boys, majority of which are barely 15!!! FYI nonsensicalcomments, i got feedbacks from my sss frens they got on well with dilip, bijaya (also a Nepalese)n other victorians!!! C’mon let all these kids grow and who knows one fine day they may become team-mates!!!
hmm. if i was right, dilip actually rejected sports school to go to victoria because of personal reasons. come on lah .. he has loads of talent and if you people cant face the facts then why the heck do you guys even bother to play soccer in the first place? to the fella who says he can run donuts around dilip. well first of all , he isnt a defender and secondly if you are so confident i can arrange for u to play with him since i am a friend of his. and to all the other sss players who bear a grudge against dilip.. he is a very down to earth person and don’t make rubbish comments just because he managed to break through the sports school defense several times. and blaming it on the sss #5 player is really uncalled for.. are you guys finding excuses for why dilip can get past your defense? please get your act together.
hey Football_craze, I really wish Red Sports get perks like flying to bangkok to cover a game, what more a today game. Unfortunately, there is no such luck for us. =(
The combine school u15 football championship is going on in Bangkok now, the singapore team are playing for the 3rd n 4th position today. There are 10 countries taking part, to be playing for that position is an achievement! Please check them out red sports!!!
well if the sports school number 5 makes dillip looks good, then why is he even in sports school. thats not only being disrespectful to dillip thapa, you are doubting the ability of sports school number 5, the people who chooses them in the trials and his coaches. And if i am better than dhlip thapa really think you are better than are better than dilip then maybe you should stop mucking about here and go prove your talent to the national side. Because dilip is really a gem of a player. To be 5 times better than him is really unthinkable, maybe i would like to see you on tv one day representing singapore.
I think most of us can agree that dilip is better then all the b div players and whoever dat says he is better is totally jealous or he really thinks he is dat damm good which i think he is not! last of all he is a nepalese. monsters. u want to try play against nepalese? wanna try?
this year why no man of the match in the final and top scorer award? that will bring more excitement to the debate here. am i right?
i don’t know why i’m stuck here but i’m atleast five times better than dillip thapa and i can run donuts around him.
dhilip isnt good.sports sch (no.5) make him look good.
The beautiful pass was from Muhamad Syafiq (jersey no.9) who is U15, that Aliff (sports school) received to score the first goal.