Global Football Club have a lot to do if they want to reach the 2016 Singapore Cup semi-finals.
S.League side Tampines Rovers FC proved too much for Global as they defeated the United Football League-based club 3-1 tonight in their quarterfinals’ first leg encounter at the Jurong West Stadium in Singapore. Billy Mehmet (13′), Fazrul Nawaz (61′) and Hafiz Sujad (69′) provided the goals for the Tampines Rovers while Global captain and striker Misagh Bahadoran (45′) pulled one back for the visitors.
Things started well for Global after Bahadoran robbed the ball from a Tampines Rovers player and laid it off to Japanese forward Hikaru Minegishi whose eventual attempt went wide of the goal. However, the game’s outlook changed when Mehmet scored at the 13th minute from a Hafiz assist.
From then on, Global goalkeeper Patrick Deyto became a busy man as he parried away shots from Tampines Rovers’ Sujad and Jeffrey Webb. Those Deyto saves kept Global in the game during the first half, just enough for Bahadoran to level the scores at the at 45 th minute. It finished 1-1 at the break with Global perhaps lucky to still be level.
Similar to their first half start, Global’s Minegishi had another sniff at the Tampines Rovers’ goal early in the second period which went wide again. That was very much all Global mustered during that stage of the game. In contrast, the Rovers kept bombarding Deyto’s goal. Nawaz finally gave the Rovers the lead back at the 61st minute and Sujad sealed the game moments later at the 69th minute.
It ended 3-1 in favor of Tampines Rovers. The win allowed the Rovers to carry with them a two-goal cushion for the second leg. Global would have conceded more goals if it weren’t for Deyto. All is not lost for Global, though, as they still have the second leg to play against Tampines Rovers. The said game will be played on July 2, 2016 (Saturday; 8:00PM) at the Jalan Besar Stadium in Singapore.
