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Vallee refuses to write off stuttering Dolp[/COLOR][/SIZE]hins
Paul Green
info@sleague.com
It’s back to Jalan Besar Stadium for currently-struggling Sengkang Punggol this Wednesday, when they take on second-placed Etoile FC in a Great Eastern-YEO’S S.League match. The two teams have met twice before this season, and each time it has been at the same stadium, with the French newcomers barely snatching a 2-2 draw in an S.League match and then hanging on to win a League Cup game there 1-0.
While those matches were a while ago now, and Sengkang have fallen away a little since then, both coaches feel it will be another close contest three months after the pair had first met in an S.League game. “
They are a good side, and we will need to be careful against them,” offered Etoile coach Patrick Vallee on the eve of the fixture. “We’ll be adapting our game again to get the best out of our players. We know they enjoy playing at Jalan Besar, but so do we,”
he said with a smile.
( summit's thoughts.. skg may get thrased here )
Vallee indicated that dangerous midfielder Karim Boudjema might have recovered well enough from injury to play some role in the match. The
absence of the lively winger has coincided with the
Stars’ poor run in front of the woodwork. Only five goals have been scored in the last four matches, including the 0-1 loss to Gombak and the goalless draw with Beijing Guoan last week.
Vallee was thus pleased to see Boudjema shape up well, although he was coy when probed for details. “We’ll look at how he is after our final session of training on Tuesday morning,” he ventured.
( summit: he will play !) “I would also like to give our other keeper Brice Morandini another game sometime, but after the way our regular man (Yohann Lacroix) played against Beijing it would seem tough to leave the big fellow out.”
Morandini has played one game already and, despite conceding three goals against Home United, did not put a foot wrong, but the club still sees Lacroix as its first choice at the moment on disclosed form.
“I’ll have a long think about it and we’ll see who starts tomorrow,” he said with a
twinkle in his eye. “But we have gone four games now without conceding a goal, and we had to play without (Andrea) Damiani for the last three, so the defence is doing its job and so is the goalkeeper!”
Etoile will
welcome back another midfielder, Kevin Yann, after a one-game suspension, but injured utility man Mouteo Ousseni is still ruled out. As to whether Frederic Mendy will continue to lead the line alone, with captain Matthias Verschave settling in behind him, the coach was undecided.
It seems the coach is chewing over the idea of pairing the two again after the Beijing game failed to produce any goals, but he was tight-lipped about that when speaking to sleague.com after training on Monday. Certainly when it was suggested he might
revert to a two-pronged attack he did not rule the idea out.
Etoile need to score more goals if they are to trouble leaders Tampines Rovers and notch up a few more wins rather than draws, of which they have now claimed six, half of all their matches.
“At this stage of the season I am taking one game at a time and not looking too closely at the league table,” insisted Vallee. “Against Sengkang we’ll still be playing our own game, and I always go out to win every time we play. No matter who we are playing, it makes no difference.
“I am focussing only on the Sengkang and Woodlands (Wellington) matches that are coming up, at the moment. I know we have a very busy schedule in June – five matches in 15 days I think – but I don’t want to worry about that right now,” he said ruefully.
As for the Dolphins, they will have
two men suspended, namely defender Shahir Hamzah and striker Mamadou Diallo. ( summit : what a time ! ). Shahir had collected his seventh yellow card of the league campaign, the first player to do so this year, while Diallo had collected four. Both warrant an automatic one-match ban.
There is also a
doubt over the fitness of skipper Nor Azli Yusoff, according to Sengkang coach Aide Iskandar. “He’s in some doubt,” said the former national captain, “but I do expect him to play and I hope he can.
“The boys are feeling very positive about this game. We have been playing well and only poor concentration and lack of composure has let us down lately. “The game against Beijing we looked good for long periods only to throw it away at the end. Also some of those missed chances early in the game came back to bite us. “We love playing against good sides like Etoile and I feel we can do well on Wednesday.”
( Summit : he must be kidding himself ).
Even Vallee agrees that the Dolphins offer more than their current position on the ladder would indicate. “When they played Tampines at Hougang Stadium they looked good until they conceded a goal early in the second half,” said the balding Frenchman.
“They can be a strong side so we will need to work very hard if we are to beat them. Their position on the table means nothing to me and I feel they are a decent team.”
Ryan Fante, who inherited the No.9 shirt from Moussa Keita when the latter left the club earlier in the season, scored against Beijing last Saturday night and now appears to have settled into the S.League rhythm after a less-than-impressive first couple of outings.
“Ryan has found the net now and his confidence is growing,” said Aide. If the Canadians in the team now, namely Murphy Wiredu, Fante and Jordan Webb, can produce their best, then perhaps Sengkang can make life very hard for Etoile on Wednesday evening.
If not, then Etoile can be expected to throw down a strong challenge to Tampines by winning this one convincingly.
( put prssure on Tamp ? )
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