08 August 2012

DPMM FC book final berth


Wednesday, August 8, 2012
VJERAN Simunic's men are now just one win away from being crowned champions of the Singapore League Cup.

The Bruneian side eliminated familiar foes Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) FC 2-0 in an epic semi-final battle last night at the Jalan Besar Stadium in Singapore.

DPMM FC finally avenged their loss against the warriors after the latter handed DPMM FC their first home loss of the S-League season at the Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium in Berakas on June 23.

"It was a revenge. It feels good to win against one of the best teams in Singapore. We lost to SAF twice before and we learned from our mistakes and played very well in the game," said Simunic.

"We are very happy with the win and this is a big result for Brunei Football. We are happy to win this for our big boss the Crown Prince (His Royal Highness Prince Hj Al-Muhtadee Billah, the Crown Prince and Senior Minister at the Prime Minister's Office) and for the football fans in the country," added the head coach.

"All of the players are the men of the match tonight. All the players, from goalkeeper Wardun Yussof at the goal-post to Osman Basiru upfront, were fantastic tonight. They were excellent and they worked very hard."

DPMM FC started brightly when Brazilian Tales Ricarte Dos Santos opened the scoring after connecting on a corner kick from Azwan Salleh in the 10th minute.

This is the second consecutive match that the Brazilian centre-back has put his name on the scoresheet in the tournament.

SAF FC were doing much of the defending in the second half with DPMM FC holding on to the ball for much of the time but they were unable to create many clear-cut chances as the warriors did a good job of keeping the ball away from their goal.

The game was heading for a nervous final 10 minutes until the Said brothers worked their magic.

Shahrazen Said, the 2006/2007 Malaysian Super League top goalscorer, dribbled past two defenders just outside the box before sending the ball across for his younger brother Adi Said who calmly slot the ball past goalkeeper Sharil Jantan to seal the win in the 79th minute.

SAF FC have not made it into the last four of a cup competition since 2009, when they were beaten by DPMM FC in the final of the League Cup on penalties.

2010 saw them crash out of the RHB Singapore Cup at the first hurdle and they fell to Sengkang Punggol in the League Cup quarterfinals.

They dropped out of both competitions at the quarter-finals stage in 2011.

DPMM FC will face either Tampines Rover or Geylang United in the final on Saturday, with the two teams facing off in the second semi-final at the Jalan Besar Stadium today.

The Brunei Times 

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