S.League 08 Projected Finish - 27-Apr

With all teams completed the 1st round of 11 games, let's take a quick projection on how they will finish at the end of the season, base on current standings.

As at 27-Apr:
# Team-------- P- W D L GF - GA Pts GD
1 Super Reds-- 11 9 1 1 23 - 10 28 (+13)
2 Singapore AF 11 8 2 1 32 - 11 26 (+21)
3 Home-------- 11 8 2 1 32 - 13 26 (+19)
4 Tampines---- 11 5 2 4 21 - 16 17 (+5)
5 Geylang----- 11 5 1 5 15 - 21 16 (-6)
6 Woodlands--- 11 4 3 4 11 - 15 15 (-4)
7 Young Lions- 11 3 3 5 12 - 17 12 (-5)
8 Gombak------ 11 2 5 4 14 - 16 11 (-2)
9 Dalian------ 11 3 2 6 11 - 17 11 (-6)
10 Albirex---- 11 3 2 6 16 - 26 11 (-10)
11 Balestier-- 11 1 3 7 08 - 16 06 (-8)
12 Sengkang--- 11 0 4 7 02 - 19 04 (-17)

Projected Finish:
# Team-------- P- W- D L- GF - GA Pts GD
1 Super Reds-- 33 27 3 03 69 - 30 84 39
2 Singapore AF 33 24 6 03 96 - 33 78 63
3 Home-------- 33 24 6 03 96 - 39 78 57
4 Tampines---- 33 15 6 12 63 - 48 51 15
5 Geylang----- 33 15 3 15 45 - 63 48 -18
6 Woodlands--- 33 12 9 12 33 - 45 45 -12
7 Young Lions- 33 9 09 15 36 - 51 36 -15
8 Gombak------ 33 6 15 12 42 - 48 33 -6
9 Dalian------ 33 9 06 18 33 - 51 33 -18
10 Albirex---- 33 9 06 18 48 - 78 33 -30
11 Balestier-- 33 3 09 21 24 - 48 18 -24
12 Sengkang--- 33 0 12 21 06 - 57 12 -51

The previous anomalies resulted from the "zeroes" entries in the league table are mostly gone now, mainly thanks to Balestier's shock win against Home, which took out 2 such "zeroes" (Home unbeaten & Balestier winless).

The only "zero" remaining comes from Sengkang, which is still winless after the 1st round, and is thus projected to finish the entire season without a win.

Such scenario has never happened before in S.League history (the closest being 2005's Paya Lebar with a single win), though I wonder if Sengkang could be the first side to "achieve this feat" (as they have serious problem upfront, having scored just 2 goals so far, even the 2005's Paya Lebar have managed 6 in their first 11 games), :-p

We will see, if Sengkang can break the duck in the next 2 projections, when the S.League takes longer breaks after Week 12 (2 weeks) & Week 14 (3 weeks). The 3 matches Sengkang will play until then are:
2008-05-05 Albirex (A) -
2008-05-21 Young Lions (H) -
2008-05-24 Singapore AF (H) -

Can it be Albirex or Young Lions? I wouldn't bet it on SAFFC though...

Woodlands Corner: Follow-ups

Just some follow-ups on Woodlands progress this season, base on my previous post "Woodlands Corner: Difficult timess ahead":


After the Sengkang game their record reads: 2W-2D-1L. Then:
2008-03-29 Singapore AF (A) 0-3
2008-04-01 Tampines (H) 1-1
2008-04-09 Home (H) 0-3


After the games against the Big-3: 2W-3D-3L. Then:
2008-04-15 Gombak (A) 1-0
2008-04-20 Geylang (H) -
2008-04-24 Albirex (A) -
2008-05-02 Young Lions (A) -
2008-05-23 Super Reds (H) -


Now they already have 1 win against Gombak.
Assume they manage 1W (Albirex), 2D (Geylang, YL) & 1L (Super Reds) in the next 4: 4W-5D-4L.

Maybe I'm just being over-worried, hopefully that's the case.

S.League 08 Projected Finish - 16-Apr

With all team finally having played the same number (9) of games (after a few weeks of imbalances) & the league taking a quick break on 16-Apr (for AFC Cup), it's a good time (though maybe a bit too early, you'll know why later) to project how the teams will finish at the end of the season base on current standings.

As at 16-Apr:
# Team-------- P W D L GF - GA Pts GD
1 Home-------- 9 8 1 0 29 - 09 25 (+20)
2 Singapore AF 9 8 0 1 28 - 07 24 (+21)
3 Super Reds-- 9 8 0 1 17 - 09 24 (+8)
4 Tampines---- 9 4 2 3 18 - 10 14 (+8)
5 Woodlands--- 9 3 3 3 08 - 12 12 (-4)
6 Young Lions- 9 3 2 4 11 - 14 11 (-3)
7 Dalian------ 9 3 1 5 10 - 15 10 (-5)
8 Geylang----- 9 3 1 5 11 - 20 10 (-9)
9 Gombak------ 9 2 3 4 11 - 13 09 (-2)
10 Albirex---- 9 2 2 5 13 - 23 08 (-10)
11 Sengkang--- 9 0 3 6 01 - 16 03 (-15)
12 Balestier-- 9 0 2 7 05 - 14 02 (-9)

Projected Finish:
# Team-------- P- W- D- L- GF- - GA Pts GD
1 Home-------- 33 29 04 00 106 - 33 91 73
2 Singapore AF 33 29 00 04 103 - 26 87 77
3 Super Reds-- 33 29 00 04 062 - 33 87 29
4 Tampines---- 33 15 07 11 066 - 37 52 29
5 Woodlands--- 33 11 11 11 029 - 44 44 -15
6 Young Lions- 33 11 07 15 040 - 51 40 -11
7 Dalian------ 33 11 04 18 037 - 55 37 -18
8 Geylang----- 33 11 04 18 040 - 73 37 -33
9 Gombak------ 33 07 11 15 040 - 48 32 -8
10 Albirex---- 33 07 07 19 048 - 84 28 -36
11 Sengkang--- 33 00 11 22 004 - 59 11 -55
12 Balestier-- 33 00 07 26 018 - 51 07 -33

Saw anything weird with the projecttions? Well, there's a few things, top-down:
1. Can Home really remain unbeaten all season? I doubt so...

2. Will SAFFC & Super Reds both drawing none of their games? Highly unlikely for 1 team, let alone 2.

3. Will both Sengkang & Balestier remain winless all season? Again unlikely lah...
Even the Paya Lebar of 2005 could get a win out of 27 games, surely these 2 can do betrter?

4. Sengkang scoring just 4 goals all season?
The lowest number of goals scored by any team in any season was 15 by Jurong in 1997,
with just 16 games! Sengkang should achieve at least that figure with double the games.
(For the lowest Goals per Game, Balestier in 2000 "took the honors" with 16 goals in 22 games, a ratio of 0.727.)

Perhaps the projection will make more sense, when all the "zeroes" entries in the league table are gone. We'll see if that happens after the first round of games, :-)

Finally, a new SLVC champion: Super Reds!!

SAFFC's superb start (8 opening wins) to season 2008 was ended abruptly after a 2-1 away loss to Super Reds on 13-Apr, & in the process relinqiushed the SLVC title it held for 21 games.

More on this later...

Dalian 3-1 Geylang: Good run continues

It might be hard to imagine just a few week earlier (whey they lost the 4 opening games), but here're the facts:

1. Dalian is now 5th in the league, just behind the big-4 at the top!
2. Dalain has now gone 3 matches unbeaten after the Tampines loss.
3. During this unbeaten run, they have conceded just 1 goal (against Geylang).

With Albirex & Young Lions coming up next, they may be able to entend this sequence, although it will probably end when they play Super Reds on 28-Apr.

Base on their current form/PPG, they should expect to overtake Afrique (24pts) & Liaoning (29pts) by the end of their first season.

As for sorry Geylang, now in dismal 9th-place (just 1 win in the past 7 games), they need to buckle-up against arch rivals Tampines in the next match, or risk getting brushed aside again...