With Saturday’s (Jan 10) Singapore Cup final locked at 0-0 late on, and Tampines Rovers goalkeeper Syazwan Buhari pulling out all the stops to keep defending champions Lion City Sailors at bay as the contest edged towards extra time, it was an unlikely administrative error from a routine substitution in the 80th minute that threatened to undo his efforts.
“The plan was to substitute one of the foreign players, but at the last minute, Joel (Chew) said he was experiencing some issues and, in that split second, we didn’t think about it. It was an honest mistake, and I take responsibility for it as head coach,” Tampines Rovers head coach Noh Rahman said at the post-match press conference, explaining how his side briefly fielded eight foreigners after Chew was replaced by new signing Yuki Kobayashi.
Despite quickly rectifying the situation by bringing on Ong Yu En for Japanese playmaker Koya Kazama three minutes later, the earlier change meant Tampines had contravened Singapore Cup regulations, which state that a minimum of four Singaporean players must be on the field at all times, putting the match at risk of being forfeited in favour of the Sailors.
With the scores still level at 0-0 after regulation time, officials allowed the game to run its course.
Sailors head coach Aleksandar Rankovic had also separately told Noh before extra time that he “didn’t want to win this way”.
“We heard that something was wrong with substitution, but we (were) focused on playing the game,” Rankovic said.
“When we heard that maybe the match was going to be stopped, I immediately said, ‘I don’t want to win like that.’ So that’s why I’m happy that we won fair and square… I don’t think (Noh) wanted to lose that way (as well),” the Serb added.
Goals courtesy of substitutes Hami Syahin and Anderson Lopes in the 115th and 122nd minutes, respectively, helped to put the result beyond any doubt.
A neat give-and-go on the left flank between new import Luka Adzic and defender Diogo Costa gave the latter plenty of room to run into as he fizzed the ball across goal for the box-crashing Hami to hammer the ball down the throat of the goal with a first-time effort on his weaker left foot.
“It’s been a while since I scored, and to do it in a big game to help the team retain the title, I couldn’t ask for more,” he said.
Sliding toward the corner flag in front of the Sailors faithful after his opener, he added, “It’s natural grass, and I didn’t think too much. The pitch was quite wet today, so it was a good opportunity to get that feeling, like what you see in Europe all the time. It’s always a kid’s dream to do a knee slide on the pitch.”
Lopes added the icing on the cake in stoppage time, bringing down an Ivan Susak goal kick, outmuscling Tampines defender Dylan Fox and finishing with aplomb.
On his side’s three-peat in front of 3,767 spectators at the Jalan Besar Stadium, having won the Cup in the 2023 and 2024-25 seasons as well, Rankovic said, “Winning the Cup three times in a row makes me extremely proud.”
“I’m really, really emotionally attached to this trophy. And if you ask me which is the trophy that I value the most, it’s my first Singapore Cup. Not only because it was the first trophy I won as a head coach, but also because I think that trophy brought some spark and momentum for what we’ve done over the last two and a half years as a team and as a club.”
“It’s, for me, the most precious trophy that I have. But don’t get me wrong, we want to get the other ones also,” he added, referring to the Singapore Premier League and the Asean Club Championship (also known as the Shopee Cup), where the Sailors are first and fourth in the standings, respectively.
Tampines will look to pick themselves up from yet another heartbreak after last season’s 1-0 Cup final defeat to the same opponents, as their wait for a first Singapore Cup since 2019 goes on.
“We’ve still got a lot of football to be played, the Asian Champions League Two, the Shopee Cup and, of course, the league. We will stay together as a team and fight together,” Noh said.
The Stags are scheduled to play three more league matches this month — against Young Lions (Jan 16), Geylang International (Jan 23) and Tanjong Pagar United (Jan 31) — with an ASEAN Club Championship Shopee Cup clash against Thai side Buriram United (Jan 28) sandwiched in between.
