These have been worrying times for Sriwijaya coach Rahmad Darmawan. The new ISL season is just a few weeks away and he has been trying desperately hard to find a striker to line up along side Keith Kayamba Gumbs. The list reads like a who's who of South East Asia. Le Cong Vinh, Teerasil Dangda, Theerathep Winothai, Noh Alam Shah, Old Mother Hubbard, Agu Casmir, Oliver Markor.

SAF seem to fly in the face of accepted football practise in the early 21st century. Many successful clubs round the world look to power and pace with healthy doses of youth as they seek to fill their mantelpiece with silverware.
Much of Gombak United's success has come from their powerful triumvirate up front of Agu Casmir, Kingsley Njouke and Gabriel Obatola.

Hassan Sunny – Persisam
Alex Duric – Sriwijaya (to be fair if I put my boots on they might be interested in me as well!)
Indra – PSM
Daniel Bennett – Persebaya (but his agent(!) is quoted as saying he would prefer Jakarta)
Agu Casmir – Persipura (but his agent says he has extended his contract with Gombak United)
Shi Jiayi – Persija did ask me about him but there is talk someone else might be interested.

After a few weeks when it seemed hardly a day went by without an Indonesian team being linked with players from Singapore or Thailand now all seems quiet.
Sriwijaya, seemingly linked with every player in south east Asia, are now considering a 35 year old Liberian striker named Maker. A far cry from the likes of Noh Alam Shah, Teerasil Dangda, Agu Casmir and Theerathep Winothai who had previously been linked with the Palembang side.

24 Aleksandar Duric (Singapore Armed Forces FC)
20 Gabriel Obatola (Gombak United FC)
15 Kenji Adachihara (Albirex Niigata FC (S), Kengne Ludovick (Home United FC)
14 Noh Alam Shah (Tampines Rovers FC)
13 Peres De Oliveira (Home United FC)
11 Agu Casmir (Gombak United FC)
10 John Wilkinson (Singapore Armed Forces FC)

DPMM v Tampines Rovers 2-2 (Shahrezan Said, Ivan Jerkovic; Khairul Amri 2) 3,296
Gombak United v SAF 2-1 (Kingsley Njoku, Agu Casmir; Aleksander Duric) 1.806
Without Noh Alam Shah, Mustafic Fahruddin and Muhamed Riduan the Stags still showed there is life in Tampines as they twice came from behind to earn a point in Brunei.

Balestier Khalsa v Gombak United 1-4 (Syaqir Sulaiman; Obatola 3, Agu Casmir) 3,486
1 - Singapore Armed Forces 9 7 0 2 27-9 21
2 - Gombak United 10 6 3 1 16-6 21
3 - Brunei DPMM 9 5 4 0 12-7 19
4 - Tampines Rovers 10 4 6 0 12-5 18
Sunday sees SAF travel to Brunei to take on DPMM in what should be a real humdinger!

Albirex Niigata v Balestier Khalsa 2-2 (Kenji Adachihara, Akira Takase; Ednardo Moura, Bryan Andrew Soane) 1,458
Gombak United v Geylang United 3-1 (Agu Casmir 2, Kingsley Njoku; Rickey Harris) 2,541
1 - Gombak United 11 7 3 1 19-7 24
2 - Brunei DPMM 10 6 4 0 14-8 22
3 - Singapore Armed Forces 10 7 0 3 28-11 21
4 - Tampines Rovers 10 4 6 0 12-5 18
Top scorers
8 - Gabriel Obatola (Gombak United)
7 - Aleksandar Duric, John Wilkinson, (Singapore Armed Forces)
6 - Indra Sahdan Daud (Sengkang Punggol)
5 - Kenji Adachihara (Albirex Niigata), Agu Casmir (Gombak United), Ahmad Latiff (Singapore Armed Forces)

Geylang United v SAF 0-3 (Mustaqim Manzur, Aleksander Duric 2) 2,202
Young Lions v Gombak United 0-4 (Gabriel Obatola 2, Agu Casmir, Kingsley Njoku) 1,366
This season is going from bad to worse for the Young Lions with another heavy home defeat following on from thumpings by Super Reds (0-5) and their Malaysian counterparts (0-3).

Home United v Gombak United 3-2 (Valery Hiek, Azhar Sairudin, Naruphol; Agu Casmir, Kingsley Njoku) 2,356
Sivaji's Home United may be struggling to find consistency in the SLeague but in the Cups they're on fire having reached the Singapore League Cup semi finals thanks to this narrow victory over the Bulls.

DPMM v Balestier Khalsa 2-0 (Shahrazen Said, Rene Komar) 6,951
Tampines Rovers v Super Reds 2-0 (Riduan, Noh Alam Shah) 2,001
Albirex Niigata v SAF 1-3 (Tetsuya Kitshida; Shaiful Esah, Syed Karim, Zulfadli Zainal Abidan) 1,802
Home United v Young Lions 3-2 (Kengne Ludovic 2, Shi Jiayi; Fairoz Hasan, Faritz Abdul Hameed) 728
Gombak United v Woodlands Wellington 1-2 (Agu Casmir; Zakaria Yusof, Jamil Ali) 2,185
Geylang United v Balestier Khalsa 2-0 (Noor Ali, Masrezwan Masturi) 1,517
14 - Gabriel Obatola (Gombak United), Aleksandar Duric (Singapore Armed Forces)
9 - Kenji Adachihara (Albirex Niigata FC), Agu Casmir (Gombak United), Kengne Ludovick (Home United), John Wilkinson (Singapore Armed Forces), Noh Alam Shah (Tampines Rovers)
1 - SAF 17 13 0 4 48-19 39
2 - Gombak 17 10 4 3 33-16 33
3 - Tampines 17 8 8 1 26-13 32
4 - DPMM 16 9 5 2 21-12 32
July 10 sees Tampines take on DPMM while tomorrow we have SAF v Gombak United!

(Picture) Coach Raddy (with cap) put his players through the pace.
Good thing was I managed to make it to the national team training session at Geylang Field after work, when initially I thought some stupid accidents along the PIE would derail my plan to catch the session.
(Picture) Fahrudin Mustafic doing some stretching on the sideline.

Just wondering. Is the Persija striker a Singaporean national like Agu Casmir?

9 - Aleksandar Duric (Singapore Armed Forces)
8 - Gabriel Obatola (Gombak United)
7 - John Wilkinson (Singapore Armed Forces)
6 - Indra Sahdan Daud (Sengkang Punggol)
5 - Kenji Adachihara (Albirex Niigata), Agu Casmir (Gombak United), Ahmad Latiff (Singapore Armed Forces), Noh Alam Shah (Tampines Rovers), Sutee Suksomkit (Tampines Rovers)
1 - Singapore Armed Forces 11 8 0 3 32-13 24
2 - Gombak United 11 7 3 1 19-7 24
3 - Brunei DPMM 10 6 4 0 14-8 22
4 - Tampines Rovers 11 4 6 1 14-9 18
Tonight sees DPMM travel to Clementi Stadium to take on Home United knowing that three points would see them back on top of the SLeague.

(Media information by Football Association of Singapore)
SINGAPORE, 30 September 2009: A robust Singapore squad, consisting of seasoned players such as Indra Sahdan, Shahril Ishak, Daniel Bennett and Agu Casmir, will front the Singapore challenge for the Sultan of Selangor's Cup trophy this Sunday.