Six-time champions, Junior Soccer School League (JSSL) Singapore, hopes of making a strong impression in the ongoing 19th edition of the RSC-Dato’ Chu Ah Nge International Junior Football Tournament is heading on course.
The JSSL FC3 Under-14 team qualified for tomorrow’s semi-final following wins over Balestier Khalsa 2-0 and Destiny Football Development 1-0 respectively in Group H of the second-round winners pool competition today.
Royal Selangor Club Harimau also advanced to the semi-final stage with 2-1 win over Elite Hawks, a team that is widely recognised as amongst the pre-tournament favourites, and a 2-0 victory against Indonesia’s Tansel Junior respectively. Both JSSL FC3 and RSC Harimau amassed six points each in their groups.
The other teams that hogged the limelight in the second-round stage of the Under-16 category are Myskill, Kelab Bola Sepak Rahim Hassan Penang, PPIC, JSSL FC 1 and JSSL FC2.
RSC Harimau manager Anantha Krishnan said he is excited with the performance of the players who gave their best against especially against the Indonesians.
“The players lived up to the expectation. They showed a great deal of discipline and commitment in every match, including in the preliminary round. Now that we are in the semi-finals, the players are determined to make further progress,” said Anantha.
Meanwhile, Jeffery Lightfoot, the Director of Coaching at JSSL, said the main objective of the soccer school is to provide the players good exposure by competing in high-level competitions.
“In the long-run we hope to develop players who will represent the national team. The boys are enjoying playing in this tournament against very good teams. Apart from participation here every year, they also compete in overseas tournaments, such as in Sweden (Gothia Cup) and Bangkok,” added Jeffrey.
Jeffrey, who has been coaching JSSL for almost eight years, said the absence of TSS FC (Tengku Shakirinal Shah/Tengku Sulaiman Shah FC) U-10, U-12, U-14 and U-16 teams has punched a gaping hole in the competitiveness of the tournament.
“Without TSS we feel the ‘loss of a great challenge’ to all the other teams here. As for JSSL, we have 13 teams competing and we hope they will do well. It will be a great challenge for us to reach the final in every age group category.
JSSL, added Jeffrey, views the RSC-Dato Chu Ah Nge tournament as an opportunity for their boys to gain experience against strong Malaysian and Indonesian teams. They anticipate tough matches, even without TSS, as they are often ranked among the top teams in most age groups.
At time of release several age group matches were ongoing and all semifinalists for tomorrow morning was not determined yet.
The finals will follow the semifinals tomorrow and the tournament is expected to end by 1pm.
Results (Cup Round 2)
Under-8 – Group E: TSS Selangor (3) Bintang Biru (0); JSSL FC (1) JSSL FC 4 (1); Group F: Kelab Bolasepak Rahim Hassan Penang (4) JSSL FC 3 (0)
Under-10 – Group F: Villareaal Malaysia (2) Kelab Remaja Shah Alam (0); JSSL FC1 (2) Destiny Eagles (0); Group G: ARHFC Panter 1 ARHFC Jaguar o; Assumption 1 KIFC JB 0.
Under-12 – Group G: ARHFC (0) Lion Red FC (0); RSC Harimau 1 Perdana United 0; Bintang Biro 1 ARHFC Jaguar 0; Group H – ARHFC Panther 1 Perdana United 1.
Under-14: Group G – RSC Harimau (2) Elite Hawks (1); Tansel Junior (4) Elite Hawks (0); Group H: JSSL FC3 (2) Balestier Khalsa (0); JSSL FC3 (1) Destiny (0)
Under-16: Group F – JSSL FC 1 (1) JSSL FC2 (2), Kelab Bola Sepak Rahim Penang 3 Apache Falcons 0; Kelab Bola Sepak Rahim 3 JSSL1 0; Group E: Destiny Lions 1 Inspire Medan 1; PPIFC 4 MySkill 0.
