The Cheetahs will continue their pursuit of their first silverware of the club’s history – when they take on Balestier Khalsa at the Hougang Stadium on Monday.
The Cheetahs made headlines with the elimination of league leaders and defending S.League champions Tampines Rovers 2-1 back in early June – which ended Sasa Dreven’s and Martin Wagner’s career with the Stags.
However, the Cheetah’s season went down south after the shock victory, and since then they only had two draws in seven games, and have yet to recover from the mid-season slump. However, most of the defeats have ended up with a slight defeat.
One of the problems that the Cheetahs need to solve is to find the back of the net. During the seven game winless streak, the Cheetahs only scored a measly three – and went the entire League Cup campaign scoring only two goals, something they had no problems when hitting the purple patch.
Balestier, however, picked up their season after and early season slump. The inclusion of former Cheetahs’ striker Vitor Borges have seen them in the top six in the league. Their Singapore Cup travels started out with an tough 1-0 win over Courts Young Lions, who have been trying to pick up their season, after a dreadful season so far.
It looks tough for the Cheetahs on paper, as Park Kang-jin, Qiu Li, Vitor Borges and Paul Cunningham are a tough forward line to deal with. The Tigers are famous for being a tough team to beat, with a robust forward line. However, the Cheetahs are famous for grabbing famous cup wins over the last few years, and we’ll be hoping to see one this Monday.
As this quarterfinal tie is spanned over two legs, the Cheetahs will then travel to Toa Payoh Stadium on Thursday, which will determine which team goes through the semi-finals – to be played in late August.
