Steinebrunner remains cautious despite stellar Geylang casting

Coach Steinebrunner is cautious

Having assembled a stellar cast for the upcoming season, it is not unusual to say Geylang International are embarking their way back to the glory days when they once ruled the land back in the late 1980s till early 1990s, clinched the S.League titles in 1996 and 2001 with Singapore Cup in 2009 as their most recent taste of glory (as Geylang United).

"It's still early days," said a cautious Geylang coach Jorg Steinebrunner when such suggestion was made to him.

"The whole idea now is to move away from playing long ball like we did last season and keep the ball with more mobility in our game.

"And that is one of the reasons we signed players like (Tatsuro) Inui, Bruno (Castanheira) and (Jozef) Kaplan, who are able to give the speed and advantage during one-on-one situation." added the German coach.

Bruno Castanheira shields the ball

Beside the mentioned trio, the Bedok-based club also recruited local players like Anaz Hadee, Nor Azli Yusoff and re-signed veteran custodian Yazid Yasin, who has been reunited with Coach Steinebrunner since their days at Woodlands Wellington, and Syed Thaha back to the Eagle nest.

With only Kento Fukuda and Yuki Ichikawa are retained from the previous campaign, an interesting fact was presented that all foreign signings by the club have prior S.League experience, a stark contrast when three out of the last five did not have any.

When asked if familiarity is a pre-requisite for the club's import recruitment policy, the former defender explained it's more on meeting the team requirements.

Syed Thaha re-signed for the Eagles 

Kento Fukada (foreground) retained by Eagles

Said Coach Steinebrunner:"Not only the foreign signings we signed have experience in the S.League, most importantly, they fit the team requirement of the type of game we want to play."

However, the match earlier against MSL side Lions XII at their backyard did not see Geylang fielded a full squad with absentees like Anaz, Nor Azli and Kaplan who is due to return early next month.

The match against Fandi Ahmad-led side was the third pre-season outing for the Eagles who earlier played against NFL side Sporting Westlake and SCC Expats.

Mus Manzur (right) tussle with Safuwan Baharudin (21)

Tatsuro Inui (with ball) levelled the game for Eagles

Came back from a two-goal deficit at the interval saw the home team snatched a draw at the skin of defeat when Inui nailed home a free kick from outside at the stroke of full time to make it 2-2.

"We had shown great character in this game (for coming back to draw level), but there are still some fine tuning for us and with the quality signings we have, everyone is capable to start in the first eleven." opined the former Sengkang Punggol coach.