[AFC Cup] Tales of the Two...

Balestier Khalsa's maiden Asian venture is laudable

By all accounts, it is nothing glamorous about when your team are anchored at the foot of the group with only three points from five matches played and zero chance to make it to the next phrase.

However, observers shall not pick on Balestier Khalsa for what they accomplished till this stage.

After all, it's considered a massive achievement for a club of this magnitude to compete at this level on a shoestring, as compared to the other Singapore representative, Warriors FC who are playing their fourth AFC Cup tournament with a much bigger war chest.

But coming to the closing stage of the group stages with one more game to go, the defending S.League champions found themselves languishing at the bottom of Group E with a duck to account for, as compared to the Tigers who secured a win over Kingfisher East Bengal at home.

Alex Weaver struggled to compete on the continent front 

Many observers pointed out much have to do with the approach of the coaches of both teams in the continental level, with Balestier's Marko Kraljevic's pragmatic approach has worked well to stretch their Group F opponents to the max when playing at JBS, while Warriors found themselves being raided both home and away with questions asked about the discrepancy of this level with their domestic form.

For the answer to that query, only someone would have the answer and for the Tigers, for having subjected to many criticism off-the-field at the start, shall work hard to ensure the momentum flows.