MANILA, Philippines -- The United Football League's Loyola Meralco Sparks and Global FC were drawn together in the tougher bracket of the Singapore Cup and may end up facing each other in the semifinals.
But before they could think of that potential meeting, they should hurdle first their initial assignments in this knockout style annual invitational.
in the draw that was held at The Float in Marina Bay in Singapore, the Sparks, who wound up fourth in their maiden campaign in this annual invitational last year, will face Harimau Muda-B in the opening round. Global, meanwhile, who were invited for the first time, got the tougher assignment in the defending Singapore Cup champion and S. League's winningest club Warriors FC, formerly known as Singapore Armed Forces FC.
The Warriors have won eight titles in the S. League and four, including the title last year, in the Singapore Cup. But Global is undaunted with a lineup loaded of national team players and a resume that can rival their Singapore counterparts.
The Sparks will face a much lighter opponent but still dangerous in Harimau Muda-B, which is composed of Malaysia's under-19 national team. Harimau Muda means "young tigers" in Malaysia.
Harimau Muda B was ousted right in the first round falling to a 0-3 defeat at the hands of Gombak United last year.
In an interview with Goal.com, Harimau Muda B's new head coach Razip Ismail knows they will be the underdogs but remained confident that his wards can better their last year's performance.
"To me, it is not only going to be tough as I understand our opponents are last year's semifnalist and we'll be trying our best in the tournament," Razip said. "But in football anything can happen and we will be taking it one game a time, hoping to go as far as we can in the competition this year.
The preliminaries of the annual tournament participated in by the top Singapore football clubs playing in their national league and foreign clubs mostly from Southeast Asia, will take place from May 26 to June 2 with the quarterfinals scheduled from july 22 to 29.
The two other foreign clubs invited to the tournament are Boeung Ket FC from Cambodia and Lao Police FC from Laos.