2014 Singapore League Cup


The 2014 Singapore League Cup was the eighth season of Singapore's premier club football tournament organised by Football Association of Singapore, and also known as the 2014 StarHub League Cup for sponsorship reasons.
For the second year in succession, National Football League clubs will participate in the tournament. Unlike the previous season where NFL sides had to compete in play-offs to earn the right to represent the league against the professionals, the representatives in this edition qualified through the league positions from last season.
The 2014 Singapore League Cup plate final was played between Tampines Rovers and Balestier Khalsa at the Jalan Besar Stadium in Kallang, Singapore. Miljan Mrdaković, who scored a hat-trick in the semi-finals against Police Sports Association, reproduced another hat-trick to clinch the plate for Tampines. He becomes the first player in history to score two hat-tricks in the tournament, and consecutively.
The 2014 Singapore League Cup final was played between Tanjong Pagar United and Brunei DPMM at the Jalan Besar Stadium in Kallang, Singapore. Brunei DPMM eliminated Tanjong Pagar United by a score of 2–0 to lift the League Cup trophy.

Teams

The top ten clubs from 2013 S.League were divided into three pots based on their final league positions. Developmental sides Harimau Muda and Young Lions have opted out of participation in this year's edition as they will be on a training tour in Austria. League positions of the previous season are shown in parentheses.
Pot APot BPot C
Tampines Rovers Woodlands Wellington Geylang International
Home United Tanjong Pagar United Hougang United
Albirex Niigata Warriors FC Police Sports Association*
Balestier Khalsa DPMM FC Singapore Recreation Club*

The schedule of the competition was as follows. The draw took place on 20 June at the Jalan Besar Stadium, during which the teams were drawn by various club representatives.
PhaseRoundDraw dateMatch date
Preliminary phaseFirst preliminary round20 June 20147–8 July 2014
Preliminary phaseSecond preliminary round20 June 201410–12 July 2014
Preliminary phaseThird qualifying round20 June 201413–15 July 2014
Knockout phaseQuarter-finals20 June 201417–18 July 2014
Knockout phaseSemi-finals20 June 201421 July 2014
Knockout phaseFinal20 June 201425 July 2014 at Jalan Besar Stadium, Singapore
Plate knockout phaseSemi-finals20 June 201419 July 2014
Plate knockout phaseFinal20 June 201424 July 2014 at Jalan Besar Stadium, Singapore

Format

The preliminary phase was a competition between the 12 teams divided among four groups of three, where each group engaged in a round-robin tournament within itself. The two highest ranked teams in each group advanced to the knockout phase. The third-placed team in each group entered the plate knockout phase. Teams were awarded 3 points for a win and one for a draw.
Tie-breaking criteria for group play
The ranking of teams in each group was based on the following criteria:
  1. Number of points
  2. Goal difference
  3. Number of goals scored
  4. Head-to-head record between tied teams
  5. Drawing of lots
The knockout phase involved the eight teams that qualified from the preliminary phase of the tournament, while the plate knockout phase involved the four teams that finished third in the preliminary phase of the tournament. For the knockout phase, there were three rounds of matches, with each round eliminating half of the teams entering that round, whereas for the plate knockout phase, there were two rounds of matches, with each round eliminating half of the teams entering that round. For each game in the knockout phase, a draw was followed by thirty minutes of extra time ; if scores were still level there would be a penalty shoot-out to determine who progressed to the next round.

Preliminary phase

The preliminary phase began on 7 July and will conclude on 15 July. There were some changes to the fixtures released.
Changes to fixtures
All times listed below are in Singaporean official time.

Group A


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Group B


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Group C


Updated to games played on 11 July 2014.
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Group D

Knockout phase

The knockout phase involved the eight teams that qualified from the preliminary phase of the tournament. There are three rounds of matches, with each round eliminating half of the teams entering that round. The successive rounds were: quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final. For each game in the knockout phase, a draw was followed by thirty minutes of extra time ; if scores were still level there would be a penalty shoot-out to determine who progressed to the next round.

Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

Final

Plate knockout phase

The plate knockout phase involved the four teams that finished third in the preliminary phase of the tournament. There are two rounds of matches, with each round eliminating half of the teams entering that round. The successive rounds were: semi-finals and final. For each game in the plate knockout phase, a draw was followed by thirty minutes of extra time ; if scores were still level there would be a penalty shoot-out to determine who progressed to the next round.

Plate semi-finals

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Plate final

Statistics

Goalscorers

;6 goals
;4 goals
;3 goals
;2 goals
;1 goal
;Own goals
Source:

Hat-tricks