Tough Tests for Tampines and Home in AFC Cup.

This week sees the second round of matches in this year's AFC Cup. Two Singaporean sides will be in action with Tampines Rovers welcoming regional powerhouse Hanoi FC on Tuesday, while Home United travel to the Philippines to take on Kaya FC a day later.

Tampines Rovers have had a dream start to the season. An unexpected victory against Yangon United in the first game of the AFC Cup was followed up by 2 consecutive 5-1 victories over their title rivals which have left them top of the Singapore Premier League. They are full of confidence ahead of Tuesday's game but face a huge challenge. Hanoi are one of the region's most talked about teams, and sent out a clear message to the rest of the tournament with a record breaking 10-0 victory over the unfortunate Naga World. The Vietnamese champions were only 45 minutes away from making it into this year's Asian Champions League, they led Chinese Super League giants Shandong Luneng FC 1-0 at halftime and it needed a Graziano Pelle second half masterclass to drag the big spending Chinese team into the group stage. Hanoi are widely tipped to go far in the AFC cup this year and are perhaps ASEAN's best hope for braking the domination of West Asia, they will be hoping to do better than they did in 2014 when they reached the quarter finals of the tournament.

Despite losing some of their star names to bigger teams following Vietnam's great perfomance in the Asian Cup, they can still field a number of game changers such as Nguyen Quang Hai, Ganiyu Oseni and captain Nguyen Van Quyet. Nguyen Van Quyet is an international veteran with a point to prove this season. The former international captain was stripped of the armband and dropped before Vietnam's impressive AFC Asian Cup 2019 campaign. While many of his international team mates have gone on the secure big money moves Nguyen Van Quyet now has to prove his worth to the international tema and try to play his way back into the squad. He has already shown what he can do this at this level, stunning Shandong by scoring the opening goal in the AFC Champions League play-off and then converting a penalty during the AFC Cup 2019 opener against Nagaworld FC.

The creative brilliance of 21 year old Nguyen Quang Hai, who floats around the centre of midfield, provides the creative energy around which the rest of the team revolves. His through balls and set pieces often provide the ammunition for the Hanoi strikers. It is a little surprising that he has not been picked up by a bigger regional team already, this season is likely to be his last in Vietnam and he will want to add to his AFF Suzuki Cup title by helping Hanoi become the first Vietnamese team to win a continental club honour.

Like many teams in the region Hanoi's foreign imports are often the difference. Nigerian forward Ganiyu Oseni, is a striker who can score goals at this level and will be crucial in their quest for continental championship glory. Oseni, 27 years of age, has an incredible 26 goals from 31 appearances and found the net four times against Nagaworld.

Tampines will need to find a way of containing Hanoi's if they are to get anything in this tie. The Stags will draw some hope from the fact that Hanoi have already dropped points in their domestic campaign this year. However, Hanoi are likely to be too much for the Stags who will need to give one of the greatest performances of any Singaporean club team if they are to walk away with three points. I think the Stags will score but I predict a convincing win for Hanoi who are looking to do something special this season.

On paper at least, Home United have perhaps the easier opponents this week. However, Home's season is imploding in front of our eyes. Kaya FC could dump even more pressure on the shoulders of beleaguered Home coach, Saswadimata Dasuki, if they get a result on Wednesday.

Kaya FC, who finished second in the Philippines last year, albeit 11 points behind the champions, are making their second appearance in the AFC Cup. Kaya looked good in their opening match against Lao Toyota and were unfortunate not to win the game. The Filipino team led for the majority of the game after Jovin Bedic’s goal in the 18th minute but we're left heartbroken when they conceded a 87th minute equaliser. Kaya missed a number of chances to finish off their Laotian opposition, most notably when Darryl Roberts headed straight at Outthilath Nammakhoth when he was free in the box. Kaya' s lack of killer instinct highlights the problem they face with scoring goals after after losing their star striker Robert Lopez Mendy to the Malaysian Super League. Kaya played a compressed 4-4-2 in their opening AFC Cup game, crowding the middle of the pitch. Home will need to exploit the flanks if they hope to get success. The fact that Home seem incapable of getting on the end of crosses this season and lack the powerful target man needed to employ a more direct style, suggest that they will struggle to break down a combative defence. I can't see either side scoring, I predict a 0-0 draw, a result that would be disappointing for Home.

Saswadimata is under pressure to get a result this week.

Both Singaporean teams have a huge week ahead of them. However, the pressure is all on Home to get a result. Tampines have already got three times as many points as they did on last year's AFC Cup, and will be happy with a solid performance.

Thanks for reading my thoughts on this week's AFC Cup games. You can read more about the pressure on Home United here https://www.splfootball.com/post/home-united-boss-saswadimata-dasuki-under-pressure. If you want to keep up to date on Singaporean football please follow me on Twitter @kevindunkerley, I'd love to know your predictions for the AFC cup games.