| Singapore League Cup | |
| Year: | 2014 |
| Country: | Singapore |
| Dates: | 7–25 July |
| Num Teams: | 12 |
| Champions: | DPMM FC |
| Runner-Up: | Tanjong Pagar United |
| Matches: | 22 |
| Goals: | 38 |
| Top Goal Scorer: | Miljan Mrdaković (6 goals) |
| Player: | Miljan Mrdaković |
| Prevseason: | 2013 |
| Nextseason: | 2015 |
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.[1]
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.
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 A | Pot B | Pot C | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tampines Rovers (1st) | Woodlands Wellington (5th) | Geylang International (9th) | |
| Home United (2nd) | Tanjong Pagar United (6th) | Hougang United (10th) | |
 Albirex Niigata (S) (3rd) | Warriors FC (7th) | Police Sports Association
| |
| Balestier Khalsa (4th) | DPMM FC (8th) | 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.
| Phase | Round | Draw date | Match date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preliminary phase | First preliminary round | 20 June 2014 | 7–8 July 2014 |
| Second preliminary round | 10–12 July 2014 | ||
| Third qualifying round | 13–15 July 2014 | ||
| Knockout phase | Quarter-finals | 17–18 July 2014 | |
| Semi-finals | 21 July 2014 | ||
| Final | 25 July 2014 at Jalan Besar Stadium, Singapore | ||
| Plate knockout phase | Semi-finals | 19 July 2014 | |
| Final | 24 July 2014 at Jalan Besar Stadium, Singapore | ||
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:
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 (except the final); if scores were still level there would be a penalty shoot-out to determine who progressed to the next round.
The preliminary phase began on 7 July and will conclude on 15 July. There were some changes to the fixtures released.
Changes to fixtures
| Key to colours in group tables | ||
|---|---|---|
| align=left style="background:#cfc;" | Group winners and runners-up advanced to the quarter-finals | |
| align=left style="background:#CCCCFF;" | Third-placed teams entered the plate semi-finals | |
All times listed below are in Singaporean official time (UTC+8).
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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 (except the final); if scores were still level there would be a penalty shoot-out to determine who progressed to the next round.
| width=250 style="text-align:right" | Team 1 | width=70 style="text-align:center" | Score | width=250 style="text-align:left" | Team 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home United | Hougang United | ||||
| DPMM FC | Woodlands Wellington | ||||
| Tanjong Pagar United | Warriors FC | ||||
| Geylang International | Albirex Niigata (S) |
| width=250 style="text-align:right" | Team 1 | width=70 style="text-align:center" | Score | width=250 style="text-align:left" | Team 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tanjong Pagar United | |||||
| Geylang International | DPMM FC |
| width=250 style="text-align:right" | Team 1 | width=70 style="text-align:center" | Score | width=250 style="text-align:left" | Team 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tanjong Pagar United | DPMM FC |
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 (except the final); if scores were still level there would be a penalty shoot-out to determine who progressed to the next round.
| width=250 style="text-align:right" | Team 1 | width=70 style="text-align:center" | Score | width=250 style="text-align:left" | Team 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tampines Rovers | |||||
| Balestier Khalsa | Singapore Recreation Club |
| width=250 style="text-align:right" | Team 1 | width=70 style="text-align:center" | Score | width=250 style="text-align:left" | Team 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tampines Rovers |
Kazuki Sakamoto (ALB) Kazuya Okazaki (ALB) Norihiro Kawakami (ALB)
Rodrigo Tosi (DPMM) Itsuki Yamada (ALB)
Leonel Felice (GLI)
Lee Kwan-woo (HOM) Geison Moura (HOU)
Jake Butler (TAM)
Monsef Zerka (TPU) Sébastien Etiemble (TPU) Chang Jo-yoon (WLW) Kaoru Nishio (ALB) Kazuya Fukuzaki (ALB) Keisuke Ota (ALB) Kento Fukuda (GLI) Bruno Castanheira (HOM) Kwon Da-kyung (HOM) Sirina Camara (HOM) Diego Olivera (HOU)Source:[3]
| Player | For | Against | Result | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Albirex Niigata (S) | Police Sports Association | 13–0[4] | |
| | Albirex Niigata (S) | Police Sports Association | 13–0 | |
| Warriors FC | Tampines Rovers | 3–2[5] | ||
| Tanjong Pagar United | Police Sports Association | 7–1[6] | ||
| DPMM FC | Hougang United | 3–2[7] | ||
| Tampines Rovers | Police Sports Association | 9–0[8] | ||
| Tampines Rovers | Balestier Khalsa | 3–0[9] | ||