May 31, 2023

I am not really into bowling, and I’ve never been really good at it. The one thing good about bowling is that while it’s considered a sport, it takes place in air-conditioned halls, doesn’t involve running, and in between frames I can eat instant noodles. But enough about me, let’s bring it back to the relevance to Balestier v LCS. One thing I absolutely hated when I bowled was the emotions you go through when you achieve a strike, and then in the next two throws, you get something pathetic like 0 and 3. For those not very familiar with bowling rules, when you throw a strike, you not only get 10 added to your score for knocking down 10 pins, you also get a bonus of having the score on your next two throws added as well. So it’s truly a waste if you bowl a strike, and then follow it up with lame throws and get only a few bonus points added. The Albirex game was the strike. A glorious achievement that could and should prove vital for the team’s morale moving forward. If we didn’t actually believe it before, we should now believe that we are title contenders. However, it would mean little if we go on to drop points against teams that we should not be dropping points against. Balestier Khalsa’s Strength I waxed lyrical about Balestier Khalsa the last time I wrote about them. Even though the season was only 3 games old at that point, I had seen enough to suggest that Balestier Khalsa are not a shit team, and would pose teams in the league some problems. In the 9 games since I wrote that, they have picked up 4 wins and 5 losses, and are 4th in the table, the “best of the rest“. This is no mean feat for a team that many regularly underestimate. They come into this game with the league’s 3rd-best attack (better than Tampines Rovers), and in Ryoya Taniguchi and Daniel Goh, have two absolute weapons that people really fear. Ryoya is joint-top scorer in the league with 10 goals, while Daniel is on 5 goals. Assists-wise, Ryoya and Daniel both have recorded 4 assists. I referred to them as a dynamic duo 3 games into the season, and they have not disappointed thus far. Balestier Khalsa also record more shots and more shots on target than our beloved Sailors, and if you were to poll every SPL fan for their top 5 central midfielders in terms of form this season, I think it’s likely that Ho Wai Loon’s name will pop up very often. However, we still must beat them, and here’s why. Worst Defence in the League Balestier have conceded 35 goals in 11 games – more than 3 goals a game. Even considering that they try to play a progressive brand of football and score a truckload of goals, they still concede at an alarming rate. Why is this so? I am no master tactician – but my view is that it comes down to a few key points – lack of a steely defensive midfielder to screen in front of the back four, lack of a commanding goalkeeper, and lack of an able defensive partner for Madhu. I won’t dive too deep into any of my points above – maybe just a few lines each to elaborate. No steely DM – Alen Kozar has helped with ball progression, but for some of Balestier’s goals, there’s just this gaping hole in front of the defence that opponents repeatedly take advantage of. Opponents are allowed far too much time on the ball sometimes – we saw this for the 1st and last Albirex goals against them in the last game. Especially for the first goal, you can see that Madhu had to come out to one Albirex player, and when the pass was made to Kunori, there was still noone else helping out, so Madhu himself had to get out there to close down. Someone with more tigerish bite is needed for the Tigers if they are to stop leaking soft goals. Lack of a commanding goalkeeper – I don’t think I am being harsh when I say that Hairul could have done way better with half of the goals conceded against Albirex. For the 2nd goal, he parries a weak shot right back into the danger zone. For the 3rd goal, he probably predicted that the striker was going to shoot to his left, and made up his mind too early, but even then, the eventual shot was so near to where he was, that he should still have saved it. It was much the same for the 5th goal – probably predicting a hit to the far post, Hairul was completely foxed by a tame shot to the near post by Fuwa. This continues a pattern of him performing below par this season – who can forget him conceding against Maxime in the reverse fixture? The ball was mishit by Maxime and the volley bounced into the ground and up into the air. It should have been an easy save, but he couldn’t regain his footing and meekly watched it sail in. His defenders were so stunned they just stood and watched long after the ball had gone in. Partner for Madhu – Madhu this year has shown shades of going back to his best, especially in the game against Tampines where he shackled Boris Kopitovic and really limited his impact on the game. While Boris did score two penalties, but I think even he would admit that Madhu had the edge over him that game. However, his defensive partner has not been a constant. Amer Hakeem, Fabian Kwok, and Emmeric have all been tried next to him, and I can’t quite tell who is the best partner for him. They’ve all been unconvincing, so this may be part of the reason why Balestier have let in so many goals. However, all