June 13, 2023

Two 1-1 draws in a row against Young Lions. That was the record we had going into this game. Completely unacceptable for a club of our stature, no matter how well the Young Lions played, especially if you take into account the constraints they have. I had an interesting discussion with someone in our SFT Telegram chat after the preview was released. A concerned group member asked if I was perhaps being a little too dismissive towards Young Lions’ chances, given that they had scored more goals recently (actually just in one game, they fired blanks before that game for consecutive games), the Sailors were playing back-to-back games and may thus turn to their depth on the bench, Súper was injured, etc etc. I love it when readers give feedback on the Telegram chat – it shows me someone is reading, and it also makes it less of a one-way process? It is good I think to hear back from readers on what they feel. It allows me to ponder the articles I write, and what kind of information they would like to see. “Insider information” has been suggested by many readers and friends, but I always assure them that even if I ever had insider information (which I don’t), it’s always club over self – I’d never put something out to generate clicks if it was not information meant to be public knowledge. But yeah please keep the feedback coming in the telegram chats, Instagram DMs, or whatever floats your boat! Back to the question posed by the reader – was I underestimating the Young Lions? My answer was quite simple – you can see it below – The reason for the confidence was really because despite the two 1-1 draws, there should be no excuses for our Sailors. Short turnaround time? Well the Young Lions played one day before us, additional 24 hours rest does make a difference, of course, but we have bench players who would be key players for their first team. If Rusyaidi Salime, Bill Mahmadou and Haiqal Pashia were available for the Young Lions, they’d play every minute of every game. Arshad Shamim is the starkest illustration – I really like him, but he came on for 2min, and just last season he was a mainstay in the Young Lions team. These players came on for a total of 42 min in the game – Bill didn’t even see the pitch. The strength in depth is just simply incomparable – just look at the two benches and you’ll see that they couldn’t even get 9 subs. I am not shitting on Young Lions, and I always sympathise with them because alot of factors are out of their control, such as whether they can train with certain players due to NS obligations, whether certain players can be released for games, what is the condition of the players when they do turn up for training and games, the fact that they play with 2 foreigners and no senior players while other teams have veterans and foreign players – it will take a whole article or even a novella to cover the problems Young Lions face. Perhaps you can take a look at an excerpt from this excellent Straits Times article about Daniel Goh, when he mentions his stint during NS. How to excel for Young Lions like that? It is no wonder that Daniel Goh’s form now is so much better than it was last time. Second Gear – Finally Some Control Back to the game, the Sailors did not even have to exit second gear to win this game. They were off to the races early and by half-time had a 3-goal lead. While the first goal was unlucky for the Young Lions, the next 2 goals came because the Sailors were hungry and a lot less cautious than they were in the previous 2 games, actively trying to force mistakes from the Young Lions. The second half honestly just seemed like a damage limitation exercise from the Young Lions while the Sailors seemed to ease off considerably once we got the 4th goal. A well-taken volley by Kobayashi in the final minutes meant there was a bit of angst at the lack of a clean sheet, but it was still a commanding win, and for the first time in a while, we were not anxious moving into the final minutes. In fact, it was our first comfortable victory (victory by more than a 1-goal margin) since the beginning of April, when we comfortably beat Hougang 5-0. I had previously bemoaned the lack of control we have in our games, even in our wins, as compared to Tampines, for example, who seem to pass the game to a slow death once they have the lead (unless of course Yasir Hanapi decides to get himself sent off wheeeee) – so to essentially play the whole second half as a training session was good for my nerves honestly. On an unrelated note – can you imagine how fricking exciting it is to be a Balestier Khalsa fan? 77 goals in 14 games. 34 scored, 43 conceded. That’s 5.5 goals a match to watch. Absolute value for money I tell you. The Sailors are close behind by the way – just that of course Sailors conceding goals doesn’t make me excited, it just makes me sad. Sailors have scored 39 and conceded 23 for a total of 62 goals in 14 games. 4.43 goals a game. Sailors, please make it less exciting, please please concede fewer goals. No Clean Sheet I don’t know if it annoyed you – but it certainly annoyed me that we didn’t keep a clean sheet against Young Lions. I referenced the 5-0 win against Hougang at the start of April as our last comfortable victory. That was also the last time we kept a clean sheet. It’s been more than 2 months. I posed the question to Anu post-match to see if