[Preview] Sailors v Spurs – Friendly in the Middle of the Season

This is not gonna be your regular match preview – because this is not a regular match. No real use writing about Spurs because this is only their second pre-season friendly, and they are using this trip to Singapore as more of a marketing and commercial exercise – this is a game with no stakes for them. Instead this preview will focus more on how this match impacts the Sailors, both positively and negatively. (And OK maybe at the end I’ll talk a little about Spurs). Let’s dive right into it.

Initial Reaction – Disbelief

When I first heard about the friendly match with Spurs being scheduled in between two league fixtures (vs Tanjong Pagar United and vs Balestier Khalsa), I was not the happiest camper around. I was in disbelief, actually. Why would the club schedule a friendly right in the middle of a title race? It was announced right after we had lost to Brunei DPMM as well and we were barely clinging on in the title race.

We had to beat Albirex next, then Tanjong Pagar, play a meaningless friendly, and then play Balestier Khalsa. Not an easy stretch of fixtures by any means, and if we were coasting in the league with a healthy lead, I guess I would have no complaints. However, it seemed like we were introducing another fixture into an already-packed July calendar. It didn’t seem to make any sense to me.

There’s the risk of injury and then there’s the risk of players and staff getting distracted by the real challenge at hand – winning the title against a dominant Albirex side, and a spirited Tampines side.

I guess rather weirdly, the fact that we lost to Albirex kinda takes some weight off this factor? We are all but out of the title race – I cannot see Albirex slipping up enough from this point to allow us back in. In that sense, whether we play 1 friendly game, 2, or even 3, might hardly matter. We simply cannot control what Albirex does and they should be deserving champions this year. Had we beaten Albirex though, I think i’d still be a little upset that this friendly has been inserted into a packed fixture list.

5+1, 3+1 – Looks Like Math but it’s Actually Chemistry

One of the benefits that makes the most sense to me is that this friendly allows us to field 6 (5+1) foreigners at the same time. This is crucial in our preparation for the AFC Champions League (ACL) because unlike the SPL where we can only field 4 (3+1) foreigners, we are allowed to field 6 in the ACL. The brackets may confuse people who are a little less acquainted with the rules. The +1 usually refers to the quota that is reserved for a player hailing from an AFC nation. So you will see in the SPL, players from Japan mostly taking up this slot. Our +1 slot was also taken up by a Japanese player, last season’s SPL Player of the Year, Kodai Tanaka. However, he suffered a bad knee injury and in the mid-season window, we signed Aussie international, Bailey Wright, from Sunderland.

Our 4 foreign players registered for the SPL are –

• Bailey Wright (AFC slot)
• Diego Lopes
• Maxime Lestienne
• Richairo Zivkovic

It remains to be seen who will be the 2 foreigners added to this list of 4 – we have a few in contention. I will briefly talk about them –

• Súper (Manuel Herrera Lopez) – a big part of the Sailors defence this year, was a bit sad to see him getting deregistered to fit in the mid-season signings
• Kodai Tanaka – Started off with a bunch of goals, but unfortunately suffered a terrible knee injury. Back to pitch training already, but it remains to be seen if he can make it back in time for the Champions League campaign.
• Bernie Ibini – Copped some flak from fans and rival supporters because he did not score any goals or register any assists in his appearances with us. Was signed as an emergency signing once Kodai got injured. Has since been deregistered from the SPL squad and I would be very surprised to see him in the Champions League squad.
• Pedro Henrique – another of our players who suffered a bad knee injury. Has been out of action since last year. Is back in training, and remains to be seen if he will be registered for the Champions League campaign.
• Rui Pires – Described by sources as the Caucasian Shahdan Sulaiman, he is a recent signing and so perhaps someone I think is nailed on for registration in the Champions League squad, especially given our relative lack of depth in centre midfield.

OK after that long explanation and setting the context – back to the point. We have not seen Rui Pires play despite him signing a few weeks ago, and we have never played the 6 foreigners together. This friendly might be very telling in terms of who will likely be registered for the ACL squad. The 6 foreigners will not have played together before, except maybe in training – and what better opportunity is there than this for the Sailors to try out how they will line up in the ACL? They will need to gel, so any gametime together would be beneficial.

To make things even better, we will be facing a team much better than us, and it will be very useful for us to practise how to play against way superior opponents, given that in the ACL, we may come up against J-League or K-League sides. A pre-season version of Spurs may thus actually be ideal for us to come up against.

A Chance to Impress

Already, fans around the world are laughing at us. I don’t really blame them – to go from AS Roma to an unknown club in Singapore is a bit of a “downgrade”. Realistically, we will not be able to put up a fight on the same level that Mourinho’s Roma would be able to. However, I guess what is really unsurprising yet still hurtful is the online comments that local fans are making.

I have never been one to say that Singaporeans are obliged to watch their local league or support their local athletes. I feel that everyone is entitled to their own choice – it would be a bit strange to admonish someone for choosing to watch Maroon 5 in concert as opposed to say, Electrico just because they are a local band. However, I think some local fans have taken to criticising the Sailors without even having watched them play before. It all seems a bit unfair but I guess I have to learn to ignore online criticism.

It will thus be a chance for our Sailors to try their best to impress, or at the very least, not embarrass themselves on a stage like this. There will be viewers from all corners of the world, given that Spurs have such an international following. When we spoke to Chris van Huizen after the Tanjong Pagar game about whether he was looking forward to the Spurs friendly, he mentioned that all his career, he has not had the chance to play against such a big team, so I am sure he will be keen to impress as well. This should be the same for all the players in the Sailors ranks – there is no doubt that we will be looking forward to the game more than they will.