After midweek disappointment against Bangkok Utd, attention turns to the Singapore Cup. To me, it’s as important as the Champions League to the club, but for very different reasons.
While the Champions League offers the club prestige on the continental stage, and the chance for fans to experience glamour ties, whether at home or abroad, the Singapore Cup is attractive because it offers us a realistic chance to win our first silverware in 2 years. That is not to say that I underestimate our local sides – but when you compare them to our chances in the Champions League, you can see where I am coming from.
There is no room for complacency though. We’ve seen this season how “lesser” sides such as Young Lions and DPMM have caused us trouble. While tonight’s opponents have been beaten by us thrice this season (Played 3, Won 3. Scored 13, Conceded 6. (3-0, 5-4, 5-2)), they have not been easy games. The stand-out of course is the 5-4 game where we almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, but even the 5-2 game wasn’t as easy as it looked despite Balestier having a man sent off early.
So yes, this will be a tough game, and it will be made slightly tougher because as you might have seen from the headline …..
Maxime Lestienne is Suspended
At the back-end of last season, in the disastrous Singapore Cup campaign, Maxime picked up a yellow card in the 2nd group stage game against Young Lions, and another in the 3rd group stage game against Albirex. And Singapore Cup rules state that if you pick up 2 yellow cards, you miss the next game.
And since we didn’t qualify for the semi-finals last year, Max serves his suspension tonight.
Obviously this will be a big miss, as he is the league’s top creator and top scorer. I don’t really need to elaborate further. I still think a frontline containing Zivkovic and Shawal Anuar cannot be said to be poor, so we are still favourites.
If anything, this will be a test for our Sailors to see if we are over-reliant on Max. I thought that against Bangkok United, Max wasn’t at his sparkling best and could not put the team on his back in the search for an equaliser. But in a team with so much talent, it is perhaps unfair for us to expect that to happen.
So I think this might actually be a good opportunity for someone like Haiqal Pashia, who I believe might come into the thinking for Coach Ranko, especially with the absence of Abdul Rasaq as well for the rest of the season. Interestingly, he features heavily in the pre-match buildup article.
If the rest of the team is solid, a frontline of Pashia, Richairo and Shawal should still send chills down the spine of defenders, given their fantastic mobility and the potential to interchange positions. Let’s not forget that while Balestier had a stellar season, finishing 4th, they conceded 71 goals, just 5 fewer than Young Lions, and in so doing, ended up with the 2nd-worst defence.
Last point to note? During the international break there was a closed-door friendly played against Balestier Khalsa, and while they did not have their national team players, we also didn’t have Maxime Lestienne with us, and the team still managed to record a handsome victory. Maybe a sign of things to come?
Lionel Tan is Not Suspended
The title of this section should clear it up for you if you had any doubt. Lionel Tan is not suspended.
The nonsense red card he received in our last league game carries over to the SPL only, not to the Singapore Cup. As such, he will be available.
This is vital, considering we’re probably gonna be without Bailey Wright. Given that he wasn’t even fit enough for the bench in our crucial Champions League tie, I highly doubt he will be available to start against Balestier tonight.
Who will partner Lionel at the back? Will it be two centre-backs? Or three? If we line up with three centre-backs, then we will know that the priority is well and truly on the Champions League as we try to build some familiarity with the formation.
It is possible that Bill comes in at the back to partner Lionel. After all, with Nur Adam being enlisted, we will need a U23 player to come in and start the game. Of course, this rule might also be fulfilled by Harith Kanadi coming into the side. Or who knows? Maybe Nathan Mao will be given a start?
Banishing the Ghosts of Yesteryear
While we have beaten Balestier Khalsa thrice this year, I still forever remember the two collapses we had late in the season last year against them – one in the SPL, and one in the Cup. It is no exaggeration to say that Balestier Khalsa ended our hopes of silverware last year with the 5-3 loss in the league and the 3-3 draw in the cup.
The circumstances are very different of course. Hassan Sunny has come out to say in a few interviews that the atmosphere was very bad at the club at that time, because people were not getting their contracts renewed, and he knew there was going to be an exodus of players. There was also all kinds of drama as Izwan was the preferred keeper in the Cup, and as Hassan stated in his interview with Raushan, he does not share the best relationship with Izwan.
Whatever the reasons for last year’s collapses, this is a squad with fresh blood, and that is still competing on two fronts. I hope that there is not as much off-the-field drama this time and we can put our best foot forward and win this game.
Which Keeper Starts?
Izwan is back from injury, and some may say that since he was the cup goalkeeper last year, maybe he will be the cup goalkeeper again?
Yes. Maybe.
However, last year’s introduction of Izwan as the cup goalkeeper was probably a pre-cursor to him being the No. 1 goalie for the Sailors this year. Of course, his ruptured ACL put paid to those hopes. The club then went out to sign Zharfan, who has been in very good form all season.
I guess the question is this – given that Adib is more than capable of being a good deputy, and we also had Rudy Khairullah on our books, who lest we forget, was our keeper the season we won the AFC Cup Zonal Finals, would we have signed Zharfan if Izwan did not get injured? That’s a question I have no answer to.
What I will say is this – I think if Izwan doesn’t even start the SG Cup games, then he might not see his future with us next season.
Izwan has bags of experience, and while I do not think he is anywhere near the heights of the time he played for our national team and put on the performance of his life in Saitama, Japan, I think if he starts against Balestier Khalsa tonight, I will not lose any sleep.
If it is of any comfort, he was played in a closed-door friendly against Albirex during the international break, and was impressive as he made save after save, emerging with a clean sheet.
Conclusion
I think Coach Ranko will also be aware of the need to keep his players sharp and give them minutes in order to achieve that. The likes of Hafiz Nor, Adam Swandi, and Hami Syahin may thus see more gametime tonight.
Whatever lineup we field, I think we must be favourites against a Balestier lineup that will miss Alen Kozar. He is the calm lilting presence alongside Ho Wai Loon’s energetic heavy metal box-to-box runs, and without him at the base of the midfield, we may be able to put more pressure on them when they try to build up from the back.
Let’s banish the ghosts of yesteryear, let’s bounce back from last week’s disappointment, let’s get that win to kick off our Cup campaign.
COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE!
Score Prediction
Joseph and I predict the scores and track our success in a table. Stay tuned to find out who is the prediction king!
3 points for exact scoreline predicted correctly, 2 points for predicting the winner and margin of victory correctly (but not the exact scoreline), and 1 point for predicting the outcome correctly (win, lose or draw).
Eddy’s prediction: Balestier 1 Sailors 4
Joseph’s prediction: Balestier 1 Sailors 3
And here’s the leaderboard –
Written by Eddy Hirono
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