The trip to Korea lit a fire under the arses of the members of the Crew. I think seeing first hand how the Mad Green Boys (the Jeonbuk ultras) created a great atmosphere in the Jeonju World Cup Stadium fuelled a desire within us to try our best to make Jalan Besar Stadium a fortress for the game on Wednesday night.
You could draw parallels on the pitch as well. Our Sailors were outplayed in Korea, and the manner of defeat must have stung. To concede so early, and then to barely land a punch on our opponents, that must hurt.
And so, both the fans and the players set out to show to Singapore the best versions of themselves, and in doing so, created an unforgettable night for all in attendance.
Pumped Up Kicks
No, not the wanky song by Foster The People that was overplayed to death in the early 2010’s. Unpack the phrase, and you get two parts – “pumped up”, and “kicks”. And that phrase basically describes the whole Sailors team on Wednesday.
Our boys were pumped up, and believe me, they were out there dishing out kickings. Not in a dirty way – but there was a ferocity to the challenges put in, and it took a toll on Jeonbuk.
Pumped Up
Pre-match, Super talked about how defending Park Jae Yong was one of the hardest challenges he had ever faced. He also said that he needed revenge. You can just picture it – Super probably saying it calmly rather than agitatedly, but he’s sharpening his knife while he ticks off each day on the calendar until it reaches 8 Nov, which is circled in bright red with the words REVENGE written above, also in bright red.
He had clearly been waiting for the day to arrive, and it took all of 6 minutes for us to see he meant business. Challenging Park near the corner flag, he won the ball and the freekick, successfully doing his defensive duties. But Super couldn’t resist it – he gives Park a little push and then squares up to him, getting his face right up to Park’s, and shouting something at him. Pretty sure he wasn’t saying Feliz Navidad.
Considering Park didn’t actually kick him or anything, it was a pretty ferocious response. I think Super just needed an interaction like this to hype himself up and get into full combat mode. Maybe he berates his alarm clock in the morning whenever it wakes him up too.
Kicks
But Super wasn’t the only pumped up player. Throughout the game, the Sailors players snapped into challenges ferociously, which was a far cry from what we saw when they played in Jeonju. Four Jeonbuk players left the game injured, and two of them were the direct result of hard but fair tackles made by our players.
The first incident happened in the first half, when Mamat fouled Jeong Woo Jae. The challenge looked innocuous enough, but the Korean fullback had to be substituted eventually.
The second incident was late in the second half when Moon Seon Min was tackled in the 79th minute by Chris van Huizen, who received a yellow card. He soldiered on till the end of the game, but left the stadium with ice wrapped around his ankle.
The other two incidents had nothing to do with tackles. Lee Dong Jun was the cause of some concern when he landed on his neck after an aerial challenge, and Gustavo injured himself when he missed a penalty.
But those weren’t the only memorable tackles in the game. There was a moment in the 44th minute of the game when Jeonbuk were trying to make inroads into our penalty area through the heart of our defence. First, Chris van Huizen stepped in with a challenge to crunch Jun Amano, and then Anu crunched Moon Seon Min. Visually, it was an amazing moment because both the players in green stayed on the floor after the challenges despite them being 100% legal. This moment showed we were well and truly up for the fight and we had the better of the duels.
Ultimately, the fight that our Sailors showed was crucial. They were accused of standing off too much and not being physical enough in Jeonju. Part of the reason was that it is difficult to do so when the referee was clamping down on everything, while it is also more risky to go all in when the pitch is a bit wider, because a missed tackle means you leave a lot of space to be exploited. Whatever the reason for this increased physicality and bite in Wednesday’s game, it was great because it meant that Jeonbuk never really built up a rhythm. The injury suffered by Jeong Woo Jae as a result of Mamat’s tackle also meant that their fullback positions were disrupted and posed little threat to us. Speaking of fullbacks …
Fullbacks Missing
If you were wondering why Jeonbuk seemed to be less potent on the wings this time, part of the reason is as I highlighted in the preview – they just have lesser space to work with due to the reduced width of the pitch at Jalan Besar Stadium as compared to the Jeonju World Cup Stadium.
The other big reason is simply that both their first-choice fullbacks were unavailable due to injury. Kim Jin-Su on the left and Ahn Hyeon-Beom on the right were unavailable, so Jeong Woo Jae started at LB and Choi Chul-soon at RB.
Ahn Hyeon-Beom in particular is a huge miss, as he is so commanding up and down the right flank. He has 2 goals and 4 assists this season from rightback, and the Jeonbuk fans frequently half-joke that without Ahn in the side, they have no functioning attack.
Then came the crucial injury to Jeong Woo Jae, who usually fills in at both LB and RB positions when the team is rotated. With him out, the balance of the team was affected even more. Now they had a right-back playing at LB, and a central midfielder playing at RB (when Maeng Song-Ung was subbed on).
This further disrupted their game.
Dan Pet
Jeonbuk coach Dan Petrescu should remove some letters from his surname, because going in 1-0 down, his tactics ensured that Jeonbuk did not even come close to RESCU-ing a point,
Down 1-0 and needing a goal, Dan Petrescu opted to go for two big men up top, a tactic that smacks of desperation and was perhaps unsuitable against our Sailors.
The first half saw Lee Dong-Jun take advantage of a slightly rusty Pedro Henrique, twice troubling him on the run. The first time, Pedro blatantly grabbed his shirt to stop him advancing and was lucky not to see a yellow card. The second time, Lee got the inside run on Pedro and was past him and in the penalty area. Pedro decided to put his arm over the shoulder of Lee in an attempt to put him off shooting / dribbling. Some referees might have given that as a penalty, and this spell had me pretty worried. It seemed a matter of time before we would concede a good chance.
And then – it just stopped. Substituting in Gustavo to add on to the aerial threat of the 1.93m striker Park Jae-Yong meant that the tactics were clearly to forego playing on the ground and trying to penetrate the middle of the Sailors backline, but to go wide, and get crosses in.
In total, 32 crosses were played, with 22 of them in the second half. Lee Dong-Jun in particular, having run Pedro ragged in the first half, decided to play a total of 10 crosses instead of taking on his man. Baffling not just because he had some joy running directly at Pedro, but also because that feeds right into what the Sailors defenders prefer.
Hariss has sometimes come in for criticism for not being mobile enough and Pedro was playing his first game of the season after a horrific injury. As the centre-backs on either side of Super, they would have been put to the test if Jeonbuk kept it on the ground a bit more and tried running at them. As it turned out, they had to deal with cross after cross. Unlike in Korea, most of the crosses were also floated in, rather than fizzed in at an uncomfortable height – and with a numerical superiority in the box, it was easy for them.
Thus far, we’ve spoken a lot about how Jeonbuk was disrupted and perhaps didn’t pick the best tactics to score goals. But we still had to go up the other end and score the goals. It would seem remiss to not dedicate one section to our stellar front three, Maxime, Shawal and Richairo.
Terrific Trio
Both goals saw all three players involved. Everyone will remember that Richairo scored both goals, some will remember the delightful assists from Shawal, and perhaps fewer will remember the part Maxime played in those goals.
For the first, it was his delightful cross-field pass which was headed on by Shawal expertly into the path of Richairo. The part he played in the second was even more impressive – there seemed little on when the throw-in was taken right near the halfway line, but with a quick burst of pace and a brilliant through-pass, he sets Richairo and Shawal on their way.
It speaks volumes about Maxime’s technical ability, that once Richairo and Shawal saw that it was Maxime on the ball, they got on their motorbikes immediately and made lung-bursting attacking runs. 1-0 up against a superior team, sometimes players don’t make those runs because they are worried about leaving gaps in midfield should the attack break down.
The terrific trio picked their moments to attack, and ultimately came up with the goods. Richairo showcased his cool finishing, Shawal his aerial prowess and running of the channels, while Lestienne showed that he can contribute even if he doesn’t pick up a goal or an assist.
Conclusion
The team played an almost perfect game from start to finish, and coupled with Jeonbuk’s own problems, it led to a historic win for our Sailors. The best part about the win is that it wasn’t a lucky win. We restricted our opponents to only 2 shots on target, and they did not look close to scoring at any point, late penalty aside.
This result means that we stay in the running to qualify out of this group. Should we win in Bangkok and then back at home v Kitchee, we are odds-on to qualify for the knockout rounds. While it is definitely easier said than done, this gives us hope.
A last word on the atmosphere – it was certainly the best atmosphere I’d ever experienced as a Sailors fan. Every tackle was cheered, everytime an opponent hit the floor he was booed, and when a goal was scored? Limbs, just limbs everywhere. People jumping up and down, people hugging strangers, fistpumps into the night sky, and tons of excited shouting.
The Crew worked as one, and tirelessly kept up the chanting for the full duration of the game. In a first, we even chanted while the players were doing the warm-ups. Full credit to each and every single one of the Crew for stepping up when the team needed us most.
Whatever happens from here on out, we will forever remember this night.
Written by Eddy Hirono
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