And then there were 2.
2 more games for our beloved Sailors – 1 tomorrow against Hougang United, and 1 next week against Kitchee.
2 sides vying for the only silverware available to them after a long, hard season.
Hougang fans always chant proudly “Silverware, we don’t care“, while us Sailors fans sing about “taking every trophy, first the League and then the Cups“. Well, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it is now very much time to take the Cup. But we will have to navigate the challenge of a Hougang United team who have nothing to lose in this final, and everything to play for. Let’s dive right into the preview.
Silverware, We Don’t Care!
First, the Hougang fans really should care, according to some basic research done online. Silverware ought to he handled carefully so that it will last for decades.
Well the only thing that lasted for decades for them was their trophy drought. Until last year’s amazing win over Tampines Rovers of course.
Back to the serious business. Why they should care is not only because the Singapore Cup is a prestigious trophy. Winning the Cup also comes along with it the carrot of continental qualification. After the changes announced by AFC earlier this year, Singapore has been left with only 2 AFC qualification slots, and both of them are for the 2nd-tier competition, the ACL2.
(Just for added context, the ACL2 is still a pretty high-level tournament, because it will still feature good teams from the top leagues, such as the K League and the J League. Just see for yourself below)
Ok now that you’ve seen the slots, you will realise that Hougang (and Tampines) will be very invested in the result of this game when it comes to their AFC chances. If Hougang win the Cup, they will get that second indirect slot and go into the playoffs of the ACL2. If they lose the Cup, then the 2nd slot will go to the next highest-placed team in the league after LCS, which is Tampines Rovers.
(Yellow Knights if you’re reading this, it may pain you, but it might help your team if you cheer for us instead tomorrow, heh.)
After a disaster of a season which saw their head coach re-deployed due to poor results, and multiple injury woes, Hougang will go all out to try and salvage something from it. Winning an SG Cup will be the most glorious salvage job ever.
As for us, the motivation to win the Cup will hopefully be strong because a club like Sailors needs to win silverware every year. You can’t get away with spending so much money and building all these facilities, to lose to another local club. I hope our boys will be pumped up for this one.
Injury Woes
To make matters slightly easier for us, Hougang’s injury list is very unfortunate.
Gabriel Quak and Hazzuwan Halim join the team in the treatment room, which is already a temporary home for Shahdan Sulaiman and Kiki Krajcek.
Even with a full team, we still have the advantage on paper, but this should tilt the balance firmly towards us.
We still have to worry about 2 of their chief attacking options though.
Deadly Djordje
If you think this headline is familiar, that’s because I warned us about him before the last time we played Hougang. And yes, he scored.
He is in a very rich vein of scoring form, scoring 9 goals in the last 8 games for Hougang. He is also joint-top scorer of the Singapore Cup, along with Richi, Diego, Shawal and Balestier’s Shuhei Hoshino (all on 5 goals).
Djordje is deadly because of his pace, finishing instincts, and ability to finish on either foot. You will remember him scampering onto a through ball from Nazrul Nazari when we met Hougang in the group stage.
This is something that we can expect to see more of tonight. Hougang are quite adept at using the fullbacks to put long balls into the channels for Maksimovic to chase. Which brings us to…
Nazrul Nazari
Ever since the Hougang injury list started growing in the last few weeks and months, Nazrul Nazari has started growing in stature too. Not his height – he still remains a pocket-sized footballer. On the field though, he has started to take on more creative responsibilities in the absence of his key teammates like Kiki and Shahdan.
In 21 games in the league this season, he has picked up just 1 assist. However, in the past few weeks, he has managed 3 assists in the Singapore Cup, and 1 more in the AFC Cup.
If we look at Hougang’s assists and goals chart in the Singapore Cup, it is pretty clear the the burden of creating has fallen on his shoulders.
If we stop Nazrul and Djordje, we can feel a lot better about our chances of winning the game.
Magic Max
And now the attention shifts back to one of our own. Our Player of the Year Maxime Lestienne is going through a bit of a barren streak in front of goal. In our last article, I said this –
Maxime last scored in October, against Kitchee from the penalty spot. Since then, he has played in 7 games and not scored a goal – definitely his longest streak without scoring this season.
That is almost unbelievable, considering how easily he has put the ball in the back of the net this season. 25 goals in 24 league games is amazing stuff, even if you don’t look at his assists tally.
Thankfully for us, even though he hasn’t scored, his assists haven’t stopped. He has notched 5 assists and is quite clearly the chief playmaker for our Sailors.
By his own admission, he said that he should have got a few goals against Tampines in the last game – so I predict Max will finally find the scoresheet tonight to break his little cold streak in front of goal!
Defending Champions
Hougang are defending champions – they won the Cup last year after a thrilling victory over Tampines Rovers.
But that title seems especially apt because they will be defending throughout tonight’s game. I don’t mean to throw any shade on them – this is just the reality of coming up against a star-studded side like Lion City Sailors. If they attempt to play an expansive brand of football, especially without their unavailable players, they will die.
It is likely that they will sit back, invite pressure, and look to spring Maksimovic on the counter-attack, perhaps with Nazrul Nazari supporting him as well on the right.
Some people have commented in the last few weeks that our backline is slow, and should not push so high up. Well, there’re pros and cons to that.
Maintaining a high line compacts our defence and midfield together, making it harder for Hougang players to receive the ball between the lines, and have time to take a touch, look up, and play the next pass. Keeping the pressure in their half can also lead to quick turnovers in our favour.
If we were to sit much deeper, then Hougang will have abit more time on the ball, and that may give them a much better chance of picking out some deadly passes.
Referring back to our second-leg victory agains Tampines, Anu, Hariss, Lionel and Bailey were fantastic in reading the play. On the few occasions that Tampines tried quick flicks to get the ball to Boris or the other attacking players, they stepped in ahead of their opponent, won the ball, and without hesitation, played it firmly and quickly forward to a colleague to get the attack going again. I hope we see a repeat of this tonight – where our players are unafraid of being proactive in winning the ball.
Will Hougang pose a threat on the break? Yes, with the pace and power of Maksimovic, they will. However, I think they should worry about our offensive prowess more – let’s really pin them into their own half, keep the ball, and break them down. Once the first goal goes in, we should find the game much easier to manage.
Conclusion
In a season where we disappointingly lost the league title, the Singapore Cup represents our only chance at silverware this season. For a club of our stature, there can be no excuses, especially with Hougang’s injury list.
Let’s bring the Singapore Cup home tonight.
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: Sailors 4 Hougang 1
Joseph’s prediction: Sailors 5 Hougang 1
And here’s the leaderboard –
Written by Eddy Hirono
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