It’s been 3 days since we won the Singapore Cup, but the sense of euphoria is still very much alive. I know we still have a game to go, but I think the fact that we’re already knocked out of the AFC Champions League means that this Singapore Cup final really felt like our last game. For reasons I will go into later, I don’t think the game really felt like a cup final, but I am glad we managed to come out of Jalan Besar Stadium with a Cup to show for it. Let’s dive into some quick thoughts!
Atmosphere of a Cup Final
The fans on both sides were on form, and I think this led to a very special atmosphere. Throughout the season, the Hools have not been at their sparkling best, owing to many of them having personal/work commitments. The move to Jalan Besar Stadium probably did not help as well. However, for this Cup final, they turned up in full force, and colour-coordinated to wear all-black, which was a real spectacle.
On our side, the Crew stood loud and proud, as we belted out chant after chant, song after song, in our bid to spurs our boys on. As a long-time supporter of Home United and LCS, I think the atmosphere right now is at the highest level in recent years. Long may it continue.
A picture paints a thousand words, and a video paints a bajillion words – pretty sure that’s a saying. So go check this video out.
At the final whistle, the atmosphere only got louder, as the fans celebrated a first silverware since 2021. In my opinion, the Community Shield of 2022 doesn’t really count, but ok if you count it, then this is our first silverware since early 2022, still a cause for celebration. The trophy ceremony was glorious, seeing the players throw Rankovic and Forrest Li into the air was also fun.
Even as fans of a rich club (in the local context), where trophies may come by a little easier than for other clubs, a cup win is always nice. However, if I were to be completely honest, the 2-0 win over Jeonbuk probably made me go a little crazier than the win over Hougang.
I don’t think it’s just the quality of the opposition. It’s partly because the result never felt in doubt – there was no sense of jeopardy which would have made the win feel even sweeter. This is not to criticise Hougang by the way – I feel their circumstances rendered it almost impossible for them to compete with us. So why was there no sense of jeopardy?
Hougang Didn’t Land a Punch
If you watched the full game and wonder why despite Hougang looking solid at first, the result never felt in doubt, it’s because our Sailors didn’t allow them to shoot from anywhere threatening at all.
Hougang registered a total of 7 shots, of which only 1 was on target. And that came in injury time in the second half, when the game had long been won already. Maksimovic, highlighted by me as a dangerman, and one to watch, did not even get one shot off. Zero. Nil. Nada. The backline marshalled him expertly, and almost came out of the game with a clean sheet.
Funnily enough, Hougang scored right after the Crew did the “CAMPEONES” chant. We were ever-so-patient, waiting till the clock hit 90 minutes before doing it, and yet we still didn’t manage to ward off the jinx effect, and Hougang duly scored with their only shot on target. Shoutout to old boy Abdil Qaiyyim for the assist. The SPL website somehow credited the assist to Naoki Kuriyama – but make no mistake, it was old boy Abdil with a great flick-on header that led to Takayama heading in for the consolation.
The SPL website also doesn’t think Sahil’s 2nd minute try from range was a shot, but in my opinion it was, hence the disparity between Wyscout and SPL stats when it comes to number of shots.
But yeah – Hougang really didn’t generate any threat. Just look at where they were taking their shots from. And if you look at how many times they even entered our box, they came in 5 times. In comparison, we entered the Hougang penalty area 18 times, an average of once every 5 minutes.
You can’t blame them for their approach – if you’ve read the preview, you’d have seen their horrendous injury list. They are truly unlucky that their key players weren’t available, or they might have been able to hurt us a bit more on the counter. If they were to try playing more expansively, I am sure our forwards would have got even more goals on the counter and the finnal would have been super lop-sided.
To make things worse for them, we benefited from a stroke of luck or two too.
Our First Two (Lucky) Goals
I will start by saying that if the penalty kick given by the referee had been awarded against the Sailors, I’d be livid. I think it’s an incredibly harsh call.
The cross comes in from van Huizen (and as we know now, everytime he crosses, something happens) – and Richairo flicks it on. It hits Kuriyama on the arm.
Kuriyama barely raises his arm, and it is still near his body. He is also looking away, and I don’t feel he has enlarged his silhouette. To award a handball for this kills the game in my opinion. It is a Cup final, and a call like that instantly gave us the advantage, and sealed Hougang’s fate. I was really surprised when the VAR asked him to review the decision on the pitchside screen and he still gave the goal.
But I am a Sailors fan, so I shouldn’t complain. I also will not complain about the big stroke of luck for our second goal.
In the preview for this game, I wrote about Maxime Lestienne’s rare barren streak. In the Singapore Cup, he has strangely gone cold in front of goal. Including the deflected effort on Saturday night that went in off Kuriyama, he took a total of 17 shots. Of those 17 shots, he has hit only 6 on target, and scored from only one of them.
Except I don’t really count it as his goal! SPL website has him down as the official scorer, but I am still not convinced. I think it should go down as a Kuriyama own goal. I don’t think the trajectory of the shot would have seen it go on target – the header from Kuriyama is what sent it in. Different websites seem to be confused about this – with half of them reporting it as a Kuriyama own goal, while the other half are counting it as a Maxime goal.
But I am a Sailors fan, so I shouldn’t complain.
What is clear though, is that Maxime got an assist, a beautiful through pass for Shawal Anuar to score. Which brings us to the next topic.
Shawal – the New Solskjaer
Look at this glorious table of statistics. Maxime top of the chart in assists, with Richairo and Shawal sharing top honours for goals. Sorry Richi, for the purposes of this article I am gonna zoom in more on Shawal because his achievement is all the more amazing considering all his goals have come from off the bench. 6 goals, 6 off the bench.
297 min, 5 goals. That’s a rate of 1 goal every 59 minutes. He scores every hour! And all off the bench – though I feel like I’ve mentioned that, heh.
And that is why I ask the question – is he the new Solskjaer?
Let’s bring up a comparison table because that’s what we love to do here at SailorFanTalk.
Yup! More than half his goals have come from off the bench. Solskjaer said in an interview before that his knack for scoring off the bench is perhaps due to his ability to analyse defenders during the game, and pinpoint their weaknesses. That’s why he was able to come on and exploit those very weaknesses and get those goals. Perhaps Shawal does this while sitting on the bench too – or maybe it has to do with his burst of pace, which is especially lethal when unleashed in the second half, or late on in games against tiring defences. Whatever it is, it clearly works for us. Long may it continue.
Captain Marvel
Hariss Harun turned in a fantastic performance in the final. Just look at this tweet.
On top of that, he won 9 out of his 11 duels, and made 3 interceptions. But stats don’t tell the full story.
He was imperious and stats don’t tell the story of how on a few occasions, when the Hougang players put the press on him, he managed to evade the press with some deft touches and play the ball to a teammate. Each time he did that, the Hougang players would lose confidence in their own press – they knew he was in top form and they were not gonna get anything off him.
Truly a captain’s performance, one that shows some of the criticism of him this year has perhaps been a little over the top.
On a related sidenote – please go check out the post-match interview where I speak to Lionel and he talks about how he feels about criticism directed at him and his teammates such as Anu.
Hariss brings alot of experience to the table, and is a gem of an asset to keep. Let’s hope he brings this form into the new season next year.
Conclusion
It’s an amazing feeling winning silverware. It is a nice end to what has been a very long season with many games. It’s a season that has seen us go overseas thrice, to Thailand, Korea, and Hong Kong. We’ve experienced the highs of beating Jeonbuk and the lows of drawing with Young Lions and losing to DPMM.
And for all of that, we finally have something tangible to show for it. I leave you with this picture.
Just look at that magnificent thing.
Just one more match till the end of the season. See you in the Kitchee preview!
Written by Eddy Hirono
Headline photo credit – Lion City Sailors
If you’d like to support the work we do here at SailorFanTalk, you may want to visit https://ko-fi.com/sailorfantalk and leave us a tip!
