As I took the Grab to the stadium for this game (didn’t drive because I knew there would definitely be drinks after), I have to be honest – my thoughts weren’t about how exciting this Champions League game was. It wasn’t about how our Sailors could potentially win and achieve a 9-point finish which would have seen them go down in history as the best Singaporean team. The dominant thought in my head was simply – “Finally, the season is ending”.
And I suspect that might have been the feeling for some of our players and staff as well. I don’t mean that in a harsh way by the way – it’s just human nature I guess. Let’s dive right into some of my post-match thoughts.
Nothing to Fight For
You’ve seen it before in the English Premier League and any other league involving relegation. For one whole year, there are teams that fly high in the league, playing swashbuckling attacking football and taking on all comers.
At the end of the season though – they’ve sewn up 2nd spot or 3rd spot or 4th spot or whatever they needed to sew up, and suddenly they come up against teams fighting against relegation. And they look like a completely different team.
That’s what our Sailors looked like on Wednesday. In our Champions League campaign, we’ve seen us being defensively quite solid in our 5-at-the-back formation. It probably came at the expense of some attacking creativity up front, but I would never say we looked ragged at the back. We looked very ragged at the back in this game though.
I don’t quite know what it was, but I felt the whole game we looked lethargic and in attack, just couldn’t find that little bit extra to break down our opponents. In defence, I think we were not helped by Anu not being on the pitch, as we failed to close down our opponents as quickly as I think we should have.
In the first 10 minutes Kitchee already had 3 shots on target. Zharfan did well to keep the score at 0-0, and we really should have heeded our warnings, but unfortunately, in the 11th minute, Chris van Huizen scored the best header he will ever score.
The Crucial First Goal
At the wrong end. All I can say is “shit happens” for Chris’s contribution to this calamitous own goal.
However, the goal isn’t only his fault. If you watch replays of the goal, Hariss fails to track his man in midfield, allowing Fernando to play a 1-2 with him on the wing. Mamat also fails to see what’s unfolding in front of his eyes, and allows Fernando past him on the wing to whip in a cross. Of course, the cross still needed finishing, and Chris will never score an own goal like that ever again. A bullet header into the top corner which gave Zharfan no chance. Sloppy all-round even before Chris’s meaningful touch.
Shit happens.
Unfortunately, in this case, when shit happens in a dead rubber game where the opposition is looking to gain their first points in the group and regain some pride, it meant that we lacked the necessary grit to overcome a Kitchee team that could now sit back in numbers and pick and choose their moments to attack us.
Time and again, when we lost the ball, they launched a quick counter-attack and looked dangerous.
We never really looked like scoring, and even when we came close to the goal, we found the Kitchee second-choice keeper to be an obstacle. It seemed pretty clear to me that we were not gonna score all night.
The Killer Second Goal
It kinda hurts to continue talking about this game. But OK the article needs to be written, so I shall plug on.
I think for this one, Hariss puts some pressure on Fernando, but Bailey should have stepped up and backed his ability to not let Fernando past him. Being a defender myself, I know why he sat back – he probably felt Hariss was putting enough pressure on Fernando, he probably felt that if he sat off a bit, Fernando can’t dribble past him, and he probably felt that his body shape and the area he was covering did not allow Fernando to shoot past him.
Unfortunately, Fernando took a shot through his legs, and it was on target. Zharfan must have seen it quite late as well. A very soft goal to concede, just when it looked like we were putting some pressure on Kitchee.
Failure to Create History
I think it is slightly disappointing that we did not manage to get to 7 or 9 points from this Champions League campaign. The reason I say that is not because I really care for this record.
I just think that the way we played this season in the AFC Champions League was way more impressive than last season – so it seems a pity that we were not able to at least have a tangible record to hold on to. Instead, all we have are memories of these good performances.
Why do I feel this season’s 6 points is better than last season’s 7 points? Here’s some reasons –
- 4 of the 7 points came from Shandong Taishan (a win and a draw). It should really have been 6 points given that Chinese Super League teams sent their reserve sides to the ACL last season due to Covid-19 rules. 6 points against them would have allowed us to reach 9 points last season already.
- Jeonbuk is a way tougher team to play than Daegu. To achieve 3 points against Jeonbuk is a better achievement than last season’s win against Daegu.
- This season’s 6 points feels like way more of a team effort than last season’s 7 points because last season’s ACL was essentially the Song and Hassan show. The team relied heavily on Song’s wondergoals and Hassan Sunny making brilliant saves. This season has seen good performances across the board.
- Last season saw us completely outplayed against Urawa Reds in both games. This season, besides the game aaginst Jeonbuk in Korea, we have not been completely outclassed.
So I feel like our failure to at least match the 7 points by gaining a draw against Kitchee at home is kinda disappointing. I am convinced though, that if this match wasn’t a dead rubber match, we would no doubt have got that equaliser or winner.
I will take a “glass is half-full” approach to assessing our Champions League campaign – hopefully the team will have learnt some lessons which they can apply in ACL2 next year.
The Return of Wookie
I am so proud of our fans for giving Wookie the welcome he deserves. The online discourse surrounding Kim Shin-Wook is divided to say the least. It sometimes gets really toxic, with people calling him a flop. Imagine calling the 3rd top-scorer in the league, and the top-scorer of LCS in 2022 a flop.
Yes, he could have done better, but calling him a flop is definitely harsh. If “could have done better” = “flop“, then I am a flop at my day job, this website is a flop, and my parents are also flops when it comes to parenting skills. Just like the term “world-class”, the term “flop” is thrown around way too liberally.
Back to the point – I was a little apprehensive. I knew the hardcore fans of the Crew were gonna give Kim a good welcome, but I wasn’t too sure if the general crowd would agree.
I need not have worried. He was given a warm welcome pre-game, and post-game he came over to acknowledge the LCS fans as well, who really showed their appreciation. The Crew serenaded him just like he had never left.
Just lovely.
Conclusion
While ending the group on 6 points will seem to be a bit of a downer, I think we should take the positives from this campaign instead. We should also not forget that this is only LCS’s 2nd season in the Champions League.
In these 2 seasons, we have beaten Daegu on neutral ground, and Jeonbuk at Jalan Besar Stadium. Last season’s exciting performances that were witnessed by small crowds have now been seen live at the Jalan Besar Stadium, and by our fans who travelled to away grounds.
Moving away from the football, this Champions League campaign has also seen the Crew make friends with supporters of the opposition teams. This is the first time that we have been able to do so – and it has been vitally important.
As much as the club is still finding its feet on the continental stage, so is the Crew. Meeting more established fan clubs from clubs around the region has allowed us to exchange ideas with them, and more importantly, learn from them.
We learnt from the Kitchee fans how we can make little club-related souvenirs to gift to our foreign friends when they come visiting. We learnt from the Jeonbuk fans how to be fantastic hosts and showcase their city in the best light. We will probably do an article in the off-season to go into more detail about the lessons we’ve learnt from our foreign friends.
And so even though the football on offer was pretty drab stuff, the night ended the only way it should – with members of the Crew bringing Kitchee fans around for food and drink post-game.
And thus concludes the last post-match thoughts article for this season! I can’t quite believe that we actually wrote 37 of these articles (which means 37 preview articles as well, along with some tactical analysis pieces by Zach). 37 because there were 24 league games, 6 cup games, 6 ACL games, and that friendly against Spurs.
Thanks for reading these pieces regularly, thanks for those who showed their support in the form of tips, thanks for those who showed support in other ways. Fret not, even throughout the off-season, SFT will continue bringing you content. Our Sailors’ season may be over, but we’re only just getting started here!
And in case you were wondering, Joseph lost the head-to-head predictions challenge this season. Let us know if you have any forfeit ideas for him!
Written by Eddy Hirono
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