Happy New Year, wherever you are reading this from.
It’s been another enjoyable year of watching our beloved Sailors play, even if perhaps we would have wanted to do better in the league. Still, plenty of memorable action, and in the coming days and weeks, we will spend a bit of time recapping some of our highlights of the season.
We start with the most important thing in the game of football – goals.
Our Sailors scored 79 in the Singapore Premier League, 21 in the Singapore Cup, and 5 in the AFC Champions League. That’s 105 goals in 36 games, almost 3 goals per game. You can imagine how hard my task was! I set out trying to limit myself to 5 goals, but ended up nominating 7 goals. It could and really should have been 10 or more, such was the quality of the goals on offer, but without further ado, here’s my pick of the top 7 goals this season. Let me know what yours are by commenting here, or over on TikTok or Instagram.
Goal 1: Maxime Lestienne v Tampines Rovers (5-2 win, 4 Aug 2023)
Maxime scored a hat-trick in this game to lead us to an important victory, and the quality of these goals were top-notch.
Let’s start with the first goal he scored. There didn’t look to be too much danger when he received the ball on the right edge of the penalty area, but in the blink of an eye, he stepped inside, and without having to beat his defender, he unleashed a wicked curling shot with his left foot, which nestled into the bottom corner of the net.
An amazing goal and a crucial one to give us the lead against bitter rivals in their homeground.
Goal 2: Shawal Anuar v Balestier Khalsa (5-4 win, 1 Jun 2023)
When I saw this one go in, I immediately thought “Goal of the Season”.
I mean, it’s a weak-foot shot from Shawal Anuar from about 45 yards, taken first-time, rising high into the night sky, and arcing perfectly downwards just in time to drop below the crossbar, past the despairing dive of Balestier keeper Hairul Syirhan. The technique required to do that is insane.
But to add to that, the move starts with a fantastic last-ditch tackle from Nur Adam to stop Ryoya Taniguchi from scoring. Hafiz Nor picks up the ball, dribbles it out of danger, and plays a long ball for Abdul Rasaq. Even though it is slightly beyond him, his commitment to chasing it down leads to a rushed clearance from the Balestier keeper. There is a team element to this goal and the fact that it was almost a goal for Balestier and then turned in the blink of an eye to a goal for us, makes it so satisfying.
Goal 3: Abdul Rasaq v Albirex Niigata (S) (3-2 win, 21 May 2023)
A very important goal. The circumstances surrounding the goal perhaps make this the most important goal of the lot.
2-0 down at half-time against our bitter title rivals, and staring down the barrel of defeat, the team came out re-invigorated, and with an important addition – Abdul Rasaq came on for the ineffective Bernie-Ibini Isei. Before he grabbed the winning goal, he had already played a big part in holding the ball up for the 2-1 goal that gave us hope.
For the goal, it was amazing – a clearance-cum-pass from defence was cushioned by Maxime Lestienne first-time for Diego Lopes. Diego knocked it into a corridor of space – first-time as well. Lestienne raced into the space, and with a few quick looks into the box, spots Rasaq making a great run. He plays a first-time cross that curls nicely away from Hassan Sunny, and drops at the boot of Abdul Rasaq. He too, takes it first-time, slamming it into the back of the net on the volley.
Goal 4: Lionel Tan v Balestier Khalsa (5-2 win, 31 July 2023)
I remember when Lionel shaped to shoot, I was mouthing “DON’T SHOOT!” in the stands. I had never seen Lionel shoot on target from that range, and usually, centre-backs don’t take shots from that range.
But I am glad that he proved me wrong. What a goal. The power, the swerve, the accuracy, the nerve to hit it from that range as Balestier sat back to try to keep us away from goal.
For me what takes away from the goal is that Hairul Syirhan is already on the side of the goal that Lionel’s shot ends up, and I felt he could have done a lot better on that.
Goal 5: Maxime Lestienne v Geylang International (2-1 win, 7 May 2023)
The second of 2 free-kick goals that eventually won the game for our Sailors on a day when we were far from our sparkling best.
Geylang always plays out of their skin when they face us, and this game was no exception. We needed a mammoth defensive shift from Mamat to prevent Geylang from scoring on a few other occasions, but we managed to hang in there at 1-0 down for the longest time before Maxime stepped in with 2 freekick goals.
The first one was impressive, but the second one was even more so. It was right in the top corner, going in via the crossbar.
The fact that it was so late in the game and virtually gave us an undeserved victory made this goal all the more important. On a day when the team was below par, the contributions of Mamat in defence and Maxime from set-piece opportunities made all the difference.
Goal 6: Richairo Zivkovic v Jeonbuk (2-0 win, 8 Nov 2023)
Jeonbuk is easily the hardest opponent that we played all year, which automaticallly gives this goal a bit of an edge when it comes to picking Goal of the Season.
Aesthetically while it may not be the most pleasing one of the 7 goals, the goal was very well-constructed and showed the chemistry between our 3 forwards on the day.
When the throw-in is taken and reaches Maxime on the turn, you can see Shawal and Richairo immediately getting on their bikes and making runs into space. The ball eventually makes its way to Richairo, Shawal, and then back to Richairo in the box. Then came the crucial bit – instead of lashing at the ball when it is played to him, Richairo’s split-second decision to let the ball roll past his body just a little bit, opened up the space for him to lash the ball into the back of the net.
Taking into account the circumstances – it was a win against a K-League giant, it was a game that we had to win to keep ourselves alive in the Champions League, and this second goal gave us the belief we needed to hang on to the result, this must be a very strong contender for Goal of the Season.
Goal 7: Maxime Lestienne v Tampines Rovers (5-2 win, 4 Aug 2023)
The thing I love about this goal is that Maxime had already tried this earlier in the game. In the first few minutes of the game, Maxime pinched the ball off Kyoga Nakamura, and executed a first-time lob over Syazwan Buhari. Unfortunately for him, it sailed just over the bar.
Tampines did not heed the warning though. Another sloppy pass in defence was pounced upon – this time it was Yasir Hanapi at fault, for failing to scan his surroundings and see that Maxime was waiting for the pass to be played to him so that he could nip in and take it. Once he nips in and gets the ball under control, there was only one thing on his mind – to chip the ball above the stranded Syazwan Buhari.
It was executed perfectly, and Syazwan had no chance because it floated just above his hands, but just below the bar. An outstanding goal which was the knockout punch for our bitter rivals.
Conclusion
There really is no right answer for this, and we’d love to hear from you what your thoughts are! What was your favourite Goal of the Season? These are our thoughts –
Eddy’s Choice – Goal 2: Shawal Anuar v Balestier Khalsa (5-4 win, 1 Jun 2023)
As mentioned above, I think technically, it’s the hardest goal of all to execute in the 7 choices, and what made it all the more pleasing was the sense of jeopardy. The feeling of almost losing a goal on one end, and within a span of 10 seconds to score on the other end, that was super thrilling. We watch football to be entertained – and to experience that sinking feeling in your heart moments before you celebrate wildly after witnessing an outrageous goal? Priceless.
Joseph’s Choice – Goal 4: Lionel Tan v Balestier Khalsa (5-2 win, 31 July 2023)
Why? Simple. It’s not often you see a centre back in Singapore football set the ball up and fire a cannon from long distance – the way the ball swerves as it beats the keeper just makes it sweeter, especially as he seemed to have it covered. My winner in this collection of great goals.
Watch the goals on TikTok or Instagram!
Written by Eddy Hirono
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