This may seem harsh, but at no point in the game did I feel the Sailors were not gonna win. It was a really routine victory and 2-0 could and should have been way more. Barring a moment in the second half where Zharfan will feel he should have done better, Albirex had nothing on us. I believe the freekick chance they had was their only shot on target. It was such a foreign experience for me, considering that we are so used to sitting back and weathering all the pressure that Albirex would put on our defence.
In particular, the first half felt really really comfortable. And this is why.
0 shots in the first half. That’s not at all what we are used to. But I like it. Let’s keep it this way.
Period of Adaptation
Jokes aside, while I do hope that this match is fully representative of what’s to come, we have to remind ourselves that Albirex are traditionally slow starters, but yet after the mid-point of the season, they usually really turn it on and then they just start this unstoppable charge towards the title. Much like how Manchester City does it, except without the (alleged) financial doping.
There is a good reason for this of course – there is usually a huge squad renewal process for Albirex, and their players will also need time to get used to the hot and humid playing conditions in Singapore.
Something I observed when watching the game was that it was not easy to tell the Singapore players from the Japanese players. You know how on TV, your non-football-watching friends sometimes marvel at the fact that you can name the players just by looking at their head and body shape from far away? Well, given that Albirex is a brand new team essentially, it will take me a while before I get to know them just by the way they look and the way they carry the ball.
I don’t know whether it’s more of a compliment to Albirex’s local boys, or something negative to be said about their Japanese imports, but there did not seem to be a gulf in quality as there usually is. The foreign players are supposed to be noticeably better than the local players, and that was simply not the case. They looked really, really ordinary.
One of the moments in the game that really stuck out to me was when Albirex got a freekick in their own half, and usually they’d look to keep the ball moving, pass it quickly on the floor to someone, and then start their passing triangles. But no, not this time. The ball was launched towards the Sailors box, with noone even near the vicinity. It was an aimless long ball presumably looking for Shuhei to try to cushion it down for his teammates. That is not the Albirex way.
But maybe they just need some time. As a Sailors fan, let’s hope they never get back their mojo haha.
Obren Continues to Impress
In the preview article, I didn’t mention that Obren was an option to start at leftback. Which was pretty forgetful of me, considering that in the post-JDT article, Ernest and I waxed lyrical about him when he came on to play left wing-back.
Again, he put in a good shift on Saturday, and his direct opponent, Daniel Goh, got very little out of him. Albirex’s tactic was to try to look for Daniel Goh alot in the first half, so it was important that Obren was alert and ready to deal with him.
On attack, he was powerful and direct. Nothing too fancy, just a couple of drives down the left flank, before cutting back for a teammate in the penalty area. One of these runs led to a cutback that Song almost converted from. More of this from Obren please! He reminds me a little of Sead Kolasinac and how he would bomb up and down the left flank for Arsenal and Schalke 04.
On a separate slightly-related note, I wonder if the Sailors are gonna get more goals from setpieces this year, considering that our backline is physically very imposing. We have our two hulking centrebacks of course, but we also have Lionel Tan playing rightback, and Obren at leftback. Tall!
Maxime is a Machine
By all accounts, I don’t think it can be said Maxime had a good game. It seemed like he was snatching at his chances a lot, putting shots way over the bar, and some of his passes went astray too.
But – he ended up with a goal and an assist. And he was responsible for winning the penalty too! If you’re still wondering whether it was a harsh penalty, watch this. In the stadium, I thought it was a harsh call, as it didn’t look like much contact, but this angle shows that the refereeing team did brilliant. We are harsh on the refs when they get shit wrong, let’s give them their flowers when they get difficult decisions right.
Anyway back to the point, Maxime has picked up where he left off last season, and he can only get better!
Datkovic’s Range of Passing
On more than a couple of occasions, the ball was played to Datkovic, and with little pressure on him, he managed to come up with raking long passes out to Maxime Lestienne on the right wing. Big booming balls from left to right, and very very accurate. With Albirex looking to keep the middle compact, as many teams are likely to do this season against us, we had to sometimes mix it up and add a bit of variety to our passing.
From a passing perspective, I guess it’s really good that we now have a left-footed centreback playing on the left side of central defence, because it opens up different passing angles. Let’s pray for his health and hope that he gets to play a lot more than Pedro Henrique did. I still believe that had Pedro Henrique stayed fit in the 2022 season, we’d have won that year. Sigh.
Conclusion
I could go on and on, but let’s not forget that this is essentially a glorified friendly, even if the feisty touchline behaviour suggests otherwise. So we shouldn’t read too much into anything and I’ll leave you with some other quick observations.
- Hariss and Hami were very very tidy in midfield
- Shawal Anuar shows a penchant for the sublime once again – a fantastic goal. The finish itself was spectacular, but the way he cushioned the long ball down, away from the defender’s reach, but not too much to kill his own shooting angle? Perfection.
- Song was full of hard running, and will soon find his goals.
- Bailey and Datkovic are hard as nails. They either pinched the ball, or killed the guy. Lovely to watch.
- The touchline spat between Ranko, Lionel and Kazu is hilarious. Credit to all 3 of them though, I thought the game needed that bit of needle at that point. Kazu overreacted to a tough Lionel challenge on his player, Ranko overreacted imo by going into the opposing technical area, but the funniest part was that Lionel sparked off the war, but calmly walked away from the burning inferno on the touchline.
- It was hilarious that pre-game, the FA already predicted a Sailors win, because the ad boards all said “WINNER, LCS”. You love to see it.
- King Kazu snubbed a handshake with Bernard Tan, and then when reminded to do so, returned to give a half-hearted handshake while looking away. More beef there than in a wagyu steakhouse.
On to the next game!
Written by Eddy Hirono
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