[Post-Match Thoughts] White Swans Experience a Black Swan Event (Sailors 7 Albirex 1)

A Black Swan Event is defined as an unpredictable event that is beyond what is normally expected from a situation and that has potentially severe consequences. Black swan events are characterised by their extreme rarity, severe impact and the widespread insistence they were obvious in hindsight.

1. Unpredictable event that is beyond what is normally expected from a Sailors v Albirex game – check, a 7-1 result is beyond what is normally expected
2. Potentially severe consequences – check, this result effectively confirms that they are not title contenders this year
3. Widespread insistence this was obvious in hindsight – half-check, just look at our preview article heh. It isn’t just hindsight.

Joseph and I had predicted huge wins for the Sailors, and we were not alone. In the SailorFanTalk Telegram chat, 44 out of 44 predictions went for a Sailors win, with more than half predicting a win by 3 or more goals. If you thought that was just because of Sailors bias, this confidence in the Sailors was also found in the prediction league of The Goal Difference Telegram chat. Out of 16 predictions, all 16 went for a Sailors win, with more than half predicting a win by 3 or more goals.

Basically, everyone saw this coming. Let’s dive right into my post-match thoughts.

Albirex’s Goal was Offside

It’s a shocking decision by the VAR. Shuhei Hoshino wasn’t just marginally offside, he was a full body-length offside. Great cross by Arshad, but that is as offside as they come.

We are lucky that this didn’t really matter in the end because we still cruised to victory, but try telling Bailey Wright and the rest of his defenders that. When we interviewed him after the game, he was frustrated that the officials got this one so wrong, and he further shared that the replay was already making its rounds in the team Whatsapp groupchat.

Regardless of how it ended, I hope FAS releases a public statement about this decision. I mean – they’ve done it before in the past, haven’t they? Just because it didn’t affect the outcome of the game doesn’t mean that the public doesn’t deserve an explanation for what happened. Let’s hope they do the right thing.

Speaking of doing the right thing – Albirex’s social media team did exactly the wrong thing. Why on God’s green earth would you proudly put up a replay of a blatantly offside goal? Mystifying and desperate – two adjectives that I could also use to describe their form right now.

Quality of the Goals

In the aftermath of the game, there were some tongue-in-cheek comments on social media posts pointing out that Hassan Sunny was a specialist in conceding 7 goals. In truth though, without Hassan Sunny, this game could have been a lot worse for Albirex.

Watching from the stands, you could tell that the goals were brilliant. Borne out of free-flowing moves, we exploited the space left behind by Albirex repeatedly and finished with aplomb time after time. However it is only upon watching the highlights on Youtube that you realise just how brilliant the goals were. Hassan had no chance, as almost every goal was put into the corner, or even better, the area of the net where it hits the inside of the side netting. Let’s go through the goals.

1. Lestienne crosses to Shawal who acrobatically flicks the ball in. It goes into the corner after a valiant attempt by Hassan to save it from close range.
2. Lennart Thy takes the pass from Bart Ramselaar and absolutely thunders it low and hard into the far corner where the side netting is.
3. Bailey swivels and hits a half-volley into the corner.
4. Song takes an Obren cross first-time and volleys it into the far corner where the side netting is.
5. Bart advances into the box, turns down an easy pass to Thy, wrong-foots a defender, then curls it into the corner where the side netting is.
6. Maxime whacks one in from the edge of the area – top corner.
7. Bart’s 2nd goal comes from a good Hafiz Nor cutback but was placed into the middle of the goal.

Of the 7 goals, 6 were what I would call “unsaveable”. I don’t think Hassan put a foot wrong, but the quality of the shots was just too high. A few inches closer to him and he might have saved a few.

Diversity of Threat

At one point in the game, we were leading 6-1, and we had 6 different goalscorers. That felt really good.

Unlike other teams in the league where there’s a bit of over-reliance on one or two players, the varied nature of our threats means that opponents cannot just concentrate on marking out one or two players. On a night when our top-scorer Shawal Anuar went off, we still had the firepower to put Albirex to the sword.

Despite Lennart Thy perhaps not getting the ball as much as he’d like, he had a massive influence on the game because of the players around him. Let me elaborate.

Lennart Thy Looks Frustrated

At times in the game, Lennart looked frustrated that his teammates were not passing to him. Notably when Lennart assisted Maxime for goal no. 6 with a fantastic pass, the two players did not celebrate together. Some tension? Maybe.

Should we be worried about the tension this early into his career? I don’t think so, this is natural for two reasons.

1. He is new to the team and chemistry with his teammates is gonna need some time to build; and
2. Maxime, Bart and him are all goalscorers.

Let’s zoom in on that 2nd point. History has shown us that when there are 2 or 3 top goalscorers in the team, one of them usually plays the unselfish role, creating for his teammates. Rooney and Ronaldo in Manchester United, Bergkamp and Henry in Arsenal, Firmino doing the hard work for Salah and Mane to get the goals.

Maxime finished as our top-scorer last season, while I pointed out in my piece on Bart Ramselaar that he is a player who scores more than he assists. Lennart is gonna have to get used to them sometimes turning down the chance to pass to him.

However, what he offers to the team is so much more than just goals.

In the above screenshots you can see in the lead-up to the 5th goal, Lennart drags his defender with him by making a run to the right side of the box. That leaves Bart completely free. He then continues to make himself available to split the attention of the defenders, before Bart eventually chooses to go for the shot himself.

Another example of his runs helping to create space for his teammates can be seen in the 7th goal. Hafiz Nor looks for the options in the box, and sees Bart completely free. This is because Lennart had made a run right in front of goal, and the defenders were preoccupied with defending that threat. His runs are convincing because the defenders fear his finishing threat, but also because he takes up positions where if the pass was made to him, he could still do some damage. These runs are not obvious decoy runs.

In case you are still not impressed by his runs, check this out. When Lennart picks up possession here, he instantly sets Maxime free with a left-footed pass over the top of the defence. On his weaker left foot! Amazing.

Lennart will improve with time once his teammates get used to him, but even as it stands, he already brings a lot to the team and looks to be a very astute signing.

Song Ui-Young – The Sub that Got Subbed

I don’t know much about this but felt it needed to be pointed out. Song came on as a sub when Shawal was taken off injured, but then curiously in the 2nd half, he was subbed off.

Is it a sign that he is out of favour, or perhaps just a little short of match fitness? The optimist in me hopes that Song was on the bench because of an injury, and he was never meant to play that much. Taking him off was thus a way of making sure he gets some match time without aggravating an injury.

His body language when coming off wasn’t particularly negative, and he shared some words and a handshake with Coach Ranko before he went to the bench, so perhaps this is just much ado about nothing.

In any case, what a freaking goal by Song. Add that to his list of absolute bangers that he has scored for Home United and LCS over the years. The cross froom Obren Kljajic was a good one, but to take it first-time in mid-air? Insane.

Atmosphere

Last but not least, there was some feedback that the atmosphere was slightly better in the last game. The Crew introduced one key change, introducing our new drum set and with it, some new drum rhythms to fill the void in between chants. It proved to be quite popular with the fans, and it is something that we will look to do on a regular basis. If you wish to be part of the Crew, drumming regularly, shouting your head off or just want to find out more, please get in touch with SailorFanTalk on Telegram or Instagram.

On a related note, credit also must be given to the club for this.

We’d been pestering the club for a while now to somehow let the casual fans know the lyrics to our chants, and finally they came up with this. It’s a clapper that unfolds to show all the lyrics to our 2 most used chants. We think it’s useful because we have heard feedback from fans that they don’t know the lyrics even though we plastered it all over SailorFanTalk and The Crew’s instagram pages.

Conclusion

It was a very comfortable victory for our Sailors in the end, even if there was a bit of worry when Albirex scored the offside equaliser.

Tougher tests lie ahead of us, none more so than fellow undefeated side Geylang International.

See you in the preview article!

Written by Eddy Hirono

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