[Post-Match Thoughts] Lack of Rhythm Worrying, but Three Points Welcome (Balestier Khalsa 2 Sailors 4)

Was it a vintage Sailors performance? No. Do I care? Yes, a little. Is it important that we head into Thursday’s top-of-the-table clash with Tampines Rovers at least level on points? Hell yeah definitely.

This late result against Balestier Khalsa came right after a laboured performance against Tanjong Pagar, which also came right after a laboured performance against Geylang International. I think we should be a little worried – let’s talk about some of the observations from the game.

Class from Kodai

Before we talk about the not-so-good stuff, let’s get the good stuff out of the way. We spoke about Kodai’s return, we wondered whether he might get on the scoresheet, and also whether he might celebrate wildly against us. Well, he did celebrate when the Ismail Sassi decided he was prime Thierry Henry and scored a superb curled equaliser past Zharfan, but it was nothing disrespectful.

Where his class really shone through was somewhere in the 55th minute of the game (watch from 55:12), when Hami Syahin cynically pulled Riku Fukashiro back on the counter-attack and deservedly got a yellow card. What followed next was Riku swung an elbow at Hami (and missed), and then gave him a shove too. Quite how Riku didn’t at least see a yellow card for this, I will never know – but the refereeing for this game was quite strange. Importantly though, with tensions rising, we then saw Kodai hug Hami and bring him away from his irate teammate. Irate teammate – unnecessary rhyme in the middle of the article? Check.

It was an action that immediately helped to defuse the tension. If that hadn’t happened, I am not sure we’d have seen both Riku and Hami remaining on the field. He recognised he was one of the few players who could have played peacemaker there given his history with the Sailors, and used it to prevent further drama. Class.

In a post-match post on Instagram, he also expressed thanks to the Sailors fans for chanting his name at the final whistle when he came over to shake hands with the Sailors staff. Those at the stadium would also have seen him bow towards us in the stands. As supporters, it’s little gestures like these that really provide the feel-good factor from games. Some members of the Crew had always dropped in to check on him during his lengthy injury absence, made gifts for him, etc, so it feels nice when the good feelings are acknowledged.

The Penalty Call at the End

Riku Fukashiro seemed to be at the centre of everything good that Balestier did, and with the score at 4-2 in the 8th minute of added-on time, it looked like Balestier was gonna get a penalty when Haiqal Pashia’s high tackle seemed to connect with Riku in the box. See it for yourself here. You can also hear the loud calls from the Sailors fans politely urging Riku Fukashiro to refrain from speaking any further.

To me, this is a tough one, but I can imagine if it happened at the other end, I would think it’s a penalty. Going by that test – I think the ref got this wrong.

Haiqal Pashia went in for the tackle, didn’t touch the ball, and contacted Riku a little. How much exactly? To be honest it’s not easy to tell with the camera angles, but I think given the height of the tackle, I would have given it.

It capped a frustrating night for Riku. Besides the incident referred to above where Kodai played peacemaker, Riku also received a ridiculous yellow card for a nothing tackle on Shawal Anuar a few minutes earlier.

While Balestier can feel hard done by, and may have had a penalty, I think it wouldn’t have made a difference because we were already well into added-on time beyond the 5 allocated minutes, and even if they had scored the penalty, we would have emerged winners.

The Curious Case of Lenny Thy

In a post-match interview with some fans, I managed to speak with Mike, who is interestingly Lennart Thy’s neighbour. I asked him about the chance that Lennart missed, and whether he was a little worried about his form.

He said that supporters should be more patient, given that Lenny has shown he can do it at a higher level (the Eredivisie), and also because he has barely played a few games for us in a distinctly different environment and climate compared to the Netherlands. His family has also just joined him not long ago, so a little adaptation time shouldn’t be too much to ask for. I agree – and want to add another factor into the mix. I’ve touched on this before but Lenny has come off a full season playing as the main striker for PEC Zwolle, into an LCS team without much rest at all. His season ended in May and he was already playing for us in June. I think we can be more patient – some fans are already calling him a “flop”, and asking for Richi to come back.

Yet, I think we can be more patient while acknowledging that it was a bad miss by him on Saturday.

From here – you have to score, or force a world-class save from the keeper. Yes, the ball was bouncing, but we expect better from our marquee striker. We hope he’ll be burying these soon!

But yet, why is this section entitled the Curious Case of Lenny Thy? It’s because I really want us to form our own views on whether we feel Lenny has been doing alright. In 5 games, he has scored 1 goal, and got 3 assists. Judging him based on that, we’d quite justifiably feel there is much room for improvement.

However, I somehow get the feeling that he’s playing in a team that is still not used to him, or in certain cases, not passing to him.

Should Haiqal square this to him, it’s 5-2, game over, goodnight, and a goal for Lenny.

Amazingly, Haiqal had another chance to square it to Lenny, but again doesn’t – he tried to go past the keeper from here. However, for me, I think I’d like to highlight something that I see every game – Maxime not releasing the ball early enough for Lenny.

Sailors fans will be used to Maxime setting up Shawal – it happens all the time, and the pair usually combine to deliver devastating results. But the above two screenshots will be something that Sailors fans who watch full games will be used to. It seems that Maxime and Lenny are not fully in sync yet – or Maxime just doesn’t wanna pass to Lenny. If you look at 63:49, he should have played the pass there. Lenny would have had some time to take a touch and finish, but instead Max continued dribbling to try to work an opportunity for himself, and by the time the ball finally got to Lenny at 63:51, the defenders had already closed up on the pair, taking away the shooting angle.

This may be just one example, but my feeling having observed the pair over the course of five matches is that it seems like passing to Lenny is the last resort for Maxime, and that makes it hard for Lenny to do what he does best.

Besides scoring goals, I think it is quite heartening that Lenny continues to make many unselfish runs for the team, and has also popped up with 3 assists. In the Balestier game, in the lead-up to the 4th goal, he might have been forgiven for trying to run with the ball, but instead he immediately released Maxime, seeing that he was already making a good run. That quickness of thought and quickness of pass was what led to the 4th goal.

While I am confident the goals will eventually come, I think there is a role for a hardworking forward whose work allows the rest of the star-studded cast to shine.

Song Not on Song

A little worrying for me is Song Ui-Young’s form. He’s been a Home United and LCS legend in his past 2 stints with the club, but for some reason, he’s not performed up to his usual standards so far this season.

Could it be his injury depriving him of some mobility? Or maybe he just needs confidence and some time to gel with the rest of this team? I don’t know what it is but aside from a blockbuster goal against Albirex some weeks back, this season has not gone at all well for him. Passes are not linking up, his shots are not going on target, and he is losing duels that he didn’t seem to lose in the past.

A moment that stayed with me from the Balestier game was when nearing the half-time whistle, he lost the ball near the centre-circle, and instead of chasing back, he allowed Tajeli Salamat to break through midfield, and eventually it required a fantastic Bailey Wright clearance at the far post to prevent Balestier from going ahead.

The frustration from the stands was audible. Some of the Sailors fans are new of course, so they don’t have this huge bank of goodwill for Song that I have. I still think he will be valuable to the team, especially when all the fixtures start piling up, but for now, I cannot frankly say that he deserves a spot on the first team if everyone is fit and healthy. Which is painful to admit because he is one of my favourite players ever.

Conclusion

End of the day, it was a rotated squad getting the job done vs a very good team in Balestier. It may have been the late, late show, but at least we got the points with a spirited second half performance. The first half – well that should be recorded and prescribed as medicine for people suffering from insomnia.

The rotation is interesting – suggesting that perhaps Coach Ranko feels that Tampines Rovers is the greater challenge this week. I’ll get more into this in the preview article, which I hope can be released by tomorrow.

Three points when we are not at our flowing best – I feel like we’ve said this more than a few times this season so far. If this is the little adaptation period we need, then I am happy that we still find ourselves unbeaten, and at the top of the table going into Thursday’s massive clash.

Till the preview!

Written by Eddy Hirono

 

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