July 24, 2024

The thing that struck me most from this match is Maxime on two occasions very deliberately passing the ball back to his teammates for them to shoot and score. First, Song Ui-Young, and then Lennart Thy. On both occasions, Maxime could well have finished off the chance himself, but he decided to set up his teammate. It made me feel like something has shifted. Although Maxime has never been an unselfish player (he finished last season with 21 assists), these two very deliberate acts of service can’t help but make me feel he’s embraced his role as one of the leaders of the team – it was a Michael Jordan moment essentially. Let me dive into that and more in my post-match thoughts. Maxime Lestienne x Michael Jordan The year is 1989. Phil Jackson took over a Chicago Bulls team that was performing well, but had never won the Championship. The Chicago Bulls had the brightest star in all of basketball, Michael Jordan. He was the scoring leader of the league as well, but yet the Bulls didn’t win a championship. Teams like the Detroit Pistons came up with the “Jordan Rules”, which basically meant that they doubled up on him and beat the shit out of him. When Phil Jackson arrived, he spoke with Jordan and told him that in order for the Bulls to win the Championship, he might have to sacrifice being top-scorer. Jackson would institute the “triangle”, which meant that the ball would move quickly between all players of the team, not just Jordan. The ball would be kept moving, so it would be more difficult for teams to just target Jordan. For this to happen, Jordan would have to trust his teammates, and also actively get them into play and involve them more. We know how this ends. Michael Jordan does indeed score less, and his ball-handling percentages went down too, but he won 6 Championships with the Bulls. Jordan’s (and Jackson’s) time with the Chicago Bulls makes for a fascinating read, but for the sake of brevity, I shan’t elaborate more. Basically, the rest of his teammates get involved more and become legends in their own right. The parallels are obvious. Maxime Lestienne is far and away the best player in the league, but he will feel that he hasn’t won enough titles. And I feel like something clicked in his mind after the humiliation of the Tampines game. He must have felt like for the duration of that game, he was on an island, alone and separated from the rest of his teammates. Don’t take my word for it, look at how long he had to hold up the ball for Song to arrive on the scene, before he squared it to Song for him to finish. Look at how the angle was perfect for a left-footer to caress into the far post once Lennart Thy played the pass to Max. On both occasions, it made sense for Max to shoot. Even if he had missed, noone would have accused him of being selfish. But that’s why I ascribe so much significance to these moments. Context is all-important as well. I will break each chance down and go deeper into the context. Song Ui-Young Song has not been on his best form this season – far from it. He is less assured in possession, and while he still runs around like a Tasmanian devil (the Looney Tunes one) causing havoc wherever he goes, it has been less effective than Home United fans will remember. He may be struggling with his injury a little still, it may be psychological, noone knows. But something is not quite right and the team would definitely benefit from a Song that is firing on all cylinders. Song had one brilliant move in the game where he beat Kan Kobayashi to the ball, chested it down, shielded the ball aggressively, and then curled a brilliant through pass behind the defensive line with his weaker foot. This eventually led to a goal for Maxime when Shawal expertly set him up at the edge of the area, but there was no doubt that Song truly excelled here. However, earlier in the game, Song missed an absolute sitter. It is surely an early contender for Miss of the Season. Chris van Huizen whipped a low cross into the corridor of uncertainty between the centreback and the goalkeeper, and Song was right there to take advantage in front of an open goal. From the above position, he only managed to scuff it back towards the keeper. A shocking miss. You add that to his ongoing struggles with his injury and form, and you begin to see why Maxime might have held on to the ball for so long to pass to Song. He knew the goal was the bare minimum that Song needed to not feel like absolute shit after the game. Song’s lack of a celebration after the goal is telling as well – he realised that he should have scored far earlier than that when the score was 1-0 and the game was still in the balance. Lennart Thy I have spoken about Thy’s struggles before. I have always maintained that Lennart Thy is a good player who will really elevate the team. Goals-wise he may be struggling now, but I think we will see his true value come the continental games when we go up against stronger opponents. That is where attributes like tenacity, grit, and sheer dog-like hard work will come to the fore. But the fans are not the only ones who think that Lennart Thy should score more. Lennart himself thinks it, and his teammates think it too. When we spoke with Toni Datkovic post-match, it was interesting that he said that while Lennart has been playing well, all strikers are affected when they don’t get goals. He also said that’s probably why Maxime so unselfishly set him up for a goal – he wanted Lennart