September 2024

The 5-0 scoreline is a haunting one. To concede that number of goals, and to not even score 1 – it’s not a great day out whether you’re a player or a supporter. Unfortunately, we’ve done it twice this season. In Hanoi, the Crew found some time for gallows humour and started chanting “Lima Kosong” as we exited the stadium. Lol. While CAHN is a good team in a good league and you can half-explain it away as a bad day at the office against superior opposition, there can be no such excuses for losing 5-0 to Tampines Rovers. It was so, so poor. The last time we lost 5-0, we picked ourselves up and responded a few days later with a big win against Young Lions, so here’s hoping we can do similar this time round. Let’s dive into some pre-match thoughts. Tampines Not in the Best of Form Oh dear me, the last time I wrote about a team not being on form, it was CAHN and see what they did to us! At the risk of jinxing it though, I am gonna stick to my guns here. Tampines are on a run of 5 matches without a win, and have lost their last 2. It seems that their packed schedule might be getting to them as well, both in terms of fatigue and rotation. They left out Faris and Glenn in their match against Young Lions with an eye on the Bangkok United game in midweek, and they didn’t really get going until both of them were subbed on, eventually clawing back a 2-goal deficit. Unluckily for us this time, it is us who do not have the benefit of a week’s rest and training before the game, as Tampines did not have any midweek games this time round. You can thus be sure that their A-team, including Faris and Glenn will play, and we will need to be wary of their threat. Tampines play a very good brand of football, but it seems that the blueprint to beat/hold them has been repeatedly put on show in the previous few games. Just stay tight at the back, and hit them on the counter-attack. Luckily for us, that’s exactly what we like to do, so I think this is where we might capitalise. As for staying solid at the back, two big questions pop up ahead of this match. First, do we stick with 3 centre-backs at the back, or do we go with 2? Second, is Ranko gonna swap keeper like the last time he did when we lost 5-0 and our keeper made an error? How Many at the Back? Ok you have 5 seconds to decide which you would do if you were Coach Ranko. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Ok I’d prefer if we go with 3 centre-backs at the back for the added solidity. I wonder what the fans think, and I don’t think there is a right answer for this. But here’s why I prefer 5 at the back. First, 4 at the back means Lionel Tan at right-back. I am not super convinced with that, but I don’t feel like there’s better options as well. We all saw Hafiz Nor’s defensive deficiencies against CAHN, while Chris van Huizen also endured a tough time in Hanoi. We desperately need Mamat back, don’t we! If you look at the 5-0 game against Tampines again, we looked good and solid for the 45min, but were undone the moment someone stepped out of the compact backline. Datkovic tried to guess where Irfan Najeeb’s pass was going, and he squeezed up without the other 2 centrebacks following his line. This left a gaping hole for Boris Kopitovic to exploit, and that he did with aplomb. After that, came the dreadful Zharfan error, and as a result of that, he didn’t play for us in the 9 games after. But the defensive performance in the first half was not at all bad. We limited Tampines to very few chances. Where it got disastrous for me, is in the second half, when Lionel was taken off and we moved to a back 4. Suddenly, Faris and Glenn had the time of their lives. Glenn killed Carmona on the left flank to get the crucial 3rd goal, while Faris was left with all the space in the world to curl in a great 4th goal from the left wing. Given that we have been playing with this system against better opponents in the ACL, ACL2, and the Shopee Cup, I think we will continue sticking with it against Tampines, a sign that we take them seriously. Interestingly, in the SPL, the first time we played 5 at the back was against Tampines as well, while our last SPL game against Balestier Khalsa also saw us going back to a back 5. We did not play this formation for the rest of our games – as far as I can remember. I think there is a good reason for playing against better teams with 5 at the back. For all the qualities our Sailors players have, one thing I feel we lack is the ability to cover large spaces while defending. We look so much more solid when we have 3 centre-backs on the pitch. Against teams like Tanjong Pagar, we can get away with anything at the back, but I think against Tampines, it might be wise to stay solid, and hit them on the transitions, which is their weak point. Do We Switch the Keeper? This is a tough one. I think swapping keepers after they make an error is not something I’d do as a coach. Mistakes happen. I wasn’t a fan of Zharfan being dropped for his error, although I do feel it was a decision made not just because of his one error. He had looked a little unconvincing this season in some games when coming out to claim crosses, and Izwan is just

I must confess two things first before you read this preview. First, I am typing this barely hours before I fly off to Hanoi and so the research is unlikely to be great. I have not packed either – I am starting to get used to this routine of having to clear as much work as I can before I fly off to support the Sailors in whatever part of the world. My suitcase-packing skills have greatly improved though! Chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck, in and out in 10min. Second, I don’t know a lot about V-League football, besides knowing that Vietnamese players, particularly those who play for the national team, are of a pretty high quality. And with that disclaimer out of the way, let’s talk about why CAHN are probably a good team, but there is no better time to play them. Their Season Just Started Unlike our Sailors, who are thick in the middle of our season, CAHN’s season is barely 3 games old, 1 win in the Shopee Cup, 1 draw and 1 loss in the V-League. While their win against a second-string (but still strong) Buriram United is impressive, they looked very lacklustre in their domestic games. A possible reason for this is that their new signings are still gelling. After all, it takes time for players to settle, and get used to each other. Maxime Lestienne was not an overnight sensation when he joined us – he too, took a while before becoming this absolute machine that he is now. Another possible reason is match fitness – perhaps they really just need a run of games to get going. I am sure you will remember how our own Sailors started this season as well – the articles were very similar. Each article talked about how the Sailors were winning but unconvincing. Perhaps CAHN is going through the same thing too. And then perhaps because of this need to gel, if you take a look at the highlights of their two league games so far, they look far from convincing in defence. Many times the defence is caught flat-footed, and they are just staring at each other, waiting for the other defenders to take action. This is hopefully something we can capitalise on. Not as Many Foreign Players V-League rules dictate that teams can only use up to 3 foreign players and 2 naturalised Vietnamese in domestic games. As such, you see that their squad contains only 4 foreign players. Jason Pendant may look like a foreign name but he has a Vietnamese mother, and when you realise his full name is Jason Pendant Quang Vinh, it starts sounding a lot more Vietnamese, don’t it. To make matters worse for them, Grafite, their hero on Matchday 1 against Buriram sustained an injury and will not be available for this game. So, we have more foreigners than them in our squad, and I think the better foreigners as well, if you just compare CVs. This should help to counter the advantage that CAHN FC has when it comes to the standard of the local players. Vietnam > Singapore is my simplistic analysis of this of course. The Vietnamese Players We are a bit lucky that star defender Doan Van Hau (19 caps for Vietnam) is injured for this one and doesn’t look likely to play. But he’s definitely not the biggest star in the squad. Foreigner or local, it doesn’t matter, the shining star of this team is the Vietnamese Messi, Nguyen Quang Hai. Captain of the team, the little magician has a wand of a left foot, and stands at 1.68m tall, so you can already see why the comparisons to Messi exist. Despite his height, he is a huge figure in Vietnamese football and Vietnam, in general. His recent marriage to Vietnamese influencer Chu Thanh Huyen was widely covered in Vietnam, and only served to boost his celebrity status. His career seems to have not hit the heights that some have predicted in the past. Look at this list of achievements. Superb achievements, but you will notice a distinct lack of accolades after 2021. His career has stalled a little, after his move to Pau FC, a French Ligue 2 side. That spell wasn’t as successful as his fans would have hoped, and he will now be looking to impress after coming back to the V-League. In the games this season, he has shown his creativity and consistent delivery. He already notched one assist, and but for poor finishing from his teammates, could easily have had a couple more. He is certainly the dangerman and we would do well to stop service to him, and from him. Rest and Rotation Having seen our lineup in the last game against Balestier Khalsa, it is pretty clear that Coach Ranko treats the Shopee Cup seriously, and is preserving the likes of Maxime Lestienne, Lennart Thy and Bart Ramselaar for this game. This might work to our advantage as well, because CAHN FC had to grind hard over the weekend with their first team, and still ended up losing to Thanh Hoa FC. The legs might just be feeling a little heavy heading into this one. Conclusion The official preview written by the club is fantastic, and I highly recommend checking it out. We are abit pampered in that the club really puts in effort to deliver such quality content, so we should definitely appreciate that. The preview does talk a lot about CAHN coach Mano Polking perhaps having a lot of knowledge about the Singaporean players due to his long stint as coach for the Thailand national team. While that may be true, I am optimistic still, considering all the reasons above. Let’s just not play like how we did in Borneo please. COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE! My predicted line-up Izwan Mahbud Hafiz Nor, Lionel Tan, Bailey Wright, Toni Datkovic, Obren Kljajic Hariss Harun, Hami Syahin Maxime Lestienne, Lennart Thy, Bart Ramselaar Score Prediction

After a hard-fought 2-0 victory on Thursday, rotation is gonna be the name of the game this weekend as we take on Balestier Khalsa, one of the most entertaining sides in the league. They are in 4th place, and come into this game unbeaten in 6, winning and drawing 3 each. On paper this is a going to be a difficult game, so let’s dive straight into some pre-match thoughts. Attacking Prowess It is no secret that Balestier don’t really have trouble scoring goals. With 46 goals scored, they have the 3rd-best offensive record in the league, second only to Geylang’s 52 and Sailors’ 49. Kodai Tanaka leads the way for them with 15 goals, but as you can probably tell, the goals are well spread out. Ismail Sassi has 12 goals, Ignatius Ang has 5, Riku Fukashiro has 4, and Alen Kozar has 4. This is a team that has multiple routes to goal, unlike Geylang, where if you stop Tomoyuki Doi, you probably shut them down entirely. This difference with Geylang is especially stark when you consider that in the last few games, Kodai Tanaka has struggled to find the net. In the last 3 games where Balestier have plundered a total of 12 goals, Kodai does not have a single goal to his name. However, in those games, he has 4 assists, and has been part of a free-flowing attack. I am sure he wants to be back on the scoresheet soon, but till that happens, at least he will feel like he’s contributing. His 4 assists takes his season total to 8 assists, which is very impressive considering he is the striker and is expected to bang in the goals. If you watch Balestier games you will notice also that even though he is the main striker, he has no qualms dropping out to the wings in order to receive the passes and help to stretch the play, and eventually cross the ball in. This shows he’s truly a team player and is willing to do whatever is necessary for the team to win. We would do well not to over-commit to merely take care of Kodai. He is well capable of creating for his teammates too. No Madhu, Welcome Back Tajeli In the previous match against DPMM, Madhu rather harshly saw red for an elbow to the DPMM opponent’s face. Bad news for him, but great news for us. Not only is Madhu an integral part of their defence, he also has scored once and assisted 5 times this season. For context, Alen Kozar has 4, and Riku Fukashiro has 6, so he is right smack in between. He also has that ability to put shivers down the spines of many a supporter whenever he lines up for a long throw. Tajeli is eligible to play this game because he has already served out his suspension for a violent attack on an opponent two months ago. Will he come straight in? Will Coach de Roo continue to punish him for his ill behaviour? Whatever it is and whoever it is that starts in the middle, the defence will not be as good as it was before, and we have to capitalise on this unfamiliarity. How to Rotate? I am sure right now, Anu will be kicking himself, wondering why he got himself sent off so unnecessarily last week. Maybe it’s the curse of Jurong East – bad things always happen to Anu there. As it stands, he is not available for us for a number of games, and it is a crucial absence particularly because Rui Pires also seems to have a hand injury. He was spotted at JBS having his hand wrapped up in a bandage of sorts, and while it doesnt’ look too serious, the fact that he didn’t play any part in the wiin against Zhejiang, and the quick turnaround makes us wonder about his injury status going into this game. That leaves Hariss and Hami in the middle, because Adam Swandi is also going through some health scare of his own. We are not privy to information about the players the way that the coaching staff do, so we can only guess that it might be too soon for Adam Swandi to help out also. Of course, there is soome worry. Should Hariss or Hami be overplayed, then they might put themselves at risk of injury, and we really cannot afford to lose any midfielders. Conclusion A short one today because of the rushed schedule – SailorFanTalk needs squad rotation too haha. An important game in a packed schedule for us – the one thing I would say about our opponents is they don’t like to sit back and hold everyone behind the ball, so perhaps we will have space to thrive on in the counter-attack. That may lead to goals for us. Hopefully it plays out that way. COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE! My predicted line-up Izwan Mahbud Lionel Tan, Bailey Wright, Toni Datkovic, Obren Kljajic Rui Pires, Bart Ramselaar, Hami Syahin Abdul Rasaq, Shawal Anuar, Song Ui-Young Score Prediction Joseph and I predict the scores and track our success in a table. Stay tuned to find out who is the prediction king! 3 points for exact scoreline predicted correctly, 2 points for predicting the winner and margin of victory correctly (but not the exact scoreline), and 1 point for predicting the outcome correctly (win, lose or draw). Eddy’s prediction: Sailors 3 Balestier Khalsa 1 Joseph’s prediction: Sailors 2 Balestier Khalsa 0 Written by Eddy Hirono If you’d like to support the work we do here at SailorFanTalk, you may want to visit https://ko-fi.com/sailorfantalk and leave us a tip!

I take a bit of a backseat this time as Joseph Chin (not to be mistaken with Joseph Jireh) very helpfully did all of the heavy lifting for this article, and I am very grateful. I present to you his lowdown on Zhejiang Professional, and will then add on some of my thoughts and predictions at the end. The Lowdown on Zhejiang Professional The Name What’s up with that name? Zhejiang Professional? Why does it sound so technical and boring? No exciting explanation, really. They were actually made to rename (via government decree) from Hangzhou Greentown, hence the bland and rather unwieldy name Zhejiang Professional. You’ll notice that Guangzhou Evergrande is also not Guangzhou Evergrande anymore, they are just Guangzhou FC. Government did not want football clubs to have corporate names in their name. Greentown is not a place, it is a company’s name. They are property developers, and remain owners of the club despite significant budget cuts. The History They were a yoyo-team whose 4th placed finish in 2010 remains a rare highlight of a generally mediocre track record until Jordi Vinyals, their current manager, took over. Former players include Asian Pedigree First appearing in 2011 ACL, Nagoya Grampus lost there to Hangzhou but their poor away form in Japan, Korea (against FC Seoul) and UAE (Al Ain) meant they ended in 4th place. The next time they returned to the ACL was in 2023, after being relegated from CSL in 2016 and exiled there until 2022. The underdogs punched above their weight with home wins against Buriram United (that ended in an infamous brawl, more on that later) and Ventforet Kofu. Yet again their indifferent away form proved to be their undoing, though a creditable draw against Melbourne City was the reason why the Aussies couldn’t reach the next round. The Man at the Helm Jordi Vinyals. He is a former Barcelona B player, who also spent time with (then) lower division clubs Real Betis and Villarreal. Bounced around in the lower leagues in Spain as a manager until making his name in China with the now-defunct Qingdao Huanghai and then Zhejiang. At least in China, his teams’ nearly 60% win rate in Qingdao and Hangzhou are based on a tendency to score a lot of goals and do things with a solid rather than spectacular squad with limited resources. Some Dangermen to Look Out for Leonardo: Thankfully he is not around to wreak havoc on our defence. The brawl against Buriram saw one of the main instigators of the fight hit with an 8-match ban, which means he can only be used domestically for this season. For the same reason, Yao Junsheng and Dong Yu are banned for the first few matches of ACL2 this season. Leonardo has 18 goals and 4 assists this season for Zhejiang, and is far and away their top-scorer. Franko Andrijasevic: 3 caps for Croatia, will be pulling strings in the middle of the park together / alternating with Cheng Jin (whose appearance with the PRC NT last week was restricted to the bench) Jean Evrard Kouassi: 9 caps for Ivory Coast, was on the longlist for the AFCON in 2023. Impressed with Hajduk Split and CSL rivals Shanghai Port and Wuhan Zall. Also had a forgettable dry spell in Turkey. Versatile across the frontline, one of the few world class players in the team and the main attacking threat. While he only has 5 goals this season, he leads the teams in assists, and is their biggest threat. Alexander N’doumbou: AKA Qian Jiegei, the half-Chinese Gabonese midfielder once represented Gabon for 14 matches. Having renounced it for Chinese citizenship, he is out of international football but remains a key cog in his China career with Shanghai Shenhua and then Zhejiang given his European credentials. Deabeas Owusu: Former Ajax youth player whose unusual route to China (via Estonia) helped somehow to revive a flagging career at 24 years old. Have to fill the big shoes of the suspended Leonardo and the prolific Zimbabwean striker Nyasha Mushkewi (who has left the club). And that’s the Lowdown by Joseph Chin! Sailors Need to Improve After that pretty detailed breakdown by Joseph of our opponents tomorrow, I’ll now give you some of my thoughts. I think this goes without saying, but we must do better than we did against Borneo. Till today I am not sure what that performance was – was it tactics? Tiredness? Bit of both? We looked so passive, and so out of ideas, and we couldn’t string any passes together. It was a genuinely worrying performance, even taking the poorness of the pitch into account. There was a bit of a break after the 2-2 draw against Geylang International some weeks back, and I think and hope that the staff had time to figure out what the problem was. Whether it’s been solved, we don’t know because we put out a very different lineup against Tanjong Pagar United. Coach Rankovic admitted after the game that it was due to rotation, so I don’t think any of us should expect to see the same lineup come tomorrow evening. As always, the proof is in the pudding, so let us all be judges of whether any improvement has been made. I hope that especially at home, we see our team go for it a bit more, and not be so tentative in attack. Maxime had some big words to say in the official club interview, let’s hope the team backs it up with some good play on the pitch. Zhejiang Not In the Best Shape It won’t have escaped notice that even though some might say that recent Sailors form has been unconvincing, Zhejiang’s is even worse. They have lost more than half their games, have a negative goal difference, and their 50 goals conceded is the 2nd-worst defensive record in the entire league. Their form in the past 2 mths? 4 losses, 1 draw, and 1 win. If there’s ever an