The goals may have captured the imagination of the fans at the stadium, and watching on at home, but to me, what really caught the eye was the immense defensive effort put in by the team. If we defended like this in our league games, I am pretty sure we’d still be unbeaten this season. What stuck out to me? Let’s take a quick look (because I haven’t written the preview for tomorrow’s game).
Maxime was Defending!
Prior to Maxime scoring THAT goal, I had a friend text me to say Maxime was having a poor game. I think if you’re focusing on offensive output, then yeah sure, it wasn’t as high as his usual standards, but it was understandable because of the amount of defending he was asked to do.
Often in the first half, with the score still at 0-0, he was behind the ball, forming a midfield block with the rest of his midfielders.
Here you see him winning the ball in midfield, before sprinting forward to take up an offensive position.
And here you see him, back in position to ensure there is no overload on the left side. While he obviously wasn’t making tackles galore or intercepting every pass like N’Golo Kante, his presence there was crucial in ensuring we were hard to break down.
He wasn’t the only one, of course. Lennart Thy put in a huge shift shutting down players from the front, while Bart Ramselaar defiinitely did more defending in this 1 game than he has in his entire time playing SPL games. It’s just surprising because Maxime is usually the “luxury player” allowed to drift around upfront and “cheat”. “Cheating” of course, is the term used to describe the practice of not dropping back on defence in the hope that when your teammates win the ball back, you are free to pounce without your defender on you.
Having seen how our Sailors can do this, I am hoping that we can similarly repeat such performances when we come up against the likes of Balestier, Geylang, Tampines in the league as well. Let’s not assume that these sides are not worth the effort. Teams like Man City and Arsenal only achieved the consistency they did in the league last season because they took every team seriously.
Defensive Focus
In a performance full of defensive grit and focus, it is difficult to single out any player for praise. Everyone did their job perfectly. However I’d like to highlight the focus of the team, and in particular Bart Ramselaar, who often times felt like the defensive organiser of the forward line.
Here you see him gesturing towards Lionel hurriedly to get back into position. What happened here was that Lionel had just won the ball brilliantly against his opponent, and then found an opportunity to burst forward. Instead of releasing a pass to one of his attacking teammates, he decided to go it alone, and eventually lost the ball. Both Bart Ramselaar and Lennart Thy were furious at the missed opportunity and started berating Lionel, but just 2 seconds later, Bart immediately switched back to match mentality, and urged Lionel to get back into his position quickly. Check it out if you want at 62:09 of the game.
We were excellent at the back, but much of the good work started from the front.
The Goals
These goals will live long in the memory. In a post-match interview with Lionel, he pointed out that some members of the dressing room saw parallels between Hariss’s “goal” in the Champions in Blue music video, and also the goal that he scored against Zhejiang.
He wasn’t the only one to spot it, I spoke to some fans in the stands who also immediately saw the funny side of it. Hariss’s goal came at a time when we had been putting more pressure on the Zhejiang goal – but to be honest, it was merely half-chances and speculative shots from range hit straight at the keeper, nothing very threatening.
When the goal finally came, it was an accurate Izwan kick that started it all. He was quick to spot that Maxime had gone into a pocket of space on the left wing, and a direct ball found him with time and space. He put in a good ball for Lennart to attack, but it went just beyond him. Lennart then did well with Hami Syahin to keep the play alive before finally the ball broke to Hariss and he lashed it in from range. I think the keeper could have done slightly better, but I am not complaining.
Maxime’s goal was a stunner too – but maybe more stunning for the keeper than it was for us. We are simply so used to his brilliance week in week out that I am sure some of us knew exactly what he was gonna do there. He was gonna do the keeper like he did Syazwan Buhari about 25 times in the past.
Look at his eyes in the replay of the goal. He never once looks towards goal – he can sniff it without having to look at it. He gave the keeper the eyes, and faked him out – the keeper definitely thought he was going for a cross or a pass. We all know what happened next. So cool.
Conclusion
This was much better than the Borneo game wasn’t it! Let’s play like this all the time, guys. Full commitment, defensive solidity, and a good gameplan. We limited Zhejiang to two good chances, and these came after we had already taken the lead. Both times, Izwan Mahbud came to the rescue.
In midfield, Hami and Hariss put in a professional, tidy performance full of hard running. At the back, our 3 centrebacks kept it safe. Everyone did their bit, and did it excellently.
On to the next game today, a tough one against Balestier Khalsa!
Written by Eddy Hirono
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