October 2024

After what seems like forever, especially after our Sailors had their last match in Bangkok postponed, we finally see our boys in action again. Apologies for the late preview – it’s gonna be really short as well. I’ve come down with a heat exhaustion injury + food poisoning over the last couple of days, and my body has been doing all sorts of horrible things. But never mind, off to the preview we go. The last 2 times we faced Hougang resulted in very routine victories – 4-1 and 7-1, and both times our players didn’t have to break a sweat. More of the same this time? The Obvious Dangermen – Stjepan Plazonja and Dejan Racic I referred to this guy as the SPL Podolski from the first time I started researching on him for the first preview article and all that I’ve seen so far has reinforced that opinion. It is genuinely impressive how powerful and direct he is on the left flank. Plazonja has 8 goals and 7 assists from Hougang’s 16 games so far, which works out to about a goal contribution per game. Truly impressive considering Hougang is a pretty goal-shy team. Of course of his 8 goals, 7 have been on his left foot, with the remaining goal taken on his right foot. We’ll go a long way if we can show him onto his right foot – but I’m guessing every team in the league knows that and still finds it incredibly difficult to stop. If Plazonja is the threat from the left, then Dejan Racic is absolutely the dangerman in front. With 12 goals he is the top-scorer in Hougang, and he profits a lot from Plazonja’s exploits down the left. 2 goals off his head, 3 on his left foot, and 7 on his right foot proves he is a versatile finisher, and we have to stop the service to him. The Return of Shahdan Sulaiman The last time we played Hougang, Shahdan was playing, but he was nowhere near his best as we easily demolished Hougang 7-1. That was 3 months ago when he just came back from injury, though, and in recent games we’ve seen him go back to his usual self. He has 1 goal and 3 assists this season, but more importantly, he has brought back some midfield presence to this Hougang team, which has added another dimension to the team – instead of just their usual long ball from the back. We’re gonna have to keep Shahdan quiet in midfield, and this seems like a game fit for someone like Song Ui-Young to play, because of his physicality, which may help to upset Shahdan’s rhythm a little. The Table Doesn’t Lie With all the nice stuff I said about Hougang in the above two sections, it would seem like I am predicting a really difficult game for the Sailors. However, despite the recent resurgence, Hougang still lie second from bottom, only above Tanjong Pagar United. Also, they are still goal-shy and the list of scorers is not a diverse one. Shut down Racic and shut down Plazonja and we should be fine. Conclusion I wonder if Coach Ranko will rotate again, given that we have a tough away trip in 5 days’ time against Persib, Whatever it is, I hope we have enough strength either in our starting XI or on the bench to save the game should it not go according to plan. COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE! My predicted line-up Izwan Mahbud Hafiz Nor, Lionel Tan, Bailey Wright, Toni Datkovic, Chris van Huizen Song Ui-Young, Hami Syahin Maxime Lestienne, Lennart Thy, Bart Ramselaar 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 4 Hougang 2 Joseph’s prediction: Sailors 6 Hougang 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!

Again, 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 Port FC, and will then add on some of my thoughts and predictions at the end. The Lowdown on Port FC The Name Why are they named Port? A tribute to the Portuguese wine usually paired with dessert? Or are they located by the sea? Well, Port FC are founded and sponsored by the Port Authority of Thailand, and are one of the oldest clubs in the country. They had some initial successes in the 1960s before their current post-millenium golden era. The Port Authority of Thailand Stadium doesn’t pass muster for AFC competitions, so this match will be held in BG Stadium, familiar surroundings for our former player Irfan Fandi (Home United in 2016 and 2017), who just last season was part of the BG Pathum side who plays their matches there. Asian Pedigree Port FC faced Geylang United (aka International) in the 2010 AFC Cup Group Stage. The Eagles drew 2-2 away but lost 1-0 in Singapore. Port FC then managed to go all the way to the quarter-finals before they lost out to Kuwaiti team Qadsia SC. More recently, they had their best campaign in 2021 when they beat a weakened Guangzhou twice. Playoff round losses to Ulsan and Zhejiang in 2021/2022 and 2023/2024 meant they didn’t qualify for the Champions League again. The Man at the Helm Rangsan Viwatchaichok. Young rising manager who won the treble with Buriram in 2011 as a player, and served his original club BEC/Police Tero with distinction both as a player and manager. The former left back/defensive mid was capped 29 times for Thailand. Interestingly, he has played for Geylang United before from 2006 to 2007, and he holds the record for most appearances in the Thai League 1 with 439 appearances. Some Dangermen to Look Out For Port FC look fairly stacked from their recent recruitment drive, so here’s some players to keep an eye out for. Irfan Fandi: For the first time in continental competition, we face a Singaporean doing well overseas. With Isaac Honny (Ghana) and Noboru Shimura (Japan) also in contention at CB, their defence might be a tough one to break down, [Editor’s note – Think Noboru Shimura might be injured, he came off injured during the match against Buriram FC a fewe weeks ago] Frans Putros: Denmark born Iraqi CB/RB who was out injured before his callup against Oman in the recent international window. Recovered well enough to be on the bench against Prachuap last week. He also represented Denmark at the youth levels before being capped for Iraq 19 times. Asnawi Muangkalam: This name will be familiar to all Singapore fans, for what he did to Faris Ramli after he missed a penalty playing against Indonesia. What better way to avenge (then Sailor) Faris’s AFF Cup debacle when Shawal zips past the troll at full back and scores a long ranger (either by himself or have Maxime bend it in like against Zhejiang). and give him the ultimate back-handed compliment by (not) celebrating it in his face. Willen Mota: A familiar face since our encounters with BUTD last season. Last seen coming out as a super sub to score the late winner against Persib. Might end up going for the same trick again to catch our tired Sailors in defence when Felipe Amorim is subbed out. Bordin Phala: A mainstay for Port at club since 2018, and a scourge for our NT at various big tournaments (but thankfully not scored against our national team). A tricky winger who poses a threat himself, or when laying on the assists for his teammates, as you can see above. Playing Style Rangsan generally sets his teams up in a 4-3-3 formation, although he sometimes switches to a 3-4-3 or a 4-2-3-1. Against Persib, he opted for a rare 3-5-1-1. And that’s the Lowdown by Joseph Chin! Away Woes Set to Continue? I don’t quite know what it is, but our Sailors seem to be a completely different team when we play at home vs when we play away. It won’t help that Port is probably one of the strongest teams we will face this season. If you look at all our opponents, I think besides Buriram, no other team comes even close to the quality Port has. Buriram and Port of course, also benefit from playing in a much faster-paced league. As the saying goes – “iron sharpens iron”. Playing week in week out in a league of much higher intensity will mean that our Sailors will have to hang in there for long periods in this game. We will need to “suffer” before we can even think of playing our football. Before the match against CAHN, I hoped that we would do better than we did against Borneo. We can all see how that turned out. One thing that struck me about the CAHN game is how much faster the Vietnamese players looked compared to us, and we might see the same again tonight. They are 2nd in the table, behind the Buriram juggernaut. A few weeks ago, they managed to eke out a 0-0 draw against Buriram, while last week they fell 2-1 to fellow challengers BG Pathum. Do not be fooled by their recent run of form in the league, where they are winless in 4. They are still dominating games, and even in their loss against BG Pathum, they were far and away the better team, and made BG Pathum look like a mid-table team. A combination of poor finishing, bad luck and occasional bad defending has led to this run, but I believe it is nothing more than a slight blip for them. Conclusion I cannot in good conscience predict that our Sailors can go up there and