November 1, 2024

What. A. Win. I didn’t see it coming at all, and if you had offered me a chance to take a point away from home against in my opinion, the strongest team in the group, I would have taken it, no questions asked. I suspect many supporters would have done the same, having seen us get pummeled away from home 3-0, and 5-0 this season in continental competition. Yes, Port dominated the ball, and made a heckload of passes. See below. But when it mattered, we came up with the goods. Besides goals, another key stat to look out for is big chances created – interestingly, Port had nothing on that front. Izwan hardly had a save to make all night. Let’s talk about some of what we saw in an important and potentially historic away victory that puts us in a very good place with half the group matches done. Intensity Wins Games In continental games, especially away fixtures, I would love to see how much additional effort our players have to expend. Our Sailors can be accused of taking it a little easy in domestic fixtures, but you can really see them running their socks off whenever they come up against better opposition. I don’t think it’s just a motivation issue – it simply is about survival. If you don’t run, if you don’t close down the spaces, you get punished big time on the continental stage, purely because of the greater quality of our opponents. And when we talk about intensity, our fans, especially those who have supported since the Home Utd days will think of Song Uiyoung. This season, we have not seen him at his sparkling best, but the image of Song sprinting around the pitch, sometimes seemingly like a headless chicken is one we will associate with him always. He was undoubtedly the star of the show two ACL campaigns ago, as we downed K-league side Daegu once, and almost did it twice. He was also the star of many AFC Cup games back in the red and white of Home United. I think it’s fair to say that this season, we have not seen the best of him yet. And it looked likely to continue as he blasted over when presented with a half-chance in the box. The score was 2-0 then, and I feared that it would be a costly miss. Of course, we now know that he would score from a heavily-deflected shot in the second half to seal the points for us, but I wanna talk about his intensity instead. From the first whistle, he sprinted around like a man possessed. I have been critical of Song this season in some games when I felt like he wasn’t at his best, but this was the Song I know and love. Not the biggest guy, but always pressing, always scrapping, always getting his arms and elbows and legs in the way of opponents, making it hard for them to settle. And it was this quality that brought us our crucial second goal, when he fought for the ball that wasn’t even 50-50. I think it was 30-70. Noboru always looked likely to win it. However, Song’s presence meant that Noboru didn’t get a clean connection with the ball and only managed to scuff it into an area where Shawal could pounce on and capitalise. Song’s robust presence in midfield (along with some reliable passing – 13 out of 16 successful passes) let our opponents know that we were up for the fight. While that intensity may have been set by some early Song duels, but it was seen in every single person out there. You think about how our central defensive trio reacted when put under some intense pressure in the second half, you think about how much defending Lennart Thy and Shawal Anuar had to do, often helping out as far back as in the flanks outside our penalty area, and you can see how such results are borne out of a lot of hard work. But of course, hard work alone isn’t a guarantee of success, you still need some quality. And that brings us to … Shawal Anuar the Superstar Everytime we see Shawal Anuar put in such a performance, it is worth thinking about how difficult this journey of his to the top has been. He is 33 this year and isn’t getting any younger, but some of his best football has been seen after he turned 30. Coach Ranko often calls Shawal his MVP, his superstar, and with such performances, it’s easy to see why. If you don’t know how difficult his journey was, I suggest you check out this excellent article by Straits Times writer Deepanraj Ganesan. From cleaning glass panels in shopping malls while getting paid a S$50 allowance to play, to cleaning the floor with his opponents in the ACL2, he has certainly come a long way. The first goal was a simple finish for him, set up by an inch-perfect cross by Chris van Huizen (whose name was mispronounced about 400 times by the commentator that night), but it was an example of him making the right run into the right space. I would also like to point out that Lennart Thy and Shawal Anuar both saw the play unfold, and worked together as a strike duo to make the right runs. Shawal burst into the area in front of goal, while Lennart was on his bike as well, but upon seeing Shawal in that position, occupied the area behind Shawal in case of a cutback from Chris. The second goal is by far the more impressive one. First, he had to have the instinct to sniff that the ball was going to reach him. If you watch the replay, you will see that he already started his run even when the ball was still in the air. He sensed that Song might win that aerial challenge, and while Song didn’t,