So it wasn’t to be. What we suspected all along was true – Buriram are a class side, and it would be difficult for our Sailors to keep alive our slim qualification hopes. We were given a huge slice of hope though, when a red card was shown to Kenneth Dougall, meaning we had a whole half to try to break down Buriram’s defence. However, despite many close shaves, we just couldn’t make it happen, and so we’re out.
Some thoughts from an action-packed night despite the scoreline!
The Red Card
Let’s start easy. I’ve heard some people say that they don’t think it’s a red card. Well, pictures don’t lie, so let’s take a look at the replay.
Oh, sorry that is a picture of a time-wasting buffoon celebrating winning the World Cup a draw against a team from a much weaker league. Am I being bitter? Yes. Do I give a shit? No. Ok I’ll carry on.
For some reason, above-mentioned buffoon / clown / shithead was never punished by the referee despite multiple occasions of time-wasting, including doing freestyle tricks right under the nose of the ref. When Lennart Thy tried to dribble the ball back to the six yard area after the ball had gone out, to reduce the time wasted, he even tripped Lennart – and still the referee didn’t do a thing. Amazing,
But we were talking about the red card, not random Thai clowns, so please refer to this still below instead.
Maxime is just outside the box, with perhaps perhaps ONE covering defender about 8m away? I don’t think that defender gets to Maxime if Dougall didn’t trip him. Maxime would then be facing the keeper diagonally right, with his left foot primed to strike. It’s the perfect angle for him – he can even dink it over the keeper if he wants. It’s definitely denial of an obvious goalscoring opportunity.
We even almost scored from the resulting freekick too! But Thai clown made a great double save to deny Datkovic, and so we went into half-time 0-0.
Before we move on to the rest of the article, I just wanted to point out how sharp Maxime is. If you look at the replay, once Lennart flicks it on, you can see that Max is already on the move, staring intently at the ball and closing Dougall down. He knows that Buriram like to play with the ball, and he’s likely to take a touch to bring it down, rather than just do the simple and head it clear or back to the keeper. He gambles, and it’s a disastrous touch for Dougall but a delightful one for Max.
Matches can turn on the slightest of details, and had we gone on to find the winner in this game, there’s no doubt that this would be the key moment. To think that it could result from just 1 small decision to press.
Toe to Toe
Even before the red card, I was impressed with our Sailors. Sure, we had some nervy moments, but I had anticipated a full-on barrage from Buriram, and for us to be clinging on, and clearing every ball from our box. What we saw was quite different. Buriram were superior in midfield exchanges, and their pace of passing was superb, but the first half prior to the red card felt quite even, or 60-40 in Buriram’s favour.
We even came closest to scoring a goal, with Maxime curling a fantastic shot against the bar. Clowny McClownface was well beaten.
In the second half, with the man advantage, I thought Buriram did superb to deny the Sailors a goal. They stood firm on the edge of their box and on a few occasions, stopped promising through-balls into the box which would have helped us get behind their defence. For all our huff and puff, we never really got behind them, and our best chances came from crosses. Glorious chances though! In total, there were three opportunities right in front of goal, we just couldn’t take them. Lennart, Song and Toni will surely replay those chances in their heads for a while. Shawal too, had a decent chance by his standards, but he headed wide.
Before the game, if you had told me we would be the side that looked more likely to win, I would have been very surprised. I think despite being dumped out of the competition, we can hold our heads high for this match. We kept a clean sheet against a side that scores goals for fun. And we came mighty close to writing a new chapter in our history of cup upsets.
Attacking Intent
Ranko has come under attack before for being a cautious, pragmatic coach. In my opinion, I like what I see because our Sailors have never looked this solid throughout the club’s history. But yesterday required a different approach after the red card – and I think you could finally see us throwing caution to the wind. The match ended with Rasaq, Lennart, Shawal, Bart, Maxime, Song all on the field. Each of those players were on the field because they are capable of getting us an important goal.
At the death, supporters were also treated to the sight of Izwan making his way into the opposing penalty area. Scenes if he had scored then. I joked with Brandon, who was seated next to me, and said that in my visions, I can see the ball being cleared, and then Hafiz Nor strikes it on the volley from 30 yards and it sails into the top corner. Well, those visions were not accurate, to say the least. That’s why I am not a medium, I’m an XL.
It may have been a 0-0, but from staff to players, everyone tried their darndest to pull off the latest upset at Jalan Besar Stadium. And I’m proud of the team. Just like in the AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup, when Singapore teams come up against superior opposition, all we want is to see that we have put up a good fight.
And that was really good.
Conclusion
We did well, but the ball just didn’t go in. Credit has to go to Clowny McClownface for making those saves, and for the Buriram defence for being so resolute despite having only 10 men for the whole second half.
Our exit from the Shopee Cup was not because we drew last night, it was because we played so poorly against FC Borneo and Cong An Ha Noi.
The draw will give us great morale for the season ahead. If we can turn in such performances against the likes of Port FC, Zhejiang, and now Buriram United, who in the league can stop us? My only worry is complacency.
And if we turn our attentions to the continental front – I think it’s proof that we should fear noone.
On to the weekend we go, where we face a tough opponent in Geylang. If someone could slip some dodgy ingredients into his udon in the next few days that’d be great.
Written by Eddy Hirono
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