February 19, 2025

Football is a funny thing. Just a week ago, I was bullish – insisting that bringing home a 1-goal lead was an advantage and that we should forget that the advantage was once 3 goals. However, as the match approaches, there is a sense of nerves creeping in. And I’m just a fan! I wonder how the players must feel. I don’t know what it is – maybe it’s cos our Sailors have shown before this ACL2 campaign that they like to do things the hard way, or maybe it’s cos I’m an Arsenal and Singapore fan, so there’s this inbuilt pessimism. Whatever it is, let’s dive right into the preview. Song’s Suspension We kick it off with the bad stuff. You already know that Song will be suspended for this game, because of the controversial red card received in Bangkok. Well, if we make it through tonight, he will be suspended for both legs of the game against Sanfrecce Hiroshima as well. We will miss his fighting spirit, and also his goals. We joke and call him AFC Cup Song because he seems to reserve his best performances for continental games, but that joke is borne out of reality. Song in AFC competitions is really different gravy. He has 5 goals and 1 assist in ACL2 this season, while in the league, he has 5 goals. Considering the number of games played in each competition, and the superior quality we face in ACL2, that form doesn’t make sense. But we’ll miss his continental form. Song’s absence will always be felt. In our maiden ACL campaign, it was his goals that lit up our group stage campaign. He got us the all-important opening goal in the historic 3-0 win over Daegu FC, and he gave us hope of qualifying for the next stage as well when he scored from range against Daegu again in our final group game. (sidetrack here, but one of my favourite post-match reactions filmed was in Buriram when Song scored against Daegu in the 3-0 win. Check it out here.) And then this season, when we most needed Song to show up, he showed up in both games against Port FC, notably getting a hat-trick at Jalan Besar Stadium in our 5-2 victory. When the chips were down at 2-2, and we were staring at elimination having given up a 2-goal lead again, it was him who popped up with a stupendous scissor kick to put us ahead. We won’t have him tonight, so we’ll be looking to his teammates to supply the attacking threat, and the combative spirit in midfield. Early Goals 1, 1, 11, 14, 17, 23. Not TOTO numbers, but just an example of how early our goals have come in this ACL2 campaign. A feature of our games so far has been how early we score, and how we always score first. Or score TWO first. In 7 games thus far, we have led 2-0 in 6 of the games . The other game? We conceded first to Persib to draw 1-1 away from home. Given our 1-goal advantage, should we go out again and try to get an early goal? It’s hard to say. You can make the case for either an offensive or defensive approach. Offensive – Opponents take time to get used to the Jalan Besar turf. The bounce is weird, the surface is hard, and it has an effect on opponents’ minds. Just look at how much moaning and groaning our opponents always engage in when they have to play at Jalan Besar, be it against us, or the Singapore national team. Muangthong may have trained on astroturf all week in the lead-up to this game, but that also shows how much this pitch is playing on their minds. So why not attack early, get an early goal, and really make them feel like they have a mountain to climb, staring at a 2-goal deficit? Defensive – This one doesn’t need much explaining. We have a 1-goal advantage, if we sit deep and frustrate our opponents, they need a goal and they’ll commit men forward more and more. We can then exploit the gaps with our superior attackers. Lestienne and Shawal in particular will absolutely love the space being afforded to them on the counter-attack. Of course, either approach has its pros and cons. I fancy us to go on the offensive actually. While we were down to 10 men last week, we were under the cosh a lot. Aside from the 2 goals they scored, there were a few other near-misses that I would have expected us to defend better. Our defensive record in the ACL2 isn’t stellar as well. That being the case, why not play like we always do, and try to get a goal to dampen the mood of our opponents? Gino Lettieri is A Fool, but he is Fooling Noone Gino Lettieri – is he senile, stupid, bitter, or all of the above? In case you missed it, he told the press ahead of tonight’s game that he was “angry” that the Sailors looked to “stay down on every contact”, and that they should play “honest”. Before I start with the analysis on this stupid statement, let’s reproduce it in full so you can savour the stupidity of it. (and before you proceed, I get a little angry and bitter in this section so if you don’t like vulgarities, scroll away) Like a goldfish taking a lift, this statement is stupid on so many levels. Of course, maybe I am the stupid and bitter one, for falling into this trap. He might just have said all this to try to rile our boys up, distract them from the gameplan, or tempt them to go harder in challenges so he can profit from another controversial red card. Or maybe he was dropped on his head as a baby and didn’t receive any love from his parents, leading him to grow up to be