You’ve read the preview – I thought our Sailors would hang on and survive and just about squeak through to the semi-finals. But we did much more than that. Coach Ranko delivered on his promise, and the tactics were spot on. We didn’t just sit back and weather the storm, we forged forwards at times against the wind, with our sails proudly hoisted.
Can we, without batting an eyelid say we definitely deserved progress? No, I think that would be a stretch. We were soundly beaten 6-1 in the first leg in Hiroshima. Valere Germain or not, I don’t think the result would have been much different, even if he did get one of the six goals. However, I think the circumstances being what they were, we did our best to prove to Singapore and the rest of Asia that we are at the same time not an imposter team that doesn’t belong in the final four. And that’s important – I discuss why, and more, in the post-match thoughts.
Don’t Name Your Son or Daughter Germain
First, let’s not escape the elephant in the room. We didn’t qualify for the semi-finals purely based on on-field merit – we progressed because the name of the elephant was Germain.
Ryo or Valere? Both, I say.
Valere Germain’s contribution was obvious: his introduction meant his club’s 6-1 win was transformed by AFC into a 0-3 loss, handing us a vital advantage ahead of the second leg. However, even then, you will see how apprehensive I was in the preview article. I wasn’t alone, some other fans also were very nervous, given the footballing lesson Sanfrecce Hiroshima delivered last week to us.
And then Ryo Germain happened. Rendered ineffective in the first half, he must have been frustrated at the start of the second when he inexplicably swiped at Bailey twice, connecting with his face in the second swipe. Red card. He tried explaining to the ref that it was accidental, that the swipe wasn’t deliberate – like a man mass-swiping on Tinder without really looking closely at the pictures. But that excuse was never gonna fly. Off he went.
With the score locked at 1-1, there may have been hope of Sanfrecce scoring 3 goals in the second half to take the tie to extra time. However, without their main striker, and playing with 10 men, it was gonna be impossible.
Moral of the story? Germain is an unlucky name. But one thing that had nothing to do with luck? Coach Ranko’s decision to start with Lennart upfront.
Excellent Tactics + Starring Performance Upfront from Lennart
5 at the back is something we’ve come to expect from our Sailors team, but there was one notable omission from the lineup which must have surprised even our opponents. Goalscoring hero from the first-leg 3-0 win (heh), Shawal Anuar, was not in the starting eleven. In his place, Lennart Thy. This proved to be a tactical masterstroke, not only because he scored, but because of his physical presence and hold-up play.
Being 3-0 up, we didn’t really need a goal, but we knew that we couldn’t just defend the whole 90min – if you do that, Sanfrecce are bound to score. And so Lennart Thy was unleashed on our opponents as a defensive forward, a physical wrecking ball up front designed to disrupt and disturb. He set the tone right from the start – in the 2nd minute he chased down a long ball from Izwan and shoved a Sanfrecce defender to the floor.
Lennart’s physical strength and aerial prowess came to the fore many times during the game, and one of those occasions led to our goal. From a goal kick, Izwan launched it onto the head of Lennart. Lennart got up into an aerial duel with his marker, and not only won the ball, but continued his run, seeing that his header had gone to Shawal. If you look closely, you can see that his defender is still smarting from the duel, and is clutching his face a little. Shawal chests the ball up to himself, and then pulls off a sepak takraw-style flick to Lennart.
There’s still a lot to do at this point because Shawal’s pass is slightly behind Lennart given the pace he is running at. However, Lennart’s first touch from almost behind his body is a perfect one, flicking it into his stride where his next touch is a well-placed shot into the back of the net.
Coach Ranko promised that we wouldn’t just park the bus, that we would defend well, but also pick the right moments to attack. His plan worked perfectly. Mentally, this moment must have really discouraged Sanfrecce. They were 4 goals down away from home.
Lennart continued to impose his physicality on the Sanfrecce defence, and was almost rewarded further in the second half when he exerted just enough pressure on a Sanfrecce defender, forcing him to play a terrible back-pass to his keeper. Though he really should have scored.
He tried to go around the keeper here, but he really should’ve gone keeper’s right if he really wanted to, given that there was a defender breathing down his neck. Or he should really just have shot from here. The keeper was coming out, and had hidden his arms behind his back for fear of giving away a handball foul. Any placed shot or chip would have been very hard to defend.
But that’s not what I will remember from this game. When I think back to this game, I will remember his perfect first touch and how important the goal was. And I will also remember how a big-name foreign signing of a striker ran around like a man possessed to fight for every loose ball, and put his opponents under pressure. So often you will get a foreign player who is a bit of a primadonna – I am so glad that Lennart isn’t one.
Hariss Harun Rolling Back the Years
Hariss Harun played like a man possessed. I’ve always found the expression “played like a man possessed” slightly troubling. Not just because I am forced to think about ghosts, but also because surely it matters who you are possessed by?
I mean, if Hariss Harun played like a man possessed by the dead spirit of my grandmother, he’d be very good at cooking curry chicken and nagging but maybe not so good at football. So just to clarify, when I say he played like a man possessed, he played like a man possessed by N’golo Kante – who is still very much alive, but I’m sure you get what I mean. He was covering so much space and was often found in places that we never really see Hariss in anymore.
Here he was, trying out a trick in the opposition penalty area.
And in this moment, he doesn’t sit back in the safety of midfield and form a shield to protect his defence. He makes it as uncomfortable as possible for his opponent, first pushing past his marker, and then closing down the ball-handler with a slightly late challenge.
In this moment, Hariss can be seen running to close down and being the furthest player forward. Again, he could have sat back to forma shield, but his pressure here means the Sanfrecce centre-back panicks a little and puts the ball out of play. This was picked up on commentary as well by Rhysh Roshan Rai, who said that Hariss wasn’t going to get to the overhit pass, but it was nevertheless important that he carried on his run to put pressure on the ball-handler.
These are just three examples, but Hariss really rolled back the years and covered so much ground to help protect his defence – a true captain’s performance.
We Almost Won
No exaggeration, we almost won. On a night when Sanfrecce needed to score at least three goals, our Sailors did really well to reduce them to only three shots on target. Two saves from Izwan, and a free-kick goal that might even have been blocked by our wall if Lionel had jumped haha.
It is the unfairness I guess of how we judge attackers vs defenders in that mistakes made by defenders get so much more bad press than attackers. Shawal had this moment in the second half where he had to just look up and play Lennart Thy in, and the win would have been ours.
However, he dallied a little and in the end the chance was gone.
Still, I love how we are talking about potentially winning the game. Simply put, Sanfrecce Hiroshima were so completely stifled by our Sailors that they created very little. We should be very proud of our Sailors’ performance.
It is especially amazing considering we lost Maxime Lestienne, our best player and talisman to injury after 10 minutes. We had to adapt to that, and we did so seamlessly. His replacement, Shawal even got an assist! Amazing job by our players. Oh, and get well soon, Max!
Conclusion
Heading into these games, I’d like to think there were 2 objectives. First of course, was simply to qualify for the next stage and keep the dream alive.
Second, was to win hearts. I think when you are awarded a 3-0 walkover win by the AFC, there is every chance of people saying that you didn’t earn your progress at all. And I mean, they are right in a way. The only way to really say that we earned it on merit would be to beat them by 6 goals in the second leg I guess. But that was never gonna happen.
The next best thing you can do is to either win or draw your game, and remain competitive throughout. That we did, and more.
There’s been talk about history being made, and that this side is on par with Geylang and Home United from 2004, who made it to the semi-finals of the AFC Cup. But I’d say they’ve already surpassed that – the 2004 AFC Cup did not feature any teams from top Asian nations such as Saudi Arabia, Japan, Korea, China, etc.
So yes, we’ve surpassed that, but the adventure doesn’t stop here. We have a semi to play against Sydney FC and continue making history. As fans, we have to enjoy the ride, for moments like these don’t come very frequently.
COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE!
Written by Eddy Hirono
Picture credit – Lion City Sailors
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