After the high of contesting the ACL2 Final on Sunday night, things return very much to our bread and butter tonight. We face off against DPMM, who have been on a good run of form. Here’s a short preview of tonight’s game and why it won’t be easy.
DPMM in Great Form
DPMM suffered a bit of a mid-season wobble, but after striker Davis Ikaunieks settled in, they seem to be firing on all cylinders again.
Just look at that. That’s mighty impressive – 5 wins on the trot. If you look further back, in the last 10 games, they’ve lost only once, and drawn twice. In that run, they have scored 21 goals and conceded 14. Much of it has to do with Davis Ikaunieks coming alive – he has scored 9 goals in his last 5 games.
That takes his league tally to 12 goals, and you can see that most of his goals come from inside the box. We will have to limit the supply to the Latvian forward if we are to keep a clean sheet.
Miguel Oliveira – Dangerman
Of course, the prime dangerman will be Miguel Oliveira. In the league he has 9 goals and 7 assists, and he has been involved in 31.4% of all goals scored by DPMM – a very high figure. For comparison, Maxime is at 37.5% and Bart is at 19.8%.
Part of the reason for him being so difficult for defenders to handle is his effectiveness at using both feet.
There is an almost even spread of goals from his left and right foot respectively, while there is added difficulty in marking him when you look at where his goals are struck from. He is a threat from both inside and outside the box, and again, we have to stop the ball from going to him if we are going to prosper.
Complacency?
There is a chance that we supporters might think this will be an easy game, considering how good we were against Sharjah. DPMM being low down the SPL table will add to that feeling too.
And if we feel it, the players might also feel it. Complacency might creep in.
Then there’s the separate issue of whether the players can get over the heartbreak of Sunday night. There will be a sense that the whole season’s work culminated in that one showpiece final against Sharjah FC, and everything was left out there on the pitch that night. However, Coach Ranko will have to refocus their minds on the Singapore Cup, considering that this was probably one of the non-negotiables set at the start of the season, while the ACL2 was a bonus.
Can the players psyche themselves up for a game of much smaller stature? Let’s hope so.
Conclusion
The good thing about this match coming so soon after Sunday’s final is that there is little time to dwell. The players will want to bounce right back with a win and continue on track to achieve the goals set for them at the start of the season. I expect there to be some, but not a lot of rotation, and I hope our Sailors send a statement to the remaining contenders by winning convincingly – but it won’t be easy.
COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE!
My predicted line-up
Zharfan Rohaizad
Akram Azman, Lionel Tan, Bailey Wright, Toni Datkovic, Diogo Costa
Rui Pires, Song Ui-Young
Maxime Lestienne, Shawal Anuar, 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!
Eddy’s prediction: DPMM 1 Sailors 3
Joseph’s prediction: DPMM 2 Sailors 6
Written by Eddy Hirono
Picture credit – Lion City Sailors
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