BG Tampines should have won this game, and yet I think there is much we can be happy about as we concluded a gruelling SPL season with a goalless draw. Let’s dive into some quick post-match thoughts.
Sailors Field Unfamiliar Lineup
Of the 11 players that started against Sharjah FC, only 2 players remained in the starting lineup against BG Tampines – Hariss Harun and Lennart Thy.
Sailors fans feared the worst. Individually of course, we know the Sailors reserve players are no pushovers. But would a mish-mash side featuring a first start for 17 year-old Joshua Little be enough to deal with a BG Tampine side that has played some good football this year?
It turns out the answer was both “yes” and “no”. Yes, because we ground out the 0-0 despite resting the whole team for the Singapore Cup semi-final 2nd leg, but “no” because on another day, we’d definitely have lost this game.
We’ll talk about the missed chances for BG Tampines later, but perhaps it wasn’t so surprising that our Sailors gave up higher-quality chances than normal in this game. We had Carmona playing left centre-back, Mamat playing right centre-back. These are positions they have not played before. Hafiz Nor, Anu, Abdul Rasaq, and Obren Kljajic were given rare starts. These are players with little gametime under their belts and little chemistry with each other.
Then – the youngsters. We had Josh Little anchoring midfield in his first start. We had Henry Spence, Enrico Walmrath, and Andy Reefqy come on in the second half, with Henry Spence in particular impressing.
While we could and perhaps should have lost, did we expect anything different after seeing the lineup? Some of us saw a loss coming, so kudos for the spirit shown by our players.
BG Tampines Created the Better Chances
This may be a little misleading. If we go by these stats, it looks fairly even, with BG possibly just edging us out on some stats, However, these stats don’t tell the full story.
BG Tampines had 2 (rightly) disallowed goals for offside, 2 sitters for Arya Igami that he would bury on another day, and of course, this.
Joel Chew’s shot on the edge of the six-yard box was somehow kept out by a sprawling reflex save from Zharfan. Noone could believe it, including Shah Shahiran, who had already begun celebrating. Not only did Zharfan keep it out, he parried it away to safety and the chance was gone. This save, coming so soon after their disallowed goal, would have drained whatever confidence they still had of finding a late winner.
In response, we had a few chances of our own, and none closer than this.
From this angle, it does look like CvH’s shot went in. However, I accept that VAR doesn’t have an angle that clearly shows it’s in. Had we taken the lead despite all of BG Tampines’s huffing and puffing, it would have been hilarious.
Though maybe not as hilarious as BG Tampines fans running in the direction of Sailors fans pointing middle fingers and shouting profanities after they scored a goal in the dying stages of the game, only for it to be ruled offside.
Zharfan Rohaizad – Character
It isn’t easy being a substitute goalkeeper. Unlike outfielders, you don’t get the chance to come on for 5-10min cameos near the end of games. You’re either starting goalkeeper, or you’re not. Of course, some coaches designate a starting league goalkeeper, and a starting cup goalkeeper.
It is somewhat the case for Zharfan and Izwan, with Zharfan being given the Singapore Cup games, and Izwan being given the SPL games.
It wasn’t always this way – and you don’t even need a long memory to remember that. Earlier this season, we got pummelled 5-0 by BG Tampines. Zharfan made a huge blunder in that game, allowing Glenn Kweh to score. He paid the price for that, as he was dropped for the next game, and since then, has been the 2nd choice keeper.
So it’s perhaps poetic somewhat that he would start against BG Tampines and finish the game as Man of the Match. THAT save aside, he made some other saves as well, recovering from an early misplaced pass to be truly commanding in goal.
It is all the more commendable given that by his own admission, he didn’t have his best game against DPMM in the 1st leg of the Singapore Cup semis. One of the goals scored by DPMM was directly due to him not handling a long shot well,
I don’t know what the future holds for Zharfan, given that he would walk into most other clubs in Singapore and get to play automatically in the first team, but I hope that he continues with us so that we have two keepers of a sufficient standard to help us achieve our objectives of dominating locally and punching above our weight continentally.
Conclusion
An encouraging result even if it was quite meaningless for our league standings. Perhaps this will give us a little bit of a mental edge if we meet BG Tampines in the Singapore Cup final – provided both teams make it.
We avoided defeat, rested our big guns, and with this result the BG Tampines fans have nothing to celebrate. And that brings us joy.
Bring on DPMM in the 2nd leg of the SG Cup semis next!
Written by Eddy Hirono
Photo credit – Lion City Sailors
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