There’s always a debate about which team had a “better” season. The English Premier League throws up that question every once in a while, none more so than this season. Having won zero trophies, Arsenal finished in 2nd place and got knocked out in the UCL semi-finals – but can they claim to have a better season than Newcastle (League Cup champion), Crystal Palace (FA Cup champion), Spurs (Europa League champion), or Chelsea (UEFA Conference League champion)?
It’s a debatable point, and one that requires pundits and fans to decide whether they place most importance on league performance, and whether progress to the latter stages of a competition but not winning it is something valuable in and of itself. How is all this relevant ahead of a high-stakes Cup Final against BG Tampines Rovers? Let’s find out.
History Sometimes Forgets Its Losers
Yes, what the title said. Unless you lose in a very spectacular fashion, such as when Bayer Leverkusen finished 2nd in the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal, and in the Champions League, you may have put up the most valiant of fights in the final, but history won’t really remember you. Even for the Bayer Leverkusen defeat in the UCL Final, I’d argue that most people remember them only because Zidane’s winner is so widely played and replayed. I think it’d be a challenge for most to name all the UCL runners-up just in this millennium.
Point being this – in a season where we took part in 4 competitions, battled hard, and gave supporters some incredible moments, now’s the business end of the season and we would ideally want something tangible to remember this team by. We are lucky that in this era, Youtube exists, TikTok exists, so glorious moments can be replayed over and over again – but still I’d argue it’s not the same.
Silverware and defeating your rivals in a final – when it matters most, that’s a feeling that’s irreplaceable, and there’s good reason for that. It’s because history will never forget what you did.
So what if Bayer Leverkusen were perhaps unlucky not to win against Real Madrid, having registered more shots on goal and tested substitute goalkeeper Iker Casillas deep into injury time? So what if Bayer Leverkusen were acknowledged by some pundits as having played better? So what if Leverkusen’s coach Klaus Toppmöller was smoking throughout the game on the sidelines? (Ok that last point wasn’t relevant, but it was just funny to think as recently as 2002 that was allowed on the touchlines.)
This season will live long in the history of every LCS fan, because of the insane highs and occasional lows and the journey we’ve been on. But to the neutral poring through archives and records, silverware is all that matters. Let’s make sure that LCS’s season isn’t remembered as just as good season, but a GREAT one, by doing the domestic double (I don’t count the Community Shield).
Head-to-Head
This season has seen some great battles with BG Tampines, but if we were just to look at head-to-head records, they have the edge.
Two draws, and each team has one win each. Of course, they have the bigger win, 5-0 at Bishan Stadium, a real bad memory from what has been largely a great season. An interesting thing to note is that in all our games this season, they have had more xG than us, regardless of result.
Of course, the recent 0-0 and the 2-2 result saw us rotate the starting line-up significantly, but the 5-0 loss and the 1-0 win we basically fielded what Coach Ranko felt was our strongest team.
Tampines have always raised their game for us. The same defence that looks so disorganised and skittish against the likes of Balestier Khalsa and Hougang United, will suddenly transform into a prime Mourinho side when they face us. That’s how much they hate us. Irfan Najeeb will transform into Javier Zanetti, Amirul Adli will make us question why we ever let him go, and even Shuya Yamashita will look like a serviceable defender.
Then further upfield, Faris Ramli, who we dearly love, will up his game several notches as well. The only thing I guess that is in our favour is that Boris Kopitovic is no longer there. Which brings me to my next topic.
No Boris Kopitovic
Boris plays every match for BG Tampines like he is fighting for his life. That is something that I think the current BG Tampines side misses. For a team that loves their silky passing triangles, Boris Kopitovic is the steel that accompanies the silk. The footbrawl to the football that Tampines play. I am pretty sure that if he played for the Sailors, I would love the way he fights in every game. However, of course, he played for the yellow and black, and for that, we dislike him – football is as simple as that haha.
But besides those personal qualities of his, there lies a very good player who wasn’t necessarily replaced properly in my opinion.
These are Boris’s stats. 1.24 goal involvements per 90. 16 goals and 6 assists in half a season before he left for Bali United. You compare that with Itsuki Enomoto’s stats, and therein lies perhaps a hint as to where BG Tampines’s season unravelled.
These are Enomoto’s stats for the whole season – including his time at Young Lions where the system was set up to get him goals. 0.78 v 1.24 involvements per 90? That’s a huge drop-off.
BG Tampines also sent Jared Gallagher out on loan, despite him playing a healthy number of minutes in the first team in the first half of the season. Dylan Fox’s arrival played a part in that of course. (I had a chat with Jared about this in the sister podcast – do check it out here).
In what is gonna be a very rare occurrence for me – I find myself saying something nice about BG Tampines here. I think it’s quite rare that clubs put the interests of players above their own interests. Given how close the title fight was, BG Tampines could have put their foot down and said nope, Jared, nope Boris. you guys are not gonna go anywhere, we need you for the title fight. But they didn’t – they let the players depart the team.
It might have cost them the league, will it cost them the Cup too?
Atmosphere
It’s gonna be a great atmosphere – I can feel it already. BG Tampines fans absolutely hate the Sailors. While I can understand why they are trying to force a rivalry where I don’t necessarily see one, I think sometimes it can seem pretty strange.
Their preoccupation with the Sailors extends to games where the Sailors are not even playing. Chants of “Sailors Bangsat” – which means “bastard”, and “What Do You Think of Sailors? Shit!” chants are heard regularly in games not featuring the Sailors. And of course, who can forget their ultra-creative chant “Fuck You Sailors”? Shakespeare would be proud of such wit. It’s as if their only way of staying relevant is to mention someone who is more relevant.
That’s not to say I don’t think BG Tampines is relevant – they are the second-most successful club in the league this year and that deserves a heckload of respect. Their fans also sing loud and proud for the full duration of games, another thing to be very proud of. And then there’s the fact that they are well-run on a much smaller budget than the Sailors, and sometimes play a very attractive brand of football.
However, when their supporters define the club by what they hate, instead of what they truly represent, and the many things that they should be proud of, I find that really strange.
On top of that, you then get the over-the-top aggression that some of their fans display. In the recent 0-0 draw, you got a handful of kids and even adults fiercely gesticulating with middle fingers towards the Sailors fans when they scored their “winner” (which was later disallowed). A few fans even ran in the direction of Sailors fans to make their gestures even more obvious.
It’s all very childish.
Sailors fans reading this, I hope to be able to appeal to you all to not react to any of the provocation that will come our way, regardless of the result. Ultimately, this is a game of football, and there are way more important things in life than some bragging rights between domestic rivals. Let’s focus on cheering our boys on, and doing our best to push them to another piece of silverware.
Conclusion
This has been a super-long season, and we all can’t wait for it to be over. However, we want to end it on the most beautiful of notes – with another piece of silverware. BG Tampines will feel confident, given that in the 2nd leg of their semi-final, they triumphed over BG Pathum’s 1st team, not the 2nd-stringers that they played in the 1st leg. And what a dramatic win it was too!
Our Sailors come into this with a bit more rest, having rested the whole team for the league fixture a week ago. Hopefully, the legs won’t be as heavy as those of our opponents’, who had to go all the way in extra time to win it.
Both sides will be confident that they can win this – but hopefully, our boys will find the will and the quality in their ranks for just 1 more time this season, to defend the Cup, and smack BG Tampines right in their crown jewels.
COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE!
My predicted line-up
Zharfan Rohaizad
Hami Syahin, Hariss Harun, 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: Tampines 1 Sailors 2
Joseph’s prediction: Tampines 1 Sailors 4
Written by Eddy Hirono
Picture credit – Lion City Sailors
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