Photo Credit: Lion City Sailors FC
After weeks of online chatter, we did our talking on the pitch and beat Persib fair and square. Though you wouldn’t think so if you glanced at the comments section post-match. Allegations of offside and fouls in the buildup to Shawal’s goal would have you believe Persib were robbed.
Home and Away WHO?
The true robbery was the purchase of home tickets by away fans. As per competition regulations, 5% of tickets were allocated to the away side. Despite this, it was publicly known and in some instances paraded that Bobotoh purchased home tickets instead. This led to a match advisory post that warned against away support in the home stands.
The advisory went viral, with swarms of comments criticising the ban of away jerseys and support in the home sections. The misinterpretation was echoed by Marc Klok in the pre-match press conference, with him questioning the rationale of such rules. Bojan Hodak then doubled down with his criticism of Bishan Stadium, likening it to a ‘training ground’ and ‘not a professional stadium’.
It remained to be seen how these rules would be enforced on matchday, and some fans found their own workarounds. One group printed white t-shirts with the phrase ‘Lion City Sailor’ prominently plastered, which to me was a hilarious attempt at circumventing the restrictions. Others prepared white flags with blue Xs to not raise suspicions.
What transpired was reasonable in the end. There was one overzealous fan who celebrated Persib’s equaliser while seated in the home section, he was promptly escorted out after some taunting from the crowd. Thankfully, that was most of the commotion that night and fans were well behaved otherwise.
Direct Football
En-route to the final last season, we had much success playing direct, even gaining a penchant for scoring quick goals from kick-off. There wasn’t to be such an early goal this game, but in the 9th minute we struck again. Lionel Tan played a great ball in behind, the Persib centreback let it bounce which gifted Lennart Thy the opportunity to lob the onrushing keeper.
The advantage would be undone two minutes later, with a well-worked short corner routine trickling into the net, the entire Sailors defence ball-watching. It helped that this was when the rogue fan made himself known; our frustrations were largely vented at him instead.
Perhaps the most frustrating concession was the second goal that came after the break. Beckham Putra found Thom Haye who had made an underlapping run, who crossed at the byline for Andrew Jung to head home. Here, you can see the replay courtesy of @bandungfootball. As beautiful as it was, there were questions to be asked as to why Thom was given so much space to fashion the chance.
That goal had us staring at elimination from the ACL Two, and we responded by bringing on Maxime Lestienne for fresh impetus. Our Belgian wizard made an instant impact, his delivery from deep allowing Shawal Anuar to ghost in behind the defenders and finish in the bottom corner. It was just what we needed and seemed to inject self-belief in the team.
We would grab the lead in the 71st minute, with fellow substitute Hami Syahin showing composure in our own box before releasing Anderson Lopes with a typical ball over the top. The Persib defenders let the ball bounce again, allowing Anderson to finish with aplomb. Cue wild celebrations in the stands.
Rose-Syrup Tinted Glasses
This result, coupled with Bangkok’s draw against Selangor, make for pretty clear optics going into MD6. Beat Selangor, and hope Persib lose again. It’s out of our hands, but the chronic optimist in me says it’s going to happen. After all, we’ve recovered from more dire situations (Hiroshima’s administrative error comes to mind :D). Surely the footballing gods will smile upon us to condemn Persib to another elimination.
As fate would have it, we’re due to face Bangkok again next Thursday in the Shopee Cup. In an ideal world, we beat them handsomely to set off a chain of events that sees us progressing in both competitions. Despite the apparent insignificance of the Shopee Cup, the next fixture is pivotal for our season. Other than the obvious benefit of an elevated group standing, it would also represent a marked improvement against our bogey team, whom we have lost to in 4 previous meetings.
Our local rivals BG Tampines Rovers have already qualified for the ACL Two RO16, in a group containing Pohang Steelers and BG Pathum United. That is no mean feat and the Singaporean in me is happy to see their improvement on the continental stage. There has been much discussion about coefficients and it appears we could catch other nations if the positive results are kept up.
Fingers crossed yet again we have more to cheer about when reporting from Bangkok!
