Photo Credit: Lion City Sailors FC
BG Stadium has been home to memorable visits for the Crew, including an unfortunate postponed fixture due to inclement weather. Interestingly, we have yet to face BG Pathum United here, although that might still happen in the Shopee Cup semi-finals. To keep ourselves in the running for qualification, we had to get a positive result against the co-tenants. Easier said than done, we’ve lost 4 times on the bounce against Bangkok United.
Friendly Foes
Many of the Crew recently travelled to Hong Kong to witness our historic Asian Cup qualification, and one important player during the campaign was Kyoga Nakamura. Despite his past endeavours with our rivals BG Tampines Rovers, his amicable personality has endeared himself to all local football fans. Some of us ended up purchasing Kyoga jerseys at the merchandise store, such was his popularity. We even sang his name post-match as a show of appreciation.
The friendliness was largely extended to our opponents, whom we have to rely on for ACL Two progress as well. Lest we forget, we need Bangkok to beat Persib in Bandung for us to have any semblance of hope. This resulted in light-hearted banter throughout the evening, requesting the home team to do us a favour next week. Deep down, we wanted a competitive match to ensure both teams were sharp and raring to go for the next fixture.
The home fans were not particularly interested in this fixture, with a meagre 500+ pax in attendance. This paled in comparison to the previous ACL Two match at the same ground, which had double the amount of fans present. I discussed this on A Thai Football Podcast post-game, and it appears the Shopee Cup is low on their agenda. Hopefully this improves over time as it is in our interests for ASEAN football to be successful in its own right.
Foreign Firepower
The much-maligned Shopee Cup has had several criticisms, with some attributing lower attendances to the foreign quota that is similar to SPL rules. Despite missing key players like Lennart Thy and Bart Ramselaar for various reasons, it was our foreign attackers that put us 2-0 up within 21 minutes. We had not scored more than 1 in each of our 4 previous meetings, which made the fast start all the more sweeter.
Discussion about Maxime Lestienne’s looming exit has been rife, but his quality on the night proved yet again why the Sailors are going to miss him. In typical fashion, the Belgian cut in on his stronger left foot, unleashing a dipping far-post effort that caught out Patiwat Khammai. His ball striking technique is unmatched in our squad and I hope we get to see a few more magical moments from him this month. Can we deliver a capacity crowd for the Singapore Cup semifinal home leg? It will only be fitting for our best ever player.
It was even more encouraging to see Anderson Lopes extend the lead with a measured run and finish after receiving the ball from deep. Despite some initial wobbles, it seems Anderson has been able to deliver on the continental stage, following his winning goal against Persib. Our no.18 looked sharp on the ball, and was unfortunate to be withdrawn with a knock in the second half. It remains to be seen if Anderson or even Lennart would be available for our final ACL Two group stage game.
Familiar Frailties
Unfortunately, chants of ‘Oh Anderson Lopes’ were marred by a quick response from the hosts. Jakkaphan Praisuwan picked up the ball in a fairly innocuous position, but managed to deceive Ivan Sušak who did not react to his near post finish. From then on both sides had plenty of goal mouth action, but it would prove to be in vain for the Sailors come the 77th minute. Former Stag Seia Kunori pounced in the box to equalise in front of the away fans. It was a hard pill to swallow, and continued a recent trend of defensive fragility.
I have to sympathise yet again with Coach Rankovic for the lack of options off the bench to see out this game in a proactive manner. We did not even manage to fill the bench, only naming 7 substitutes compared to Bangkok’s 12. Among those 7, only 1 was an attacker in the form of Abdul Rasaq. The rest of the slots were 4 fullbacks and 2 goalkeepers, hardly what is required in a high stakes regional game.
One notable omission was Safuwan Baharudin, who has not been seen since his contributions at Kai Tak Stadium. We know of his obvious quality especially when starting for the national team, but those levels have not been matched in a Sailors shirt since the start of his loan stint. The curious absence has not been helped by cryptic social media activity, with keen observers pointing out the removal of LCS content from his Instagram profile. Some have even speculated he would be returning to his parent club. This situation is not ideal for both club and player and hopefully it gets sorted out sooner rather than later.
Edit: In the hours after this paragraph was written it has been officially announced that Safuwan has requested to prematurely terminate his loan. He didn’t look settled in our colours and has since returned to Kuala Lumpur to settle personal matters. Rather surprisingly, it has also been revealed he was on a 6-month loan after all. Anyway, it would be best for all parties to move on and we wish him all the best.
Speaking of Selangor…
Final Fantasy
It would be accurate to say everyone has had an eye on the next game for the past few weeks. Fans need no reminder of the bleak permutations we face to continue our ACL Two journey. In lieu of a preview article, which would be a mere repeat of points, here’s a small segment that would suffice:
Lion City Sailors beats Selangor.
Bangkok United beats Persib Bandung.
See you next week for the ACL Two group stage review!
SFT Score predictions (for Selangor)
Chin Heng – 1-2
Ernest – 2-3
Bryan –
Reuben – 1-3
Joseph Chin –
Joseph Jireh –
Phelan –
Anatolii –
Written by Ernest
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