Having passed up a golden opportunity to return to the top of the table, our Sailors go into tonight’s game knowing it’s pretty much do-or-die. Let’s take a quick look at the permutations for us.
If Sailors win – we will be 1 point ahead of Albirex, but they will have 1 game in hand.
If Sailors draw – we will be 2 points behind Albirex, AND they will have 1 game in hand.
If Sailors lose – we will be 5 points behind Albirex, AND they will have 1 game in hand.
As you can see, even a win doesn’t leave our title hopes in our own hands, as we will still need other teams to take points off Albirex. But it’s all we can try to do tonight – so let’s get right into the preview.
Seia Kunori’s fitness and availability
To say Seia Kunori is an important part of the Albirex lineup is a bit of an understatement.
He tops Albirex’s goalscoring charts, while also is in the top 2 for assists.
While there’s been no news about him being unfit or injured, I do raise this question because of how much he has played in his last 2 games. He did not start against Young Lions, and I assumed it was just rotation, because he came on at half-time to play the second half. It looked like just load management, letting him share minutes with the likes of Riku Fukashiro.
However, in the game after that, he did not start against Brunei DPMM either, and despite Albirex desperately needing a goal to win the game, he was only subbed on in the 84th minute. Unless he’s had some falling-out with the coach, I cannot see past the possibility that he might be carrying some sort of injury, which has limited his minutes in the past 2 games. Of course, it’s been a week since Albirex last played, so if it’s a small knock, he may well be in contention to start against us tomorrow.
If however he doesn’t start, it will be a massive boon for us, and will make things slightly easier for our defence.
Hassan Sunny Returns
Hassan Sunny’s red card against Tampines Rovers landed him a 2-match suspension, but as luck would have it, he comes back against us. On a side-note, Syazwan Buhari’s red card for Tampines in last night’s game against Young Lions also means that he lands himself a 2-match suspension. Once again, as luck would have it, he is suspended for the Geylang and Albirex games, but will be back against us. Jared Gallagher also picked up his 4th yellow card, which means he is suspended for the Albirex game. Life.
At this stage of the season where every win is important, we are looking for any little advantage that we can get, and make no mistake about it, despite Kai Yamamoto’s excellent performances while Hassan was out, Hassan is still the best keeper in the country, and his experience and know-how will be crucial to how Albirex approach this game. He will, of course, be fired up to perform against us given that he was let go by the club last year, and his side are in pole position to win the title.
Some people have asked why the Sailors fans in the two Albirex fixtures this year have been so hostile towards Hassan Sunny. Let’s not sugar-coat the truth – some fans did very audibly shout the word “traitor” at Hassan Sunny, while others resorted to the usual vulgarities on him. I do not think this is acceptable conduct, because I feel that the term “traitor” is a bit too harsh. However, for reasons that I will elaborate on below, there is some reason for Sailors fans to be a little disappointed in the conduct of Hassan Sunny. So let me reluctantly take a walk down memory lane to try to set the record straight. Not a lot of people will read this, but Sailors fans will at least know why there is some ill feeling.
- At the Singapore Cup, in the match against Young Lions where the team played horribly and Hassan wasn’t starting, a young fan asked him from the stands why he was not starting. (The stands are very close to the bench in Jalan Besar Stadium). He casually said “you got popcorn?” with a cheeky chuckle, presumably implying that he had nothing to do and was just enjoying the show. At a time when the team was suffering on the pitch, this struck us as a very odd comment. But at that time, not much was made of it.
- The fans were hoping to say goodbye to Hassan properly at the friendly with Dortmund, but reliable sources told us that he had disappointingly taken an MC so that he wouldn’t have to be involved in any of this. This struck fans as very unprofessional – even if you know you are not going to play, if you are named in the squad (he was), you should at least attend the game and be on the bench.
- While under contract, Hassan tweeted “the ship has sunk”, spelt backwards. It’s a combination of things for this one as to why the fans took offence. The fact that he thought spelling it backwards somehow made it better, or more obscure, or clever, plus the fact that he took to social media to shit on the club while under contract, just overall not a good look. You can see the tweet for yourself again.
- Similarly, while still under contract, he appeared on the Rated RR Podcast and while he didn’t go overboard and spill every sordid detail of what happened at LCS, he said a few things that irked fans –
- He spoke as if a contract was an entitlement. I think sometimes players may forget that a short contract is not always a bad thing – let’s just say Urawa Reds or Daegu was so impressed by Hassan and wanted him, you think even if the Sailors wanted to keep him, he would have stayed? It is on the player to negotiate a better deal for himself, but the truth is the short contract does also help him have mobility should he need to leave for greener pastures.
- He said that the poor title run-in and the dismal showing at the Singapore Cup was partly because players did not have a contract for next season guaranteed for them. Fans didn’t take too well to this excuse given that this is the reality at many other clubs, and in fact, LCS players are already one of the best-paid players.
- He said that him and Izwan do not have the best of relationships. This also irked fans because if you are going to leave the club, you could leave out all the bad stuff like this. He also talked about how he was annoyed that he was told he would not be playing the last two games of the league season and in the Singapore Cup, as if first team football was supposed to be guaranteed for him.
- He almost seemed gleeful that the season ended the way it did for LCS given that they had dropped him.
In totality, this is why I was OK with some of our fans booing him. There will be those who don’t believe me and say that we are booing just because he joined our rivals. Or they told me that LCS fans booed because Hassan Sunny celebrated Albirex scoring against us.
For that, I will just ask them – did you see anyone booing Faris Ramli who joined Tampines, a team where we have had fiery encounters in the last few years and are also a title rival? No. Did we boo Faris when he scored that banger against LCS, denting our title hopes? No. And the reason is simple. Faris left with class, as did Gabriel. When interviewed by the Straits Times, he didn’t moan about LCS not offering a contract, he just accepted it and moved on. Same with Gabriel, who in fact wrote a very nice farewell message. At the Dortmund game, they stayed, and applauded the fans. The fans got to say a proper goodbye. They still talk to us fans, even now.
There was no such closure or continuing relationship with Hassan, and so I can understand the way some fans felt. I reiterate that calling him “traitor” is harsh. He’s not Judas, he is just like the colleague who after tendering his resignation, starts giving less effort, starts chaokenging MCs, evading obligations, and just generally leaving in a sour way. But “traitor” is still harsh. We would have preferred if he moved on without fuss and didn’t badmouth the club, but “traitor” is a whole new level. He’d have to be leaking team lineups for example (rumour has it another ex-Sailor did that, but no proof so shhh).
On my part, I have urged fans to move on from this, and try to focus our efforts on cheering on the Sailors, and not to shit on people who are no longer part of our journey. We hope to be and are still friendly with players like Aqhari, Abdil, Faris, Gabriel, Shahdan, etc, but if someone chooses not to be friendly with us, we just gotta move on.
In any case, I think the league does need some of these “sideline stories”, little narratives bubbling under, to keep things spicy, and I am sure the fans booing Hassan will be something that he remembers, and something that he will use to spur him to a better performance tonight. Let’s hope not!
Albirex’s declining form
Although they sit comfortably at the top of the table, what might have gone slightly unnoticed is that the Albirex machine is not purring perfectly as before. In their last 3 games, they were nowhere near as dominant, and they succumbed to 2 draws, against Tampines (after Hassan was sent off), and against DPMM. While they did beat the Young Lions, they conceded 2 goals and were nowhere near their flowing best. Look at some of the stats in those games.
Against Tampines (Albirex in red)
Against Young Lions (Albirex in red)
Against DPMM (Albirex in red)
Of course, the stats against Tampines might be a little deceptive, given that they played an entire half without Hassan Sunny, who was sent off. But generally, they have not looked at their sparkling best, both in attack, and in defence.
I compiled the above table based on available stats from spl.sg and it seems that the eye-test is confirmed. Their defence has underperformed, allowing more shots from their opponents, and they are also taking fewer shots on target as compared to their average. I want to draw your attention to the first stat cos I think this is the more surprising one.
What am I trying to show with the “Average number of SOT taken in a match” stat? I am trying to show that this should be some cause for concern for Albirex, given that they are the top team in the country, and yet are allowing their opponents to outshoot their average number of shots on target. If anything, these teams should be stat-padding against the likes of Young Lions and Tanjong Pagar, certainly not Albirex.
This perhaps gives me a little hope ahead of tonight’s game – maybe we can catch Albirex off-guard. I hope!
Sailors Fitness and Suspensions
As far as I am aware, the team should not have anybody missing from the squad that was available against DPMM besides Bailey and Abdul Rasaq. Hopefully Abdul Rasaq recovers and at least features on the bench, because he played brilliantly as a second-half substitute in the last game where we came from 2-0 down to beat Albirex 3-2. Shawal came off limping in the previous game, so it remains to be seen if he will be fit for later today. Maybe it was just cramps!
Bailey of course, serves a two-match suspension, and will miss this one. I think it should be a straight swap and Hariss should come right back in for him. This may be the type of game and the type of situation where having a seasoned campaigner in Hariss may help, because I am sure the players will play with some nerves.
Conclusion
If I were Coach Ranko, I’d try to motivate the players by telling them that while Albirex is a great team, they are going to be nowhere near the same level as the opponents we will face in the AFC Champions League. If we are to avoid making a fool of ourselves on the regional stage, we have to start by putting in a good performance against Albirex.
Maxime Lestienne is still top of both the goalscorers and assisters charts, so hopefully he will get back on the scoring trail again. The loss to DPMM was one of only two games this season that he did not score or assist.
Maybe it’s just because I am a pessimist, but I get this feeling that we will play well, but ultimately only get a draw, or still lose. I am certainly hoping I am wrong on this one, like I was wrong for the previous Albirex game where I predicted a draw. Well I’m going for a draw again.
Whatever the result, and however the game goes, I will be singing loud and proud, and I am sure the Sailors fans will be, too. What a game we have ahead of us.
COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE!
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!
3 points for exact scoreline predicted correctly, 2 points for predicting the winner and margin of victory correctly (but not the exact scoreline), and 1 point for predicting the outcome correctly (win, lose or draw).
Eddy’s prediction: Albirex 2 LCS 2
Joseph’s prediction: Albirex 3 LCS 3
And here’s the leaderboard –
Written by Eddy Hirono
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