[Preview] Sailors v Bangkok Utd – Slight Underdogs

The upcoming ACL campaign somehow feels even bigger than last year’s. I am not sure what it is. Perhaps in an era where Covid-19 dominates the headlines, football takes a bit of a backseat? Or maybe it’s the largely-empty stadiums? Another factor could be that last year’s Champions League campaign was played in a centralised format, and all 4 teams of our group were in Buriram for about a month and played all their games back to back. There was no home crowd cheering our players on, or that of our opponents. Urawa Red Diamonds have to be commended for making their matches against us feel like home games with the strength of their away support – both in terms of numbers and loudness.

I have told this story before to my friends, but what impressed me about them was not just that they were strong in numbers, and very loud. What impressed me most was that when I started chanting alone in the cavernous Thunder Castle (Buriram’s home stadium), they had the grace to allow me to chant out loud in support of my team for a few minutes. And I knew it was not coincidence, because whenever I stopped chanting, they would start a new chant. They could easily have used their hundreds of voices to drown me out, but they did not.

I guess that’s the beauty of football, and an example of how fans can put their support of the team to one side, and respect fellow fans of their opponents. Even in the lead-up to this round of ACL games, I have experienced the warmth and generosity of fans online who have stepped up to help me with this article. Let’s dive straight into the preview.

Our Opponents

If you haven’t read the pre-preview of our tie against Bangkok United, please go and do so here. Huge shout-out again to Matt Jenkins for his contribution. Just a recap of what he said –

You’ll meet a strong BUFC side. With our stalwart Brazilian centreback Everton captaining the side, and organising a back four that’s pretty much all Thai / or Thai-German, sitting in front of Pattiwat the Thai national 2nd goalkeeper. Midfield normally sets up as a 3 or 4, with strong Thai influence, who run and run, again 2 or 3 here in the national side. The front line is made up of Mahmoud Eid, a Palestinian forward who drops deep and plays across the front, Willen Mota, a Brazilian who plays more centrally, and Rungrath, another Thai who offers more width and can easily slip back into midfield.

Matt Jenkins – Bangkok United fan

This was how our opponents lined up in their last league game against Sukhothai United, and it is highly likely that they will go with the exact same players. I have done some checking and of the four league games played so far, these players (with the exception of no. 26 Suphan Thongsong) have started all four games, and are flying in the league right now. 3 wins and a draw, with several players looking very bright.

The night was spent looking at these players in their first 4 fixtures, and my oh my, will we have a huge task on our hands.

The summary of what I have seen is this. They have a multi-talented midfield that is very athletic, capable of defending, capable of arriving late into the box to score, capable of breaking at pace, and capable of making killer passes into their lethal front 3. Mahmoud Eid is gonna be hell to defend, because he is big, strong and fast. Rungrat is capable on both feet and loves taking on his man. Willen Mota is a constant threat as he flits around in the frontline, sometimes dropping deep to connect with the rest of his teammates. In the backline, Everton is a strong presence (unlike in the English Premier League, haha), while Nitipong at right back is a real menace in attack, because he bombs on down the right flank with purpose, and has a hell of a cross on him.

I could go on and on about how good Bangkok United is, but let’s focus on Mahmoud Eid.

Mahmoud Eid

Mahmoud Eid is a Palestinian international who was born in Sweden. He is 30 years old now, and the biggest name on his CV is Kalmar FF, a Swedish top division team, where he played for about 5 years. His career prior to that was predominantly in the Swedish 2nd and 3rd division, where he scored a respectable amount of goals. Nothing crazy though.

Last season at Bangkok United is where he really caught the eye – in the league he notched up 10 goals and 4 assists from 26 games, and he wasn’t even the main striker. The main attacking threat in the team was the excellent Heberty, who has since moved on to join JDT.

This season, he has 3 goals and 3 assists from 4 games. His size makes it seem like he’d be a classic target man, but while his physique allows him to hold up the ball well and bully defenders in the air, his mobility and composure on the ball in the finish is what our defence definitely has to keep an eye on.

How Will We Line Up?

Since the Spurs game, our fans and pundits have been speculating that we may line up in the ACL with a back 3 – Super and Pedro flanking Bailey Wright as the central centre-back, Hafiz Nor and Chris van Huizen on the outside as overlapping wingbacks providing width.

This might well be the situation for us tonight, though Bailey Wright’s absence at the weekend does call into question whether or not he is fit enough to start tonight. If he isn’t fit, we will still be able to call upon the likes of Hariss Harun and Lionel Tan to fill in at the back. While it will be a loss, I guess the saving grace is that we still have players who can slot in.

Given the strength of the Bangkok United midfield and forwards, I wonder if we will be tempted to sit deep and ensure that they have to work to find space in and around our box. Playing a high line and dominating play in our opponents’ half has been a feature of Rankovic’s tactics so far – but I look at how we did against DPMM in our loss to them in July and I shudder. If DPMM can do that to us on the break, it would seem a little foolhardy to play a high line against Bangkok United.

Further forward in midfield, I am really excited to watch the competitive debut for Rui Pires. Hailing from the Portuguese Primeira Liga where he made regular appearances for Pacos de Ferreira, he has impressed against Spurs, and in the closed-door friendlies arranged over the last month. Marrying silk with steel, he will be tasked with controlling the midfield for us.

In case you’re wondering why we have not seen him yet in the SPL, the SPL only allows 4 foreigners to play, while in the Champions League, we will have the benefit of using up to 6 foreigners (1 must be Asian). This could mean that tonight’s game will see us lineup with the following foreigners all starting – Super, Pedro Henrique, Rui Pires, Zivkovic, Lestienne and Diego Lopes. I am super excited for Rui Pires’s debut, and I think that once the fans get used to seeing him in the middle of the park for us, there will be a new name ringing around in the stadium.

Predicted Lineup for us –

The Thai League is Stronger than the SPL

The Twitter discourse surrounding this game suggests that the Thai league is way stronger than the SPL, and so Bangkok United have an advantage. Some Bangkok United fans are wary, however, of the likes of Lestienne and Zivkovic – players also mentioned by Coach Totchtawan Sripan as being quality players.

I think there is no escaping the fact that the Thai League now is stronger than the SPL by a lot. The pace of the game is faster, and this has in turn benefited the Thai national team. The fact that Bangkok United features a few Thai internationals should also be cause for concern.

However, never say never. I doubt anyone felt that we could give Daegu a run for their money last year, and yet we did. Not only did we beat them convincingly 3-0, we also came very close to beating them again in the return fixture, only for some insanely bad weather to thwart us.

One last thing that gives us hope? Jalan Besar Stadium.

Jalan Besar Stadium

This stadium has something special about it. Some of our best memories, be it for Home United or for LCS, or even for our national team, have been forged in this stadium.

The night we clinched the title in 2021 vs Balestier Khalsa. National Day eve in 2018 when we won the AFC Cup Zonal Finals against a much stronger and much-fancied Ceres Negros team and the crowd stayed behind to sing “Home” proudly. Multiple times for our national team when we defied the likes of Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia, willed on by raucous support from the stands.

Jalan Besar Stadium is and always will be a place for Singaporean teams to create memories. Part of the appeal of this place is how close to the pitch the supporters are. If we show up in numbers and make our voices heard, we can create an intimidating atmosphere for Bangkok United.

I like what the club has done to try to create more of an atmosphere tonight. You will remember the huge blank wall separating the pitch from the swimming complex next door. I have always thought that that wall has a lot of potential, and always wondered whether they could put up a HUGE Jumbotron there (it’d keep getting hit by the balls lol but it would still be quite a sight).

Well, the club has done something about that. Check this out. I got this from a training video put out on Youtube by Bangkok United.

It may not seem like a big thing, but little touches like that will help us feel like JBS is home. I hope more of such little touches are present in every part of the stadium tonight and for our 3 matchdays.

Of course, the other thing about Jalan Besar Stadium is that our opponents may not be that used to artificial grass. This was something commented on by Totchtawan Sripan as well, and is regularly a cause for concern when foreign teams visit us. We have been told stories by former players and club officials that in fact, in our games against regional opposition, we sometimes water the Jalan Besar Pitch even more than usual, knowing that our opponents will take some time to get to grips with the turf. Hopefully, this factor results in Bangkok United’s play being a little less fluid than usual.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that we enter this game as slight underdogs.

However, there should be no fear. We’re playing at home, on a pitch unfamiliar to our opponents, and will hopefully have the fans’ voices right behind our players.

Let’s turn up in numbers, cheer every tackle, applaud every pass, react with outrage at every foul committed by our opponents. We have to make our voices count. The Thais living in Singapore will undoubtedly be behind Bangkok United and they will be loud. We have to be even louder.

I hate to say this is a do-or-die match, but if we look at our group, there is a natural hierarchy for our 3 opponents. Jeonbuk is the apex predator that we will be happy to get any points at all from our encounters against them. Kitchee is the one closest to us in terms of ability, and we have to beat them twice. Bangkok United is the team that is ahead of us in terms of ability, but if we want to finish second in the group, we will have to punch above our weight. We did it before, and we’ll do it again.

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: LCS 2 Bangkok 2

Joseph’s prediction: LCS 2 Bangkok 1

And here’s the leaderboard –

Written by Eddy Hirono 

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