You know what people always say – the Community Shield is not a trophy if another club wins it, but if your team wins it, then yes, yes it’s absolutely a trophy. Well, not for me. I am quite clear in my opinion that it’s not really a trophy. Just 1 game to win it, it doesn’t feel hard-earned, y’know? If some people can dismiss Greece’s run to Euro 2004 victory as a fluke, even though they had to play a total of 6 games, then surely just winning 1 game can be a fluke as well, and it just doesn’t seem to count.
(But of course, I am of the opinion that Greece’s win was no fluke – for those much younger please enjoy this video which shows their amazing run. They faced France, Czech Republic and Portugal in the knockout rounds, and won 1-0 on each occasion. NO GOALS CONCEDED IN THE KNOCKOUT STAGES. Oh, and Portugal were playing this tournament at home, yet were beaten twice by Greece, once in the group stage and once when it mattered most in the final.)
But I digress. As so often happens on this site. Sorry. This year I will try to keep the articles shorter and more to the point. Maybe. Don’t bet on it.
But anyway, don’t take it from me, take it from legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who said that he “never included extras like the Charity Shield and the European Super Cup because they are won with a single victory“. If it’s good enough for one of the most decorated managers of all times, it’s good enough for me. The Community Shield doesn’t count as a trophy.
But Is It Still Important?
Yes – it’s very important to win the game. I may sound like I am contradicting myself now, but hear me out. The Community Shield isn’t important because it’s a trophy. It’s important because of who we are playing.
It is our old foes, Albirex Niigata (S). This year, they are more (S) than ever, because they are finally playing with the same rules as everyone else. Finally, they no longer get to fill their team with Japanese imports from a superior grassroots system, and then have people bleating on and on about how they are winning the title with kids. Yes, they are kids, but they are kids from a far superior system! The fact is that when our national team do their training camps in Japan, they sometimes play university opposition – this should show the gulf between the two nations when it comes to footballing standards.
This year, we don’t have that reason / excuse anymore. They have the same number of Singaporeans as we do – we get to sign the foreigners we want, they get to sign the foreigners they want. If anything, they are a bit restricted in that they can only really sign Japanese players because that is more on-brand, while we get our pick from the whole world, essentially.
As for the local players, they have signed good players in the likes of Ho Wai Loon, Daniel Goh, Arshad Shamim, etc, but it would be a stretch to suggest that these players are better than the locals in the Sailors ranks.
And so this is why the match takes on such importance – if we lose, you can expect the knives to come out already. People will use the result of a glorified friendly to say that King Kazu is indeed the king, being able to lead a reset team to victory over the Sailors, who have much more in terms of resources, and also a settled core of the team. And they’d be quite right to say so – provided of course he can keep it up over the course of the long season.
So yes, this match is still important, and unlike a traditional preview where we try and predict what the key battles are going to be, given that Albirex is pretty much an unknown quantity, let’s explore what we can look forward to tomorrow.
How Will Bart Fit In?
So far, Bart has looked good in pre-season. Or at least, what we got to see in the two friendlies against JDT.
He was tidy with his passing, and brave with his running. He would frequently collect the ball in our half, turn, retain the ball, and then drive forwards looking to link up with his teammates. As he settles more and more into the team, these combinations are gonna pay off in a big way, but for now, I think we are all keenly anticipating his impact on the team. We wrote a little article about him, and focused on how interestingly for someone playing in midfield, he scores more than he creates.
Maxime and him thus sound like a match made in Heaven, because Maxime loves providing an assist.
Jokes aside, will Bart line up in the middle next to Maxime on the right, so that the two of them can do their own little 1-2s all the way into the box, the way Diego and Maxime used to? Or will Bart play where he lined up against JDT, nominally on the left, drifting in to create havoc? There are pros and cons of each approach of course, and I guess it comes down to whether Coach Ranko wants to concentrate the threat in one area, or spread it out, given that Bart seems just as capable of creating magic without Maxime next to him.
Whether Song plays is also something that may affect this. Like Bart, Song is a midfielder who gets more goals than assists. If Song plays, Bart may take up a slightly more withdrawn position so he can feed Song and Shawal ahead of him.
Shawal to Start? Where is Richairo?
So yes, I mentioned Shawal to start in attack. Rasaq is on the mend after a long injury, and may not be seen as fit to start, while Richairo is … well … if you haven’t already heard …
Well if you hadn’t heard, I’m sorry you had to hear this way. But basically Deepanraj Ganesan is sorta like the Fabrizio Romano when it comes to local football news – so if he puts it out, it’s probably true. You couple that with the fact that Richairo was not seen in pictures and videos of the Thai training camp – and it looks more and more likely that the match against JDT was the last time we saw this brilliant footballer turn out for us. Which is a real shame – we’ll do a nice farewell article when the time comes for it, and when the club confirms his departure.
Football transfers are weird and wonderful, and until the club confirms it, it’s not 100% I guess?
But yes for tomorrow, our striking options seem to be Shawal, Rasaq, or maybe even Song! We’ve seen that before to devastating effect in the ACL two years ago. Song’s return promises to be a very important one, especially with Richairo no longer with us.
Who Plays at the Back?
The next question we have for tomorrow is will we see 3 centre-backs or 2 at the back? Who plays left-back? Who plays right-back?
Mamat is out with a bad knee injury, and we won’t be seeing him for months, so that leaves Hafiz Nor, Chris van Huizen, and new signing Sergio Carmona as the “conventional” fullbacks in our team to fill 2 spots. Could we also add Toni Datkovic as a possible option for left-back due to his left-footedness? Lionel Tan has also seen some time at right-back before.
If I were to predict, I think we start with Chris, Toni, Bailey and Hafiz Nor. But this is really based on just wild speculation. Apparently the pre-season trip to Thailand was a very productive one – but because we don’t have match footage, we don’t know how the team is gonna line up. Good news, cos Albirex won’t know either.
Conclusion
Lots of questions for which I do not have the answers. Tomorrow will probably answer many questions for us, and I think if we win, the manner of victory will also be telling as to how well both teams will do this season. Whatever it is, football is back on the menu, and I absolutely cannot wait for kick-off tomorrow.
My predicted line-up –
Zharfan Rohaizad
Hafiz Nor, Bailey Wright, Toni Datkovic, Chris van Huizen
Song, Hariss, Rui Pires
Maxime, Shawal, Bart
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! Joseph still owes us all a forfeit for losing last season, and we will record that soon!
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 5 Albirex 1
Joseph’s prediction: LCS 3 Albirex 1
Written by Eddy Hirono
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