[Preview] Hougang United v Sailors – Season Opener, Plenty of Unknowns

So after the excitement of lifting the Community Shield, we finally have the real season opener, a match with proper consequences, the first chance to get 3 points on the board. What can we expect from a heavily-revamped Hougang United? Let’s dive right into it.

Still no Kiki Krajcek

As has been mentioned on this site many times before, Krajcek is the heartbeat of this Hougang team. No Krajcek, no party. The only time they managed to even escape defeat against us without Krajcek was last season in the Singapore Cup when we had all but qualified from the group stage and we fielded an almost-entirely-local starting XI.

Well Krajcek is still out, and is not expected to make his return for a couple of months still. He has been out and about doing community work for the team, but we understand from the Hougang fans that he will not be playing this week.

His absence is perhaps going to be less fatal this time as compared to last season, because Shahdan has been getting some minutes in pre-season, and also because of a signing that has largely been slept on – Shodai Yokoyama.

For me, Shodai Yokoyama was one of the standouts in last year’s Albirex team. A left-footed Steven Gerrard. Capable of scoring off late runs into the box, or with belters from range.

Last year, he scored a total of 7 goals (if you count the Community Shield), and got 8 assists. That’s a very healthy goal contribution rate. They don’t have Zulfahmi Arifin anymore and so will miss his left foot, but in my opinion, Shodai is more than an adequate replacement.

Some of his goals for you to check out. Here, here, and here.

The Unknown Strikers

I know jackshit about Hougang’s new strikers, Petar Banovic and Stjepan Plazonja. Let’s first check out what our friends from hougangunitedfans.com have to say about them.

As part of my due diligence, I didn’t take what the Hougang fans said as gospel. I also did a real deep dive. No actually I didn’t. I pulled up a Youtube video set to shitty techno music. Of course, such compilation videos you have to take with a huge pinch of salt.

What I’d add to their summaries, is that Stjepan Plazonja really really reminds me of Lukas Podolski. Booming left foot? Check. One-dimensional running without any tricks up his sleeve? Check. One-footedness which means no shots on the right foot, ever? Check. But let’s really not allow him to use his left foot in the box, lads. It is very lethal.

He’s also really quite fast. He likes to push and run a lot, so we’re gonna have to be wary of that. It’s quite a sight, really, seeing someone so tall sprint so much!

Petar Banovic – has a decent goalscoring record in the Prva Liga FBIH. But it’s hard to know how that translates to SPL prowess. Probably not as hard as trying to pronounce “Prva Liga FBIH” without sounding like you are replicating a fart in amateurish fashion – but still hard.

We’ve spoken before about how Sime Zuzul had a shit record before coming to Singapore shores and tearing it up. Đorđe Maksimović as well, who has of course, left Hougang, did really well last season but thankfully is no longer around. So goalscoring records in other leagues don’t really tell the full story. For context, in case you are an expert in obscure European leagues, Prva Liga FBIH is the first division of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Both of them are really tall too, by the way. One is 1.88m, while the other is 1.92m. It’s good that Lionel is playing rightback, because I think they are going to rely on the long diagonal into the air for their twin towers to attack. If Hafiz Nor is played there, then we’re really left to making sure we get to the second balls from the knockdowns. And I am sure Datkovic will share some banter with this duo as well. Let’s hope it gets spicy!

The Unknown Centreback (no plural this time)

There is no plural this time because one of the centrebacks is Ensar Bruncevic (usually referred to as Bruno in his time at Balestier Khalsa). He did not really impress last time out, and was almost always referred to as one of the worst foreigners in the league. Has he improved? Well I don’t know because I don’t watch the Serbian Super League. And even if I did, I don’t think I’d be able to glean much, seeing as he only made a handful of appearances.

But it’s not likely to matter much – because it’s not like Hougang’s Japanese pair at the back were super impressive. So if he does an average job, then there won’t be much of a difference to last season.

Unless of course, his partner, Faris Hasic, is really solid. He’s a 20 year old centreback, hailing once again from the Prva Liga FBIH. Unlike Ensar, he actually started a whole bunch of games. And just like Plazonja above, I did the dirty work, I sat through a video set to some shitty music.

Let me clarify that statement. Faded by Alan Walker is not a shitty song. But stupid remixes of the song? Yes, shitty. Football compilation videos love to use the song “Faded“, which is ironic. “Faded” shouldn’t be used on a promising young centreback. It should be used on people like Pogba, or Casemiro, or Varane, or Maguire, or Erik Ten Hag. Ok you get the point, I don’t really like Manchester United. Faded can also be used on our 2022 title challenge after we sacked Kim Do Hoon. Ooof. #toosoon

I digress. Back to the point – Faded by Alan Walker is an OK song, but football compilation videos tend to use shitty remixes of it in their video. This offending video even manages to use TWO different stupid shitty remixes of the song in their video. Absolutely unacceptable.

What do you mean that wasn’t the point? Oh yes. We were doing a review of Faris Hasic, not Faded by Alan Walker. Ok, so from the highlights, it seems like he’s a strong, left-footed centreback who likes stepping out of defence. He also seems really brave, throwing himself into challenges. In fact, he showed that side of him in some pre-season games for Hougang already.

I’d be lying if I said I can talk anymore about him. He is an unknown – let’s hope he ain’t that great!

The Unknown Rightback

It’s usually Nazrul Nazari isn’t it, Eddy? He isn’t unknown! He’s untall maybe, but he’s certainly not an unknown.

Yes, it is usually him, but again I am reliably informed that he is injured, and so won’t play. Anders Aplin is also injured, so I really don’t know who is gonna start at rightback. Danish Irfan maybe? Nazhiim Harman?

Whoever it is, it will not be a specialist in that position, and the Sailors absolutely have to exploit that on the left wing.

Right wing too – Maxime Lestienne should give Jordan Vestering some more nightmares. If we can reliably get the ball to our wings, and then quickly get support players to help overload the fullbacks, we might get a lot of joy this Friday.

What do Hougang Fans Say?

Enough hearing from me, here’s what Confad from hougangunitedfans.com has to say when I reached out to him for a short para.

I think we will be up against an inspired Sailors side brimming with confidence from their Community shield victory. Judging from that game, LCS will have much more joy than us in the middle of the park because as shown in our adventures in the SMJ cup, our midfield can be quite clunky especially with the players like Shodai, Justin Hui and Ajay Robson needing time to gel w each other.

We might need our wingers to pin LCS’s full backs in their own half to avoid them joining in the attack. Players like Obren need to be watched!

– Confad from Hougangunitedfans.com

Conclusion

I think if we avoid complacency, and stay vigilant at setpieces, we should win this game considering the firepower we have. I said there is more to come from this Sailors side, and I truly believe it. Whether we still need some more gameweeks to reach our best remains to be seen, but I hope we can get off to a fast start and show the league what we are capable of.

My predicted line-up –

Zharfan Rohaizad

Lionel Tan, Bailey Wright, Toni Datkovic, Obren Kljajic

Song, Hariss, Hami

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! We will start our table after this game – Joseph holds a slender lead over me at the moment because he predicted the margin of victory correctly for the last game.

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: Hougang 1 Sailors 4

Joseph’s prediction: Hougang 0 Sailors 6

Written by Eddy Hirono

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