When you have a potential banana peel of a game, the two things you want most are your opponents not turning up for the fight, and your opponents handing you gifts. Both happened in the first half of the game against Balestier Khalsa, and so despite rotating half the team, we managed to navigate this difficult fixture.
The Spill
There seemed to be little on when a routine cross was played into the box by Carmona. The cross had too much height and too little pace – so Hafiz Ahmad had all the time in the world to come out and gather it.
However, maybe Shawal Anuar knows something we don’t. If you watch the replay, he is looking at the ball the entire time, and almost half-expecting the keeper to spill it. In fact, what is most impressive about the goal is that when Hafiz Ahmad spills it, Shawal Anuar receives the ball and controls it even before it hits the floor. It looked like one fluid motion for him to control the spilled ball, put it in front of him in his stride, and then cut it back for a gleeful Abdul Rasaq who can’t quite believe his luck I think.
Regardless of how it was scored, this was a gift, and Hafiz Ahmad immediately put his hand up to apologise to his team.
The gifts didn’t stop though.
The Defence Was Out of Sorts
Even before Chris van Huizen tucked the ball into an empty net from outside the box, Balestier Khalsa already looked out of sorts in defence. Not to overstate the importance of one player, but perhaps this is where the experience of Madhu was sorely missed. Take a look at this situation for example.
Hami picks up the ball in midfield, and that is possibly the worst-looking defensive line you’ll see. Basic football 101 – if there is no pressure on the ball-passer, the defensive line must drop back to deal with a potential through pass.
In this moment, Jordan Emaviwe is distracted by Abdul Rasaq trying to fend him off and doesn’t call his defenders back. Haiqal Pashia (left wing) is completely free and there is an easy pass to be played to him. To make matters worse, Shawal Anuar (right wing) is on his bike and ready to go, but Masahiro Sugita doesn’t realise it.
2 seconds later, Shawal Anuar is now in acres of space, and having had the run on Masahiro Sugita, in a great position to score. We all know what happened next.
Somehow, from this position, Shawal didn’t capitalise. He tried a dink over the keeper and got it badly wrong. If I could have one criticism of how this situation was handled, I feel Haiqal Pashia should perhaps have continued his run at full pace, to ensure that not only does Shawal have an option of squaring it to him, the keeper may also be distracted in having to deal with 2 threats. As it is, because Pashia didn’t offer himself as an option, Jordan’s recovery run covers him and the keeper can fully concentrate on Shawal.
Shawal should still have scored though.
Then of course, came the killer moment which led to van Huizen’s goal. Fudhil’s backpass was criminally underhit, and Rasaq was quick onto it, forcing Hafiz Ahmad to make a desperate tackle. At the moment I couldn’t tell if it was a penalty or not, but it didn’t matter because the ball broke to Chris van Huizen outside the box and he was calm enough to stroke it back on target into an empty net. A calamitous goal for Balestier Khalsa to concede, and really necessary for us especially as we had heavily rotated.
Heavy Rotation
Against one of the best sides in the league, you would normally not expect half the team to change. However, circumstances really dictate how much we can push our A-team. We all saw how much defensive effort was necessary against Zhejiang FC. We also know that Cong An Ha Noi is perhaps one of the best opponents we will face in the Shopee Cup – and we face them away from home. Then factor in the fact that we face a potentially title-defining clash against Tampines Rovers at the weekend – a Rovers team that will have the benefit of a full week’s rest while we have to travel to Vietnam and play a difficult game.
With all those factors in mind, it was hard to see anything else but a heavily-rotated team.
I wrote about how Hariss and Hami may have to play the whole game because Anu was suspended and Adam Swandi injured. However, I did not foresee that Coach Ranko would trust Song Uiyoung as one of the 2 central midfielders. I always believe that Song does his best work when he is not confined to a single position and can run free like a horse with no jockey. However, he turned in a disciplined, mature, and fighting performance in midfield which I think set the stage for us to come away with a relatively untroubled win. There was a sequence in the first half where he snapped into 3 tackles consecutively and the fans lapped it up. More of this Song, please!
Other people who came in who were not first-team regulars were Abdul Rasaq, Carmona, and Haiqal Pashia.
Carmona kept up his run of attacking contributions, with a crucial third goal just when Balestier had scored one goal to get back into the game. (Sidenote – that was some terrible defending from Lionel and Toni Datkovic, who seemed to confuse each other and allow Emaviwe to score from a Kodai corner kick). Carmona would add some of his usual good crosses into the box from a left-wing position, and it really seems like even though defensively he was badly exposed against Tampines, perhaps this attacking side of his game is something that we should really look to take advantage of, especially in games where he is rotated in.
Abdul Rasaq – a poacher’s goal. We were used to seeing this so much last season until his untimely injury, so we couldn’t be happier for him. Please check out our post-match interview with him where he gives glory to his God for his journey back from injury, and also just comes across as such a driven, mature man, when I ask him if it’s difficult to break into the team at Sailors when there are so many good players ahead of him in the pecking order.
Haiqal Pashia had a chance to score, but didn’t take it before he was subbed off on the hour mark. I really like him as a player, so I hope he gets a few more opportunities and takes them next time!
Conclusion
A pretty fuss-free result where I don’t think we ever felt we were in any trouble, even after Balestier threated a comeback for a few minutes.
While we can say that Balestier did not start off well at all – which is something their coach admitted as well in a post-match interview, I think a lot of credit has to be given to our second string as well. Balestier had been unbeaten in 6 games before this, and had been playing an attractive brand of attacking football. However, besides one chance in the first half where a through ball came off Datkovic’s shin and hit our own post with Izwan stranded, I don’t think I can remember Balestier creating any clear-cut chances. That is impressive considering this is nowhere near our strongest side.
Of course, Maxime came on in the second half and even in the limited time he was on, he managed to grab an assist, sucking in all the defenders before releasing a pass for Carmona, who had time to control, and shoot.
Two absolutely huge matches lie ahead of us this week, so it was important we came through this with a win, and without any more suspensions / injuries.
Written by Eddy Hirono
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