The excitement of last Thursday’s proceedings got me sick over the weekend so this took a while. During that time, I pondered different titles for this article.
Heart Attack FC. Lightning Doesn’t Strike Thrice. Song on Song. Flowing Football, Flowing Tears. What The Flying Fuck. We Live 2-5 On. Ok the last one was terrible (it’s supposed to sound like “we live to fight on”).
There were many possibilities, which is fitting for a night of qualification where there were many ways for us to end up in the knockout stage. But in the end, this dang Ronan Keating tune kept popping into my head – amidst the roars and high-fives and shouted gibberish, this tune rose above. Which is strange – but if you’ve read my articles before you’d know I think in a fairly strange way.
So let’s jump right into the preview. There were elements of the night that felt like it was scripted. It’s like a movie you enjoy, but one you don’t know the ending of before you start watching it. Now, at the end, you can fairly say that “wow, that was amazing”, but at many points during the movie, you’re like “does the main character die”, “is everyone safe in the end”, etc etc. A night of high drama, and I gotta try to sum that up in an article. Tough. But let’s try.
AFC Cup Song
Where else to start except with our 3-goal hero, Song Ui-Young. There’s always been something special about Song’s performances when it comes to AFC football. It’s hard to explain it – I even posed the question to Song himself, who said we’d have to ask God for the answer. He stressed that he gives the same effort in SPL games, so he cannot explain why the special goals only come in continental ties.
Perhaps there is more space to exploit in games on the continent? Or he just finds another gear on special nights and puts in a little bit extra effort. Those still don’t explain the crazy quality we see from him in the type of goals he produces.
Goals 1, 2, 3 were arranged in increasing order of difficulty, as if the scriptwriters were trying to foreshadow to us, the audience, what was gonna happen. You can imagine the scriptwriter looking at the audience going “wow, you enjoyed that one huh, you ain’t seen nothing yet!”
Speaking of foreshadowing, and right before we dive into the goals themselves, can I just say that during the warm-ups, Song was especially impressive with his first-time finishing. I remember in particular two first-time volleys that I thought to myself “my, my, save some for the game, my man”. Well, he did.
Goal 1
The easiest of his 3 finishes, that owed a lot to suspect Port defending and also a booming Lionel Tan throw. Lionel really really enjoyed his assist by the way – as you can see by the way he spun around in delight and lost all control of his limbs while celebrating the goal. Check out the highlights video again, and look out for him on the bottom right. From that range, Song was not gonna miss, and though the finish itself was rather scrappy, you can’t argue with a goal under a minute in a match we needed to win.
Goal 2
A much more difficult goal. This goal owes as much to Song as it does to Shawal and Maxime. The initial ball seeking out Shawal is nothing much, but once again, his determination keeps the chance alive, much like he did when we faced Port FC in Bangkok. He then plays a nice reverse pass to Maxime. Maxime takes his time to pick out Song – it is not a random hit-and-hope. Max sees Song making his run from outside the box, Song makes himself more obvious by putting his hand up like a primary school kid crossing the road, and Max finds him. The first-time volley is unerring, and very impressive. As commentator Rhysh Roshan Rai rightly says, many strikers miss from there, putting too much power on their finish in their eagerness to beat the keeper.
Goal 3
A goal so good I have watched it an unhealthy number of times. A goal so good that it was shared on ESPN Netherlands, of all places. When this one went in, it drew wild cheers from the crowd, but also some shocked gasps. And then when it was replayed on the jumbotron in the stadium, it drew even more gasps and “woah”s. It was breathtaking in its execution – Maxime sent Asnawi to the (halal) hotdog stand, twisting him inside out before using every inch of the touchline to his advantage, floating a cross into the danger-zone for Song. By the way, Asnawi was not the only one convinced that Maxime was gonna cross it in on his left foot. The cameraman was similarly outfoxed – just check out the replay.
What happens next you already know. It’s absolutely magical, and looks like a goal taken from Blue Lock. Song has no hesitation in launching himself into the air to meet Maxime’s cross, and far from just diverting the cross on target, he gives it full gun in mid-air, powering it beyond the goalkeeper, who didn’t even have time to dive. Not only was it on target, it was into the top corner. Just amazing.
It was his hat-trick goal, and this brought him to 5 goals in ACL2 this season, our top-scorer in the competition, ahead of Shawal Anuar, on 4 goals. But it’s not just the number of goals, it’s also the timing of it.
The Timing of the Goal
Just like a well-written plot, the night needed its twists and turns. In fact, it mirrored once again our campaign as a whole, which was kinda cruel. At half-time, with the lead at 2-0, many Sailors fans didn’t dare to dream too big yet. You know the saying? Once bitten, twice shy. As advised by Wham, we would thus need to keep our distance so as to save us from tears and not have our heart given away.
Except we weren’t once bitten, we were fucking twice bitten. Twice bitten thrice shy? Is there such a saying? Two 2-0 leads evaporating in 2 games got us really scared. It couldn’t happen again, could it?
And of course, our evil scriptwriters made sure it happened.
Writing this a few days after the game also allowed me to take in Tottenham v Chelsea while I was sick, another game where the home team’s 2-0 lead evaporated. For context, Spurs raced into a 2-0 lead because Chelsea leftback Marc Cucurella slipped twice and had to change his boots. Chelsea did eventually win the game 4-3 so both Cucurella and his manager were in a mood for jokes. Cucurella told his manager that he slipped twice because he was trying to “bring emotion into the game“.
The scriptwriters at Jalan Besar probably also felt the same. They couldn’t give us a simple 2-0 win. They had to make the fans WORK for it.
Bringing the scoreline back to 2-2 saw fans run the whole gamut of emotions. I took a look around – I saw disbelief, sad resignation, anger, shock, and even some accepting laughter. There was also a lot of defiance though, as the fans rallied each other to keep chanting, keep singing. There was one fan who tried to tell us to stop chanting, and start scolding the players instead, and he even said that our drums were “useless”. Well – we ignored his comments and politely told him that he was free to scold the players if he wanted to, but it was not the style of the Crew to do so. We would sing for our players till the bitter end.
And so, 15 minutes after the initial shock of the equalising goal, that goal felt so special. It gave us life, it gave us hope, it gave us a belief that the team was going to reverse the trend of losing after leading 2-0. And while we were still trying to process Song’s wondergoal, Shawal Anuar then gave us a bit of a cushion with a cool, calm, collected finish after Port’s goalkeeper had gone walkabout.
As supporters, we all want exciting games, and we all want our team to win. These don’t always go hand in hand. Would our victory have felt as sweet, and as delightful had Port FC not equalised? If we had qualified earlier against Zhejiang or Persib, would this night have been as dramatic, even if the same goals went in at the same time? Definitely no. The lows experienced against Persib and in the cold of Hangzhou meant that the highs were even higher.
Little wonder then that many of the Crew couldn’t help but cry when the 4th and 5th goals went in. It felt like the culmination of a journey, an emotional rollercoaster journey for the supporters who have been with the team every step of the way.
The Campaign
And so, with 10 points, our Sailors finished top of the table, and can look forward to the knockout stage where we will face Sydney FC, Muangthong United, or Nam Dinh FC. Each will bring its set of unique challenges, but for now, let’s look back at what we achieved.
A group stage where every team conceded double figures is gonna be bonkers, and I think we all saw that pan out. Persib were by far the shittiest team in the group but somehow we gave them 4 points. Zhejiang were supposed to be the strongest team of the bunch, but somehow ended up 3rd in the table. Port who looked the most impressive team somehow gave up 6 points to us, and ended with a negative goal difference.
And we are top scorers with 15 goals! Only 5 teams across both East and West Asia scored more than 15 goals in their 6 group stage matches.
Chin Heng also pointed out to me that in our 6 games, we took a 2-0 lead 5 times. That is mighty impressive, considering the calibre of our opponents.
Song is our top-scorer, but two other names stand out.
Shawal Anuar
Shawal is just a superstar. He scores all types of goals, and at the age of 33, just seems to get sharper and quicker every year. Add that to his history playing non-league football, and he is our very own Jamie Vardy. Without the detective wife and prolific Red Bull-chugging of course. Shawal is the dash of quality up top every team needs on top of effort and a strong defensive foundation.
Shawal started the season more as a supersub, but I think it was telling that when it came to the crunch, Coach Ranko favoured him over Lennart Thy. Lennart did score, and I am so pleased for him. It was a well-taken goal, as he took Song’s pass and rounded the goalkeeper with the finesse of a ballerina, before striking it in from a tight angle. I think it was a goal he deserved for the hard work this ACL2 campaign. Sometimes strikers don’t get their plaudits because they don’t have the numbers to back them up, so here’s hoping that Lennart gets more in terms of goals and assists so that he will be more popular with supporters.
Maxime Lestienne
Sometimes, I don’t talk much about Maxime because I think we are spoilt by his output. 2 goals and 5 assists in 6 games is an outstanding return. He even managed to get his first headed goal in forever.
What stood out for me this match is that Asnawi was so tight on his left foot, and was constantly forcing him to his right. Asnawi starting also meant that Maxime would be cutting in on his left foot, right onto Asnawi’s strong right foot. In theory, this would be a tougher challenge for Max than he’s used to.
In the SPL, whenever we watch Maxime it is obvious he is very reluctant to use his right foot. He will force it back onto his left repeatedly, with small touches to engineer just that bit of space. Whether it’s mind games, whether it’s out of respect to Asnawi’s man-marking skills, or whether it’s because Asnawi was too blatant with showing Maxime onto the right foot, Maxime showed time and again that he was prepared to use his right foot. There were already a couple of good passes prior to his cross for Song with his right peg, but of course, none as devastating as the assist for Song’s scissor-kick.
The build-up to Lennart’s late goal also featured a cross-field pass, once again on his right foot.
Maxime was a man on a mission. He was Ethan Hunt, refusing to accept defeat, refusing to accept the script. He was gonna end up on the winning side, and he made sure of it. Block his left foot? He was just gonna go ahead and use his right, something he very seldom does. Seldom, but not impossible.
Conclusion
Some pointed to the fact that this was a weakened Port squad. Not really, you know. I tell you what, the biggest absence in my opinion was Kevin Deeromram. He has been in outstanding form in the league so far, and was many pundits’ pick for the leftback position for Leg 1 of the Thai League 1. Look at the esteemed company he’s keeping in that team.
His absence also had knock-on effects, as it meant that Asnawi would start on the left, not only limiting his usual attacking effectiveness, but also allowing him to be closer to the home fans, who heartily booed his every touch, and compared him to a common household pet. Did that throw him off his game? I doubt it – but it was fun for the fans nonetheless, and just what that little imbecile deserves.
But enough about Asnawi – what really impressed me was the Sailors showing that they can take command of a game this way. What really impressed me was the way the crowd kept going and roaring the Sailors on, even when the chips were down. Joseph, the capo of the night, was shocked for about 5 seconds when the equaliser went in, but we both looked at each other, said “kept going”, and he just went right back to business as usual. Really impressive.
Now we’re into the knockout stages, we’re gonna need more of this, more than ever. The tears have flowed on a night when the football flowed as well – this was an important night in my opinion for the Sailors fans to connect with the Sailors team. We talk about fans driving the players on, but oftentimes the players also have to give the fans something to believe in. The scriptwriters have delivered a happy ending to this movie, but what will happen in the sequels?
Let’s find out.
TOGETHER.
COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE!
Written by Eddy Hirono
If you’d like to support the work we do here at SailorFanTalk, you may want to visit https://ko-fi.com/sailorfantalk and leave us a tip!
Picture credit: Lion City Sailors Youtube
