Where do you even begin? Do you talk about how the Sailors controlled the game from start to finish? Or how 4-0 is our biggest win in continental competition in our short history? Do you talk about how in a side littered with foreign stardust, Shawal claimed the Man of the Match award, and also the hearts of many? Or do you focus on the fans, and how loud and united they were? Well, we’re gonna talk about all the above, and also how Thursday night’s match was in many ways, a culmination of efforts on and off the pitch, by the club, and everyone associated with the club. Let’s dive right in.
(I will refer a lot to incidents in the game. So if you wanna follow along, please use this link to the full match.)
Lightning Start
Last week, our Sailors took the lead after barely 18 seconds, as Izwan’s long ball wasn’t properly dealt with, and in the end Maxime Lestienne swung in a cross that Shawal poked into the goal ahead of the goalie.
Well, this time around at Jalan Besar, it was yet another long ball. And if you think surely Muangthong surely learnt their lesson, they actually did! In the first leg, as the ball was worked back to Izwan from kick-off, no one bothered pressing him. But this time round, Melvyn Lorenzen is trying his best to get there. He first fights off Hami, then Hariss, and then Hariss again, trying to get into a position to pressure Izwan.
Well, it didn’t work. Izwan’s pin-point long pass found Bailey (who goes up into attack direct from kick-off nowadays), who flicked it on for Maxime, who flicked it on for Shawal. Shawal made a blind-side run past Aly Cissokho, and the keeper brought him down. 14 seconds on the clock and we had the perfect chance to extend our aggregate lead to 2 goals. Max made sure we did.
If you’re the type to come a little late for games thinking you won’t miss anything, think again! Come early so you can get through security, find your seat, buy a beer, and get settled in before our Sailors score. it’s clearly something they work on like a set-piece
Defensive Discipline
I am gonna sound like a broken record here, but I’ve always stressed that when our Sailors work hard, we tend to win games. Even though Shawal, Bart and Maxime will dominate the headlines, make no mistake about it, this was a victory achieved by the entire team. Each of the players was locked in defensively, and knew what they had to do to stifle Muangthong, who do have good attackers.
In the first leg I spoke about Poramet and how he is such a bright talent – we didn’t see anything from him when he came on in the second half. Emil Roback, the former AC Milan player barely made an impression. Melvyn Lorenzen, who scored in the first leg and can list the Bundesliga and Eredivisie in his resume, was stifled in this game. This doesn’t happen by chance. It was a defensive masterclass that was 50% tactics, and 50% grit.
You can set up in the best systems, and play the best players in the world, but unless you work hard, there will always be a way past you. And boy, did our Sailors work hard. I could pick out dozens of occasions where this happened, but let me try with this series of events.
Hami Hustle
Here is Hami, at 44:34, circled in red, trying to put the press on our opponents to force a quick turnover.
Muangthong do well to pass it out of defence, and Hami gives chase. Bear in mind this is already close to the end of the first half, and he’s already been running around all evening. He then notices Lorenzen (on the ball) break free and run at the Sailors backline.
He could look at the numbers, and trust Bailey and Hariss to deal with the situation. Rui is also in a good position to slot in in defence. Or he could do this.
Hami (circled in red on the floor) tracks him all the way back and tackles him before he gets a chance to beat the defensive line. This effort by Hami not only wins the ball back with a great sliding challenge, it also allows the spine of our defence to stay in shape. Noone needs to shoot out of the defensive line to try and deal with the threat of Lorenzen.
And he wasn’t the only one. Chris van Huizen tried to win the ball high up the field as well, but once he was bypassed, he sprinted back like a madman. Throughout the game, noone was spared from these defensive duties. Even Maxime, Bart and Shawal got back to tackle or put pressure on their opponents.
Awareness of Duties + Defending from the Front
Look at this picture. What jumps out at you? I’ve already drawn in red two things to look out for, but tell me what you see, and tell me why you think I’ve highlighted this moment.
Ok – first. With a 2-goal lead on aggregate, there is no need to over-expose ourselves in defence. Look at that defensive line. Beautiful – 5 across the back, the spaces between each of them perfect as well.
Second, I’ve circled Bailey Wright in red. You may be wondering what he’s doing there. And if he is there, who is in the middle of defence?
Let’s take it back a few seconds. In the aftermath of the Hami tackle, Lorenzen loses the ball, but it squirts out to a Muangthong midfielder. Bailey gets a foot in and manages to disrupt his opponent, and Rui comes into help. Bailey’s pressure is to ensure that the opponent can’t turn and launch an attack. However, once they don’t win the ball in the first few seconds, Rui drops back into the defensive line.
Remember the beautiful line of 5 we referenced earlier? That doesn’t happen by chance. That happened because Rui took a look back, realised that Bailey was out of position, and so he dropped into his place.
What then happens is that Muangthong do indeed manage to use a smart 1-2 to get past Bailey. Now, I urge you to go watch what happens, and how each player reacts. It’s truly beautiful. I know I keep using that word, but bear with me, I assure you it’s worth it.
Maxime sprints to put pressure on the dribbler, and when a few passes are played, resulting in their playmaker looking like he’s about to make a penetrative pass, Shawal is there to snap into a challenge and win the ball.
Look at Shawal, and look at how all 11 of our players are in a compact box in the middle, just ahead of our penalty area. This series of defensive actions eventually culminated in a goal being scored just 2 minutes later.
Highlights will show you the wonderful goals, the trickery, the assists, but really, to me, this little passage of play that lasted 20 seconds should be recorded and replayed again and again for our players. This mindset and this hustle is worth more than a goal, or multiple goals. Let this be a reminder to them that this is how we should be defending all the time, whoever the opponent.
On Thursday night, the message sent out was simple – “We built up the lead, we’re not gonna give it away this time”.
Shawal the Singaporean Superstar
With the ACL2 rules being so lax on number of foreigners, we could essentially field an entire 11 of foreign players. That’s how our regional rivals Buriram and JDT have chosen to build the team – meaning that there are only token appearances for local players. I know it’s club football and this is not a new phenomenon. Chelsea famously fielded a starting eleven without any Englishmen in 1999, Arsenal did the same in 2005.
Maybe it’s just a personal thing, and maybe the circumstances are a bit different in Singapore, but I don’t think I could love the Sailors as much if there weren’t at least a few Singaporeans in the lineup. There would just be much less of a connection. Even as a Singaporean who doesn’t feel any affinity for JDT, I feel happier for JDT when Arif Aiman is the one who gets the goals to lead them to a victory over continental opposition. It just feels more wholesome, and less manufactured. I am sure I am not alone in thinking this.
And so it was kinda fitting that Shawal was the star of the show. He won the penalty early on, gave an assist to Bart, and then scored two goals himself.
The assist was something we’ve seen before so many times – Maxime getting on the ball in a deep position, and telepathically knowing exactly where to put the ball to find Shawal. Shawal then bore down on goal, and unselfishly laid it off for Bart to finish.
And then came the most nonchalant goal you’ll see. Shawal was played through on goal by a brilliant pass by Hariss, and he then finished the chance off with a calm sidefooted lob. In the stands, few celebrated – or at least they celebrated it with very little confidence. It really looked like he was way offside.
Of course, we know now that he was played onside by Tristan Do. It just didn’t look it in real time because we were all fixated on the defenders closest to Shawal.
But yes, back to the nonchalance.
Shawal isn’t even looking to see if the ball goes in. He just looks to the assistant referee to see if the flag will go up.
The 4th goal of the night belonged to Shawal as well, but again, it was a team goal. It capped off a wonderful night of great Sailors performances all over the park. We held on to the ball for a long time, and greeted each pass with an “Ole!”, knowing that at 3-0 on the night and 6-2 on aggregate, the tie was over. It is not often though, that a series of “Ole” shouts culminates in a goal. It really was the perfect night.
A perfect night with Shawal taking centre-stage. It was fitting that at the end of the game when the team came to applaud the Crew, the players made sure Shawal was front and centre, pushing him in front even though he seemed super awkward to be thrust into the limelight like that.
Shawal, our humble little Singaporean superstar.
The Fans and The Staff
The fans sang loud and proud. The drummers were on top form. The crowd ooh-ed and aah-ed with every shot, every tackle, every block. The Crew and the crowd were united in chants of “B*to” when Strauss tugged Maxime back to prevent a counter-attack.
But what you see on matchday, just like the goals and the defensive effort of the players, are not just because of what happens on matchday. It’s the culmination of a lot of behind-the-scenes work, and efforts of people you don’t see.
Coach Ranko had this to say in his post-match interview –
“I’m the head coach, but don’t forget I have a lot of support staff behind me. I have people who support us, like Badri (Ghent), Bruce (Liang), and Luka (Lalić), as well as our chairman, Forrest Li. Even our media officer, Ken (Kenneth Tan), has played a role. There are so many people involved in this achievement, which makes me even prouder to be a part of it.”
And he is absolutely right. Even though he may not have been referring to the fans, I think the sentiment does capture a sense of how every effort by every person connected with the club has culminated in this historic result.
For example, the drumming was excellent. That is the culmination of many practice sessions.
But who contributed to that? It’s the combined effort of LCS setting a direction for fan engagement, of individual staff who go above and beyond to accommodate requests from fans, and of course, of fans who take time out of their busy schedule to attend drumming practice sessions and grow as a team.
Why do the hardcore fans even support the club in this manner though? I can’t speak for everyone, but I know for me, it’s seeing the club’s constant push for excellence, and constant pushing of the boundaries, on and off the field, that makes you wanna follow them on this journey, The club anthem, a new mascot, a unique membership programme, effort to make Bishan Stadium feel like home on matchdays – this club goes above and beyond. Then there’s the human touch of the dedicated staff who always always look out for the fans. It comes together to really build the bond.
As for the casual fans? I am sure they enjoyed the atmosphere and seeing the team play well on the pitch. I am sure they enjoyed the half-time festivities and the new mascot. I am sure they enjoyed the beer, the food, and the whole matchday experience.
And then the fans end up generating that kind of atmosphere, that spurs the players on, that gives them just a bit of spring in the step when they are chasing their opponents down.
If you think this section sounds like a total mess, and that I am struggling to tell you how everything is connected with each other, then that’s probably right. This isn’t a science – I can’t give you the formula for why things turn out a certain way, or how certain feelings can be brought about in a stadium. Everything depends on each other. Everything feeds into each other.
Brick by brick, if you do things the right way, good things will happen. And a very good thing happened on Thursday night.
Conclusion
If you think this post has been a little weird, considering we haven’t actually won any silverware because of this 4-0 win, and it’s not the end of the season either, you’re probably right, and I have two reasons for this.
One, I am probably just a wistful old man. Not in a bad way – but I tend to think about things all the time, and this is one of those times. How did we get here? What are the building blocks necessary? How can we build on this? And that sorta thing. So in the wake of such a victory, I was in the mood for reflecting.
Two, yes, there is no silverware for this 4-0 win, but I think the ACL2 matches have shown what this team is truly capable of. It’s a statement win. 7-2 on aggregate over Muangthong, beating Port FC twice, beating Zhejiang – these aren’t results to be taken lightly. I feel like we have truly arrived on the continental stage.
Let’s hope we are here to stay!
Written by Eddy Hirono
Picture Credit: Lion City Sailors
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