[Post-Match Thoughts] Outclassed But Hey At Least We Scored! (Sanfrecce Hiroshima 6 Sailors 1)

I may have been too optimistic in my preview. Oops. Sanfrecce were a class apart, and honestly, as much as we are Sailors fans, we are also fans of football. It hurt seeing goal after goal go in, but I think the 90 minutes shows just what standards we should be aspiring to. Japanese football wasn’t always this good, and even when the J-League was producing winning teams, it sometimes still relied on foreign firepower at the top – but nope not Sanfrecce on Wednesday night, it was an all-Japanese starting lineup, and they were so so good. It perhaps gives us hope that someday we can come close to something like this, provided the country does the right things.

The other thing that warmed our hearts? THAT Shawal goal. What a moment it was. And with that happy thought, let’s dive into some of my post-match thoughts.

Superior Fitness

One thing we knew before kickoff, but repeatedly witnessed and saw the power of first-hand, was the superior athleticism and fitness of our Japanese opponents. It always seemed like they pressed our ball-handler with 2 players, and even when the ball was circulated well to evade the press, there would still be 2 people pressing the next guy – and the next – and the next. It was wave after wave of pressure, and it wouldn’t stop until they regained the ball. It was truly impressive.

Look at this press for example. Ryo Germain forced Bailey onto his weaker left foot, while his teammate starts sprinting towards Toni Datkovic, to make that option a risky one. When Bailey turns backwards to try to look for Izwan, he is then dispossessed through some strong body pressure, and only a superb Izwan save plus an equally superb Hariss block prevented us going 2-0 down.

Look at how aggressive this press is – where does Diogo Costa go? They literally man-marked all his potential options for a pass, while also applying pressure to him.

10 Reasons Why We Lost Big

I realised that if I were to go in-depth and explain everything I observed, this article would last forever. Sanfrecce were simply brilliant. So let me just try to keep it a bit shorter and list out 10 reasons why we were so outclassed.

1. Insane control of possession. In the build-up to the 4^th goal by Kawabe, Sanfrecce Hiroshima played a total of 47 passes uninterrupted, and it was a sequence of possession lasting two full minutes before ending in a fantastic shot from the substitute who came on barely 7 minutes earlier.
2. No repeat of Izwan’s Saitama miracle performance. In a game against such superior opponents, it was always gonna require a huge performance from our goalkeeper. Unfortunately, aside from a fantastic save in the first half, and some good distribution, there wasn’t a string of amazing saves on Japanese soil this time. In fact, he could perhaps have done better with the positioning for the 3^rd goal, which came at a very unfortunate time right after the resumption of the 2^nd half.
3. Effective use of the wings. Our Sailors did the right thing, keeping the middle compact and trying to force Sanfrecce Hiroshima to cross it in – which has a lower percentage of success. However, more than half their goals came from crosses, and they put in many dangerous balls, not just those they scored from.
4. Lack of unpredictability in midfield. I think we missed Song’s presence. In a game where we tried our best to hit on the break but just couldn’t leave any sort of imprint in the middle of the park, I think Song would at least allow us to drive through midfield once or twice, or take a long shot, and that may have helped to disrupt Sanfrecce’s dominance in the middle. There’s just an X-factor about him, and perhaps with him, our moves in the middle wouldn’t be so easy to read.
5. Inability to keep the ball under pressure. Our Sailors routinely underhit or overhit the ball – which was sort of expected considering the conditions and the ability of our opponents. While some of these passes we may get away with in the SPL, there was no chance it would work against these guys. In particular, Shawal had one underhit pass which resulted in Diogo having to haul down his opponent to prevent a counter-attack from materializing.
6. Germains, Ryo and Valere combined to get 3 goals. Ryo managed to make Bailey look weak twice, and that takes some doing. Valere’s header was unfortunately deflected in by Hariss, but his positioning and the connection he got on the header was just too good. Showed his class when he was subbed on.
7. Industry. As mentioned above, the sheer hard work of the Sanfrecce players meant our players could never rest, and always found their options being tightly marked when they tried to pass. Amazing fitness and desire from our opponents.
8. Build-up with the third man run. If you’re not sure what the third man run is, please check out this short 47-second video by The Athletic. It was used throughout the game to create space, but most effectively and elegantly in the build-up to the 2^nd goal. In fact it’s such a good goal I’ll probably dedicate one section to it later.  
9. Lestienne had an off-game. He wasn’t the only one, but again, just like the Izwan example above, when you’re up against superior opposition, you kinda rely on your best player to do something special, to drag the team along with him. Unfortunately, aside from the brilliant flick and run to eventually set up Bart and Shawal for our goal, Maxime was too often marked out, or loose with the ball.
10. Environmental factors. I think some leeway has to be given to our Sailors, considering they were playing in temperatures close to 0 degrees Celsius, it was the month of Ramadan, and they were away from home where the Sanfrecce team was roared on by their home faithful. Perhaps things will be different back home at Jalan Besar? Let’s hope for a super hot and humid night to welcome our visitors.

Build-up to Sanfrecce’s 2nd Goal

It starts here, where there doesn’t look to be too much trouble. There is a Sanfrecce player out of frame that orange-boots is passing to, but the spaces between the defenders looks decent – the back 5 is holding strong. This pass sets off a simple chain of events though. Pay attention to the guy circled in blue – you can already see he is starting to sprint.

And now you can see what is doing. This is a textbook third man run. Diogo is attracted to the pass and the blue guy has burst into the large space between Toni and Diogo. Toni tries to close him down, and you’ll see what happens next.

Toni closes him down well, but look when he plays the cross and where Ryo Germain is. Ryo still doesn’t really look like a threat because the cross in must be perfect. It must first evade Toni’s block, it cannot be too close to the keeper. It cannot be too weak because Bailey will cut it out, and it cannot be too powerful because Ryo Germain has to make up some ground to get to the cross.

Well, you know what happened. It’s a beautiful goal, and sometimes, as much as we hate it, we have to applaud a good goal.

Our opponents were much better than us on the day, and this goal showed it.

Also, on a random note. Why did Valere Germain put up “6” when he had scored the 5th goal? Is he a time-traveller who knew they were gonna get 6 goals? Was he indicating that he had scored the 6th goal of the game? Is he saying the 2nd leg will end 3-3? Answers on the back of a postcard please, thanks!

Conclusion

I have an Italian friend who recently became a Sailors fan after watching a few games. He’s a Cagliari fan and he remarked that Sanfrecce was simply world-class. He also showed me this.

Let that sink in. Opta Power Rankings somehow ranks a J-League team over a Serie A team. The current Sanfrecce Hiroshima is an ACL Elite team. They finished 2nd last season and will play in next year’s ACL Elite. They are favourites to win the tournament, and we saw first-hand why.

BUT – we scored a brilliant goal against them. Shawal’s goal will stay with us for a long time. The confidence to chop back onto his right foot to completely bamboozle the covering defender, and then the calmness to curl it low into the far post, what a goal. That feeling all of us felt, whether you were at home watching, at the Mattar watch-party, or for those who travelled to Hiroshima – football gives you these moments for you to savour. For a few minutes, we were level with a Japanese powerhouse team.

Not the ideal result in the end of course, and it will take some major miracle for us to come back, even if we will be playing at Jalan Besar. But hey, stranger things have happened! Maybe there will be 1 or 2 (or 3 or 4) early red cards for the Sanfrecce players in JBS? Maybe there will be a probe uncovering some illegal dealings within the club that gets them thrown out of the competition? Maybe they’ll field an ineligible player and a walkover will be declared? Maybe a UFO will appear over JBS and abduct all Japanese players on matchday?

But let’s not dream that much. All we want to see is a good spirited Sailors performance next week. If we can keep it tight, and grind out a draw, I will be a super proud supporter.Let’s not have a repeat of the Kaya and Kitchee games, where we had nothing much to play for and turned in a stinker of a performance.

COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE!

Written by Eddy Hirono

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