Ok – the title wasn’t just because I had to let out a Dad joke that’s been brewing in my mind for a couple of days. I think a legitimate point can be made about the order in which you play your home and away legs having a great impact on strategy.
When you play your first leg away in the absence of the away goals rule, it really suits the Sailors’ game. We can afford to be a bit more conservative, and wait for our opponents to make the first move. I think many of us would describe the Sailors as a team that thrives on transitions, and so if we had the first leg in Sydney, we could have perhaps taken advantage of space left on the counter-attack. We could also just try to remain solid throughout, knowing that if we survive with a draw in the away leg, we have a good chance of getting the goals at Jalan Besar.
It’s a huge game in the club’s history, and I can’t wait for it to get started. But first, as is customary, the lowdown from Joseph Chin.
The Lowdown on Sydney FC (By Joseph Chin)
Origin
The Sky Blues were founded in 2004 as part of an ambitious project by the Australian football authorities to introduce a unified professional football league. Previously, it was a mixture of several semi-professional state-level competitions.
They are 5-time league winners and had also won the 2005 Oceanian Champions League (before Australian clubs came under the banner of AFC). Uniquely, this means they are actually the only city in the world to achieve two continental titles from DIFFERENT continents – Sydney’s 2005 OCL win, plus Western Sydney Wanderer’s 2014 win in the ACL. Sydney FC will hope to go all the way, which will then make Sydney the only city to have won both the ACL and ACL2 trophies.
Legends
Dwight Yorke – their first ever marquee signing. The former Manchester United striker of the noughties made waves as a huge signing for the A-League at the time, and scored 7 goals in 22 appearances, including being named the Player of the Match in the A-League Grand Final.
Alessandro del Piero – World Cup winner and Juventus legend who made his mark in Sydney FC history as well. 24 goals in 48 appearances endeared him to the fans and meant that even though he became the A-League’s highest-paid player in history when he made his move from Juve at the grand old age of 38, he was seen as having a positive impact on the A-League.
Bernie Ibini – A cult hero for both Sydney teams, unfortunately it never quite happened with us, as he left us with zero goals after 8 appearances. Signed as a mid-season emergency replacement after Kodai Tanaka was injured against Albirex, Bernie’s failure to get goals instead paved the way for Abdul Rasaq’s breakthrough season.
The Man in the Hot Seat
Ufuk Talay is one of only two former Sydney FC players to have been both player and manager. The native Sydneysider of Turkish descent enjoyed a decent playing career, both in his adopted and ancestral homelands before returning home to great success at Sydney.
As part of the pioneer batch of players in the A-League, the former Galatasaray midfielder’s experience in key moments of their history (winning the 05/06 Grand Final and debuting in the 2007 Champions League) will be crucial for their chances as they seek to write new chapters in their history in their 20th anniversary year. Of course, we will also be hoping to help them write a negative chapter in their history tonight.
Ones to Watch
The Big Boss – Douglas Costa: Probably the biggest name player to pitch up in the Eastern side of the ACL2 draw. Having won 3 Bundesliga and 3 Serie A titles, as well as the Club World Cup, the tricky winger is one to watch in his globetrotting career that also included stops in Brazil (Gremio and Fluminense) and LA Galaxy.
Captain – Rhyan Grant: Runaway record appearance holder for Sydney FC, cementing his legendary status and captaincy with his 311 appearances for his sole senior club after graduating from the prestigious Australian Institute of Sport in 2008 (kinda like our Sports School). Not related to the other Grant in defence, Alex Grant.
Hotshot – Patryk Klimala: The Legia Warsaw youth product has had quite a journeyman career spanning 3 continents at the age of 26. A decent young striker with Celtic and NY Red Bulls in the pandemic years, the Polish age-group international has finally found his best form in Australia. In the ACL2, he has 6 goals so far, 1 behind our very own Shawal Anuar (or 2 if you count his goal against Sanfrecce Hiroshima).
Man Between the Posts – Harrison Devenish-Meares: Remarkably, he dislodged long-time stalwart and Australian international goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne from the starting XI this season. All the more impressive when you consider that he has taken an unconventional route to professional football, featuring in US college soccer, and a youth stint at Romanian club Rapid Bucharest. Sydney FC is his hometown club and he sometimes defends the goal like his life depends on it.
English Leagues – Joe Lolley: Joe briefly featured for Huddersfield Town when they were up in the Premier League but will be known more in England for his long stint with Nottingham Forest when they were a Championship club. He scored 24 times for them in 159 appearances. This season he has 9 goals and 7 assists in 20 A-League matches. He will be one to keep an eye on.
Young and Dangerous – Adrian Segecic: Segecic is the crown jewel of the Sydney youth talent pipeline. The Australia youth international has used his sole season in the Netherlands (with 2nd division Dordrecht) to hone his attacking instincts on the wings, prior to his breakthrough season this year. 10 goals and 2 assists in 20 matches – yep, one to watch too.
Do We Go For It?
A huge thanks to Joseph once again for pitching in as he always does. Now let’s talk a little about how the game might go.
With the game being at Jalan Besar, and with most opponents needing some time to settle and adapt to the conditions, I think we should definitely go for it. In our 10 ACL2 games so far, we’ve taken the lead 8 times. As mentioned before in previous articles, we have also scored in the first few minutes of the game on a few occasions.
We all know the opening set piece now – the ball goes back to Izwan, Bailey joins the attack and a big long ball goes to him for him to cause some chaos with a knock-on. Perhaps we can change that up a bit and aim for Shawal instead, he is just as much a threat in the air, and he’s way more unexpected.
The difficulty with going for it is that it being the first leg, there is a general tendency to be conservative. You go back to how we played against Persib when we went away to Bandung – it was some of the most timid football I’ve ever seen our Sailors play this season. I think it comes down to pressure – the team knew that it was a tough away fixture, and having already picked up 3 points against Zhejiang at home, we had something to lose.
There will be a fear that we go to Sydney with nothing to play for because we are down 2-0 or 3-0. Against a team like Sydney with some of their hotshots up front, it’s not impossible that might happen if we are not careful.
Which is a long way of saying – I would love for us to go for it, but I wouldn’t be too surprised to see us take a conservative approach.
Thy or Shawal, Who do You Play?
This question has split fans. There is a case for whichever player you pick. Shawal is our top-scorer in the ACL2, whereas Lennart Thy has only 2 goals in the ACL2. Take a look at this table I’ve put together. It includes Shawal’s goal against Sanfrecce Hiroshima.
Shawal has the far superior record in the ACL2, and while he has started more games, the number of minutes played is similar. However, across the season, Lennart has shown repeatedly that in the league, he is very capable of finding the finish. Also, is it easy to drop someone who just scored 5 goals at the weekend?
I’d be very tempted to start both of them to be very honest, but the modern game requires starters and “finishers”, players who come on to provide an impact off the bench. Assuming we start both of them, who then comes off the bench to give that impact? Abdul Rasaq has been slowly finding his feet with the odd goal and assist here and there in his limited cameos, but I am not sure at this point he has the confidence to come on and get a goal if the team is down.
And that’s where Maxime Lestienne may come in. Assuming you start both Lennart and Shawal, then perhaps Maxime Lestienne can be the supersub you bring off the bench to try and impact the game. He was spotted in a training video ahead of the Young Lions game, so he’s definitely back in training, unlike what was predicted by me in the Young Lions preview article.
With a dislocated elbow suffered against Sanfrecce Hiroshima, he may or may not be risked from the get-go.
Conclusion
Song said in a pre-match press conference that this would be the biggest game of his club career, and I couldn’t agree more. The Zonal Final win against Ceres Negros was great, but ultimately we were facing the best of ASEAN teams. Still an achievement, mind, especially considering we only had 3 foreign players then. One of them, of course, was Song himself.
That match really takes me back by the way, so don’t mind this small digression. You can see me and Ethan hugging each other excitedly as well after Shakir Hamzah gave us the lead.
But back to our Sailors. This is a huge match for our club, but also for Singapore football. With all the negativity surrounding the game, this is a chance for the feel-good factor to return. Let’s hope for more Song heroics at this very same stadium, 7 years down the road.
COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE!
My predicted line-up
Izwan Mahbud
Hami Syahin, Hariss Harun, Bailey Wright, Toni Datkovic, Diogo Costa
Rui Pires, Song Ui-Young
Shawal Anuar, Lennart Thy, Bart Ramselaar
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!
Eddy’s prediction: Sailors 2 Sydney 1
Joseph’s prediction: Sailors 5 Sydney 1
Written by Eddy Hirono and Joseph Chin
Picture credit – Lion City Sailors
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