Trying to bounce back from a painful defeat is always difficult. This time round though, things are particularly challenging as we look to recover while going into arguably our toughest fixture of the season. While fans and players alike are still hurting because we hate losing to Tampines,as Ernest alluded to in his post match article, perhaps we need to let our emotions settle down and avoid the knee jerk reactions and placing blame on the coach or specific players.
Sure, it would have been incredibly enjoyable to beat Tampines en-route to silverware, but we need to remember that this game was still essentially a pre-season game. The underlying numbers at the Community Shield also pointed towards a solid performance and a closer game than the scoreline suggested, with the xG simulations showing that Sailors would have won the game 44.5% of the time (with Tampines winning 31.5% and a draw 24.0% of the time). While this was perhaps skewed by the fact that Tampines took a comfortable lead early on and sat back a little and thus conceding more xG, it still showed that we were very much capable of creating an attacking threat going forward, and standout performances of new boys Tsiy and Safuwan were also positives to take away from the game.
Will these positives be enough against one of the best teams in Southeast Asia?
The JDT lowdown
As usual, I’ll leave it to Joseph Chin to take us through the latest about our rivals from across the causeway:
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The Sultan Ibrahim Stadium ticks all boxes for a modern European experience, at an impressive scale and size that few teams in the region are willing to surpass, and a fairly successful pre-season in Spain has brought a fresh crop of Spanish players who will form the backbone of their foreign contingent, with enough personnel to ensure squad rotation.
Accordingly the likes of Farizal Marlias, Izham Tarmizi and Safiq Rahim has opted to retire on a high, while MSL teams are awash with JDT alumni on loan terms. The popular Jordi Amat has also been put to pasture at Persija Jakarta, which means there will be even more foreign players on ever increasingly shorter term contracts where competition will be intense and even bigger names like Jonathan Viera missing out.
Players to watch
While Jese has since been filed under the flop section together with the likes of Aaron Niguez, the Spanish manager has decided to inject a particularly Spanish flair into the team. Samu Castillejo is the obvious marquee player here since the former AC Milan winger and current captain is a versatile flanker in the mould of his manager (more on that later). But most of this Spanish bunch are players who have stepped out into their first overseas stint for the first time in their careers, where the expectations rise a notch and multiple continental actions keep them busy.
Iker Undabarrena (DM), Antonio Glauder (CB) and Nacho Mendez will be expected to form the backbone when called upon to complement the likes of Eddy Israfilov, Bergson, Jairo and the naturalized Romel Morales. Meanwhile for the locals, a small but fine selection of players have been stalwarts for quite a few seasons, with little change in the makeup of core team comprising of the likes of Hong Wan, Arif Aiman, Shahrul Saad and La’vere Corbin-Ong, making for multiple permutations to slot in when needed against ASEAN opponents of varying abilities
Andoni Zubiaurre will be challenging current Malaysia no1 Syihan Hazmi for the goalkeeper role. While it is unlikely Syihan will be dislodged anytime soon, the trend of top ASEAN teams looking to field foreign keepers might be an interesting subplot in calls for teams and league authorities to restrict foreign talent for goalkeeping (as is customary for most of the Asian leagues until recent market liberalizations).
Man on the hot seat
Xisco Munoz. At once both a household name and an unknown, the La Liga and UEFA Cup double winner in 2003 with pre-Peter Valencia was an underrated, if reliable winger for the Spanish teams he played for (Valencia, Betis and Levante). But his true destiny lay outside of the big time in the top European leagues, starting from being Dinamo Tbilisi’s marquee signing (and future title winning manager) in the Georgian league, to managerial spells at places as diverse as Watford, Cyprus and Slovakia
While TMJ would expect high standards from Pablo Aimar’s former team mate, dealing with limited resources in Tbilisi and Anorthosis, and trigger happy owners who preside over short-termism in Watford and Sheffield would stand in good stead when blessed with more generous resources to maintain their domestic domination.
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Form
While the Sailors have never played against JDT in a competitive game, we have played a few friendlies in recent years, but have never beaten them.
JDT have also started their season in ominous form, with 2 wins in the league as well as a 5-0 thrashing of a University team in the Malaysia FA Cup. The manner of one of their victories though, may give us some insight to a potential route to an upset, as Joseph suggests:
“The recent 5-3 win over Negeri Sembilan flattered themselves given how their opponents were able to race into a 2-0 lead inside 12 minutes before the normal economic order resumed with a powerful second half performance led by Arif Aiman and Bergson. Their ability to start badly but end strong will require our defence to be kept on their toes while keeping their constantly rotated XI wondering using a fluid game plan to win individual battles. A dominant midfield is also needed to ensure that excessive space is not needlessly exposed and exploited.“
Conclusion
With this much talent at their disposal and a great start to their domestic season, JDT will surely be odds-on favorites to win the tie. However, many fans will be making their way up North, either on their own transport or with the bus organized by the club, in what will likely be our biggest ever away game turnout. I’ll be hoping that the painful defeat last Saturday together with vocal support from the Crew will push us into being competitive in this game.
Those heading to the game, see you tomorrow!
SFT Predicted Line-up
Ivan
Hami, Safuwan, Toni, Hariss, Diogo
Rui, Tsiy
Shawal, Lennart, Bart
SFT Score predictions
- Chin Heng – 3-1
- Ernest – 4-1
- Bryan – 4-2
- Reuben – 4-1
- Joseph Chin – 1-2
- Joseph Jireh – 2-0
- Phelan – 1-2
- Anatolii – 3-1
Written by Chin Heng and Joseph Chin
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