[Post-Match Thoughts] Control (LCS 1 Tampines 1)

In the last post-match thoughts, I complained about how there was chaos, and our defence looked so fragile. Well Wednesday’s night game surely saw a huge improvement in that regard.

It must be said that some of the shots stats may be inflated by the fact that Tampines had to play half an hour with 10 men after Yasir got sent off. However, even before the red card, we never really looked in danger and the stats above bear that out. 6 shots and 2 on target is a stark improvement from the 15 shots we conceded to them when we faced them at Our Tampines Hub.

Let’s address some of the thoughts I had about the game.

Defence-First Policy

It is no secret that Coach Risto was mighty pissed off at how we defended against Balestier. The way we set up against Tampines was definitely a reaction to that. I mentioned in the preview that Abdul Rasaq may play an important role dropping back into midfield to try and limit Kyoga’s influence, and that is something that was a huge part of our play against Tampines. We really did show them a lot of respect, and tried to stop them from dominating the ball too easily and getting the ball into the final third. I would elaborate more but I don’t think I can describe it better than how Rhysh Roshan Rai did in his Twitter post (and his ensuing exchange with our legend Stipe Plazibat), so let’s just dive right into it.

Look at that cute baby. I gotta say I really miss Stipe, and I wonder how he would have done in the current Sailors setup, and how he would have done instead of Kim Shin-Wook last season. It’s also so nice to see that he remains a Sailors fan, Stipe if you’re reading this please come back and visit! But ok I digress.

In the interesting exchange between Stipe and Rhysh, one thing they definitely agree on is that this setup works on defence. I don’t think it’s surprising that Coach Risto went for something much more defensively solid this time, and we really succeeded in keeping Tampines out of their beloved central areas, and stopped them from passing us to death in our own half. That’s a huge positive. Kudos to Diego and Rasaq for sticking dutifully to their defensive work. I also thought Anu had one of his better games this season, returned to his natural defensive midfielder role – snapping into challenges, and really using his physicality against some of the smaller Tampines players.

Of course, my man of the match was Súper. He made interception after interception as Tampines was forced to try slightly riskier entry passes than usual. He also kept Boris Kopitovic very quiet all night, and of course, he was fouled by Yasir for the second bookable offence, so his impact on this game is really huge. That moment where he bailed Hariss out after Boris tackled our captain will really stick in the mind. What a moment – as good as a goal.

Was the Balance Right?

But as Stipe alluded to in his responses, was the balance right in what was a game we really wanted to win? Stipe isn’t alone in having these thoughts – when we interviewed Sailors fan Bryan after the game, he felt that having established a solid defensive platform, we needed to turn up the pressure a little bit and get more on the attack.

This was a game where it was vital to get the first goal. Faris Ramli managed to crack one in from long range (glorious goal, btw), and that threw our gameplan out the window a little. I think the plan was always to sit tight, break, get a goal and then manage the game from there out. We have Yasir to thank I think, for his rash challenge which put his team in a poor position. Had he not been sent off, I do wonder if we could have been picked off on the counter-attack as we went out of our shells a little to chase the game.

But with the man advantage, I felt that we didn’t do enough to really press it home. I think it says a lot about Bernie that in a game where we really needed a goal, and Rasaq had to come off injured, that he wasn’t even sent to warm up, and ultimately, was not brought on. Could he be injured? If he is so injured that he can’t even play 10min in a game, then I wonder what’s the point of including him on the bench. Considering that our gameplan near the end of the game was to swing crosses into the box to put Tampines under some pressure, would a big burly forward like Bernie not at least help to create some panic amongst the Tampines ranks? I think we missed a good opportunity at the end to make it a little bit more difficult for them. Maybe a cheeky last 5min with Lionel Tan upfront would have helped too! (throwback to Jorge Felipe scoring a late late goal against Young Lions 2 years back)

Was it a Penalty?

I have to admit that when I first saw it, it did not look like a penalty to me. Instinctively, I also felt like it could not have been a clear and obvious error from the referee (who did not give the penalty), so when there was a VAR check, I assumed it would not result in a penalty. But wow – when Taqi jogged over to the screen to do an on-field review, we started celebrating in the stands. All football fans know by now – when the referee runs over to the screen, it usually results in him reversing his initial call.

Having watched the challenge by Faris from another angle though – I think it is a clear penalty. Faris goes into a challenge he’s never going to win, and Lestienne goes down.

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It was pretty telling that even Faris himself said that his Rovers teammates told him it was a penalty.

Conclusion

As a fan, I think I am very pleased to see that the Sailors are capable of being defensively tight. We had been conceding a bucketload of goals this season, and that is not something that is sustainable. We cannot keep winning every game 5-4, 4-3, etc. Imagine if the Sailors can line up this way when we are 2-0 up in games – maybe we can finally rid ourselves of that horrible habit of letting our opponents back in.

It’s a quick turnaround to the next game, so we will be hitting you with a preview of the Young Lions game very soon. Till the next article!

Written by Eddy Hirono 

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