Author name: Eddy Hirono

There’s always a debate about which team had a “better” season. The English Premier League throws up that question every once in a while, none more so than this season. Having won zero trophies, Arsenal finished in 2nd place and got knocked out in the UCL semi-finals – but can they claim to have a better season than Newcastle (League Cup champion), Crystal Palace (FA Cup champion), Spurs (Europa League champion), or Chelsea (UEFA Conference League champion)? It’s a debatable point, and one that requires pundits and fans to decide whether they place most importance on league performance, and whether progress to the latter stages of a competition but not winning it is something valuable in and of itself. How is all this relevant ahead of a high-stakes Cup Final against BG Tampines Rovers? Let’s find out. History Sometimes Forgets Its Losers Yes, what the title said. Unless you lose in a very spectacular fashion, such as when Bayer Leverkusen finished 2nd in the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal, and in the Champions League, you may have put up the most valiant of fights in the final, but history won’t really remember you. Even for the Bayer Leverkusen defeat in the UCL Final, I’d argue that most people remember them only because Zidane’s winner is so widely played and replayed. I think it’d be a challenge for most to name all the UCL runners-up just in this millennium. Point being this – in a season where we took part in 4 competitions, battled hard, and gave supporters some incredible moments, now’s the business end of the season and we would ideally want something tangible to remember this team by. We are lucky that in this era, Youtube exists, TikTok exists, so glorious moments can be replayed over and over again – but still I’d argue it’s not the same. Silverware and defeating your rivals in a final – when it matters most, that’s a feeling that’s irreplaceable, and there’s good reason for that. It’s because history will never forget what you did. So what if Bayer Leverkusen were perhaps unlucky not to win against Real Madrid, having registered more shots on goal and tested substitute goalkeeper Iker Casillas deep into injury time? So what if Bayer Leverkusen were acknowledged by some pundits as having played better? So what if Leverkusen’s coach Klaus Toppmöller was smoking throughout the game on the sidelines? (Ok that last point wasn’t relevant, but it was just funny to think as recently as 2002 that was allowed on the touchlines.) This season will live long in the history of every LCS fan, because of the insane highs and occasional lows and the journey we’ve been on. But to the neutral poring through archives and records, silverware is all that matters. Let’s make sure that LCS’s season isn’t remembered as just as good season, but a GREAT one, by doing the domestic double (I don’t count the Community Shield). Head-to-Head This season has seen some great battles with BG Tampines, but if we were just to look at head-to-head records, they have the edge. Two draws, and each team has one win each. Of course, they have the bigger win, 5-0 at Bishan Stadium, a real bad memory from what has been largely a great season. An interesting thing to note is that in all our games this season, they have had more xG than us, regardless of result. Of course, the recent 0-0 and the 2-2 result saw us rotate the starting line-up significantly, but the 5-0 loss and the 1-0 win we basically fielded what Coach Ranko felt was our strongest team. Tampines have always raised their game for us. The same defence that looks so disorganised and skittish against the likes of Balestier Khalsa and Hougang United, will suddenly transform into a prime Mourinho side when they face us. That’s how much they hate us. Irfan Najeeb will transform into Javier Zanetti, Amirul Adli will make us question why we ever let him go, and even Shuya Yamashita will look like a serviceable defender. Then further upfield, Faris Ramli, who we dearly love, will up his game several notches as well. The only thing I guess that is in our favour is that Boris Kopitovic is no longer there. Which brings me to my next topic. No Boris Kopitovic Boris plays every match for BG Tampines like he is fighting for his life. That is something that I think the current BG Tampines side misses. For a team that loves their silky passing triangles, Boris Kopitovic is the steel that accompanies the silk. The footbrawl to the football that Tampines play. I am pretty sure that if he played for the Sailors, I would love the way he fights in every game. However, of course, he played for the yellow and black, and for that, we dislike him – football is as simple as that haha. But besides those personal qualities of his, there lies a very good player who wasn’t necessarily replaced properly in my opinion. These are Boris’s stats. 1.24 goal involvements per 90. 16 goals and 6 assists in half a season before he left for Bali United. You compare that with Itsuki Enomoto’s stats, and therein lies perhaps a hint as to where BG Tampines’s season unravelled. These are Enomoto’s stats for the whole season – including his time at Young Lions where the system was set up to get him goals. 0.78 v 1.24 involvements per 90? That’s a huge drop-off. BG Tampines also sent Jared Gallagher out on loan, despite him playing a healthy number of minutes in the first team in the first half of the season. Dylan Fox’s arrival played a part in that of course. (I had a chat with Jared about this in the sister podcast – do check it out here). In what is gonna be a very rare occurrence for me – I find myself saying something nice about BG Tampines here. I think

So this one’s a little special. The first-ever crowd-sourced SFT preview article. I wrote in the Telegram chat that there wouldn’t be a preview article for tonight’s game because I was super tired and busy in the past few days. Jordan from the chat suggested a crowd-sourced version where fans would chime in with a line or two each, and we’d then send it to ChatGPT for it to try and summarise and yet retain the SFT flavour. So, this whole article is written by the fans, not me. Enjoy. Or direct all refund requests to them. ——————————————————————————– Will DPMM Go Out with a Big Bang, or a Whimper? The first leg saw the Sailors secure a slim 1-goal lead, thanks to goals from Maxime Lestienne, Toni Datkovic, and Bailey Wright. Here comes the big question: will DPMM go out with a big bang? Or a whimper? DPMM might want to end their time in the SPL on a high, and they have the tools to do so. Soaking and striking might be something the Brunei squad might do, even though it would come across as cynical. Lapses in concentration may also be costly considering how finely the game is poised. After ending the SPL season with a 9-match unbeaten run (7 wins, 2 draws), DPMM will be in a confident mood as they approach possibly their last game on Singaporean soil. Lion City Sailors will go All The Way! Eh Oh Eh Oh~ I hope LCS can send off DPMM. Ktksbye. DPMM dangermen Davis Ikaunieks and Miguel Oliveira will be looking to add to their goal tallies before they fuck off to Malaysia. One thing’s for sure: DPMM are guaranteed to waste time the moment they score a goal. Defending the Singapore Cup Is the true measure of a champion being able to defend a title? This will be the first time the Sailors will be able to successfully defend a title if the Cup is won. It is easy to win it once but difficult to defend it the year after. The key to defending our title is, appropriately enough, our defence. On the other side of the bracket, the 2 BG teams will be battling for 2nd place. Pray we do not play like Manchester United. DPMM say goodbye to Singapore league systems tonight. Let’s play our game and bring the “best” farewell for our opponents. Predictions of starting lineups tonight: Zharfan Rohaizad Akram Azman, Mamat, Bailey, Datkovic, Carmona Rui Pires, Hami Syahin Lestienne, Shawal, Lennart Thy 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 5 DPMM 0 Joseph’s prediction: Sailors 3 DPMM 0 Written by the fans Picture credit – Lion City Sailors If you’d like to support the work we do here at SailorFanTalk, you may want to visit https://ko-fi.com/sailorfantalk and leave us a tip!

After the high of contesting the ACL2 Final on Sunday night, things return very much to our bread and butter tonight. We face off against DPMM, who have been on a good run of form. Here’s a short preview of tonight’s game and why it won’t be easy. DPMM in Great Form DPMM suffered a bit of a mid-season wobble, but after striker Davis Ikaunieks settled in, they seem to be firing on all cylinders again. Just look at that. That’s mighty impressive – 5 wins on the trot. If you look further back, in the last 10 games, they’ve lost only once, and drawn twice. In that run, they have scored 21 goals and conceded 14. Much of it has to do with Davis Ikaunieks coming alive – he has scored 9 goals in his last 5 games. That takes his league tally to 12 goals, and you can see that most of his goals come from inside the box. We will have to limit the supply to the Latvian forward if we are to keep a clean sheet. Miguel Oliveira – Dangerman Of course, the prime dangerman will be Miguel Oliveira. In the league he has 9 goals and 7 assists, and he has been involved in 31.4% of all goals scored by DPMM – a very high figure. For comparison, Maxime is at 37.5% and Bart is at 19.8%. Part of the reason for him being so difficult for defenders to handle is his effectiveness at using both feet. There is an almost even spread of goals from his left and right foot respectively, while there is added difficulty in marking him when you look at where his goals are struck from. He is a threat from both inside and outside the box, and again, we have to stop the ball from going to him if we are going to prosper. Complacency? There is a chance that we supporters might think this will be an easy game, considering how good we were against Sharjah. DPMM being low down the SPL table will add to that feeling too. And if we feel it, the players might also feel it. Complacency might creep in. Then there’s the separate issue of whether the players can get over the heartbreak of Sunday night. There will be a sense that the whole season’s work culminated in that one showpiece final against Sharjah FC, and everything was left out there on the pitch that night. However, Coach Ranko will have to refocus their minds on the Singapore Cup, considering that this was probably one of the non-negotiables set at the start of the season, while the ACL2 was a bonus. Can the players psyche themselves up for a game of much smaller stature? Let’s hope so. Conclusion The good thing about this match coming so soon after Sunday’s final is that there is little time to dwell. The players will want to bounce right back with a win and continue on track to achieve the goals set for them at the start of the season. I expect there to be some, but not a lot of rotation, and I hope our Sailors send a statement to the remaining contenders by winning convincingly – but it won’t be easy. COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE! My predicted line-up Zharfan Rohaizad Akram Azman, Lionel Tan, Bailey Wright, Toni Datkovic, Diogo Costa Rui Pires, Song Ui-Young Maxime Lestienne, Shawal Anuar, 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: DPMM 1 Sailors 3 Joseph’s prediction: DPMM 2 Sailors 6 Written by Eddy Hirono Picture credit – Lion City Sailors If you’d like to support the work we do here at SailorFanTalk, you may want to visit https://ko-fi.com/sailorfantalk and leave us a tip!

Make no mistake about it – despite home advantage, and our Sailors’ fairy-tale run to the final, Sharjah FC enters the final still as favourites. However, this represents an unprecedented opportunity for our Sailors to make history (again), and in this preview, I’ll tell you why I think it might happen (be warned, it’s a long read). But first, the lowdown on our opponents from Joseph Chin, once again. The Lowdown on Sharjah FC by Joseph Chin Origin Sharjah was founded as al-Oruba Club in the Emirate of Sharjah back in 1966, predating the modern country we known as the United Arab Emirates (it was known back then as the Trucial States, built upon a complex relationship between the seven component Emirates and a rapidly decolonizing Britain that led to its independence in 1971). As the first official champions of the newly formed UAE League in 1974, their subsequent merger of the Khaleej club within the district and its consolidation as the main club in its Emirate saw them reign four more times as champions and provide 8 players in the UAE’s sole appearance at the World Cup in 1990. Their high point was the 1991 victory in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) Champions League, reigning supreme in a tournament amongst Arab clubs. Its modern history was marked by their first ever relegation in 2012, a wake-up call that was heeded as they finally started challenging for honours again towards the current decade, with 2 Presidents Cups and a 2019 league win. Famous Signings Miralem Pjanic: The first brand name signing in the modern era for the club, the former Juventus winger did play a part in winning silverware for the club, kickstarting its current upwardly mobile phase. Timur Kapadze: Well known to keen watchers of Asian football, the Uzbek centurion briefly appeared for Sharjah before finally retiring in the Uzbek league. Man In the Hot Seat Cosmin Olaroiu will leave Sharjah after this season, his achievements having secured the job of the head coach of the UAE National Team, just in time for the June World Cup qualifiers. As a player, The former centre-back does enjoy a more glowing reputation across Asia than in his home country of Romania, having served Suwon Bluewings with distinction as a two time K-League winner (in 1998 and 1999). As a manager, Olaroiu’s two stints with Bucharest giants National (where he was also a player) and Steaua in the volatile Romanian League prepared him for appointments as varied as Al Hilal, Al Sadd, the Saudi National Team and the defunct CSL champions Jiangsu Suning, places where impatience is the only constant. Even though he won Steaua Bucharest it is in the Middle East (Qatar and UAE) where his coaching abilities are best appreciated, having maintained a streak of winning silverware at each of his club stints since Steaua. Highlights include his serial league winners Al Ain and the 2014 treble of Shabab al Ahli that was the catalyst for its AFC Champions League final appearance in 2015. He is a serial winner – let’s make sure he doesn’t add to his count on Sunday. Dangermen Adel Taarabt: Having revived his career with Al Nasr in Dubai after a roller coaster European career that saw great success at QPR and Benfica, as well as abject failure at Tottenham and Milan, the Moroccan international brings big game experience to the team as one of their marquee players with European experience. Not as dangerous as Caio, but still a very good player on his day. Cho Yu-min: A familiar face to seven of our Lions, having featured in the June 2024 WCQ where we lost 7-0 to star studded South Korea, Hariss, Song and Co will be looking to avenge that defeat on the grandest of stages. Appearing in the 2022 World Cup with South Korea, the former Daejeon centre-back is now a regular starter for both club and country. One of the many former K-League stars now plying their trade in Arabia, away from the domestic press corps that seem to be more interested in his famous Kpop idol singer wife. Caio, Luanzinho, Marcus Meloni and Guilherme Biro: Collectively, these Brazilians represent the single biggest threat in midfield. The first three are now naturalized Emiratis playing a role in the UAE NT after satisfying FIFA residency rules, and it is likely that age-group international Biro will eventually look to follow suit once his loan move from Corinthians is made permanent. Caio is the pick of the bunch – he is their top-scorer and has 19 goals from 35 games, including 5 in the ACL2. He has also racked up 8 assists. Tyrone Conraad: while the former Feyenoord youth product hasn’t had the best of senior careers, the Suriname international’s time at the Eerste Divisie might provide solutions to counter the distinctly Dutch flavour of our football, especially as a viable wildcard option in attack from the bench. Leon Dajaku: Not a dangerman so far, but just an interesting thing to note. Leon was Bailey Wright’s team mate in Sunderland (2021-2023) and would probably want to prove a point against his former captain. Sharjah’s most recent signing to replace Paco Alcacer might be the secret weapon to turn things around late on. The former Bayern Munich reserve winger has been used sparingly from the bench since coming in from Croatia, but has experience in the Bundesliga with Union Berlin and in European competition with Hajduk Split. The Pitch Saga Thank you to Joseph for weighing in as he always does. It’s been such a joy reading his lowdowns on this ACL2 run, and I hope we get to see more over the coming years! But now, back to me, and let’s bring our minds back to Sharjah moaning about our pitch. You’ll remember of course, that Sharjah FC was so scared of Jalan Besar Stadium, and the illustrious opponents that we’ve dispatched there, that they put out an open letter addressed to AFC, demanding that

This is gonna be the shortest preview ever. Motivation to Win This Game Both Coach Ranko and Lionel said the right things in the build-up to this game. Lionel said on the official preview for the club website that anyone who puts on the Sailors shirt must bring that “character and winning mentality to the pitch” and “whoever lines up on the day will give everything to finish strong and take home the three points“. When I spoke with Coach Ranko after we sealed the title, he said that he would still put out a strong lineup, they still want to win the game, set new records etc. But come on – surely, surely, there will be one eye, or if not, both eyes on this Sunday’s final? It doesn’t get much bigger than a continental final against West Asian opponents Sh**jah FC. I hope this is seen as an opportunity to let our fringe players play, let those who need minutes or match sharpness play, and perhaps let our fans witness the promise of some of the U21 players. Let’s wrap people up in cotton wool and keep them ready for the final. Bart and Song Song injured his head against Young Lions, and it was pretty good to see him back in the team last time out. That meant the injury wasn’t as serious as first thought. Bart is a worry though – he is easily one of our 3 most important players, if not the most important based on performances over the ACL2 campaign. When he wasn’t in the lineup for the Geylang game, I assumed he was being rested, but as discussed in the post-match thoughts article after the Tanjong Pagar game, two absences in a row does not bode well. Let’s hope he sees some minutes tomorrow night! Sh**jah FC Resting Players Our opponents played in the President’s Cup Final 4 days ago, and fielded ostensibly their strongest line-up. However, last night, they started only 4 of the 11 that started on Sunday night. And of the 4, 3 of them were subbed off at half-time. Coach Ranko, please please consider doing the same. Maybe if I ask enough times, we will manifest it. Crucially, top-scorer Caio was fully rested. That’s not good. We’ll want our guys as fresh as possible. Balestier’s Form Balestier Khalsa come into this game in pretty good form. In fact, prior to Sunday’s topsy-turvy defeat to DPMM, they had been unbeaten since the middle of March, when we beat them 4-1. Since then, they’ve registered impressive wins against Hougang, Young Lions, and of course, BG Tampines, in a match that all but handed us the title. They will look to get a point or 3 to consolidate their grip on 4th spot, even though 3rd is out of reach. Masahiro Sugita will feature, after his suspension was successfully appealed by Balestier. Conclusion I don’t really give a damn what happens in this game. I’ll be there for the trophy lift, but really, I hope that none of our players go down with any injuries. That’s all. COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE! (but if the chance to siam a tackle is there, pls siam it) My predicted line-up Zharfan Rohaizad Akram Azman, Lionel Tan, Ali Alrina, Toni Datkovic, Sergio Carmona Song Ui-Young, Anu Obren Kljajic, Abdul Rasaq, Hafiz Nor 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 Balestier Khalsa 2 Joseph’s prediction: Sailors 1 Balestier Khalsa 1 Written by Eddy Hirono If you’d like to support the work we do here at SailorFanTalk, you may want to visit https://ko-fi.com/sailorfantalk and leave us a tip!

Both teams come into this after what I would say is a negative result. For our Sailors, well you know, we gave up a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 to Geylang. For our opponents, well, they didn’t lose, and in the context of this season, a 1-1 draw against Young Lions isn’t that bad a result. However, after the game, TPU’s coach Noh Alam Shah went on camera to say that his team was “rubbish”. So – both teams head into this one on a bit of a downer. Let’s dive straight into the preview. Chance to Win the First of Three Major Trophies Amid the excitement surrounding our ACL2 run and all the controversy ignited by Sh**jah FC, I think the possibility of us achieving only our 2nd league title has sort of faded into semi-oblivion. But make no mistake about it – it is not just a big achievement, it is also a very important one. In the past 2 seasons, while the Sailors had a bigger budget than all the other teams, one reason (or some may say “excuse”) for the Sailors failing to win the title was simply that Albirex Niigata (S) had an unfair advantage, being able to field more foreigners than any other team in the league. Well, in the first season without that being a factor, we then became the overwhelming favourites to win the title. Make no mistake about it – I am pretty sure Coach Ranko would have been relieved of his duties had we not been on course to win the title. There were some early hiccups in the first part of the season, but after losses to BG Tampines and Albirex, we kept up a long unbeaten streak which was ended in our last game by Geylang. Along the way, BG Tampines lost their star striker Boris Kopitovic, and then inexplicably started losing / drawing random games. Our title never really looked in doubt, until recently when we picked up a couple of draws and a defeat. All eyes were on Jalan Besar Stadium on Wednesday, to see if Balestier Khalsa could do us a favour. And they did – led by heroic performances across the park, aided by the superb Kodai Tanaka, and in the later stages of the game, Abdil Qaiyyim. The result was made even sweeter by the fact that BG Tampines played with a man up after Shah Shahiran made the most of minimal contact to get his opponent sent off. Shah had initially sparked off the whole incident, mind, by leaving his foot in a challenge and tripping his opponent. Unfortunately, the referee only penalised the retaliation, and did not give Shah a deserved yellow card for the part he had to play in this. But enough of that rant – it was a great performance by Balestier Khalsa. So instead of heading into tomorrow’s game with a lot of pressure after seeing BG Tampines capitalise on our slip, we go into tomorrow’s game knowing that a win seals the title. A draw practically seals it, given our huge advantage on goal difference. But ideally, we get the win. And it will be a massive moment. Let’s hope there will be a big turnout tomorrow at Jurong East Stadium to celebrate our 2nd ever title. Tanjong Pagar’s Dreadful Form Tanjong Pagar have won only 2 of their 13 games in 2025. And this is already improved from their form in the first half of the season, and before they signed a keeper reinforcement in the shape of Matt Silva. In that time, they’ve also lost 4-1 to us twice, adding on to their 3-0 and 6-0 defeats to us earlier this season. I don’t think there’s any need to analyse this game further – they are in very poor form, and have just been criticised publicly by their coach. They will want to bounce back, but unfortunately, I think they caught us at the wrong time. We, too, will be itching to bounce back after the terrible play against Geylang. We also have the added incentive of making sure that we win so that the top players can be rested for Wednesday’s game against Balestier Khalsa. Conclusion Just win please. And let’s celebrate winning the title at the home of Albirex. We’ve had some painful memories in that stadium – let’s make a happy one tomorrow. COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE! My predicted line-up Izwan Mahbud Chris van Huizen, Hariss Harun, Bailey Wright, Toni Datkovic, Diogo Costa Hami Syahin, Rui Pires Maxime Lestienne, Shawal Anuar, 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: TPU 0 Sailors 5 Joseph’s prediction: TPU 0 Sailors 2 Written by Eddy Hirono Picture Credit – Singapore Premier League If you’d like to support the work we do here at SailorFanTalk, you may want to visit https://ko-fi.com/sailorfantalk and leave us a tip!