Author name: Eddy Hirono

Tampines Rovers again put us upstairs in the top tier, but it was them who ended up in tears at the end of the night. After an electrifying performance, especially in the first half, we went in 3-0 ahead at half-time, and I think many will be forgiven for thinking that it was game over. Credit to Tampines Rovers of course for making it slightly difficult, but when our attack is in this type of form, it is very hard to stop us from picking up maximum points, and so it proved, as Maxime Lestienne and Richairo Zivkovic picked up a hat-trick and a brace respectively, to see us score 5 goals at Our Tampines Hub. Electrifying. This season, we have scored 5 or more goals 5 times – 10 April 2023 – Hougang 0 LCS 5 1 June 2023 – Balestier 4 LCS 5 1 July 2023 – Tanjong Pagar 1 LCS 7 31 July 2023 – LCS 5 Balestier Khalsa 2 4 August 2023 – Tampines 2 LCS 5 Amazingly, none of these 5 times was against Young Lions, the whipping boys this season. These goals have contributed to our very-impressive tally of 68 goals. Electrifying. Not only is there quantity when it comes to goals, there is quality as well. And speaking of quality of goals, let’s start right there with Maxime’s performance and three goals. Electrifying. Chips Ahoy! (Maxime Loves his Chips) Yes, in case you were wondering about the relevance of using a picture of Chips Ahoy! cookies for this article, this part should explain it. Maxime is a Sailor. Sailors shout “Ahoy”. Maxime tried 3 chips against Syazwan Buhari and scored two goals. My tangled gluttonous mind immediately thought of chocolate chip cookies when I saw this happen. Yes I know, I am weird. Sorry not sorry. Moving on. As early as the 2nd minute, Maxime had already tried to chip Syazwan and was unlucky not to hit the target. It was Kyoga Nakamura who made the error, giving the ball away in the face of some heavy Sailors pressure. Without missing a beat, Maxime immediately hit the loose ball over Syazwan, but unfortunately over the bar as well. 1st out of 3 chips unsuccessful. The 2nd of 3 chips, in the 18th minute, was rather more successful. Tampines once again lost it in defence, and Lestienne robbed Yasir Hanapi who didn’t know he was right behind him. Once again, without missing a beat, and with just a very quick glance, Maxime utilises his left leg like a sand wedge (golfing term) to achieve just the right amount of height to get it up and over Syazwan for a lovely goal. 2-0, 18 min gone, Tampines are well and truly rocked. The audacity and quick thinking to chip it in from that range? Electrifying. The 3rd chip came as a result of some brilliant defensive work by Hariss to win possession in midfield. A quick measured ball over the top from Diego Lopes into the box sent Lestienne free, and with the keeper coming to close down the angle, Maxime chipped him. Now if that were me in that spot, I would’ve just admired how the ball arced nicely over Syazwan and get ready to celebrate. But not Maxime, he continues his run and when it comes off the post, he is in position to tap the rebound in. Elite. Hat-trick goal. Oh, and lest I forget, electrifying. Stadium Announcer for Tampines If by now, you’re wondering why I am using the word “electrifying” in almost every damn paragraph, it’s because days after the game and even though we won 5-2, I still cannot get over the fact that the Tampines Rovers stadium announcer described Boris Kopentovic’s penalty as “electrifying”. So let me address it now so that I can scratch that itch and the word “electrifying” won’t have to appear again. Now, if you think that I raise it up to say that the stadium announcer is shit – far from it. In fact, I give him a 9/10 because I think the energy was on point. In a game where there was nothing much for Tampines fans to get excited about, the 2nd goal after being 3-0 down needed some hyping up – the crowd was already excited at the tantalising prospect of a comeback, and the announcer had to feed the fire a bit more, to really get a rousing atmosphere going. What I especially liked was the repeated chant of “BORIS”, leaving the fans to fill in the blanks with shouts of “Kopitovic”. It is engaging, and it really got the crowd going. Of course, the small criticism I have is of the word “electrifying”. Someone buy the man a thesaurus or a dictionary so that a more appropriate word can be used there. How on God’s green earth is that penalty an “electrifying goal”? It was a good penalty, but you know, you’re expected to score those. Minor quibble! Still, major props to the stadium announcer, who probably won’t read this. Post-match I chatted with Brandon and Barry, and Barry said that he felt the announcer was doing a good job of delivering excitement to the fans, rather than just saying what he needs to say in a drab tone. Let’s see more of this at other stadiums! Pressing from the Front Look at these two images. You can see that the Sailors really tried to keep a compact block in the middle to force Tampines to play it wide. However, Tampines are very good passers and this season a lot of their success has come because they’ve dared to play even in congested middle areas. Usually this is aided by Kyoga Nakamura – who is a steadying presence in the midfield, always resisting the press with short sharp movements to manipulate himself into a position to get his team out of trouble and then to facilitate the attack. However, he did not have a great game, and

Not quite the Fibonacci sequence or the code to my safe, but 7-3-2-1 was the story of the day. I brought two friends to watch their first Lion City Sailors game, and I don’t think they could have picked a better game to come watch. One was an Olympique Marseille fan club member who I’d crossed swords with before in the Fan Club 5s League, while the other was someone who’d been in the sports industry for 20 years in Singapore but who has had rotten luck with clubs he supports – they always close down. Think Warriors, LionsXII, Tanjong Pagar United (before their revival), etc. It was fascinating watching the game, but it was also fascinating watching my invitees’ reactions as they couldn’t quite process what they were watching in that first half. Penalties given for what didn’t always look like penalties, a VAR check for an offence that occurred while I was still making my way into the stadium, missed penalties, some unconvincing defending from the Sailors, and a valiant Balestier side that just refused to accept that they were going to lose when they went down to 10 men. It was riveting stuff – when I interview people for SailorFanTalk – people sometimes know that we don’t run the kind of channel that profits off negativity, and so they try to say nice things, they try to gloss over some of the Sailors’ weaknesses, try to play up the Sailors’ effectiveness, etc, but when you watch people’ s faces, that’s where you get the truth. And the truth was that they couldn’t make sense of what they were watching. But now as we sit in the cold light of day – let’s go over some thoughts. Richairo’s Missed Penalty Richairo joins the ranks of Diego and Maxime of having missed a penalty kick this season. Thankfully, the penalty miss didn’t affect the result. It did however, affect the race between Ryoya Taniguchi and Maxime Lestienne for top-scorer indirectly. Given that the title is highly improbable now, I would have thought the team would do Maxime a favour and let him take the penalty, and help him boost his goal tally. It may also help him to continue exorcising some of the demons caused by the crucial penalty miss against Brunei DPMM. However, it was not to be, as Richairo stepped up and his effort was comfortably saved by Hairul Syirhan. Not quite sure what the decision-making was here, but it would seem that in the pecking order, Richairo is no. 1, and Maxime is no. 2. If that’s the case, then Maxime is a “good soldier” who is willing to listen to team instructions even in the face of potential personal glory – that is something that shouldn’t be taken for granted. Remember Cavani v Neymar all those years back when Neymar was the new boy on the scene in Paris Saint-Germain? If that is not the case, and Maxime has just graciously allowed Richairo to take the penalty to boost his goal tally and get him firing, then that’s very admirable from him. His unselfishness knows no bounds – more on that later. Whatever it is, I know what I prefer – I hope for SPL games at least, his teammates allow him to rack up some more goals to push him past Ryoya. Maxime Continues Providing With 2 assists in this game, Maxime is now on 18 assists. 18 assists in 21 games. This time round, he got it with a swerving corner kick, and rather curiously, a shot attempt that was pushed out weakly by Hairul Syirhan into the path of Richairo Zivkovic, who slotted it in. I say “curious”, because I had no idea that a saved shot counts as an assist! I know in Fantasy Premier League terms, it is counted as an assist, but this is the first time I’ve seen a saved shot attempt count as an assist in the SPL. Someone please correct me if I am wrong! Leave a comment after this article or drop me a message on Telegram either through DM or in the SailorFanTalk Telegram chat. Whatever it is, there is just no catching Maxime in the assists category. His next closest challenger is Diego Lopes with 11 assists, and after that it’s all single digits. Huge props to Joel Chew and Daniel Goh by the way for being the only Singaporean representatives in this table! Old boy Shahdan would certainly be on this list as well if not for his injury, but I digress. Zharfan Rohaizad What a monster save from the spot. ‘Nuff said. Lionel “Kompany” Tan Some similarities to walk you through for this one – let’s compare Lionel Tan’s strike v Vincent Kompany’s strike against Leicester City in the 2018/2019 season. Watch Lionel’s interview with us after the game. Bailey Wright Whenever a centreback gets a brace, it’s always noteworthy. So it’d have been criminal if we allowed this article to end without mentioning Bailey Wright. He absolutely dominated at setpieces, and scored two headers – one of which I am gonna call a “wrecking ball” header. You know which one I am referring to. It’s the first one, where he comes in like a bullet train, or a guy speeding because he really really really needs the toilet. From that range, all he really needs is to glance it in. But no, not our Bailey. He properly blasted it in with his head – if that makes sense. The perfect combination of neck muscles and momentum giving him the wrecking ball effect. He doesn’t score many, but he got 2 this time, in his birthday week as well. What impeccable timing. However, it wasn’t all rosy in Bailey-land, and he himself admitted in an interview that he had a bit more to work on his game. Check out what he had to say below (full link here) – Him saying it means I don’t have to say it –

13 minutes and 27 seconds in. New boy Rui Pires holds, and then sprints forward to intercept a loose pass. Within seconds, the ball is worked out right to Maxime. Richairo makes a convincing decoy run into the middle, pushing the defensive line back. Then comes the crucial moment – Shawal raises his left hand to get Maxime’s attention, and then darts behind Pedro Porro. The cross comes and it’s as we expect, a brilliant ball from our Belgian wizard – all it needs is a finish. Shawal, with the deftest of touches, lifts it over the despairing Guglielmo Vicario. As it bounces in, the fans begin to cheer. It is 1-0, improbably, against one of the best teams in the English Premier League. A moment like this, some people wait a lifetime, for a moment like this. For some reason when I was rewatching the game at home on MeWatch, this Kelly Clarkson song just came into my head when I saw Shawal score. Scoring a goal is always nice and great, but scoring against Spurs to put your team 1-0 up in the National Stadium? That’s gotta be a highlight for him, and so it was – he said in his post-match interview with TNP that it was a happy feeling for him and it was “one of the best moments for [him] in his career to score against a big team like this“. This moment, and what came after felt so great, partly because Spurs started the game with a strong lineup. Let’s examine how strong their lineup was, and also talk about some other things A Strong Spurs Starting Lineup This may have been affected by their Bangkok friendly being cancelled, which meant that Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou had to use this match to give match fitness to his stars. I was a little shocked to see the starting lineup. It was basically a lineup that you would expect to see in a Premier League game. In fact, when I saw the front four of Kane, Son, Maddison and Kulusevski, I feared the worst. Between them, they have amassed 434 Premier League goals and many other assists. In midfield, they had Bissouma and Sarr, collectively signed for upwards of 50m pounds, and appearing 183 times in the Premier League between them. In defence, they had Cristian Romero, the World Cup winner who takes a no-nonsense approach to the game. They also had Ben Davies, the Welsh fullback cum centreback who is closing in on 400 appearances in the Premier League. And then in goal, Vicario, the 17m pound new signing from Italy. Wherever you looked, there was quality on display. This was after all a team that completely dominated West Ham barely a week ago, despite losing it 3-2. Facing the fearsome Spurs attack was a new-look backline which did give me a bit of optimism. Bailey Wright was flanked by Pedro Henrique and Super. It had been a while since we last saw Pedro in action after his unfortunate season-ending injury last year, while we have not seen Super in action ever since Bailey joined the club. With Mamat and Chris van Huizen on the outside of the back three, and Zharfan behind them we knew the whole defensive unit would be in for a tough time. But boy, did they make us proud. It took a top Premier League team using their first team, 47 minutes and the award of a penalty kick to open the scoring against the Lion City Sailors – let that sink in. We can be very very proud of what the boys did because of the strength of the Spurs side that we faced. Yes, they may be in preseason, yes it may just be a friendly, but these are players who are looking to impress a new manager. They cared about the result, and they cared about how they played – do not be taken in by some Spurs fans who try to tell you otherwise. Kane’s reaction after he scored was telling – he was almost embarrassed to celebrate. The lineup that started should comfortably have been 2 or 3 goals ahead. A Platform to Impress In the preview article, I mentioned that while this is just a friendly game, this is a chance to impress for the players, and also for the fans. Realistically, when I said it’s a chance to impress, I do not mean that the players will get snapped up by Spurs or any of their rivals watching. What I meant is more that the players and fans have some convincing to do when it comes to attracting locals to the games. Pre-game, when we spoke to Spurs fans, most of them felt that this would be an easy game. I don’t blame them – I myself was probably a little scared that we would see a very lopsided scoreline, which would give a lot of ammunition for haters of local football. There were predictions of 5-0, 6-0, 10-0, and even 7-2 (from an SPL fan). Someone from the Spurs Supporters Club even condescendingly said to us pre-match that “tonight, you guys will experience the thrashing of your lives“. Maybe he thought it was banter, but I felt it was a tad disrespectful and abit strange even. I mean, Spurs players earn in one month what some of our players do not even earn in one year. The expectation IS a thrashing. Anything less than a thrashing would be strange, so to brag about it felt a bit weird to me. If you’re still trying to do some mental sums, let me help you out with this table below showing the weekly wages of some of the reserves, not even first-teamers like Kane and Son and Perisic. The figure in grey is their annual salary, while the column right next to that shows their weekly salary. So, Pape Sarr, who started in midfield earns 80,000 pounds a month, equivalent to about S$136,600.

Our Sailors were far from their sparkling best against Tanjong Pagar United, but came out of the game with a crucial three points. These three points allow us to stay in the title race (mathematically but not realistically), but more importantly help halt the losing run. We will need some momentum going into the AFC Champions League and also the Singapore Cup, so even though the league is gone, we must win all the games remaining to get some confidence back. I have seen many suggestions that the Sailors were lucky to win the game, but is that really a fair assessment of the game? Let me share some of my thoughts on that. Fashah Man of the Match Coach Ranko paid tribute to Fashah’s Man of the Match performance after the game, and it was clear to everyone in attendance that he was having a good game. As early as the 3rd minute, Fashah did well to stand up and spread himself to deny Adam Swandi from point-blank range. In the 40th minute, it was that man again, making a vital save from close range as it looked to all of us like Adam Swandi was bound to score. He was blameless for the 2nd and 3rd goals scored by us, and even though the 1st goal came as a result of a dodgy goal kick, he did manage to make a good save from Diego Lopes’s shot. It was just unfortunate that the rebound fell right to Maxime Lestienne. The Sailors actually created many chances and shots on goal, and had it not been for Fashah’s imperious form, I think we would have been out of sight far before Tanjong Pagar scored their second goal. He made 8 saves, and the stats showed that in terms of xG, he should have conceded 4.72 goals. His interventions were vital. Illusion of Luck – Combination of Timing + Circumstance With stats like these, and the xG of 4.72 (Sailors) v 1.3 (Tanjong Pagar), it is perhaps a little strange that people felt the Sailors were lucky. I think it’s a combination of timing and circumstance, in that the Sailors were behind from the 64th minute all the way until Maxime was fouled for the penalty in the 76th minute. Neutral observers probably felt that Tanjong Pagar was close to pulling off a shock win, until the rash challenge by Raihan Rahman. On that point, I have seen suggestions that it is not a penalty and that Raihan got the ball first. I’d suggest in the most delicate terms, that these people might want to see their optician, and get a new pair of spectacles made. Take a look at the link below, watch it from both angles provided, and I am sure you will agree. I have stopped the time at just before the replays for your convenience. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, back to the point. When a penalty comes as a result of a poor decision by our opponents rather than us “earning” it, I think there is a tendency for people to chalk it up to “luck”. Simply put, Raihan Rahman should have calmed himself down, and coolly hoisted the ball away. He did not need to go in with full swing to whack the ball away. Once he made up his mind to do that, and the ball took an awkward bobble, he had already committed to the swing and thus he ended up kicking Maxime. There was a lengthy VAR check and there were some suggestions that he should have been sent off for a reckless challenge. I think the referee considered the fact that his intention was probably not to kick Maxime. Probably the right decision in the end. The winner from Shawal came 5 minutes before the end of the game as well, adding to the feeling that the Sailors “got away” with the win. Given the stats, I’d disagree with that point. Albirex beat the Sailors in very similar circumstances as well when it came to the timing of goals, having to come from behind, etc, and we gave them full credit for the comeback. I choose to give our Sailors credit for the comeback too. Sleep-walking Defending At times in the first half, people around me commented that the game felt like a pre-season friendly. It did have such a vibe. It seemed like players were not really snapping into challenges, allowing their opponents time and space to saunter around the pitch, and pick out their passes. It was from one such pass that led to TPU scoring from the spot. A routine long ball + some miscommunication ended up being costly as it resulted in a penalty being conceded, and Hafiz Nor getting a yellow card which leaves him suspended for the next game. I felt this sleep-walking vibe continued into the second half as well – Akram Azman was given way too much time and space to amble into the box and pick his spot. If we continue defending like that, we will be taken apart by Spurs and the AFC Champions League teams. Maxime Lestienne + Asis In a season where we are unlikely to win the league, my focus has shifted to hoping that Maxime finishes as top-scorer and also wins the Player of the Season gong. This was probably the easiest brace of his career, slotting in from 1 yard out, and converting a penalty, but it leaves him level on goals with Ryoya Taniguchi – I think it is gonna be crucial to match or exceed his goal tally, please give the powers that be no excuse for taking away Player of the Season from him for two years in a row. Shout-out to Asis as well. In our post-match interview of the fans, aside from the usual flowers for Maxime Lestienne, a fan also singled out Asis for praise. The U21 captain came on, played almost half an hour,

I should have seen it coming, I should have read the signs. Anyway (anywaaaay), I guess it’s over. The last time we played Albirex, we used a Westlife song in our reel to accompany footage of Hafiz Nor flying through the air to execute a brilliant off-the-line clearance, so I thought it was perhaps fitting that this time around, Westlife gets a mention again. If you didn’t spot the Westlife reference, it’s probably cos you’re too young. No matter. Head on down to Youtube and watch tons of Westlife music videos and thank me later. When we scored in the 73rd minute, I genuinely thought we had done it and secured a much-needed win to really open up the title race. But what was I thinking? I have been brought up in the Arsenal school of raised expectations and I really should have guarded myself against having hope. It was a game where I thought we did pretty well in the first half, lost abit of control in the second half before we scored, and then we saw an amazing fightback from Albirex. Heartbreaking – I thought we might be able to cling on for a slightly unlikely victory. Before I share some thoughts with you, can I just say what a delight it was to witness a sold-out crowd in Jurong East Stadium? Fans from both sides were absolutely brilliant in creating a great atmosphere. What an advert for the league. Ok, on to my thoughts. Hassan Sunny First things first, the injury looked very bad and we hope he’s fine. For those not present at the game, you will be relieved to know that the crowd gave Hassan a very warm reception, and when he was injured, there was no booing or unpleasant remarks except for perhaps 1 or 2 unidentified black sheep in the crowd. Upon hearing these remarks, the Crew decided to respond in the best way possible, encouraging each other to chant louder so that we could drown out the noises of a negative few. I think most football fans know that there is a line that should not be crossed. They sometimes shout “Diver!” at players who take a tumble, and boo as the player stays on the ground. However, in a matter of seconds, once it becomes clear that it is a real injury, and the player is receiving treatment, even the most hard-hearted opposition supporter will keep quiet and allow the treatment to proceed. I am pleased and relieved that Hassan could receive his treatment in peace. We are pleased to update that when we spoke to Swan Army (Albirex fan club) members, they informed us that Hassan should be fine as he was discharged on the day itself. The Blame Game In the aftermath of the game, Lionel and Anu copped most of the flak for the late defeat. Fingers were pointed at them for the first two goals conceded, and I think it’s a little harsh. Could they have done better? Yes. But could Hariss have perhaps done better to shuffle over to make a tackle / block instead of holding off to prevent a cutback across goal since Mamat was already covering that option? Perhaps. Could Zharfan have come out of goal faster and just dived at Yokoyama’s feet, or closed the angle better? Yes, perhaps. Could Coach Ranko also be at fault for switching to 5 at the back after we took the lead? This meant that Diego and Hami were tasked to protect the space in front of the 3 centre-backs, not a task they are particularly suited for. Yes, perhaps Coach Ranko was at fault too. If you’re wondering what the point I am making is, the point is that hindsight is 20/20. When Lionel stepped out to make the challenge, more often than not he will win the ball or give away a foul given his physical defending style. This time Kunori did well (with a bit of luck) to hold on to the ball and divert it into the path of Yokoyama. If you ask Kunori himself whether he thought his little flick of the boot would work so well, he’ll probably chuckle and tell you “No”. It worked because Anu moved across just a little bit for the ball to squirt through to him. For a goal to happen, lots of little things have to go right for the scoring team, and the team that conceded can always find something that can be done better. And with the benefit of hindsight, some of these little decisions always look worse than they do in real time. I think instead of blaming individuals, we should instead give credit to Albirex for what they did. If you look at how they played in the entirety of the second half, and how they responded after going behind, I think immense credit should be given to them. Let’s put it this way – when the Sailors overcame a 2-0 deficit at Bishan Stadium earlier this season against Albirex, did we credit it more to our own efforts, or did we pick out Albirex’s mistakes leading up to those goals? Yup. Exactly. Look at the above screencap. It’s the 79th minute, and yet they have so much confidence to take the game to us. I have highlighted in pink five Albirex players, while there is another one to the right that is not captured, hence I used a pink arrow to indicate where he is. Lesser teams might think – what if we lose the ball here? We would have committed 6 people into the penalty area or around it, and there are only 3 outfielders left to defend it. But not Albirex. They pushed up, knowing that it was essential that their right-back stays all the way wide, so as to force LCS to spread out their defenders. If the right-back didn’t make such a deep run, then Nur Adam would be able to tuck in, and