Author name: Eddy Hirono

Our last defeat in the league was against Albirex. Till that defeat, Albirex had been in poor form, so much so that they sacked their very popular head coach, King Kazu, despite his multiple trophies for the club. Unfortunately, that victory against us seems to have set Albirex off on a bit of a run. Coinciding with the return from injury of experienced midfielder Yojiro Takahagi, and the signing of Ryhan Stewart, they managed to do this – That is some very impressive form – with victories against Balestier Khalsa and Tampines Rovers, two teams who have impressed this season. Will we be able to get our revenge on them though? Let’s dive into some talking points in the review. Stop Nakano, Stop Albirex Yup, as the title of this section suggests, Albirex are very much reliant on Nakano for their goals. With 17 goals, Shingo has nearly half of Albirex’s 37 goals. It is an amazing rise for the youngster, who just a year ago was playing community college football in USA. He has managed to make himself a real menace in the league, with his explosive pace and eye for goal. He also has a good mix of goals – with 4 headers, 3 left-footed shots, and 10 on his right foot, showing that he is not a one-dimensional threat. With 88% of his goals from inside the penalty area, he is very much a fox-in-the-box striker who you cannot afford to give too much space to. In the last game, he scored against us from the spot, but also from latching on to a long ball behind our defence as our Sailors went on search for a late equaliser. That is his specialty, capitalising on large tracts of open land left behind by teams that are further upfield searching for goals. Could the best way of stopping Albirex ironically be to sit deep and prevent them from utilising Nakano’s pace behind the defensive line? If we don’t do that, then I think we’ll have to be really attentive on our press to ensure that there are no easy long balls out of defence. Izwan could also be asked to play a little higher to minimise the space in behind and discourage the long balls forward. Set Pieces a Possible Route to Victory Albirex are the second-worst defence when it comes to set pieces this season. 8 of their goals conceded have been from set pieces, a tally that is beaten only by Hougang, who have conceded 11 from set pieces. On the other hand, our Sailors have scored 6 of our goals from set pieces, with Toni Datkovic and Bailey Wright always looking threatening in such situations. Between them, they have scored 8 goals this season, all from free kicks and corners. Lionel has scored twice in his Sailors career, but is yet to get a goal this season – maybe the time is right for him to open his account tonight? Ins and Outs for Albirex Arya Igami is the big name missing from the Albirex lineup, with a surprise mid-season move to BG Tampines Rovers to take up the foreign slot vacated by Kyoga Nakamura becoming a Singaporean. He will be missed for Albirex – he was the matchwinner against Young Lions in their last game, and it was his goal that opened the scoring against us when we last played them. While his tally of 4 goals and 3 assists suggest that he didn’t set the world alight, he was more than capable of moments of magic, and I feel a little safer knowing that he won’t be playing tonight. Yojiro Takahagi, a man spoken very highly of by the Albirex physio in the Kicking and Screaming podcast, has also retired and left Albirex. Given that he was such an important part of their recent revival, I wonder if his departure will destabilise them both on and off the pitch. The recent arrivals, Nozomi Ozawa, and Taiki Maeda – I tried looking online to see what kind of players they were, but unfortunately, there was precious little information about them. Arya and Yojiro out, replaced by two youngsters, you would hope that our Sailors can take advantage of the need for them to adapt to the league. Maxime – Injured or Rested? In our last preview article, we wondered if Maxime was injured because he clutched the small of his back during the KL City game after he scored. The club website stated in an article that he was rested for the game against DPMM. Will he be back for this game tonight? If he’s back, then pretty sure he was just rested for DPMM out of precaution. If he’s not in the lineup again, then I will begin to worry a little. We have a crunch tie against Buriram next week which will determine if we can get out of the group stage in the Shopee Cup, and we will need our best players for that. We’re not a one-man team, but in the league, Maxime has a ridiculous number of goal contributions. 10 goals and 19 assists means that he gets almost 2 goal involvements every 90 minutes. Let’s hope we see him back tonight! Akram Azman – Our New Man It has been long rumoured that Akram Azman was a target for the Sailors. Before the season, there were already rumours that this would happen, but ultimately he stayed at TPUFC. Some of yall might remember him from that game in 2023 where we came back from 2-1 down to beat Tanjong Pagar 3-2 in a very unconvincing game at Bishan Stadium. If you don’t remember, here are the highlights. Akram shone in this game, as he played at LWB and really was a thorn in our side. When he got forward, he won TPU a penalty, and also scored later on in the game to give them a 2-1 lead. He is capable of playing fullback and wingback on

It is always a little tougher writing a preview when 1) you haven’t seen the opponent in action for a long time, 2) there are new players from foreign leagues and you have no idea how they play. But let’s try anyway. Everyone thinks this is gonna be an easy win for us, or at least Singapore Pools seems to think so, but I am not sure I agree. Dangerman – Davis Ikaunieks From what I’ve seen of this guy off Youtube, he looks a real handful. He just joined DPMM so of course we have no idea how he has adapted so far to life in Brunei, but if Youtube compilations are anything to go by, then this guy can do it all. Left foot, right foot, headers – he just seems to be a penalty box predator. And yes, I know that Youtube shows the best side of players, but I still think there is some utility to watching highlights. You get a sense of what kind of player he is. When you watch videos and you have to think about whether the player is left or right-footed, then you know you have a player who is adept at using both feet. He is right-footed, but the type of goals he is banging in on his left are not just tap-ins or hit-and-hopes. Some of them are shots that require a high level of technique. Whereas you watch someone like Stjepan Plazonja, who has taken the SPL by storm, and his Youtube compilation also kinda tells you what to expect. This is what I wrote before the season started, and it’s exactly what we got. Ikaunieks sniffs out chances, and is able to find the target more often than not. Does his arrival make DPMM more dangerous? I don’t know because in my opinion, the man he replaced, Julio Cruz was already very good at scoring and creating chances. So at most it’s one-in, one-out? In 14 games, Julio Cruz notched up 6 goals and 7 assists, for a total of 13 goal contributions. Considering DPMM only got 30 goals, that is a pretty high involvement rate. (Yes I know sofascore only credits Cruz with 4 assists, but Chin Heng and I manually track games and goals, so trust me, it’s 7 assists). Ikaunieks does boast experience in some really tough environments – and I am not just talking about the quality of football. What in the snowy hell is that? We in Singapore have been complaining about the cold the last few days, but I think to Ikaunieks, the current weather in Brunei and Singapore is a sauna to him. Here’s hoping that he is still frozen in tonight’s game and will need some time to warm up (literally) to the Singapore Premier League. Unavailability of Song and Lionel I have written already in the last article about Maxime clutching his back after he scored. If there is any risk of aggravating an injury, my hope is that we do not play him. Although this is not an easy game, we have to think long term. We’re three points off the top of the league, but with three games in hand. Even if we do lose this tricky away game, it is not the end of the world. We can get those points back. If however, we risk Maxime and he aggravates an injury, then that leaves us a little short moving forward I am sure. (I am an Arsenal fan scarred by Saka’s absence and its subsequent impact on the team, so please bear with me while I describe doomsday scenarios). The tricky thing though, is that both Song and Lionel are unavailable due to suspension from picking up 4 yellow cards. I didn’t know this until the club website’s official preview article mentioned it. Sidenote to SPL, kindly put up a proper stats page so that we can keep track of these things. This raises a few questions. Will Coach Ranko stick with 5 at the back? Will we be able to replicate Song’s recent output? Song is our top-scorer in ACL2 with 5 goals, and our 5th-top scorer in the SPL with 4 goals. Can Shawal start another game in quick succession given his injury troubles? Refer to this article from the Straits Times a couple of months ago. Here’s an excerpt. I have spoken to some fans who think that for continuity’s sake, we will stick with 3 at the back (with Bill coming in for Lionel), with Hami continuing to operate at RWB in defence. Hami’s another one who has seen alot of action for club and country recently, so I wonder if he too can play yet another game in quick succession. There’s also of course the looming spectre of the upcoming Albirex game this Friday, where we will have to recover after a flight back from Brunei tomorrow, while they have the luxury of tons of time to prepare for the game. Miguel Oliveira Last but not least, Miguel Oliveira. In my opinion, one of the best players in the SPL right now. He is just so much fun to watch, and he has 8 goals and 3 assists to prove he is not all just for show – he has end-product as well. He combines very well with Hakeme Yazid, but unfortunately, if rumours are true, Hakeme Yazid has been stripped (heh) of his place in the side because he went to a certain nightclub in Russia while on international duty. His antics were laid bare for all to see for those who keep abreast of Bruneian football news. Looks like his season may be going tits up. If Hakeme Yazid is not in the lineup, we have one less player to worry about. I think he is one of the most gifted players I’ve seen in my lifetime from Brunei, and he has caused us some damage in the past. They also visited a cider bar (as

The Shopee Cup has been said by fans, and even some experts to be a second-rate competition. The label of “ASEAN” means that perhaps this competition lacks the lustre of the ACL Elite or the ACL2. I beg to differ – I think that the quality of opposition is actually on par with what we have faced in the ACL2 this season. Buriram and Cong An Ha Noi – are these teams not equal to or better than teams like Port FC and Persib Bandung? And if you look away from our ACL2 group – are they not a million times better than Lee Man, Eastern, or the hilariously-named Dynamic Herb Cebu? I mean I get the irony of me laughing at a football club which has its corporate identity so brazenly planted into the club’s name, considering that Sailors is a reference to the SEA corporation, but Dynamic Herb is as unsexy as it gets man. And the football they play? Not a ringing endorsement for the herbal products they sell. But … I digress. My point is simply this – we need to do well in competitions like these, even if qualification to the next stage looks unlikely. A club of LCS’s stature needs to win the league year in year out, but in my opinion, it also needs to make strides overseas, and assert themselves regionally. And I urge you to read that sentence carefully again – we HAVE to win the league, and do well regionally. I think winning is a habit, and if we don’t play well and try to win every game, then we fail in our objectives. 2025 is gonna be a big year for us, and the winning starts now. Let’s dive right into the preview. Our Opponents KL City FC is a reactive team, just like us. They don’t seek to dominate teams – they try to defend well and then hit on the break. Their games so far in the Shopee Cup have both been 1-0 wins at home, against Borneo FC and Kaya FC. However, the games could not have been more different. Against Borneo FC, they were clinging on for dear life as the keeper and defence held firm against some crazy pressure, before scoring a goal against the run of play through Brendan Gan – who will not be available against us tonight. They held 27% possession and a shocking 65% pass accuracy. Against Kaya FC, while they still didn’t hold the majority of possession, they carved apart their opponents’ defence at will and should really have added more to the scoreline. All they managed though was a goal from a goalkeeping error. And therein lies the hope for us – while their Shopee Cup record looks impressive, they are not an unbeatable team without flaws. They lie 8th out of 13 teams in the Malaysian Super League, and even if you take into account the points deduction they suffered because they submitted inaccurate documents to AFC, they would still be outside the top 4. Their points tally would also be closer to the bottom of the table than the top. I don’t profess to know a lot about our opponents other than watching highlights from the MSL and their two Shopee Cup games, but head on down to the official LCS website to check out their preview of the game as well. Notably, aside from Brendan Gan missing, they have their second-top scorer Jovan Motika missing as well. We won’t get a better opportunity than this. Our National Team Players Hami, Izwan, Shawal, and Lionel clocked some serious minutes in the Mitsubishi Electric Cup, and while that was one and a half weeks ago, I do wonder if some of them will be given a bit of an extended break just to ensure they can go the distance in the three competitions we have this year. Hariss, Chris van Huizen, and Abdul Rasaq were there too, but didn’t see quite as many minutes. Assuming Izwan doesn’t get rested because goalkeeper isn’t the most physically-demanding competition, I expect that Shawal, Lionel and Hami will not start this game. That obviously weakens our strongest possible line-up, but I think we can still cope. Might be a good opportunity to let Zharfan play as well. I am not entirely sure about who else is available or not for this game. We might have a small clue from the Instagram posts of Kitchee and Sailors respectively when they met for a friendly game on 4 Jan. The players who featured in the photos of the game were Anu, Song, Bart Ramselaar, Hafiz Nor, Nathan Mao, Rui Pires, Lennart Thy, Bill Mamadou, Haiqal Pashia, and Sergio Carmona. Anu’s an interesting one. I think of all people he will admit that his performances in 2024 have been a long way from his best, and he has struggled to get minutes as well. There are strong rumours floating around that he will be loaned out in January, but so far no official confirmation yet. It was thus a bit surprising to see him get minutes in the Kitchee friendly. What does the future hold for him? Only time will tell. Interesting Battle of Reactive Teams As stated above, KL City is likely, especially in an away game, to sit back and wait for us to try to attack them. However, our Sailors have thus far in continental competition, adopted that role as we come up against teams that have more quality than us. Will we see us do the same as we have in continental competition? I suspect not, considering we need a win in order to ignite any potential comeback in this group. We are rock bottom of the group having played like shit in the two games so far against Borneo and CAHN. While I don’t think we will ditch our 5-at-the-back formation, I believe that we will try to start the game with the same intensity as we did

It is well and truly the last chance saloon for our Sailors. We have thus far not made the most of our last two games, and landed ourselves in this situation where we have to win to confirm progress. Anything else, and we need to rely on other results to go our way. We don’t want that. (Have you ever wondered why the last chance saloon is called the last chance saloon? Is it a reference to cutting your hair right before the Government announced circuit-breaker controls to curb the spread of Covid-19? No. In the USA, there used to be some states that prohibited alcohol. The last chance saloon was essentially a saloon (pub) that was situated near to an area where alcohol was not allowed – if you go past this point, there may be no more alcohol. Hence, “last chance”. OK I learned something today.) Speaking of learning, have our Sailors learnt their lessons from the collapses in the last 2 games, and can we finish off the job this time? Grab your shots and let’s dive right into the preview. The Equation I touched on this in the previous article, but the equation is simple if we win. If we win, we’re on 10 points, and we will qualify as group winners. (same points as Port FC but better head-to-head record) If we draw, we need Zhejiang and Persib to draw as well. If either of them win, the winner will leapfrog us and go into 2nd spot. Amazingly, if we lose, we’re not definitely out. If we lose by 1 goal, we will still qualify ahead of Zhejiang and Persib IF they draw. Basically, we either need to win, or really just pray that Zhejiang and Persib draw. A Different Port FC The last time we played Port FC in Bangkok, we rode our luck at times, and fought hard to achieve a 3-1 victory. The defensive performance was more impressive than the offensive performance. If we are to be a little honest with ourselves, we took advantage of 2 defensive errors to go 2-0 up through the sharpness of Shawal Anuar, and our 3rd goal owed a lot to a huge deflection that took Song’s shot in. What I think was very impressive was how we managed to completely kill Port’s rhythm after we scored our 3rd goal. There was 30min left in the game, but our Thai opponents created almost nothing of note. However, it might be a slightly different team that we face this time. Three key players come to mind, Bordin Phala, Irfan Fandi, and every Singaporean’s favourite Indonesian man (after Rich Brian), Asnawi Mangkualam. Bordin Phala 41 caps for his country, 6 goals. 7 goal contributions this season in the league, from 9 games. He was out injured the last game, but he can undoubtedly make the difference for his team. Along with Kevin Deeromram, Bordin has 7 goal contributions to top the contributions chart for Port FC. 4 goals and 3 assists from the wideman who can do it all. Bordin is a triple threat – he can run, he can shoot, he can cross. It won’t be easy trying to keep him quiet. Irfan Fandi He used to be from around here you know! (Home Utd, not Lion City Sailors). We even had a chant for him. Irfan Fandi, Irfan Fandi, I just don’t think you understand, He makes the strikers sad, He’s stronger than his dad, We’ve got Irfan Fandi! Irfan is obviously a much more developed and better defender than he was when he was with us years ago. The Thai League is more his level than our SPL of course, but he’s had injury troubles, and that’s what kept him out the previous game. His coach has confirmed he will be back, and aside from being a rock in defence, he will add another level of threat at setpieces as well. One thing about Port you will realise every match you watch is that they are very very good at setpieces. Their goal against us in Bangkok also came from a setpiece, while they were close on a few other occasions too. I don’t have the stats, but I can assure you that they will be a threat from them again tonight. As a Singaporean we always wanna see our players do well when they ply their trade overseas, but let’s hope we don’t see Irfan celebrating tonight. Asnawi Mangkualam Singaporeans’ most hated Indonesian, or maybe even person. After the way he cruelly mocked Faris Ramli in an unsportsmanlike manner for missing a crucial penalty kick when Singapore played Indonesia, no tears will be shed for him if he similarly screws up tonight. But I tell you what – he will be a menace down the right wing. He has bags of energy, a lot of pace, and he is unafraid to shoot or cross. If Chris is playing there, he will have to be at his best to even stand a chance against Asnawi. The Motivation for Port FC From the table, you can see that Port FC has already qualified for the next round. Is there any chance they will go easy on us, rest their whole team, etc? Unlikely, given that there is no game for them this weekend, so they don’t have to keep their powder dry. Their next game is in January. Also, while they have already qualifieed, top spot in the group is worth something to teams. In the knockout stage, if you finish top, you get to play the 2nd leg at home. That is an advantage because if the tie goes to extra time, your extra 30min played (and penalties if applicable) gets to be played in your home stadium, with your home fans. I think given these circumstances, along with Port’s desire to avenge their loss last time out, should mean that they will go all out against us. Our Approach – to Attack or

I may be showing my age a little with this introduction to the article, but when I was looking at the standings and playing out all the permutations in my mind, the song “Any Dream Will Do” kept popping into my head, except it was “Any Draw Will Do”. It’s a song that’s been covered by numerous artistes, and made the subject of parodies as well. When writing, you shouldn’t sidetrack yourself right from the get-go in the first paragraph, but this is not my day job, so who cares. Do check out the song as performed in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, the musical, and then also the hilarious Chelsea and Jose Mourinho inspired parody, harking back to the early days when Jose Mourinho first took charge of Chelsea and bought tons of players due to the funds made available by Roman Abramovich, forever changing the landscape of English football, and dare I say, all football. Back to the point – I genuinely believe that a draw will allow us to qualify for the knock-out stages because I have confidence in Port FC to beat Persib Bandung in Thailand. And if that happens, an away draw at Zhejiang will take us through to the next stage. But that’s just my conclusion, let’s dive right into some of the other thoughts I have coming into this game. Stakes are High – for BOTH Teams After the madness of the last 10 minutes in Jalan Besar Stadium when we somehow fucked up a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 (not even a draw, not even a draw, ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH), the group has been blown wide open. Zhejiang, despite losing 3 of their 4 games so far, find themselves in a position where they can still qualify. And it’s not even a fanciful possibility. Simply put, they just have to beat us, then beat Persib next week. After that, hope that we don’t take all 3 points against Port FC at Jalan Besar Stadium. Take a look for yourself how this might all pan out. For us, this represents a chance to make it to the knockout stages, to prolong our continental adventure. Truthfully though, the stakes might be even higher for Zhejiang. Why? In the SPL, barring a crazy collapse, we are guaranteed entry into next year’s ACL2 tournament. However, the Chinese Super League has already concluded and Zhejiang is in 7th, nowhere near the continental qualification spots. This is very much the last-chance saloon for them – they need to win to progress, and then try their best to win the whole damn tournament so they qualify for the ACL Elite. Failure to pick up a win here will extinguish their chances of making it to the next round, and with it, any continental competition next season. There’s also the question of pride, given how both us and Zhejiang lost our previous ACL2 game … being at home, they will want to show their thousands of fans that they are capable of bringing some cheer to what has been a difficult season for them. Chomping at the Bit Till It’s Gone Both teams will be chomping at the bit, eager to get going again after the last defeat. However, it has been quite a while since both teams have played. There have been no official matches since 3 weeks ago. If the teams were horses chomping at the bit, the bit would probably be gone by now. I include a picture of a horse and its “bit” so that you can see how the phrase originated. Of course in this case, I am not so sure I’d be sending my kids to Shane English School considering that they wrote “it it mouth” in their advert. Shane English School, more like Shame English School. Back to the point. Usually when you lose a game, you’d want to hop right back into action, to put things right. You’d ideally want a game against Tanjong Pagar United 5 days later – stick on the first team, let them rack up a 5-0 scoreline by the 60th minute, then put on some of your reserves to finish the game. However, there was none of that for us as we didn’t have any league games. We did have a morale-boosting friendly against JDT where we lost 1-0 but by all accounts looked pretty solid. It was also good that players like Bill Mahmadou got gametime and impressed. The rest of our Singapore NT players had abit of a mixed bag of results, beating Myanmar unconvincingly 3-2, but then losing to Chinese Taipei. How will this lack of rhythm affect us? Will our players have been dwelling on this result? I can’t say for sure, but I guess that at least in the international fixtures, Shawal kept up his impressive form, finding the net twice in 2 games. He’s definitely one to look out for. Who Else To Look Out For? Besides our superstar Shawal, I think what deserves a mention is that Bart Ramselaar should be back from suspension. You’ll remember his red card against Persib. That was 2 games ago, and I am reliably informed that he will be involved in this game. We’ve not seen any other news of any other absentees – plus we’ve seen all our players in action in training videos and airport videos and the like, so we can only assume that the full squad is fit and raring to go. On the Zhejiang side, it’s very much the same team that we saw against us at Jalan Besar Stadium, and I just hope that we do abit better closing down Li Tixiang. Often, he was given too much time in my opinion to pick out a pass, and his cultured left foot is capable of some really good deliveries. The first time we met Zhejiang, he created a few chances which required Izwan to be at his best to preserve the clean sheet. Their wingers of course, will