Author name: Eddy Hirono

After the high of qualifying for the semi-finals of the ACL2 competition, our Sailors must now come back to Earth and re-focus on our Singapore Cup campaign. Let’s dive right into a short preview of tonight’s game. Domestic Treble a Priority You may remember that after winning the Community Shield last year, Technical Director Luka Lalic put up an IG post stating that 33% of a treble was done. If you don’t remember it, look at this. Now, I believe he wasn’t so optimistic at the start of the season to think that we would win the Shopee Cup or the ACL2, so I think he might well have been referring to the domestic treble – SPL, Singapore Cup, and of course, the Community Shield that we’ve already won. That being the case, tonight’s game is important, because BG Pathum has started well in this competition, and Balestier Khalsa are our direct rivals for qualification too. I have always maintained that for a team of our resources, we have to dominate every domestic competition. Of course, we have a game in hand, but we want to enter the game against Geylang with a 5-point lead so that regardless of what happens, they can’t catch us. Rotation Even though we don’t play till later on in the month, I have a feeling Coach Ranko will rotate some players into the starting 11. He will be aware that Wednesday’s game would have taken a fair bit out of certain players, while also taking into account the impending international window where our Singaporean players (ana Ali Alrina for Syria) will not have much of a break at all. Shawal came on and went off in the last game so might have his minutes managed again, while Maxime surely won’t be available after he looked to have dislocated his elbow on Wednesday. I think it’s also important to keep players sharp. With Maxime’s injury, we may have to lean on our bench a bit more, so I think it would be good for the bench players to get some meaningful minutes. Dangerman – Kodai Tanaka The dangerman is an obvious one. Kodai Tanaka, previously of LCS before his horrific knee injury, will be the one to watch out for. He has a whopping tally of 20 goals and 11 assists, 2 goals fewer than our very own Lennart Thy, but with 6 more assists to his name. In recent games, he seems to have added something into his arsenal – the ability to run with the ball over long stretches and provide a pass for his teammates. This wasn’t always the case with Kodai, who was most known for his penalty box prowess in the past. You can see the varied threat that Kodai Tanaka poses from the types of goals he is scoring. Of course, without Anton Fase alongside him, and Alen Kozar pulling the strings in midfield, it might be a little harder for Kodai to thrive, but that didn’t stop him in Balestier’s previous game, where he got a goal, an assist, and also forced an own goal as Balestier beat Geylang. He does however, have joint-top local scorer Ignatius Ang to look for on the pitch though. Ignatius is playing his best ever season in his long career, and we will have to look out for him as well. With 8 goals and 4 assists in the league, Ignatius is also in pretty good form, and was the matchwinner last time out against Geylang. Balestier’s Strange Form Balestier’s form is pretty strange. Losing to Young Lions and Albirex, but managing to pick up 2 wins over an impressive Geylang team, on top of securing all three points in an away trip to DPMM – you never quite know what you’re gonna get with Balestier Khalsa on any given day. Conclusion With Alen Kozar and Anton Fase out, we have to capitalise. I think we should have too much for Balestier Khalsa, and I predict us to get back to winning ways after two consecutive draws. COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE! My predicted line-up Izwan Mahbud Akram Azman, Ali Alrina, Bailey Wright, Toni Datkovic, Sergio Carmona Rui Pires, Anumanthan Kumar Abdul Rasaq, 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: Sailors 4 Balestier Khalsa 1 Joseph’s prediction: Sailors 2 Balestier Khalsa 0 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!

It’s not often you get thrashed 6-1 away from home, only to head into the second leg with a 3-goal advantage. That is the unexpected lifeline we have been given after the dramatic turn of events over the weekend. If you are somehow reading this but don’t know what happened, please read this Straits Times article. It’s why I was dropping hint after hint in the Post-Match Thoughts article last week because I had heard some rumours that the 3-0 walkover was gonna happen. In case you missed the hints – There was the more blatant hint – And then a much less blatant one – And also the choice of picture with Valere Germain inexplicably doing some weird prophetic hand-signs – Someone really needs to ask him what those hand signs were supposed to mean – his teammate was doing it too. Also, what kind of oddball does different signs for “3” on different hands? Usually people stick with one preference, and there are even suggestions that doing the “wrong” gesture can give away where you are from. If Inglourious Basterds is to be believed, that is – where a major plot point used the fact that an undercover agent posing as a German soldier gave himself away by using the wrong way to gesture for “3”. But, enough of the jokes and idle talk – the unexpected lifeline is like the one on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. It’s very helpful, but the odds are still stacked against you. Our Sailors still have to go out and put on a hell of a performance if we are to qualify for the semi-finals. Let’s dive right into the preview. Sanfrecce Are Quality I have already written about this in the last two articles, but let me reiterate this. I am a Sailors fan, but first and foremost, I am a football fan. Watching good teams play excites me. And it was truly impressive what Sanfrecce did to us in the first leg. Yes, some of the goals were perhaps avoidable, but there was also a sense that nearing the end of the game, Sanfrecce could have pushed on for more goals if they truly wanted. Diogo Costa, who has been a shining light for us since he signed in January, looked distinctly ordinary, while Maxime Lestienne was rendered almost invisible. Shawal scored a wonderful goal, but was found wanting in terms of quality of touch and pass in other parts of the game. Bailey and Toni are usually so solid at the back, but looked a little overwhelmed at times as well. All this is not for the lack of trying. The effort was there, but Sanfrecce were just better. And we shouldn’t be surprised. They were top-scorers of the J-League last year by some distance, and by finishing second, they qualified for the ACL Elite next season. They are not really an ACL2 team. What I also like about them is that they are so confident in their quality that at today’s press conference, when Michael Skibbe was asked about the artificial pitch, he said it was a “nice” surface – a refreshing change from usual coaches who come here and pre-emptively complain about the surface and how their team will have to adapt to it, as if giving excuses for any potential bad result. They will feel confident that having beaten us 6-1 last week, they can do something similar tonight. Their threats are across the team as well, and it’s not gonna be easy to focus on one or two of them to stop the threat. Just look at this – Parking the Bus (Or Ship, or Whatever Vehicle of Choice) In the pre-match press conference, a question was put to Coach Ranko – would he be looking to park the bus? This was his response. Parking the bus is not as easy as it seems. It requires a well-drilled defence, and one that is used to being patient and absorbing pressure. It also requires a goalkeeper who takes good care of long shots and crosses. It also requires a few members of the team to be “bad guys” who will roll around, antagonise, waste time, and just look to frustrate. I don’t think we are equipped to do that. We have not shown ourselves to be capable of doing that. Think Persib at JBS, think Zhejiang away, think Muangthong away. When we collapse into our defensive shell, we get less and less confident with each phase of play, and we end up caving. I think keeper-wise, Izwan will be the first to admit that he hasn’t been anywhere near his high standards set for himself. This ACL2 campaign we have let in 3 goals from long shots outside the box, and while we score many goals, there is a concerning number of goals that comes from areas where you would hope your keeper will come to claim the ball commandingly on the cross. Luckily, he sort of makes up for this with his excellent distribution, both with his hands and his feet, and his kicks have led to chances for our players before. In a game where we are likely to have to play on the counter, this may be crucial. I think the fact that we are so dominant in our league also means that we don’t get the opportunity to train how to be the “bad guys” the way DPMM always does, or more recently, how Hougang shut us down. It’s not easy to suddenly play like an underdog and do the dark arts. In our current squad, the players I see as able to do this the best are Song Ui-Young and Lionel Tan. Song is suspended, while Lionel didn’t make the bench even against Hougang, so I suspect he is injured. So I trust Ranko when he says he won’t park the bus. There will be some plan to hit Sanfrecce on the counter-attack, if only to pin 2

It is Matchday but I don’t think I’ve heard one Sailors fan discuss the upcoming SPL game with Hougang. With the league title nearly wrapped up and all eyes on Wednesday’s clash with Sanfrecce Hiroshima, many fans see this match as a mere distraction. Of course, there was also all the drama surrounding the walkover decision by the AFC. This match is a distraction – but nevertheless one we will not want to lose even if we rest everyone who may be involved on Wednesday. Let’s dive right into the preview. It will be a short one, given the (relatively) low stakes for this game. Not About the Quality of Opponent There will most definitely be a raft of changes – and I think it has nothing to do with quality of opponent. No matter who we were playing today, I think Coach Ranko will ring the changes, simply because there is a lead to protect on Wednesday and we have a chance of making it into the semi-finals of the ACL2. That’s definitely something worth gambling for, especially with the commanding position we have in the league. A 9-point lead, a game in hand, and a huge goal difference advantage. Perfect conditions for us to rest players for Sanfrecce Hiroshima, who themselves do not have a league game this weekend, and have arrived in Singapore yesterday to begin their acclimatisation. There’s no reason for us to put ourselves at a disadvantage by playing a strong team at the weekend. Plus it’s not like Hougang are at their strongest either. Hougang Missing Key Players As if we needed more incentive to rest our key players, Hougang United will be missing some key players too. Defender Jovan Mugosa went off with a sickening crunch against DPMM, and with his ACL injury, went Hougang’s unbeaten streak. Prior to that, he had been a part of 4 very impressive performances, including a 4-2 win over BG Tampines and a 2-1 win over Albirex. Add to that Zulfahmi Arifin’s suspension due to an elbow to his opponent, and you suddenly find an important part of Hougang’s spine ripped out. While they can still call upon Shahdan Sulaiman and Shodai Yokoyama in midfield, Zulfahmi’s control of the pace of the game, and his set-piece prowess will be missed. Dejan Racic was also not available for the last game, though I am not sure why. If he is missing again, then we have one less reason to fear Hougang, as he is their top-scorer this season. Major Test for Akram Azman I expect Akram Azman to start, and his direct opponent is the dangerous Stjepan Plazonja. Sometimes for fringe players to break through, they need difficult tests to prove their worth. And in terms of the SPL, there is no greater test for a fullback than having to mark Plazonja. He is Hougang’s top assister and second-top goalscorer, and his direct play has caused much trouble for rightbacks up and down the league. Another option could also of course be Mamat (Zulqarnaen Suzliman), who is finally back from injury, and was finally back on the bench against BG Tampines Rovers, after a few appearances for the U21s. He is a fan favourite, and I hope that he will get some minutes, even if playing him from the start might just be a bridge too far for him. Conclusion Told you it will be a short one. Frankly, I don’t think supporters will be too fussed if we drop points in this one. Get a draw, fine. Get a win, great. The priority is to ensure that everyone is fit and ready for Wednesday’s game where we have a 3-0 lead to defend (if you’re not sure what’s happening, Google “Germain suspension AFC Sanfrecce Hiroshima hahahahaha”. You may or may not need the laughter at the end, but the Google search engine will not begrudge you that I am sure. One more thing about this match is I would hope Izwan uses it to get a bit of confidence back. Try to keep a clean sheet, and try to do all the basics right – I am sure he will be slightly disappointed with his keeping in the Sanfrecce match. Whatever it is and whoever we play, NO INJURIES PLEASE. COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE! My predicted line-up Izwan Mahbud Akram Azman, Lionel Tan, Bailey Wright, Ali Alrina, Sergio Carmona Song Ui-Young, Anumanthan Kumar Abdul Rasaq, Lennart Thy, Haiqal Pashia 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: Hougang United 2 Sailors 4 Joseph’s prediction: Hougang United 1 Sailors 7 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!

There’s no real way to compare relative strength of teams, especially if you are comparing across different leagues, and more so if you compare across different years. However, I think a real case can be made that this is the toughest competitive fixture in our Sailors’ young history. Here’s a list of the teams we’ve played continentally so far from leagues bigger than ours, in no particular order. Buriram, Daegu, Jeonbuk, Urawa Red Diamonds, Port FC, Zhejiang FC, Shandong Taishan. You look at that list and maybe you say Urawa Red Diamonds, because they’re from the J League as well, and because they actually went on to win the ACL, defeating Al-Hilal in the final after thrashing us 4-1 and 6-0 in the centralised tournament group stage in Buriram. But it certainly didn’t look as ominous prior to them playing us. Urawa finished in 6th place, some 29 points off the top of the table when they qualified for the ACL that year, by winning the Emperor’s Cup. How did Sanfrecce Hiroshima qualify? By finishing in 2nd place, 4 points off the top, but as top-scorers by some distance. They do pack a threat in front of goal, and certainly look a more impressive team. Such is the quality of the J-League that playing any team would be tough enough, but when you take on the 2nd-best team that are also the top scorers? Oof. Let’s dive right into the preview, and I’ve really let Joseph Chin do the heavy lifting here, as he brings you the lowdown on our opponents, along with all sorts of cool facts. Take it away, Joseph. The Lowdown on Sanfrecce Hiroshima, by Joseph Chin Brief History They were founded as the works team of car-maker Mazda (then known as Toyo Kogyo) in 1938. Their greatest continental success was 3rd place in 1969’s Asian Club Cup, which was a precursor to the modern-day ACL. As a founding member of the modern-day J League in 1992, they adopted their new name of Sanfrecce Hiroshima, and through some ups and downs (including relegation), they finally won the league in 2012 and that heralded a golden period of two more titles in 2013 and 2015. Hiroshima is the name of where they come from in Japan, but what is a Sanfrecce? Well, Sanfrecce is a combined word, consisting of San (Japanese for the number three), and Frecce (Italian for arrow). This explains why you see three arrows on the club crest. The “three arrows” story is a significant one in Hiroshima, as there used to be feudal warlord who used the three arrows story to demonstrate unity and strength (three arrows are harder to break than one) – I think the Chinese people have a similar story too. Hmm. Anyway, here’s the official club explanation if you wanna see more. Interesting Singapore Links This is Sanfrecce’s first meeting with a Singapore club, but there is no lack of links to Singapore amongst some of their former personnel – not entirely relevant for tonight, but just interesting to note. Aurelio Vidmar, our former manager used to play there, as did SPL winner Tadanari Lee. The Albirex connection continues with Yojiro Takahagi (recently retired in mid-season) and Keiji Shigetomi (current manager) playing and coaching there respectively in their careers. The Man at the Helm Michael Skibbe. He is a former Schalke player whose brief senior career was cut short by bad cruciate injuries. His managerial career took off at Dortmund, and he also managed Leverkusen, Galatasaray, Al-Ain and the Greek national team. He has been with Sanfrecce since 2021, and this has been his longest spell yet. His previous stints with Bayer Leverkusen and the Greek national team lasted 3 years each. Current Hotshots Iconic Captain – Sho Sasaki: He’s been at Sanfrecce for a decade, and will be looking to commemorate the occasion with delivering the team some silverware. The veteran centreback has been a rock at the back in good times and bad, forming a formidable partnership with Hayato Araki. Super Senior – Tsukasa Shiotani: Captain Sasaki isn’t the oldest in the team, despite being 35 years of age. That honour goes to Tsukasa Shiotani. He is 36 and his claim to fame is scoring a goal for Al-Ain vs Real Madrid in a 4-1 loss in the Club World Cup Final in 2018. He spent 4 years in Abu Dhabi, a spell that was sandwiched between two stints playing for Sanfrecce Hiroshima. Hired Gun – Tolgay Arslan: Would have been one of the more dangerous players on the pitch, but for the fact that he suffered an unfortunate knee injury that looks to rule him out for the better part of this year. A former Turkish-German youth international, he is a journeyman footballer whose career has taken him to Turkey, Australia, Italy, Germany, and now Japan. Hometown Hero – Hayao Kawabe: This man’s career has taken him places. His journey to become a midfield mainstay at his hometown club went through Jubilo Iwata, Grasshoppers (Swiss Super League), and Standard Liege (Belgian Pro League – where he arrived after Maxime left for Singapore). He was also signed for Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2022, but never made an appearance for them. He is one of four Hiroshima natives in the squad. Sharpshooter – Ryo Germain: Ryo has been thrust into the Sanfrecce attack after his goals weren’t enough to save Jubilo Iwata from relegation last season, despite being their top-scorer, and the 3rd top-scorer in the league. Now 29, half-American Ryo is a late-bloomer, having also played for Vegalta Sendai and Yokohama FC. Safe Hands – Keisuke Osako: Keisuke has been trusted to keep goal for Sanfrecce Hiroshima since 2018 after breaking through their academy system. He has been a second choice in the National Team setup behind Zion Suzuki. Wildcard – Valere Germain: New signing Valere is likely to be available. He was once a teammate of Kylian Mbappe in AS Monaco, and won Ligue 1 with him

There have been unforgettable nights for our Sailors this year. Some great unforgettable nights, some not so great yet still unforgettable nights. 4-0 v Muangthong, 5-2 v Port FC, 2-0 v Zhejiang FC, and of course, 7-1 against our old rivals, Albirex Niigata (S) – these matches belong to the former category. However, there are also nights we would want to forget, but we probably cannot. 2-3 to Persib Bandung after taking a commanding 2-0 lead, 2-4 to Zhejiang FC in freezing Hangzhou after taking a 2-0 lead, and of course a humiliating 0-5 loss to BG Tampines Rovers. Of all those results, the BG Tampines one irks me the most. Not only do we have the better players and more resources, the 5-0 loss was the result of players not doing the basics right, and everything that could go wrong for us went wrong. However, I have reason to believe that this won’t happen again tonight – let’s dive into the reasons why. Can’t Win When Basics Aren’t Done Right I am not gonna relive the whole game again. That’s torture. A 5-0 loss, and the poor way we played, conceding all manner of soft goals, will never not be torturous to talk about. So let’s just pick one issue and discuss how the team has changed since then. This is the lead-up to Boris’s first goal. Prior to this, both sides had been pretty even, and our centre-backs were dealing with the attacking threat of BG Tampines reasonably well. But when you play a high line, you absolutely have to put some pressure on the ball carrier. No one is applying any pressure, and there is no urgency at all. Irfan Najeeb literally had more than 5 seconds to look up, take a touch, and then play a simple pass behind the defence for Boris to go 1v1 with Zharfan. To make matters worse, our defensive line wasn’t in sync, as Lionel Tan did a Tristan Do, and did not keep the same defensive line with Bailey and Toni. After that, Zharfan spilled the ball for 2-0, Carmona let Glenn Kweh get past him too easily for 3-0 (and the centre-backs left Boris unmarked in the penalty area), we switched off somewhat on a freekick for 4-0, and then conceded a corner-kick goal for 5-0. (Oh shit I just relived it when I said I wouldn’t relive it.) Wholly preventable goals, and goals that would not have been conceded had we played with intensity and desire from the off – the same pace that we do against our continental opponents. We’ve seen how the team has grown since this 5-0 result, and how much more convincing we look when the team plays with intensity and discipline. This is a top-of-the-table clash so I don’t think our Sailors will be taking BG Tampines lightly at all. Not the Same Team Look at the lineup on that day of the 5-0, and think about who we are likely to see starting tonight. Completely different. Of that team, I’d expect maybe only 5 of them to start tonight. Bailey, Toni, Maxime, Shawal, and then one of Hariss or Lionel. It’s completely a different team, and also it was the first time that Coach Ranko played 5 at the back. Ignore the formation in the graphic above, the back 5 was Sergio, Toni, Bailey, Lionel and Hafiz. Since then, I think it’s fair to say that our left-back position has been improved with the signing of Diogo Costa, and as for right-back, Coach Ranko has landed on a solution where Hami Syahin plays there, but tucks into midfield when we have possession to give us more ball security. Song was also in poor form then, but has since really shown what he is really capable of, with pace and power in the middle of the pack proving to be difficult for opponents to handle. The familiarity with Coach Ranko’s tactics also grew as the season went along, so much so that when we named a B team to face BG Tampines in our last league game against them, we managed to scrape a 2-2 draw. Contrast in Form Last, but certainly not least, while our Sailors are firing on all cylinders, BG Tampines have been grinding out results without looking very convincing. This year, they’ve even managed to lose to Hougang United and draw with DPMM. Their last outing also saw them waste a host of chances to narrowly beat hapless DPMM with the help of an own goal. This is understandable, considering that they replaced their top-scorer and legendary striker Boris Kopitovic mid-season. As much as we like to make fun of him over here on SailorFanTalk, there’s no denying that the team have grown accustomed to having him lead their attack with his unique brand of aggression and hard work. A major reason for why BG Tampines works as well as they do is because of the familiarity the players have with each other. Boris was their striker for 5 years, and in that time, became their all-time top goalscorer. Even though the club replaced him with another hardworking striker who could get goals in the form of Itsuki Enomoto, it will still take some time for the partnerships on the field to form. In the meantime, we will have to capitalise. And we are well-placed to do so. Again I go back to how much the team has grown this season, and how accustomed we now are to the 5-at-the-back system. We’ve also seen how that system allows the likes of Diogo Costa and Akram Azman to really bomb down the wings and stretch play. I think BG Tampines will have a lot of thinking to do as to how to approach this game. They should be scared, looking at the kind of football we are capable of this year against teams like Muangthong, Buriram and Albirex. Then you add in the factor of how we rested half