Author name: Eddy Hirono

I may have been too optimistic in my preview. Oops. Sanfrecce were a class apart, and honestly, as much as we are Sailors fans, we are also fans of football. It hurt seeing goal after goal go in, but I think the 90 minutes shows just what standards we should be aspiring to. Japanese football wasn’t always this good, and even when the J-League was producing winning teams, it sometimes still relied on foreign firepower at the top – but nope not Sanfrecce on Wednesday night, it was an all-Japanese starting lineup, and they were so so good. It perhaps gives us hope that someday we can come close to something like this, provided the country does the right things. The other thing that warmed our hearts? THAT Shawal goal. What a moment it was. And with that happy thought, let’s dive into some of my post-match thoughts. Superior Fitness One thing we knew before kickoff, but repeatedly witnessed and saw the power of first-hand, was the superior athleticism and fitness of our Japanese opponents. It always seemed like they pressed our ball-handler with 2 players, and even when the ball was circulated well to evade the press, there would still be 2 people pressing the next guy – and the next – and the next. It was wave after wave of pressure, and it wouldn’t stop until they regained the ball. It was truly impressive. Look at this press for example. Ryo Germain forced Bailey onto his weaker left foot, while his teammate starts sprinting towards Toni Datkovic, to make that option a risky one. When Bailey turns backwards to try to look for Izwan, he is then dispossessed through some strong body pressure, and only a superb Izwan save plus an equally superb Hariss block prevented us going 2-0 down. Look at how aggressive this press is – where does Diogo Costa go? They literally man-marked all his potential options for a pass, while also applying pressure to him. 10 Reasons Why We Lost Big I realised that if I were to go in-depth and explain everything I observed, this article would last forever. Sanfrecce were simply brilliant. So let me just try to keep it a bit shorter and list out 10 reasons why we were so outclassed. Build-up to Sanfrecce’s 2nd Goal It starts here, where there doesn’t look to be too much trouble. There is a Sanfrecce player out of frame that orange-boots is passing to, but the spaces between the defenders looks decent – the back 5 is holding strong. This pass sets off a simple chain of events though. Pay attention to the guy circled in blue – you can already see he is starting to sprint. And now you can see what is doing. This is a textbook third man run. Diogo is attracted to the pass and the blue guy has burst into the large space between Toni and Diogo. Toni tries to close him down, and you’ll see what happens next. Toni closes him down well, but look when he plays the cross and where Ryo Germain is. Ryo still doesn’t really look like a threat because the cross in must be perfect. It must first evade Toni’s block, it cannot be too close to the keeper. It cannot be too weak because Bailey will cut it out, and it cannot be too powerful because Ryo Germain has to make up some ground to get to the cross. Well, you know what happened. It’s a beautiful goal, and sometimes, as much as we hate it, we have to applaud a good goal. Our opponents were much better than us on the day, and this goal showed it. Also, on a random note. Why did Valere Germain put up “6” when he had scored the 5th goal? Is he a time-traveller who knew they were gonna get 6 goals? Was he indicating that he had scored the 6th goal of the game? Is he saying the 2nd leg will end 3-3? Answers on the back of a postcard please, thanks! Conclusion I have an Italian friend who recently became a Sailors fan after watching a few games. He’s a Cagliari fan and he remarked that Sanfrecce was simply world-class. He also showed me this. Let that sink in. Opta Power Rankings somehow ranks a J-League team over a Serie A team. The current Sanfrecce Hiroshima is an ACL Elite team. They finished 2nd last season and will play in next year’s ACL Elite. They are favourites to win the tournament, and we saw first-hand why. BUT – we scored a brilliant goal against them. Shawal’s goal will stay with us for a long time. The confidence to chop back onto his right foot to completely bamboozle the covering defender, and then the calmness to curl it low into the far post, what a goal. That feeling all of us felt, whether you were at home watching, at the Mattar watch-party, or for those who travelled to Hiroshima – football gives you these moments for you to savour. For a few minutes, we were level with a Japanese powerhouse team. Not the ideal result in the end of course, and it will take some major miracle for us to come back, even if we will be playing at Jalan Besar. But hey, stranger things have happened! Maybe there will be 1 or 2 (or 3 or 4) early red cards for the Sanfrecce players in JBS? Maybe there will be a probe uncovering some illegal dealings within the club that gets them thrown out of the competition? Maybe they’ll field an ineligible player and a walkover will be declared? Maybe a UFO will appear over JBS and abduct all Japanese players on matchday? But let’s not dream that much. All we want to see is a good spirited Sailors performance next week. If we can keep it tight, and grind out a draw, I will be a super proud supporter.Let’s not

A crucial win for us in the title race, that puts us in a very commanding position in the table. 9 points ahead, with a game in hand and a very healthy goal difference advantage too. With only 8 games left to play for BG Tampines Rovers, the title race isn’t over, but it would take a monumental collapse from our Sailors to lose from here on out. Let’s dive right into some of the post-match thoughts, including some thoughts about the fan rivalry. Thank you Diogo and Izwan In the aftermath of the game, we were all swept up in Lionel-mania. Much-maligned Lionel finally deservedly got his flowers, but only really because of his goalscoring contribution in such a pivotal moment – in such a big game. Because of his seemingly awkward running style and occasional defensive errors, Lionel has consistently come in for unfair criticism from local football fans – sometimes even from Sailors fans. However, contributions from two other members of the backline ensured that the Lionel moment could even happen. The first half was largely a cagey affair, with both teams reluctant to over-commit. However, BG Tampines was first to create a clear goalscoring opportunity in the 36th minute. Glenn Kweh beat Hami down the left with good dribbling work and laid it on a platter for Joel Chew (I think), but once Diogo sees that Joel is about to strike, he makes himself big and manages to block the shot. Great block, but we got away with it – on any other day this is a goal for BG Tampines. Then, they create their second goalscoring opportunity a minute after. Again, we got away with this thanks to a stunning save from Izwan. Made me think of his save in Saitama. If you’re a younger reader and are not familiar with what Izwan did 10 years ago against Japan in the Saitama Stadium, please go and watch the highlights. It was truly magical. But yes, a save from a header from point-blank range. BG Tampines will be kicking themselves that they hadn’t scored a goal despite creating these two brilliant chances. Sometimes in football, I think there is a tendency to fixate too much on the result. I know also that we tend to joke about coaches like Gavin Lee or Mikel Arteta who repeatedly say “trust the process” – but you look at how games sometimes turn on fine margins like that, and you wonder – this could easily have been a win for BG Tampines, and then the title picture looks a bit different, perception of Gavin Lee looks a bit different. It’s also why I encourage myself and other supporters to not over-react sometimes, whether it be a positive or a negative result. It may sound a bit stupid to say this, but the first time we played BG Tampines at Bishan Stadium this year, they didn’t really create a chance till just before half-time too, and then they scored every shot on target they had. Who knows what might have happened had they scored first here? Unsurprisingly, it is BG Tampines that created more xG in a match that didn’t see too many chances given up by either team. It could have been a very different game had BG Tampines taken either one of their two chances, so we have Diogo and Izwan to thank for getting here. Here’s hoping Izwan’s save is some sort of positive omen ahead of Wednesday night’s game against Sanfrecce Hiroshima. We’ll definitely need him to turn in a goalkeeping masterclass on Japanese soil again. Lionel Messi or Lionel Tan The goal was wonderful. Composure, skill, the finish – every bit of it was wonderful. Never mind Lionel, if any striker in the world scored that goal, we’d still call it a great goal. At this point, with the ball in the air, and with Fox about to get rid, Lionel brings the ball down from mid-air with his left foot, and without having to readjust himself, sets it up perfectly for him to hit the ball in with his right foot. Just brilliant, and the celebrations after really showed that he is a popular member of the team. Sometimes there are things you don’t see if you don’t come to the stadium for games, and there’s something that the team has done the past few games. Against Muangthong, when Shawal put in a great performance, at the post-match celebrations the players insisted that he get his deserved plaudits from the crowd, by pushing him in front of everyone, closer to the fans. They did this again, this time for Lionel. I think the team spirit right now is very healthy, and long may it continue. Sometimes in the past, it may have felt that the post-match celebrations with the fans was a bit of a formality, but I think the players really do appreciate the fans abit more now. Something about experiencing the euphoria and adversity together both in foreign lands and at home has tightened the bond, and I think it shows. Fan Rivalry Pre-game, a post from the Yellow Knights sparked a bit of debate amongst Sailors fans. At first glance, it’s just banter. “Shopee FC”, for example, makes fun of our Sailors in a light-hearted way, indicating that we’re a money-backed team that has more resources than the rest of the league. “The Franchise” – another example of painting this image of our Sailors being a team that is swimming in cash. I remember looking at this post, and immediately thinking it wasn’t very nice. It went beyond the usual banter. Now, before I carry on, I want to stress that I respect what The Yellow Knights have done for BG Tampines Rovers, and in the wider sense, Singapore football. However, I think we should be careful about the things we say and the things we write, and what kind of emotions they might stir up. Here’s a few thoughts I

A comfortable win, with no injuries. During this hectic schedule, that’s all everyone at the club would have wished for. But we got one better than that – we got a match where our players could take it a little easier because of a man advantage. A 38th min red card to Fudhil I’yadh when our Sailors were already 2-0 up meant that we played more than half the game with a man advantage, further resting those legs we are gonna need on Wednesday, and in Hiroshima. Let’s dive right into some post-match thoughts, including my take on why the red card was a little harsh. Was It a Red Card? In my opinion, it’s debatable. I have marked in red the spot the ball first bounced, to show you how near Max was to getting to the pass. Considering that Max was already on the run, he would likely have got to the ball ahead of Fudhil, who started his run later. However, if you look at where the ball eventually landed as an indicator of the trajectory of the pass, it can also be said that Max would have got to a slightly wider position. I think the trouble with these decisions is we don’t get any insight as to why the referee has decided a certain way, and why the VAR has advised the referee to have a look at the monitor. I am quite comfortable with this decision had it gone either way. If the referee felt it was only worthy of a yellow card, and cited factors such as distance from goal and also, the eventual wider position that Maxime would have ended up in, I think I’d be OK with the decision – but I would also be OK if the referee felt it was worthy of a red card, citing the lack of a covering defender nearby, and also the fact that Maxime was likely to reach it ahead of Hafiz Ahmad, who was off his line, but not sufficiently off enough to get to the ball first. However, if enough people agree with that, then I’d make the case that this is a debatable decision, and the referee, who initially showed a yellow card to Fudhil, cannot be said to have made a clear and obvious error. Interestingly enough, this situation occurred to Sailors 2 years back against Albirex. It was from even further out, and the player said to have been denied an obvious goalscoring opportunity is legendary Japanese player Tadanari Lee, who by that point in his career was slower than a turtle. (Yes, I mean turtle, not tortoise because turtles are not supposed to be able to move on land, and that’s what I am comparing Tadanari Lee to). Am I bitter about the red card still? Yes. Similarly, in that game, I felt the red card was also a debatable decision, but having produced a yellow card, I wasn’t sure that it was a clear and obvious refereeing error not to give Anu a red card. You can read it again here – I really dive deep into IFAB’s guidance for Denial of Obvious Goal Scoring Opportunity (DOGSO) situations. So, my conclusion is that the red card is OK to give, but having given a yellow first, I am not sure it crosses the threshold into clear and obvious error, and in that sense, it is harsh. I hope that Singaporean referees can have a show or tiktok or IG reel sometime, to talk about some refereeing points / guidelines when it comes to such situations? It may help to educate the public like me on how they reach certain decisions. In any case, it didn’t really affect the result I think, we were well on our way to victory anyway. We were 2-0 up and should have been 3-0 up right before, but Maxime refused to shoot on his right foot, having already scored one on that foot a few minutes earlier. Balestier managed to get away with that one, but barely 1 minute later, the red card incident happened. As stated, I think the only real effect on the game is that it made it much easier for us to conserve legs, as we controlled and saw out the rest of the game. Stoppage Time Speaking of “didn’t really affect the game” – I noted that the commentary talked about how it was surprising that only 2 min of stoppage time was indicated after the second half. It was also referenced in Raushan’s podcast (Sporting Minutes). Regular readers will remember that this is territory that we’ve covered. And guess what, it was the same referee! Click here to read. However, I think it was nowhere near as egregious this time. Against DPMM last season, they frequently dropped to the floor as they looked to see out the win. In my calculations in that article, I only counted stoppage time for injury stoppages, plus VAR checks. I did not count your “regular” stoppages like goal kicks, throw-ins, etc, where DPMM took their time too. Shockingly, the difference between what was indicated and what was given was a whopping 9 min. That’s 10% of your match. This time round, I did the same checks. 2 min of stoppage time was indicated, when the minimum should really have been 4 minutes, because of course there are your other “usual” stoppages as well. I must say I don’t quite get it. There was a long check for Kodai’s eventually disallowed goal. Surely the ref should be adding that time back on? This is even if I want to make excuses for the ref and say that since Lenny’s goal took a shorter time to check, maybe he chose not to add that time on. Added time serves the purpose of making our players more ready for games that last longer and are more intense. We don’t have to look so far back – Muangthong scored against us in the

Where do you even begin? Do you talk about how the Sailors controlled the game from start to finish? Or how 4-0 is our biggest win in continental competition in our short history? Do you talk about how in a side littered with foreign stardust, Shawal claimed the Man of the Match award, and also the hearts of many? Or do you focus on the fans, and how loud and united they were? Well, we’re gonna talk about all the above, and also how Thursday night’s match was in many ways, a culmination of efforts on and off the pitch, by the club, and everyone associated with the club. Let’s dive right in. (I will refer a lot to incidents in the game. So if you wanna follow along, please use this link to the full match.) Lightning Start Last week, our Sailors took the lead after barely 18 seconds, as Izwan’s long ball wasn’t properly dealt with, and in the end Maxime Lestienne swung in a cross that Shawal poked into the goal ahead of the goalie. Well, this time around at Jalan Besar, it was yet another long ball. And if you think surely Muangthong surely learnt their lesson, they actually did! In the first leg, as the ball was worked back to Izwan from kick-off, no one bothered pressing him. But this time round, Melvyn Lorenzen is trying his best to get there. He first fights off Hami, then Hariss, and then Hariss again, trying to get into a position to pressure Izwan. Well, it didn’t work. Izwan’s pin-point long pass found Bailey (who goes up into attack direct from kick-off nowadays), who flicked it on for Maxime, who flicked it on for Shawal. Shawal made a blind-side run past Aly Cissokho, and the keeper brought him down. 14 seconds on the clock and we had the perfect chance to extend our aggregate lead to 2 goals. Max made sure we did. If you’re the type to come a little late for games thinking you won’t miss anything, think again! Come early so you can get through security, find your seat, buy a beer, and get settled in before our Sailors score. it’s clearly something they work on like a set-piece Defensive Discipline I am gonna sound like a broken record here, but I’ve always stressed that when our Sailors work hard, we tend to win games. Even though Shawal, Bart and Maxime will dominate the headlines, make no mistake about it, this was a victory achieved by the entire team. Each of the players was locked in defensively, and knew what they had to do to stifle Muangthong, who do have good attackers. In the first leg I spoke about Poramet and how he is such a bright talent – we didn’t see anything from him when he came on in the second half. Emil Roback, the former AC Milan player barely made an impression. Melvyn Lorenzen, who scored in the first leg and can list the Bundesliga and Eredivisie in his resume, was stifled in this game. This doesn’t happen by chance. It was a defensive masterclass that was 50% tactics, and 50% grit. You can set up in the best systems, and play the best players in the world, but unless you work hard, there will always be a way past you. And boy, did our Sailors work hard. I could pick out dozens of occasions where this happened, but let me try with this series of events. Hami Hustle Here is Hami, at 44:34, circled in red, trying to put the press on our opponents to force a quick turnover. Muangthong do well to pass it out of defence, and Hami gives chase. Bear in mind this is already close to the end of the first half, and he’s already been running around all evening. He then notices Lorenzen (on the ball) break free and run at the Sailors backline. He could look at the numbers, and trust Bailey and Hariss to deal with the situation. Rui is also in a good position to slot in in defence. Or he could do this. Hami (circled in red on the floor) tracks him all the way back and tackles him before he gets a chance to beat the defensive line. This effort by Hami not only wins the ball back with a great sliding challenge, it also allows the spine of our defence to stay in shape. Noone needs to shoot out of the defensive line to try and deal with the threat of Lorenzen. And he wasn’t the only one. Chris van Huizen tried to win the ball high up the field as well, but once he was bypassed, he sprinted back like a madman. Throughout the game, noone was spared from these defensive duties. Even Maxime, Bart and Shawal got back to tackle or put pressure on their opponents. Awareness of Duties + Defending from the Front Look at this picture. What jumps out at you? I’ve already drawn in red two things to look out for, but tell me what you see, and tell me why you think I’ve highlighted this moment. Ok – first. With a 2-goal lead on aggregate, there is no need to over-expose ourselves in defence. Look at that defensive line. Beautiful – 5 across the back, the spaces between each of them perfect as well. Second, I’ve circled Bailey Wright in red. You may be wondering what he’s doing there. And if he is there, who is in the middle of defence? Let’s take it back a few seconds. In the aftermath of the Hami tackle, Lorenzen loses the ball, but it squirts out to a Muangthong midfielder. Bailey gets a foot in and manages to disrupt his opponent, and Rui comes into help. Bailey’s pressure is to ensure that the opponent can’t turn and launch an attack. However, once they don’t win the ball in the first few seconds, Rui drops back into the

Football is a funny thing. Just a week ago, I was bullish – insisting that bringing home a 1-goal lead was an advantage and that we should forget that the advantage was once 3 goals. However, as the match approaches, there is a sense of nerves creeping in. And I’m just a fan! I wonder how the players must feel. I don’t know what it is – maybe it’s cos our Sailors have shown before this ACL2 campaign that they like to do things the hard way, or maybe it’s cos I’m an Arsenal and Singapore fan, so there’s this inbuilt pessimism. Whatever it is, let’s dive right into the preview. Song’s Suspension We kick it off with the bad stuff. You already know that Song will be suspended for this game, because of the controversial red card received in Bangkok. Well, if we make it through tonight, he will be suspended for both legs of the game against Sanfrecce Hiroshima as well. We will miss his fighting spirit, and also his goals. We joke and call him AFC Cup Song because he seems to reserve his best performances for continental games, but that joke is borne out of reality. Song in AFC competitions is really different gravy. He has 5 goals and 1 assist in ACL2 this season, while in the league, he has 5 goals. Considering the number of games played in each competition, and the superior quality we face in ACL2, that form doesn’t make sense. But we’ll miss his continental form. Song’s absence will always be felt. In our maiden ACL campaign, it was his goals that lit up our group stage campaign. He got us the all-important opening goal in the historic 3-0 win over Daegu FC, and he gave us hope of qualifying for the next stage as well when he scored from range against Daegu again in our final group game. (sidetrack here, but one of my favourite post-match reactions filmed was in Buriram when Song scored against Daegu in the 3-0 win. Check it out here.) And then this season, when we most needed Song to show up, he showed up in both games against Port FC, notably getting a hat-trick at Jalan Besar Stadium in our 5-2 victory. When the chips were down at 2-2, and we were staring at elimination having given up a 2-goal lead again, it was him who popped up with a stupendous scissor kick to put us ahead. We won’t have him tonight, so we’ll be looking to his teammates to supply the attacking threat, and the combative spirit in midfield. Early Goals 1, 1, 11, 14, 17, 23. Not TOTO numbers, but just an example of how early our goals have come in this ACL2 campaign. A feature of our games so far has been how early we score, and how we always score first. Or score TWO first. In 7 games thus far, we have led 2-0 in 6 of the games . The other game? We conceded first to Persib to draw 1-1 away from home. Given our 1-goal advantage, should we go out again and try to get an early goal? It’s hard to say. You can make the case for either an offensive or defensive approach. Offensive – Opponents take time to get used to the Jalan Besar turf. The bounce is weird, the surface is hard, and it has an effect on opponents’ minds. Just look at how much moaning and groaning our opponents always engage in when they have to play at Jalan Besar, be it against us, or the Singapore national team. Muangthong may have trained on astroturf all week in the lead-up to this game, but that also shows how much this pitch is playing on their minds. So why not attack early, get an early goal, and really make them feel like they have a mountain to climb, staring at a 2-goal deficit? Defensive – This one doesn’t need much explaining. We have a 1-goal advantage, if we sit deep and frustrate our opponents, they need a goal and they’ll commit men forward more and more. We can then exploit the gaps with our superior attackers. Lestienne and Shawal in particular will absolutely love the space being afforded to them on the counter-attack. Of course, either approach has its pros and cons. I fancy us to go on the offensive actually. While we were down to 10 men last week, we were under the cosh a lot. Aside from the 2 goals they scored, there were a few other near-misses that I would have expected us to defend better. Our defensive record in the ACL2 isn’t stellar as well. That being the case, why not play like we always do, and try to get a goal to dampen the mood of our opponents? Gino Lettieri is A Fool, but he is Fooling Noone Gino Lettieri – is he senile, stupid, bitter, or all of the above? In case you missed it, he told the press ahead of tonight’s game that he was “angry” that the Sailors looked to “stay down on every contact”, and that they should play “honest”. Before I start with the analysis on this stupid statement, let’s reproduce it in full so you can savour the stupidity of it. (and before you proceed, I get a little angry and bitter in this section so if you don’t like vulgarities, scroll away) Like a goldfish taking a lift, this statement is stupid on so many levels. Of course, maybe I am the stupid and bitter one, for falling into this trap. He might just have said all this to try to rile our boys up, distract them from the gameplan, or tempt them to go harder in challenges so he can profit from another controversial red card. Or maybe he was dropped on his head as a baby and didn’t receive any love from his parents, leading him to grow up to be

Different week, same result. I wrote a post-match thoughts piece a week ago talking about how we achieved a fuss-free win and would start looking ahead to the next match against Muangthong. I must say it’s very tempting to just copy and paste the whole article here again. There were similarities – the result was never in doubt once we scored first, we missed a truckload of chances, Tanjong Pagar put up a combative performance, Raihan was his tigerish self in midfield, and Tanjong Pagar scored from a dead-ball situation. Super tempted to just end the article here, (and in fact I just straight up re-used the cover photo from last week’s article cos it’s the exact same scoreline and nature of victory) … but let’s dive right into some post-match thoughts. Foregone Conclusion Given TPU’s Absentees Once I saw that Salif Cisse was out once again, and to top it off, Zenivio Mota was also injured, I knew we would win handily. My 2-1 prediction counted on both of them being available, and us having to deal with the threat they pose – but seeing a TPU lineup without them is like seeing a declawed cat trying to hurt you. They probably caaaaan? But it’s very very very difficult – like trying to kill someone with a spoon (the cutlery not the action). Also, this 2nd-string line-up is probably capable of finishing mid-table in the SPL, especially if you add Bart Ramselaar and Bailey Wright to the mix, as Coach Ranko opted to do. Song would have started regardless because he is suspended for Thursday’s game, but I was genuinely surprised to see Bart and Bailey start. Bart did eventually come off in the 65th min despite being on a hat-trick. Sometimes players don’t like that because they want a chance to complete their hat-trick but I don’t think Bart will care. He will probably want to be as fresh as possible for Thursday’s game. I mean, that’s just a sick lineup considering we made 8 changes. Our depth is insane, and that is why again, I feel there is no excuse for us not to win the league. Akram Azman On an evening where everything was in cruise control, and no one really busted a gut to do anything, I felt Akram Azman stuck out. His endeavour down the wing meant that he was often in attacking positions, helping to stretch play and being an all-round menace. Though of course, that doesn’t mean that he didn’t come back and defend. In fact, it was him doing the defensive work that led to Tanjong Pagar’s penalty. An awkward bounce off his leg / turf meant the ball bounced up onto his hand. He won’t want to see that again. But, he atoned for it. He laid on chances for his teammates – one in particular saw him cross the ball for Lennart, but Lennart couldn’t head it in. He also managed to get into goalscoring positions – the first one saw him blaze over the bar on his left foot when it was easier to score, but second time was the charm for him, as he latched onto a long pass by Anu and bundled the ball home. (What a pass by Anu by the way.) Coach Ranko was pleased with his game and said so in the post-match interview. It was especially impressive from a mentality point of view considering he had just given up a pen and allowed Tanjong Pagar a way back into the game. He was totally unfazed by it. When we spoke with Akram post-game, he was modest and said he could still improve and he would like to build on his performance. From our POV? To do what he did on his first start was pretty impressive. Another interesting thing was this – with Lionel on the pitch, Akram was responsible for taking the long throw that led to Bart’s 2nd goal. This opens up possibilities for future games where if we’re really chasing a goal, even Lionel can be inside the penalty area with Akram chucking it in. So, an encouraging full debut for Akram, but I do wonder where this leaves Mamat, even If we assume that Hafiz Nor leaves at the end of the season. Perhaps something worth thinking about in another article. Rasaq and Nathan Not much to really analyse here – it was just a very good through pass for Nathan that Rasaq could just run onto and finish without breaking his stride. It is nice to see these 2 players get more minutes, and the hope is that our cup run will afford them more chances to shine. Conclusion Maxime Lestienne and Shawal Anuar were on the bench but were not required to come on, given how comfortable we were. We got three points and built up a healthy goal difference. We cruised and no key players got injured. Ali was bleeding from a bad clash and we hope he’s fine, but he wasn’t likely to start on Thursday anyway. All attention now turns to Thursday’s massive clash. Our rotation means we enter the game on level footing (physically) with Muangthong United, given that they had the weekend off due to the Thai FA postponing their game. I can’t wait. 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!