Match Previews

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

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

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

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

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

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

After Tampines recovered from an early setback to beat Hougang last night, our lead at the top of the table remains at 8 points. That leaves us needing to win two of our remaining four games to clinch the title. Tampines deserved their win, but Hougang, why oh why did you have to allow Taufik Suparno to score? Great goal by the way, great finish, but does the world really need to be subjected to a Taufik Suparno dancing celebration? There are not many things in the world worse than that – I’d say it’s even worse than being trapped in a lift with “Despacito” playing on loop. And “Despacito” is being sung by Samuel Lee. Anyway, on to the rest of the preview. Geylang’s Poor Form in 2025 In 2025, Geylang have played 12 games in all competitions, but only won 3 of them. They have drawn 2 and lost a whopping 7. That run has seen them completely out of the running in the league, not even able to push for 2nd place ahead of BG Tampines anymore. It has also seen them dumped out of the Singapore Cup. After what was a very promising first half of the season, it seems the wheels have come off a little. if they’re not careful, Balestier Khalsa in 4th place may even catch them, something that was unthinkable just a couple of months ago. Tomoyuki Doi is still banging in the goals – he is the league’s top scorer with 42 goals, along with a very healthy 9 assists to go with it. Lennart Thy, by comparison, has 27 goals in the league. Doi’s Golden Boot looks very safe, barring a freak run of games (and goals) for Lennart. As crazy as it is to say, Doi’s form has also tailed off. This, despite him scoring 5 goals in the last 6 games. Fans of the SPL will remember that in the first half of the season he was scoring hat-tricks every other game and definitely had more than a goal a game. It would seem harsh to label him as the problem though. The problems are elsewhere – Geylang’s small squad depth seems to have caught up with them, and they are not able to keep up the high-octane performances of the first half of the season. We are unbeaten against Geylang this season, with 2 draws and a win in the league, along with the most recent 3-1 win over them in the Singapore Cup. We should be confident coming into this one, seeing that we have almost a full squad available (besides Song’s injury which I assume will keep him out for at least a week even if it wasn’t super serious). Delightful Diogo Costa Ahead of tomorrow’s game, the club’s preview article focuses on Diogo Costa, our mid-season loan signing who has really passed all his tests with flying colours thus far in the short time that he has been here. Amazingly, the article highlights how Diogo Costa has already racked up 10 assists since joining us. That is very impressive. For comparison, in all competitions, Bart Ramselaar has 11 assists, Shawal Anuar has 15 assists, and Song Ui-Young has 4 assists. Maxime Lestienne has 27 assists – but he is Maxime after all. He talks about how he enjoys life in Singapore so far with his girlfriend, and how he would be happy to stay. I think his signing has been a transformative one and immediately added quality to our starting 11. Said it before, will say it again, Forrest, please sign him up! Conclusion A short look at tomorrow’s game, where a win would take us ever closer to the title. As has been mentioned for the past few articles already, really hope we get the next 2 wins so that we can deploy a shadow squad against Balestier Khalsa. Against a Geylang side that has really fallen off of late, we have every chance of continuing our winning streak. COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE! My predicted line-up Izwan Mahbud Akram Azman, Hariss Harun, Bailey Wright, Toni Datkovic, Diogo Costa Hami Syahin, Rui Pires Shawal Anuar, Lennart Thy, 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 3 Geylang 0 Joseph’s prediction: Sailors 2 Geylang 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!

Hi guys, I’m writing this preview instead of Eddy, as he is still recovering from some post-skydiving trauma from Sydney. [Editor’s Note]: The only trauma suffered in Sydney was by the Sydney FC fans in their superb stadium. And yes, I know I still owe you guys the post-match reports but life has been super busy, soz. We’ve had a bit of a break since our last game 9 days ago, but it certainly hasn’t felt that way given the constant media coverage surrounding Sailors’ advancing to the ACL2 and Sharjah FC’s whining statement regarding the finals venue. The Sailors finally return to league action on Friday night against Albirex, but this time at Our Tampines Hub (OTH) instead of Jurong, as OTH will serve as the central venue for all SPL games for the next 2 weeks since most other stadiums are being used for election rallies. Will the boys be able to settle back into the SPL grind after the highs of that magical night at the Allianz? Are Albirex really as bad as their recent results suggest? Is OTH, with its artificial pitch, a suitable stadium befitting an SPL game of this size? Let’s find out together. A Team in Deceptively Good Form On paper, Albirex have not been doing well in their recent games, with only 1 win in the last 5 league games and also knocked out of the Singapore Cup. However, if we delve a little deeper using our expected points method, we find that Albirex have actually been putting up decent performances and have perhaps been on the wrong side of variance, suggesting that they should not be taken lightly. Referring to the table below, Albirex have regularly been out-performing their league opponents on xG, winning on xG in 4 out of the last 5 games. They were expected to pick up an average of 8 points from this run, but instead only managed 4. In their last game, they somehow managed to lose 0-3 despite dominating on possession and passing stats and only conceding 6 shots. However, even with that dismal run of results, Albirex are still 4th in the table behind Sailors, Tampines, and Tomoyuki Doi. [Editor’s Note: Well, when Chin Heng sent this to me, it was before Balestier Khalsa won 2-1 in the Tajeli Salamat Derby. Balestier Khalsa is now 4th, Albirex are 5th.] Lack of Goal Threat Despite their solid underlying performances, Albirex may still struggle to find a consistent goal threat against the best defence in the league, with Sailors conceding only 1.04 goals and 1.15xG per game on average in the SPL. Albirex only has 1 player with more than 10 goal contributions in the league this season (Shingo Nakano, with 19 goals and 1 assist), and with first-team regulars Syed Firdaus and Arshad Shamim also suspended, the Swans may find goal-scoring opportunities hard to come by. No Need for Rotation Sailors on the other hand, have an embarrassment of riches going forward, with Bart/Lennart/Maxime/Shawal combining for 108 goal involvements in the league alone. While squad rotation has been a concern in recent months with Sailors playing games every 3-4 days, there should be no such issue for this game given that we had 9 days rest after our ACL2 semi-final 2nd leg, and we also have another 5 days before a very winnable league game against Young Lions next Wednesday. With a well-rested squad and a hectic end to the season on the horizon, I expect that Coach Ranko will be hoping to secure the league title as soon as possible to give us some breathing room in May, when we have the ACL2 final, Cup Semifinal and (hopefully!) Cup Final to contend with. Despite going up against one of the best keepers in the league, we can expect that the team to have no problem scoring goals, as Sailors tend to create high quality chances. 91% of our league goals so far have come from inside the penalty box, with 24% coming from the 6-yard box. Among players with 10 or more shots in the league this season, 3 of the top 10 players on the xG per shot stat are from LCS, indicating our ability to generate high quality goal-scoring opportunities. Interestingly, the top performer on this stat is actually Abdul Rasaq on 0.3 xG/shot, which shows his ability to get into great goal-scoring positions. Conclusion I look left look right, and I really cannot see anything stopping us from getting a routine win at Our Tampines Hub. While the underlying stats show that Albirex have been putting up reasonably strong performances unlike what their results suggest, our well-rested squad should have too much firepower for them to handle. Hopefully Albirex lets in 5 goals (like Marine Parade) on Friday night! COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE! Eddy’s predicted line-up Izwan Mahbud Akram Azman, Lionel Tan, Bailey Wright, Toni Datkovic, Diogo Costa Rui Pires, Song Ui-Young Maxime Lestienne, Lennart Thy, 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: Albirex 0 Sailors 4 Joseph’s prediction: Albirex 1 Sailors 4 Written by Tan Chin Heng 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!

I feel like this season we’ve had a few high-pressure games already. I don’t have to rehash our journey and how we got here – maybe I’ll do that if we get to the final. But you know the games I am talking about. The thing about pressure is this – much like how a muscle that you train gets stronger and stronger, I think your brain starts getting used to pressure until it becomes the baseline. What used to be a high-pressure situation, is now just normal-pressure. What used to be normal-pressure, is now no-pressure. You get the drift. I think the players now are used to such high-pressure situations. And this is our biggest game of the season (so far). Holding a 2-0 lead and having to defend it in Sydney will not be easy. But in the wise words of Linying – we did it before, and we’ll do it again. Let’s jump right into the preview. The First Leg Result Could Have Been Very Different Our defence held very firm in the first leg, and Izwan only had 2 shots to deal with. However, you may remember that when Segecic came on, he had 2 shots that really, on another day, could have gone in. One whizzed past the post, while the other was denied by a great block from Bailey Wright. There are only so many things you can control on any given matchday, and while you can work on minimising chances, it’s sometimes hard to control whether your opponents are clinical. Sydney FC themselves may feel hard done by, because they limited us to 3 shots on target, and frankly the only one that was a good chance, was well-saved by their keeper. Bart Ramselaar’s goal is one for the ages, while Lennart Thy’s goal was also struck from a very improbable angle. On another day, Bart hits the bar, Lennart hits the post, and we’re looking at a very different equation. All that waffle isn’t to say that Sydney FC is definitely gonna beat us. Essentially all I did, was to tell you that football is a high-variance sport – the better team doesn’t always win. I am just saying that I am not getting carried away just yet, and I think tomorrow is gonna be a super tough game. Douglas Costa Fully Rested Sydney FC faced top-of-the-table Auckland FC at the weekend and drew 2-2 (with Segecic scoring both goals), but there were 2 notable absentees – Douglas Costa and Patryk Klimala. There are some murmurs that Klimala has an injury, but Douglas Costa being left out shows you that Sydney FC have really prioritised tomorrow night’s game. They took a huge risk in doing so – had they lost that game, the sides below them would have been able to catch them out. Klimala has 6 goals and 3 assists in the ACL2 and is one of the undoubted dangermen. Our defence gave him very little space in the first leg, but it won’t be as easy in the slightly wider pitch in Sydney. Also, I don’t like the word “niggle” in the tweet above. I want something a little more concrete. A niggle sounds like he stepped on a Lego brick and his toe is a little swollen for a couple of days. Would have been nice if it was something like more concrete, like “Patryk Klimala misses out with a bout of chicken pox” – now that would be great cos it would mean he definitely wouldn’t be playing. I expect this “niggle” was nothing more than Sydney FC resting him for what is a very important match. Douglas Costa was invisible at Jalan Besar. After the game, I made the joke to a few friends, that Sydney FC would have played better if Douglas Costa was on the pitch. Jokes aside, he is obviously still a world-class player, and we will need to be very wary of him. Park the Bus? Parking the bus sounds like the logical thing to do, when you are 2-0 up away from home, but it won’t be easy to do that. Sydney FC have shown their weaknesses at the back, but they are joint-2nd in the A-League when it comes to goals scored. If you defend a bit too deep, you invite the likes of Douglas Costa, Adrian Segecic, Patryk Klimala, and Joe Lolley to take shots from range. They are all adept at doing that, so if we do that, we risk getting caught out. Adrian Segecic scored from here at the weekend. And because that wasn’t challenging enough for him, 20 minutes later he scored from out here. Both times, the ball rocketed into the top corner. Park the bus at your own peril. I think the key to tomorrow’s game is of course to defend well, but we must also carry a threat up top. Our ACL2 campaign has seen us achieve some crazy results, but they’ve always featured goals. It’s not been a campaign where we ground out results from sitting deep and forcing 0-0 results. As much as I fear Klimala, Segecic, Costa, I think they will also fear Shawal, Lennart, Maxime, Bart and Song. These players have stepped up for us at different points in our campaign so far, and tomorrow we will look to them for inspiration again. Hopefully, Coach Ranko sets us up in a way that allows their attacking talents to shine as well. Conditions Our previous away trips to colder climates have seen us really struggle. Jeonbuk we lost 3-0, Sanfrecce Hiroshima we lost 6-1, and Zhejiang we lost 4-2. Of course, the quality of the teams is also a factor – it is not just the weather. However, you can’t help feel that perhaps there are two factors when it comes to colder weather. We will see Sydney’s physicality come through a bit more tomorrow night, but hey we have a 2-0 lead. Hopefully we have a solid plan to

First – in case you’re wondering, nope, I did not forget to write a post-match thoughts article to recap Wednesday night’s fantastic game and atmosphere. Given the rushed schedule I faced over the last few days – preparing for a new episode of the Kicking & Screaming podcast, editing the videos for upload on SailorFanTalk’s social media pages, and of course my full-time day job), a hurriedly-prepared article wouldn’t do justice to such a momentous night. The intention is to come back years later and read these post-match thoughts articles to really soak it all in once again. All the emotions, all the feelings, all the thoughts. And so that brings us to a first on SFT, where the preview of the next game is published before the post-match thoughts article for the prior game. The title says it all really, we should rotate, but it should still prove to be no obstacle for us to record three points at home, and push us that bit closer to our SPL title. Let’s go. No Miguel Oliveira Miguel Oliveira is DPMM’s Maxime Lestienne. He’s got 9 goals and 5 assists this season. That’s 14 goal contributions, and DPMM have only scored 37 goals. And he is suspended, wheee! We’ve put together a little table above that isn’t meant to be exhaustive. I’ve just taken some of the big-hitters from other clubs and plonked their names in there so you get a little context. Basically, this is a huge loss for DPMM, especially because they are already so goal-shy, and Hakeme Yazid looks unlikely to play in this game as well due to his rumoured suspension. Since that ill-fated trip to Russia, Hakeme has only featured once. It seems he isn’t allowed to travel out of Brunei, and since most of their games are away from home because their stadium is apparently allergic to football, he hasn’t been playing much as well. Davis Ikaunieks has 7 goals from 11 games (league and cup), and seems to have overcome a slightly slow start to life in Brunei. However, without Miguel Oliveira on the pitch, I fancy our defenders to be able to deal with anything they throw at us. Also, credit to the SPL for their timely preview article, from which I gathered that Miguel Oliveira would be suspended for tomorrow’s game. We may still not have a topscorers list or any other stats, but this is a good start. Please put up a yellow and red cards table too next season so fans and content creators can keep up to date! Rotation Ahead of the Sydney FC Game in Midweek As supporters, we want to rest everyone who played against Sydney in midweek. We know that we can afford to lose this game, we know that we really don’t want to see anyone come off injured. However, time and again, we’ve seen that generally isn’t what Coach Ranko likes to do, except when it was against Tampines Rovers earlier this season. We had just been pumped 5-0 by Cong An Ha Noi, and were going up against the other team to pump us 5-0 this season, BG Tampines Rovers. Sure, the gap between both games was only 3 days, but surely no one expected this amount of rotation – Of course, seeing how Coach Ranko rotates the team now, I think it’s more likely that this lineup was to punish those who played so poorly in Vietnam, or at least send a message to them. Coach Ranko may also look ahead to beyond the Sydney game to realise that we have another 6 days after to rest and recharge before we face DPMM again. Coach Ranko may also think about how good our Sailors looked on Wednesday, and how much of it was due to the commanding nature of the 8-0 win in the league prior to that. I can’t quite say what Coach Ranko will do, but given the form of Lennart Thy, Bart Ramselaar, and our defence, I’d be tempted to keep them off the pitch to ensure they are fit for the upcoming game. Sydney FC Have a Big Game of Their Own While we take on DPMM, Sydney FC also have a game this weekend, and it’s a big one. Auckland FC are their opponents who are top of the pile looking comfortable. Sydney FC are in the top 6 spots, which are crucial, because only the top 6 teams in the A-League regular season go on to play the finals series. For that to happen, Sydney FC must fend off the challenge of Adelaide United and Macarthur FC (former home of Sailors legend Valere Germain). Sydney FC absolutely cannot afford to rest players for this game, so that’s advantage for us ahead of Wednesday. Let’s hope for a 2-1 loss right at the death, with both Auckland goals coming in the 90+ minutes, and in the fury that ensues after, 12 players end up getting involved in a fight that results in minor injuries, just major enough to stop them from playing on Wednesday. Conclusion It’s likely to be another slightly low-key affair tomorrow night at Bishan Stadium, but of course, what could possibly compare to the emotions and highs of Wednesday? Let’s hope we see some fresh legs come in to help us keep our lead at the top comfortable. COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE! My predicted line-up Izwan Mahbud Akram Azman, Lionel Tan, Bailey Wright, Toni Datkovic, Sergio Carmona Hami Syahin, Song Ui-Young Shawal Anuar, Abdul Rasaq, Maxime Lestienne 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 DPMM 0 Joseph’s prediction: Sailors 4 DPMM 1 Written by Eddy Hirono  Picture credit – Lion City Sailors If you’d like to support the work we do here at SailorFanTalk, you may want to visit https://ko-fi.com/sailorfantalk and leave us a tip!