Match Previews

If we play our full-strength team, we are huge favourites to win ths game. However, I think we should definitely not start our heavy-hitters here in the game later – let’s rest them all for the 2nd leg clash against Muangthong. Here’s some very very short pre-match thoughts. Muangthong Resting This Weekend As stated in the official club preview article earlier this week, Muangthong have the benefit of resting this weekend. The Thai FA postponed their league fixture so that they could turn up for the continental fixture in their best condition. We’d be foolish not to rotate given such circumstances. We know that Thai teams tend to play at a higher pace and intensity, so we’ll need our fresh legs to be able to compete. They are likely to pile on the pressure early, given their need for a goal to level the tie. Let’s give ourselves the best chance of matching them for intensity. We Can Afford to Lose One Cup Game Our best chance of advancing in the ACL2 is if we devote all our attention to the Muangthong game. However, in the Cup it’s a different story. Tanjong Pagar may well beat us if Salif Cisse returns and if we rotate too much. Rotation not only takes away individual quality from the pitch, it also disrupts the rhythm and momentum the team has built up. However, the group stage is 4 games long, and losing 1 game doesn’t kill us. Losing 1 game in ACL2 likely does. While I think that the players coming in on rotation should still back themselves to be able to get a result against Tanjong Pagar, it is not fatal if we get a bad result. We absolutely should gamble, just as how we did when we rested half the team against BG Tampines and still managed to escape with a 2-2 draw. And the league is way more important than the cup! Ali Alrina If there’s rotation, we might see Ali Alrina start. He made his debut against Muangthong and while we still conceded a late goal, I particularly enjoyed one clearance he made where he enthusiastically chest-bumped his defensive colleagues after getting rid of the ball. I love defenders who love to defend. There have been some questions about his signing, so let me try my best to answer them. The most common question asked has been – who is deregistered to allow him to play in the SPL or Singapore Cup? The answer is “no one”. Some fans will have noticed that his jersey number is 68. In the SPL rules, that means he has been registered in the U21 squad. This means that he does not replace any of our 9 foreigners in the first-team squad. SPL teams are allowed to field a maximum of 5 players from the U21 squad in an SPL or Singapore Cup game. However, this does not mean that since we can field 6 (4+1+1) foreigners in a matchday squad, we can field an additional 5 foreign players from the U21 squad. The U21 foreigner will still be subject to the limit of 6 foreigners in the matchday squad. Crucially, Ali Alrina, being both a U21 player and a player of AFC nationality, means he will be able to provide central defensive cover even for Bailey Wright, who qualifies for the AFC spot because he is Australian. Ali Alrina comes with quite a good CV, having experience in the AFC Cup, and also being a Syrian international. If you’re wondering why he would come play in the SPL and be registered as a U21 player, the reason is likely because the Syrian league has been suspended. Conclusion There really isn’t much else to say that hasn’t already been covered in the preview last week. Tanjong Pagar are only gonna get better with more training sessions under Noh Alam Shah, and the possible return of Salif Cisse. We are definitely gonna rotate – it’s just how much. Song and Zharfan are probably the only people almost confirmed to play – Song because he is suspended for the Muangthong game, and Zharfan because Izwan looked to have suffered a concussion in midweek. Whatever team is put out, let’s hope the players find it within themselves to fight hard and try to muscle their way into future first team lineups. COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE! My predicted line-up Zharfan Rohaizad Chris van Huizen, Lionel Tan, Ali Alrina, Bill Mamadou, Sergio Carmona Song Ui-Young, Anumanthan Kumar Abdul Rasaq, Lennart Thy, Obren Kljajic 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 Tanjong Pagar 1 Joseph’s prediction: Sailors 5 Tanjong Pagar 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!

It’s the big one. Our Sailors have started 2025 in decent form, but I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that fans and players have all been looking out for this game. It’s the big one – one that will show how far we have come as a team. Advancing out of a tough group stage was definitely an achievement, and now is the time to build on that if possible. Perhaps not the best time to face Muangthong United, who are in decent form as well – but hey, to be the best, you gotta beat the best. Let’s dive right into the preview, starting with Joseph Chin’s lowdown on our opponents. The Lowdown on Muangthong United, by Joseph Chin Brief History Founded as a school team in 1989, Muangthong United experienced most of their success in the 2010s, and even though they have faded a little after 2018, they remain a regular fixture in the league. Their first foray into continental football ended with Singapore’s SAFFC sending them out on penalties after a 0-0 draw at Jalan Besar in Round 2 of the Qualifiers for the ACL. They next faced Singapore opposition in the 2011 AFC Cup, drawing 1-1 at Jalan Besar, before winning 4-0 at home. Club Legends Robbie Fowler – Came to Muangthong near the end of his career as a player-coach. Viewed as a watershed moment for the Thai League at that time. Teerasil Dangda – Legendary Thai striker, nemesis to Singapore sides over the years. Would later go on to play for Almeria, the first Southeast Asian and Thai player to play in La Liga. Also had spells in the J-League and Swiss Super League. Xisco Munoz – Formerly of Deportivo and Newcastle. Was part of a trio of stars, along with Chanathip Songkrasin and Theerathon Bunmathan (the crotch-grabber) that led Muangthong to their most successful years in the 2010s. Stadium Thunderdome Stadium is one of the first club-owned stadiums built from scratch without the running track (seen in other Thai stadiums such as Thamassat and Rajamangala), a trendsetter for later stadiums like the BG Pathum Stadium and Buriram’s Thunder Castle, that promises a more tight, intimate and intimidating atmosphere. The Manager Swiss-born Italian manager Gino Lettieri is rather unknown compared to previous illustrious names in charge, such as Slavisa Jokanovic, Winfried Schafer, and Tawan Sripan. Had a mediocre playing career but rose from obscurity after winning the Lithuanian league with FK Panevezys. Currently getting the job done evidently, as seen by their position in the league table, just behind Bangkok United and Buriram. Players to Look Out For Jacob Mahler – Unfortunately we don’t get to see our Singaporean son, given his season-ending ACL injury. We wish him a speedy recovery, Aly Cissokho – Liverpool fans will know this name. He might be at the tail-end of his career, much like Robbie Fowler during his time here, but his top-flight experience (Liverpool, Lyon, Aston Villa, Valencia) will come in handy for Muangthong at the back. Got the stoppage time winner in a dramatic win over Chiangrai United just 5 days ago. Hong Jeong-un – Former Daegu FC centre-back who played against Sailors twice in 2022. Song Ui-young ghosting past him unmarked to score a header that started our famous 3-0 win was the iconic moment of our campaign. Tristan Do – The French-Thai rightback is a familiar name in the region, having been a stalwart of the Thai national team and also Muangthong United (with a spell for Bangkok Utd too) for the past decade. Emil Roback – Once the subject of a transfer worth about 1.5 million pounds to AC Milan, it is somewhat surprising to see him at Muangthong United so early in his career. However, he has impressed in Thailand, in the first senior stint of his career so far. Abbos Otakhonov – Has 2 caps for Uzbekistan. Even though these caps come from 2018, he has been a dependable presence at the back for Muangthong United in his first foray overseas having played for Uzbek clubs all his life. Willian Popp – Prolific scorer for Muangthong over 2 stints in his career, despite playing predominantly on the wing. Melvyn Lorenzen – Like some of our foreign stars, has experience playing in the Eredivisie. Never a prolific scorer, until he reached Thai League 2 football with Nakhon Ratchasima. Picha Autra – Club captain who brings much-needed experience. One of the few Thai players that gets caps in the Muangthong team. Both Teams in Good Form Thanks Joseph for the excellent lowdown on tonight’s opponents. I take over now. Both teams come into this in good form. Our Sailors have only lost once in 2025, a dead rubber game to Kaya FC. This form is mirrored by our opponents, who have only lost once, a 1-0 defeat to Ratchaburi FC. So not much to separate the teams in terms of the form book then. Their form has also seen them leapfrog Port FC and BG Pathum into 3rd place, a considerable feat given that both Port and BG Pathum have better players on paper. They are certainly a force to be reckoned with. I suspect how this will affect things tonight is that both teams will show a lot of respect to each other, but Muangthong will probably go for it a bit more, given that they have home advantage in their favourite Thunderdome Stadium, and they will not want to have to grab a win at Jalan Besar Stadium, a stadium where the conditions make it hard for any away team. Our Sailors Approach Having seen Chiangrai and Ratchaburi trouble Muangthong in recent weeks, the common factor is that both teams stayed quite compact and forced Muangthong to commit more men forward to try to break them down. However, both teams didn’t really have attacking outlets that they could utilise, so they couldn’t take advantage of the space left behind by Muangthong. In the end, Chiangrai conceded two

A couple of months ago, this would have been a walk in the park. TPUFC was losing game after game, conceding tons of goals while scoring barely any. Now though, they look a different team with some new faces, and also the return of a familiar face in Noh Alam Shah. They’re still bottom of the table, but is there some cause for concern? Let’s do a quick preview while I am still in Manila. Form since NAS Came Back Since Noh Alam Shah’s return, TPUFC have played three matches, achieving a win, a loss, and a draw. That is quite remarkable considering that prior to his return, they were on a run of 6 losses, and their last win was in July 2024. Yikes. However, since his return, by all accounts, he has worked the players insanely hard. I assume that means both fitness-wise and also defensively, because they now seem a much more solid outfit. Of the 3 games, the 3-0 win against DPMM stands out as the most impressive, because for a team that has conceded 74 goals this season, keeping a clean sheet is not easy. Scoring 3 goals isn’t easy as well, of course. He did an interview with the Straits Times and he had this to say – Ouch. Yeah he means business. Their match against Young Lions was an even one, and ended with a deserved draw, but prior to that NAS’s return, most people would have predicted Young Lions to triumph over them. In the 3 matches played, a key factor that has aided NAS is that Salif Cisse is back fit and firing. He has scored twice and also picked up a brilliant assist for Syahadat Masnawi. During their terrible run, Salif Cisse was often not available. He has only made 12 appearances in the league so far, out of a possible 21 games. Now that he’s back, TPUFC’s attack finally has a focal point, and they always look to launch it quick in defence up to him because he is capable of creating his own chances. If we keep him quiet, it would go a long way to getting that victory for us. Terrible Defence The difficulty with this preview of course is wondering whether NAS’s impact is big enough to change what we’ve seen with this team in the first half of the season. As mentioned earlier, they have by far the worst defensive record in the league, conceding 74 goals in 21 games. A -51 goal difference looks bad no matter how you slice it. A lot of that is due to poor organisation. Matt Silva has come in and already shown that he is a better communicator with the backline than the other goalies that TPU used this season. However, I don’t think one man can work wonders. Another unique stat for you is that TPUFC have conceded the most penalties this season, 8. 5 of those were from handballs, and the other 3 from mistimed tackles. What does that stat tell you? Maybe nothing. It could simply be that as a defensive team, they sit a lot in their own box, so given they spend so much time there, they are more likely to concede penalties. It could also be an indicator that they tend to panic a lot, and make bad decisions. However you look at it, I think our Sailors will be disappointed if they don’t cause a lot of trouble for Tanjong Pagar here. Rotation With the huge tie against Muangthong coming up, rotation will definitely enter the mind of Coach Ranko. How will he shuffle the pack? Diogo Costa didn’t play in the Shopee Cup, so he might come in for this one. Lionel did not even travel with the team to Manila – is he injured? Noone knows. Shawal did not even see a minute against Kaya FC, even when we were going for goals. Could Bill have played himself into the reckoning of the coaches, at least to start games in the league, if not in the ACL2? I suspect that the lineup will not be super-weak, given that any slip-up here will mean that our Sailors head into Thailand off the back of 2 bad results. Conclusion I think no matter how resurgent TPUFC are, we have to win this. Ultimately, this is largely still the same set of players that have struggled this season – except we went ahead and took their captain. For the sake of wrapping up the league, for the sake of entering the Muangthong game with a bit of spring in our step, we have to win this. COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE My predicted line-up Zharfan Rohaizad Hami Syahin, Lionel Tan, Bailey Wright, Toni Datkovic, Sergio Carmona Hariss Harun, Anumanthan Kumar Lennart Thy, Abdul Rasaq, 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! 3 points for exact scoreline predicted correctly, 2 points for predicting the winner and margin of victory correctly (but not the exact scoreline), and 1 point for predicting the outcome correctly (win, lose or draw). Eddy’s prediction: Sailors 3 TPUFC 0 Joseph’s prediction: Sailors 3 TPUFC 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! Picture credit – TPUFC Facebook

Good morning to you from bright, sunny Manila. I just got back to the hotel room a few hours ago from a bar with a live band and my oh my, the stereotypes are true, all Filipinos can sing. Two bands came on stage, and both absolutely blew us away. What blew us away even more was the fact that one of the “singers” in the first band wasn’t a band member at all, and he was just a local MP who happened to be in the area, and they got him up on stage to sing with them. If anyone knows who he is, give us a shout. Imagine that, you’re in Singapore listening to your favourite band at a bar, and suddenly Josephine Teo or Ong Ye Kung comes on stage to belt out hit after hit after hit. Our Filipino guest singer didn’t just do one or two songs, he did a 45min non-stop medley with the rest of the band, starting us off with a Backstreet Boys megamix and eventually culminating with some 70s disco hits like “September”, “Dancing Queen”, and “Let’s Groove Tonight”. What a blast it was. If you think that we look incredibly relaxed, it’s partly the alcohol, but partly also because tonight’s game is a dead rubber. We’re fighting for pride and that’s it. Let’s dive right into the preview. Kaya Cannot Overtake Us No matter what happens tonight, Kaya cannot overtake us. Even if we lose, they’ll be on 3 points and we stay at 4. However, I still hope the team takes it seriously. The last time we had a dead rubber in a continental game, that was against Kitchee in last season’s ACL, and honestly, that was a performance to forget. The players looked like they wanted to be on the beaches already, and there was no intensity, no fire. We can do much better than that. I’ve mentioned before that winning is a habit, and short of sending out your U21 team, any sort of loss will not be easy to compartmentalise for the senior squad. A win also further sends a message to the rest of the league and the continent, that Lion City Sailors is a force to be reckoned with. This reputation and fear factor that it comes with can be crucial as we look ahead to Muangthong. Now of course, given our packed schedule, I am not saying we should not rotate. From now till 2 March, we play 8 games, meaning that we only have 3-4 days to recover for each game. You definitely cannot get through such a schedule without giving some players rest. It’s whether we can do that and still put out each time, a team capable of winning the game. Auditioning for Starts in Bigger Games Football can be a funny old game sometimes. To say the back-end of 2024 was not a great time for Anu would be an understatement. Provisionally called up to the national team, then not deemed to be good enough for the final squad, getting very few minutes for the Sailors, and when he did, getting sent off – I didn’t see a way back for Anu to be honest. I assumed that his Sailors career would wind down, and he’d eventually join another club when the season ends. It felt sad but inevitable. Then there were rumours in January that TPUFC had agreed with LCS on a loan move for Anu, and I thought OK, it would be a good move for Anu. He gets some gametime to hopefully re-ignite his case for a National Team position, but I did say it would leave us a bit short given the number of competitions we were in. Lo and behold, Rui Pires then gets injured against DPMM, and Anu takes his place. An assured performance then leads to him starting against Albirex. Yet another assured performance later, starts for Buriram and then Geylang come. I can’t be arsed to go fetch the stats, but 3 starts in a row for Anu must be pretty rare in the last year and a half. And it’s not like Coach Ranko didn’t have options. He could have started Hariss there, he could have played another fullback against Buriram so that Hami can take Anu’s place in midfield. This is a show of confidence in Anu’s abilities by Coach Ranko, and I couldn’t be more pleased to see it. If anything, this should serve as a timely reminder to the rest of the squad that their time in the Sailors is not over until it’s truly over. For those finding minutes hard to come by, the coach can be convinced to allow a second chance – but the performances must come. Could tonight see people like Rasaq, Akram Azman, Haiqal Pashia and the like force their way into Coach Ranko’s thinking? No Dangermen for Kaya FC I can’t pretend to know much about the “dangermen” for Kaya FC. No matter how I watch them, there seem to be no dangermen. I am not even kidding. There’s the Kaishu-returning-to-take-revenge angle, but beyond that, I think the only threat to our team is complacency and/or a lack of desire. I mean, this is a team that made league goalscorer Tomoyuki Doi look completely ineffective in the last game, so I am not sure anyone from Kaya will trouble us. You can read the official club piece which tries to outline where the danger may come from, but it only served to reinforce my opinion – it depends on what kind of team we put out, and what kind of effort we want to expend on the pitch tonight. Conclusion There will be some rotation, but who comes in, that is the question. Mamat made his comeback to U21 action on Monday, but this game is perhaps a little too soon for him in his recovery process. Will the coaching team (minus Coach Ranko who hasn’t travelled cos he is

Geylang isn’t a one-man team, but they’re the closest in the league to it. Tomoyuki Doi has been involved in 58.3% of his team’s goals this season, if you count his goals and assists. By way of comparison, Maxime’s figure is at 43.3%. Doi’s contribution has come in the form of 34 goals and 8 assists, is an insane tally considering Geylang have only played 21 games thus far. His goals have ensured that Geylang International are firmly in the top 3, and also top-scorers of the league with 72 goals. Can we stop Doi? And in so doing, can we inflict defeat on Geylang, who have picked up 6 wins out of 7 since the last time they played us? Let’s dive right into the preview. Doi the Obvious Dangerman I mean – that’s just ridiculous. So every 90 minutes, he has 2 goal contributions, and is expected to score 1.62 goals? What kind of goalscoring robot is this? In his last outing against us, he scored 2 goals, one a tap-in, and the other a penalty. He has the knack of always being in the right place at the right time, but there’s more than that. While he has an xG per 90 of 0.91, he is scoring 1.62 goals per 90, almost doubling it. While some people will feel that such performances will revert to the mean before long, the season is already more than half-gone, and yet he is keeping it up. Doi is not a tap-in merchant either. About a quarter of his goals are from outside the penalty area. This makes it difficult to stop him, because he can pass it off to his midfielders, he can run with it, or as he showed against DPMM, he can take a shot out of absolutely nothing and still find the back of the net. Doi’s tally of 9 goals from outside the penalty area is the highest in the league. Seia Kunori is 2nd with 6 goals. This has also contributed to Geylang being the team to score the most goals from outside the box. How are we gonna stop him? That’s something for Coach Ranko to figure out! The Other Dangermen If you look at the assists charts, you’ll see a few names from Geylang. Outside of LCS, Bezecourt is the busiest man when it comes to assists. He is into double figures and doesn’t show signs of stopping. Bezecourt will be relied on to set the pace in attack, and in the press. If you remember, it was him who nicked the ball from Hariss and went on to score from range when our sides first met in June. Ryoya Taniguchi is another one to watch. He hit some insane numbers last year with Balestier Khalsa – 23 goals and 6 assists in the league. While this year hasn’t quite been prolific for him, he still poses a threat. You can’t quite argue with 9 goals and 9 assists. Form Book Both teams come into this in great form. While our Sailors have kept 3 clean sheets in the last 4 games and remain unbeaten in 2025, Geylang have gone on a bit of a streak as mentioned above. It’s worth noting that Geylang have not beaten us since 2022, despite running us close on a couple of occasions. I think I must also state at this point that when we last faced Geylang, it was in August. Prior to that, June. Those were times when our team was still trying to figure each other out. ACL2 and the Shopee Cup has allowed us to go up another level when it comes to match tempo. It’s thus no surprise that when we played DPMM and Albirex, at times it felt like everyone was sleepwalking on the pitch. The lessons learnt from the continental matches have turned us into a far more resilient side. Don’t think it’s a stretch to say that because of some of the trauma experienced, our team looks more compact, more solid, more together now. Are we likely to be a little fatigued with this match coming just 3 days after our game against Buriram? Possible, but let’s hope not. Conclusion It’s been a short fuss-free article, and I hope tonight’s game is fuss-free as well. COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE! My predicted line-up Izwan Mahbud Chris van Huizen, Lionel Tan, Bailey Wright, Toni Datkovic, Sergio Carmona Song Ui-Young, Hami Syahin 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! 3 points for exact scoreline predicted correctly, 2 points for predicting the winner and margin of victory correctly (but not the exact scoreline), and 1 point for predicting the outcome correctly (win, lose or draw). Eddy’s prediction: Geylang 1 Sailors 4 Joseph’s prediction: Geylang 1 Sailors 6 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!

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

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

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

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