Match Previews

With the Sailors 2nd in the table (with Tampines Rovers having played one more game), and Tanjong Pagar languishing in the bottom 3, everyone is expecting the Sailors to just turn up and win. In this preview, we’ll look at Tanjong Pagar’s performances thus far, assess the need for rotation, and answer the question “Is it really gonna be that easy for our Sailors to beat Tanjong Pagar?“ Tanjong Pagar have an Awful Attack Yes. The answer to the question posed above is “Yes”. I couldn’t say Yes loud enough. For those who are of a certain vintage, imagine the “Yes” to be as resounding and as loud as Sally’s “Yes” in the restaurant in 1989 classic film When Harry Met Sally. With 6 goals in 5 games, Tanjong Pagar have the joint-worst attack along with Albirex Niigata (S). (At the time of writing, Albirex have played one more game and failed to add to their goal tally, after a disastrous 6-0 loss to Geylang.) They create very few chances because they sit back most of the time, and thus struggle to get bodies into attack. Their top-scorer is Salif Cisse, who has overcome a slow start to the season to score 2 goals in his last 2 games. He has looked quite a handful, even if his CV is quite unimpressive. In fact, by scoring 2 goals, he has already equalled his highest-ever season tally. Of course, some of those leagues, like the French 2nd tier, Bulgarian 1st tier, and the Lithuanian 1st tier, are likely to be of a higher standard than our SPL. It seems he has finally found his level in the SPL, and if they are to get anything from the game, much hope should lie on Salif Cisse’s shoulders. The other player that our Sailors will do well to try to shut down will be Shodai Nishikawa, a player more known usually for his industry than for his skill. He has 3 assists in his last 2 games. Overall though, with the lowest xG in the league, and our defence being the stingiest in the league, we should be keeping Tanjong Pagar at bay. Is Their Defence as Bad as it Seems? If you asked someone not to refer to the table and guess where Tanjong Pagar lies in terms of goals conceded, I think most would guess that they are near the bottom. However, with 14 goals conceded, they are actually near the middle of the table when it comes to number of goals conceded. Young Lions (19), Hougang (20), and Albirex (23) have worse defensive records, whiile Brunei DPMM have conceded the same number of goals (14). Teams like Geylang and Balestier have only conceded one fewer goal than Tanjong Pagar. Why then, is there this impression that Tanjong Pagar cannot defend? Upon closer inspection, one stat perhaps goes some way to explaining this. Out of the 14 goals conceded by Tanjong Pagar, 12 have been inside the penalty area, but even more shockingly, 7 have been scored from inside the 6-yard box. Half their goals! This suggests that Tanjong Pagar is laying the red carpet out for teams to slice them right open and walk their way into goal. This stat is all the more surprising when you consider that Tanjong Pagar sit so deep inside their own half for the majority of the game. Against the tricky and skilful players that the Sailors have, Tanjong Pagar might find themselves having a tough time. Bart’s Injury Brings Up Interesting Possibilities Bart limped off in the game against Geylang, and was clutching the back of his hamstring. We have no injury updates to go on, so I am gonna assume that he will be sitting this game out, because usually even the slightest of hamstring strains rules a player out for about 2 weeks. Add to that the fact that we are facing a team much weaker than us, and I truly believe there will be some common sense applied to protect a player who is so key to the way we play. Simply put, we shouldn’t have to rely on him being available to beat Tanjong Pagar. This raises some interesting possibilities because we get to put another foreigner into the starting lineup. Our foreign players selected has usually been – Maxime Lestienne, Lennart Thy, Bart Ramselaar, Toni Datkovic (any foreigner, any age) Bailey Wright (foreigner from AFC nation) Obren Kljajic (U21) Besides these players, there’s realistically only two players who can expect some gametime – Rui Pires, who cannot fit in the U21 or AFC foreigner slot and Sergio Carmona who takes up a U21 slot. It is interesting to note that Obren Kljajic is a versatile player not just in terms of on-pitch position, but also foreigner eligibility, because he can take up a U21 slot, or an AFC slot. If for some reason Bailey Wright isn’t playing, Obren could take his AFC spot, and that would allow Carmona to take the U21 slot. With Bart injured/rested, I think it might be timely for Rui Pires to make his return. He has been missing from the team because of injury, but he was featured in the Inside Training video released by the club yesterday. He has been out for some time, so I don’t expect him to start, but I think we might see him from the bench. Something to look forward to. It seems apt also to comment on a recent debate that took place – some fans (both LCS fans and rival fans) felt that LCS did not plan their transfers well, because they had more foreigners than they could play. On the contrary, I think it is fantastic planning. Having one additional first-team foreigner might mean that someone gets disgruntled, but that is something that coaches need to take care of. By having an additional foreigner of first-team quality, it offers the Sailors some security in our options. Should we unfortunately lose someone to an

The league’s two highest-scoring teams meet – Geylang with 22 goals from 5 games, and our Sailors, with 16 goals from 4 games. Very impressive goalscoring form from both sides, but the weird fact that pops out to me is that Geylang have conceded 4 goals from the penalty spot this season. That is unusually high considering there have only been 7 penalties awarded this season. Can we draw any conclusions from that stat? Will either team lose their unbeaten start to the season thus far? Let’s dive right into the preview. Goals, goals, goals Geylang have the highest goals per game ratio in the whole league. They have scored 22 and conceded 12, which makes it a whopping 6.8 goals per game. They have certainly been a fun side to watch. Our Sailors as well, have scored 16, but I think you don’t need to have a very good memory to remember that almost half of those were directly contributed by that game against Albirex. So does this mean that this is going to be a goalfest? Well, not necessarily. It really depends on how Geylang is going to set up. Is Noor Ali likely to continue with his side’s swashbuckling ways against our Sailors? I doubt he will. Seeing Albirex get absolutely ripped apart on the counter-attack is likely to figure in his thinking a little. If you’ve watched Geylang games this season, you’ll notice that they get good numbers into the box, and they always support the attack. This is partly due to the coaching philosophy, but partly also due to the personnel Noor Ali has at his disposal. In previous seasons, Bezecourt used to be the most advanced of the midfielders, and would regularly pop up right behind the striker. However this year, due to the recruitment of Ryoya Taniguchi, and possibly also because of the injury to Huzaifah Aziz, Bezecourt has been played in a deeper position. That doesn’t mean he is holding back in midfield, he gets involved in the attack quite a bit too. You put an attack-minded player in central midfield, and then ahead of him you have attacking talents like Iqbal, Ryoya, Doi, and Naqi – it is no wonder the players always seem to be in and around the box. Their attacking instincts are well-suited for the way they want to play. However, as mentioned above, I suspect Noor Ali will rein his players in a little. Our Sailors usually leave at least two forwards up (Maxime + 1 other) when we defend, so Geylang might find it difficult to get as many players up in attack as they usually do. If they do choose to sit back a little, they will have to trust that whatever chances they can create upfront are put away by their star striker, Tomoyuki Doi. Tomoyuki Doi is a Goalscoring Machine Maradoina, van Nisteldoi, Ronaldoi, Lewandoiski. Call him what you want, but this man scores goals. He is the current top-scorer of the SPL with 9 goals. If you add in his assists as well (2), he is responsible for half of Geylang’s goals. He has also scored in every game this season. The praise doesn’t stop there. He has scored 9 goals from a total xG of just 4.61, which goes to show how clinical he is, and how he is helping turn half-chances into goals. 5 goals on his stronger right foot, 3 goals on his weaker left foot, 1 goal with his head – man’s an all-rounder. Of his 9 goals, 3 have come from outside the box, showing that he really is a striker who can do it all. Back in 2021, he was both the SPL Player of the Year and also the league top-scorer with 19 goals in a shortened season. This year, he is on course to do much better than that. He is the obvious dangerman, and if we are to keep a clean sheet, our defenders and keeper are gonna have to be on top form. Geylang’s Shaky Defence If all that talk about Tomoyuki Doi has got you feeling a little pessimistic, perhaps this section might cheer you up a little. Geylang’s record of 12 goals conceded is equal to that of Tanjong Pagar’s (albeit having played 1 game more). Let that sink in. Tanjong Pagar Utd this season feels like the kind of team that can get relegated even though there is no relegation in the SPL. And Geylang have conceded as many goals as them. Compare that with the Sailors having conceded only 3 goals thus far, and it’s a world of a difference. If you ask me, I think there are two key differences. When you see players like Shakir Hamzah getting goals and assists, it’s nice to see, but the flipside of that is that if the transitions are done well, then it leaves big holes for opponents to exploit. Let’s now talk about Geylang’s penalty-conceding record. There have been 7 penalties awarded this season – 4 is more than half the penalties awarded, and even though it’s early days, it would seem that Geylang’s defence has a propensity for panicking in the box and committing rash fouls. You couple this unique stat with another rare one, that they have given up 2-goal leads 3 times in 5 games – and it goes a long way to show that Geylang has not got their defence sorted. Last week was the clearest example, when they somehow contrived to give up a 2-goal lead to 10-man Brunei DPMM. Conclusion Looking at both sides’ form heading into this one, it would seem like a no-brainer for this to be a high-scoring affair. But I don’t know – I feel like both sides will respect each other, and it might then lead to a bit of a tense atmosphere, especially in the first half. Just a weird feeling I have. Noor Ali should be aware that if he turns this into a shoot-out,

Games against Albirex don’t usually feel like this. For the first time in forever, we go in as overwhelming favourites. Albirex has the 2nd-worst attack in the league, scoring only 5 goals in 4 games. If you add the Community Shield to that, they have 5 goals in 5 games. Defensively? They aren’t much better there. Despite having Hassan Sunny in their ranks, they have conceded 10 goals in the league, a stat that is only better than Young Lions (14), and Hougang (15). Even Tanjong Pagar have conceded fewer goals. I said back in May before the Community Shield that the Albirex game was a chance to lay down a marker. Well, now it’s time to take that marker, unscrew the cap, and draw something funny on Albirex’s face. Not only must we beat Albirex this weekend, I think we have to convincingly demolish them to try and shake off some of the history against them, having lost two title races to them in recent seasons. Sputtering Attack It says something about Albirex’s attackers this season when they bring in an unknown Japanese striker from a US college team and he immediately doubles the goal tally of other established attackers such as Daniel Goh and Shuhei Hoshino. Daniel and Shuhei impressed last season. Daniel had 9 goals and 6 assists in all competitions, and was always a livewire down the right wing. Shuhei had 16 goals and 13 assists, and the pair of them were part of an impressive Balestier Khalsa attack that scored the 3rd-most goals in the league. It was perhaps this form that saw some rumours about our Sailors possibly signing Daniel Goh in the off-season. However, he has not been able to reach the heights of last season at all. Daniel has 1 goal and 0 assists this season, which is poor considering that he is often the focal point of the Albirex attack. At every opportunity, Albirex try to set Daniel Goh free down the right, but he has seldom been able to beat his man and put in a meaningful ball. Daniel’s only goal came in a loss against Tampines, an instinctive lob over Syazwan Buhari after a brilliant through pass from Shuhei Hoshino. That was Shuhei’s only assist of the season, and he too, has struggled to hit the form he achieved last season. With Daniel and Shuhei in poor form, our Sailors will feel confident of shutting out the Albirex attack. Brittle Defence And now we move on to the defence. I think it says a lot that if you ask people who are the standouts in this Albirex team, they will either tell you it’s Hassan Sunny, or their centreback Stevia Egbus Mikuni. The pair of them have been put under a lot of pressure, and despite their best efforts, Albirex still has the 3rd-weakest defence in the league. This is definitely not what Hassan Sunny signed up for. I mean I could end this whole article by saying that Albirex lost to 10-men Young Lions despite being in the lead. That should be enough to tell its own story of a defence that is so weak. Just look at how Enomoto scored the Young Lions’ 2nd goal last week. A routine long ball from defence, and Enomoto was 1v1 with Hassan Sunny. Simply unacceptable. But let’s take a deeper look. Of the 10 goals Albirex have conceded this season, 8 have been from open play. 8 of the goals have also been scored from inside the box. It suggests that that they are easy to play through. The eye-test also confirms that they have real problems defending transitions. Take the above for example. It’s 2-2, Albirex are defending against 10-man Young Lions, and somehow they overcommit in the near side of the box, drawn by the threat of Farhan Zulkifli after he made a promising run down the left flank. How can one man draw the attention of 4 players like that, leaving Andrew Aw the freedom of the box? Similarly here, too much attention is paid to the man with the ball, and there’s a complete lack of midfield cover to notice that there are 2 DPMM players at the top of the box with nobody marking them at all. One is outside the box, while the other is Julio Cruz, who buries this chance easily. Ho Wai Loon has over-committed and his midfield teammmates did him no favours by not chasing back in time. You will see this happening again tomorrow I think – players sucked into situations but not affecting the ball or the dribbler enough, leading to free men ready to punish Albirex. Lennart Thy There was quite a bit of criticism for Lennart Thy on his debut. When I spoke to him after the game, he seemed kinda disappointed as well – or maybe he is just a man of few words. Naumovski did well to deny him, and of course, I think he had further chances with his head and left foot that he did not take. Some people on The Final Whistle Telegram chat immediately wrote him off. Sailors fans are likely to be more patient, as we remember that Richairo Zivkovic had a slow start for us too, but then went on to become a regular goalscorer for us. In fact, something interesting to note – Richairo debuted against DPMM last year but did not manage to get a goal, but scored against Albirex in the next game. Our next game? Albirex. Aside from the chances, I was quite impressed with Lennart’s play. He gives us an option to go long from the back, as he is quite tall and strong. Twice in the game against DPMM, a long hopeful ball was played out from the back and he managed to knock it down to a teammate. This gives us greater variety in our build-up options. Shawal Anuar How is Shawal Anuar 33? His pace, his agility, his gravity-defying leaps

Yes. That’s a picture of me at the Hassanal Bolkiah Stadium, home of Brunei DPMM. On 15 June 2024. Matchday – or at least it was supposed to be. Brunei DPMM unfortunately did not inform the fans that there was gonna be a rescheduling of the game, until 8 days before. Which was way after Chin Heng and I had already booked our air tickets to Bandar Seri Begawan. Of course, when we first heard about it, we were livid. How inept does DPMM have to be when you had a whole year and a half to renovate the stadium, such that now when the season has already started, you are still facing technical issues? But you know what they say about life when it throws you lemons. You make lemonade. In this case, our lemonade was deciding that since our tickets were non-refundable, we would go to Brunei anyway, to experience the local culture, speak to locals, and just have a good time. So, lemonade became teh ais limau. After a great day of food and sightseeing, I am now in the hotel room typing all this. A preview of the Brunei game, written in Brunei. Apt! Advantage Sailors Leaving aside the complete disregard for fans who may have made plans to travel, this inconsiderate move by DPMM actually benefits the Sailors. We have to play 4 league fixtures against them, 2 home, 2 away. But now, due to the stadium issues, we have to play 2 home, 1 away, and 1 neutral game. Of course, the neutral ground is one we know well, and will require our opponents to take a 2h flight to travel to Singapore for. The Crew will also be there, and in full voice, what with the match now being in Singapore, so there won’t be just Chin Heng and myself. The close proximity from the stands to the field at JBS will also help make our presence felt. Location aside, the slight postponement of the game from 15th to 18th June also means that our national team players have a little bit more time to rest those tired legs after international duty. Bad for Chin Heng and I, but overall better for the larger group of fans, and the club itself. That doesn’t mean that DPMM if you are reading this, you shouldn’t compensate us. GIVE US A FREE JERSEY OR SOMETHING PLEASE. DPMM Firepower If you’ve watched DPMM this season, you will know from that limited sample size of two games that their attack is looking scary. Last season, Hakeme Yazid was the shining star, as he got goals and assists galore and was their top-scorer. This season though? He’s played a more supporting role, allowing the other attacking talents alongside him to shine. Gone is the ageing Andrei Voronkow, in comes Julio Cruz and Miguel Oliveira. These two have looked to be real threats, and I think will give many SPL defences nightmares for the rest of the season. Julio Cruz, in particular, has looked really lively and in just one match has shown the full range of his abilities. Against Albirex, not only did he clinically net a close-range goal from a cross with his right foot, he also made 2 assists, one with his head, and another with a sumptuous through pass using his left foot. He looked like a complete player, and that’s just on his league debut! You can almost tell that this is a player who is used to operating at higher levels, which is what his CV suggests. Just 3 years ago, he was the top-scorer in Mexico’s 2nd division. Miguel Oliveira has already shown he has a left foot to be feared. Already scoring three times this season, he is a threat in and around the box, while his pace also means that he will be dangerous on the counter, along with Hakeme Yazid. It is worth noting that his 3 goals come from a cumulative xG of just 0.76 – and it shows in the goals he has scored. For all 3 goals, he was in a difficult position but managed to find the back of the net. Zharfan will need to be at his best to stop Oliveira once he gets a shot in. Flottman Injury Their attack may be firing on all cylinders, but unfortunately for DPMM they may have an issue at the back for this game, and also for a long time more. Patrick Flottman, their foreign signing at centreback has unfortunately suffered a recurrence of his ACL injury, and will likely miss many months of the season. We wish him all the best. It leaves them a little weak at the back. This season they’ve conceded 2 goals, and both were from set pieces. It is definitely something we should look to exploit. Lionel Tan will be back for this one, so I hope he gets the memo. Sailors’ Own Strength Perhaps not more needs to be said about this. I focused on Oliveira and Hakeme and Julio Cruz – but if any frontline is scarier than that, it is gonna be Thy, Lestienne, Bart. And that is exactly how they may line up. I am not sure about whether Shawal will start given that he took some time off from the national team so as not to miss his wife’s delivery date. Song Ui-Young also looks a doubt because he was unable to play against Thailand. I know I said in my last piece about Lennart that he may not start given that he just finished a long season in the Eredivisie, but if these two players don’t make it, he may be tossed right in. Mr. Thy has already made a goalscoring contribution in the Sailors shirt, albeit just in a friendly game against JDT II one week ago. Let’s see him score for real on Tuesday! Conclusion One of the two remaining perfect records in the league has to come to an end. I

As our Sailors get ready to take on the Young Lions, it’s a very different Young Lions from last season, but yet there will be a strange sense of familiarity. Nur Adam, Jonan, Danish Qayyum, and Khairin Nadim, were all just with LCS before their National Service obligations kicked in. Does this make the Young Lions game easier or harder for us? We’ll explore that in this article. On a random note, that’s Simba from The Lion King in the cover photo. If Young Lions is Simba, then who is Mufasa (the kind King who got killed), and who is Scar (the jealous brother of the King who got the King killed so that he could take his place)? Are we Scar? Is Mufasa Home United? Ooof that hits too close to home. Ok I digress. On to the preview. Same Same But Different The Young Lions are not the same proposition as they were last season. I could write long paragraphs about it, but these tweets from Deepanraj Ganesan sum it up very well. Not the same team as last season at all. They now have more familiar names than usual seasons, plus a smattering of quality from foreign lands. Take a look at last week’s lineup. Aside from goalkeeper Travis Ang and the foreigners, every single name in there is someone who has played SPL football before, or is familiar to us. Even on the bench, you see players like Khairin Nadim and Danish Qayyum, who have experience playing in this league before. It’s not gonna be the usual Young Lions experience, where there are newbies everywhere you look. There’s even 3 title-winners in there (Kaisei Ogawa, Jun Kobayashi, Kan Kobayashi). At this point I have to remind yall that even though there were newbies left right centre in the last 2 seasons we faced Young Lions, we drew with them TWICE. UGH. The experience of the boys playing, added to the foreigners will make them a much harder outfit to beat this time. They were unlucky to lose in their opener to DPMM. DPMM’s keeper Naumovski had a great game, and one save in particular from livewire Farhan Zulkifli was particularly impressive, given that the move had “Goal” written all over it. So if DPMM is touted by some as a dark horse for the title, and Young Lions almost held/beat them, then I don’t think we should be taking them lightly at all. The Boys from LCS Nur Adam is definitely no stranger to us. He has played 57 times for the Sailors in the past few years, and has always been a fan favourite, marauding up and down the left flank. His talents were on full display for the Young Lions last weekend, and he was involved in a fair few attacking moves. Further upfield, Jonan was used in a right-wing role. We only saw him come on for 2 cameos last season, but I remember being impressed by his confidence and directness, especially in the 3-0 victory over Balestier Khalsa. He lasted 1 half last week but some of his touches looked really good, so it would be nice to see him again. Danish Qayyum (1 min) and Khairin Nadim (0 min) have not seen much gametime at all for the senior Sailors, but these 4 should still know a thing or two about their opponents this weekend. Knowing them and stopping them is two different things though – and you would expect that in a game like this, the goalkeeper for Young Lions will be very important. Travis Ang was also a former Sailors academy player, and he will be disappointed with the concession of last week’s equaliser to DPMM. It was a tight angle for the forward, but he managed to squeeze a shot in at the near post, just beyond Travis’s dive. Not a howler – but he would have felt he could have done better. He doesn’t have much SPL experience, so I think the Sailors will want to put as much pressure on him as possible, from every conceivable situation. Crosses, setpieces, through balls in the space between the centre-back and the keeper – let’s try to maximise the chances of mistakes happening. Enomoto – The Spearhead I can’t say I know too much about Enomoto, but I like what I saw from him in pre-season. He can score, he has a bit of presence about him (186cm), and with him on the pitch, Young Lions do not look as toothless as they have done in recent years. In terms of CV, he has easily the most impressive one, given that he featured quite regularly in J3 football in Japan, and also featured in J2. His goalscoring record there wasn’t stellar though – only managing 9 goals in 78 appearances. What is remarkable about him is that he won many aerial duels when he featured in J3, featuring in the 91st percentile league-wide of aerial duels won despite not featuring as regularly as regular starters from other clubs. Given his aerial prowess, this should be a challenge that Bailey and Toni will be looking forward to! Conclusion I think our Sailors should have too much for the Young Lions, despite them strengthening very well. I think the Young Lions are not going to finish bottom this year, but I would still be very surprised if the Sailors firepower isn’t enough to overcome this challenge. Rui Pires looks to be back in training as well, I wonder if he will feature at some point. Our last 2 games have seen us barely break a sweat, and it looks like some connections are still in the process of being formed. Still, the Young Lions team look like they always have a mistake or two in them, and I think the Sailors attack has enough firepower to punish any errors. My predicted line-up – Zharfan Rohaizad Lionel Tan, Bailey Wright, Toni Datkovic, Obren Kljajic Song, Hariss, Hami Maxime, Shawal, Bart COME

It’s the last game of the season for us, and it’s a dead rubber. I think I speak for all fans when I say I wish we were still in the running to qualify for the knockout stages, but it is what it is. There’s still the record for most points achieved by a Singaporean club in the AFC Champions League up for grabs, and it will be our last top-tier game for a while (we’re in ACL2 next season because our league coefficient is not good enough), so let’s cherish this match and take it in. Right, into the preview we go! Is it Really a Dead Rubber? There’s been some confusion over this. Some people still think that our Sailors can get second place if results go our way. I don’t blame them for thinking that way, but let’s clarify this! It looks like our Sailors are still in it, if you look at the points and the goal difference. Surely a win for us and Bangkok Utd beating Jeonbuk by enough goals would see us leapfrog Jeonbuk? Unfortunately, no. The rules state that in the event of two teams finishing level on points, the tiebreaker is Head-to-Head performance. In this case, Jeonbuk beat us 3-0, and we beat them 2-0. So even though we each got 1 win over the other, they did score one more goal than us, so in a Head-to-Head comparison, we lose out to them on goal difference. So even if we win 10-0 tonight and Jeonbuk lose 20-0, nothing changes, and we’re stuck in 3rd place. It is a dead rubber for Kitchee as well – even if they achieve a win, they will be on 4 points, not enough to overtake us. Hence, the deadest of dead rubbers. But there’s a record to fight for, isn’t there? The Chance to Make History Well the players have a chance to surpass the Sailors’ achievements of last year – win and they will be on 9 points, more than the 7 points last year. Call me skeptical but I am not sure this is the best motivator. The club website had this to say – Aleksandar Ranković’s team have their eyes set on writing their names into the Singapore football history books – by setting a new record for the maximum number of points a Singaporean team has attained in the ACL group stage. “We deserved a better result against Bangkok, but we’re totally prepared and motivated for this match. We want to finish strong, especially after the Singapore Cup final, and we want maximum points from tomorrow’s match,” said Ranko, adamant that his charges are not still swooning over the weekend’s Cup Final victory, and instead are determined to bounce back from the loss against Group F leaders Bangkok United on 29 November. “With the format change in the ACL (the Sailors will be in the ACL2 next season), this will be our last chance in this competition and we want to leave our own legacy.” I am not sure I am convinced, haha. I think the players and the coach want it – but I think it is human to not be as motivated as when there is a tangible prize at stake, say a cup, or qualification to the next stage. Leaving a legacy is well and good but I am not sure many people can remember who was in the SAFFC team that previously set a record for the most number of points in the Champions League group stage back in 2010. Can you even name 5 players from the team that beat Henan Jianye? (Fun fact – regular SPL commentator Rhysh Roshan Rai, who sometimes reads SFT articles, is one of them) Regardless, it is the last match of the season for our players, while Kitchee still has a game at the weekend. Alot of intangible factors might come into play here, all of which we have no insight into. Will Kitchee players conserve their legs in view of the weekend’s game? Will our Sailors already mentally be on their holidays? Will we give minutes to players who have not played much or players who are already leaving as a farewell? It’s really hard to say. One thing that we can look forward to though, is the return of a “fan favourite”, Kim Shin Wook. Return of the Wookie Wookie has not had a good time at Kitchee. I take you back to my preview article where I had this to say about him – But how has our Wookie fared since he transferred to Kitchee? Not well, apparently. Go take a look at the highlights from my interview with Kitchee fans Edmund and Tim – pretty scathing. Last season, Wookie finished with the now-overused 007 meme, as he recorded 0 goals and 0 assists in 7 appearances. (I say overused but yet I still use, lol) This season, he has only seen gametime against much inferior opposition. He took to the pitch and scored a hattrick against semi-pro opposition, and just last weekend, he played in a 6-2 victory in the league, but when he was subbed on, he managed to miss a penalty, and also the rebound (which would not have counted anyway because it came off the crossbar). Apparently he approached the hardcore fans and apologised to them for his performance and looked tearful. It pains me to say this because I’ve always liked him, but it’s not going well for sure.  – https://sailorfantalk.com/2023/10/03/preview-kitchee-v-sailors-perhaps-no-better-time-to-play-kitchee/ Not much has changed since 2 mths ago. He has scored 2 more goals, and his overall record does seem decent now. 5 goals in 11 matches is a decent ratio. However, I think quite crucially, he still struggles to see gametime because of the availability of the other foreign players, who are deemed to be better than him. 11 appearances in a year is not great. Why I suspect we will see him tomorrow is because of the comments of his coach

And then there were 2. 2 more games for our beloved Sailors – 1 tomorrow against Hougang United, and 1 next week against Kitchee. 2 sides vying for the only silverware available to them after a long, hard season. Hougang fans always chant proudly “Silverware, we don’t care“, while us Sailors fans sing about “taking every trophy, first the League and then the Cups“. Well, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it is now very much time to take the Cup. But we will have to navigate the challenge of a Hougang United team who have nothing to lose in this final, and everything to play for. Let’s dive right into the preview. Silverware, We Don’t Care! First, the Hougang fans really should care, according to some basic research done online. Silverware ought to he handled carefully so that it will last for decades. Well the only thing that lasted for decades for them was their trophy drought. Until last year’s amazing win over Tampines Rovers of course. Back to the serious business. Why they should care is not only because the Singapore Cup is a prestigious trophy. Winning the Cup also comes along with it the carrot of continental qualification. After the changes announced by AFC earlier this year, Singapore has been left with only 2 AFC qualification slots, and both of them are for the 2nd-tier competition, the ACL2. (Just for added context, the ACL2 is still a pretty high-level tournament, because it will still feature good teams from the top leagues, such as the K League and the J League. Just see for yourself below) Ok now that you’ve seen the slots, you will realise that Hougang (and Tampines) will be very invested in the result of this game when it comes to their AFC chances. If Hougang win the Cup, they will get that second indirect slot and go into the playoffs of the ACL2. If they lose the Cup, then the 2nd slot will go to the next highest-placed team in the league after LCS, which is Tampines Rovers. (Yellow Knights if you’re reading this, it may pain you, but it might help your team if you cheer for us instead tomorrow, heh.) After a disaster of a season which saw their head coach re-deployed due to poor results, and multiple injury woes, Hougang will go all out to try and salvage something from it. Winning an SG Cup will be the most glorious salvage job ever. As for us, the motivation to win the Cup will hopefully be strong because a club like Sailors needs to win silverware every year. You can’t get away with spending so much money and building all these facilities, to lose to another local club. I hope our boys will be pumped up for this one. Injury Woes To make matters slightly easier for us, Hougang’s injury list is very unfortunate. Gabriel Quak and Hazzuwan Halim join the team in the treatment room, which is already a temporary home for Shahdan Sulaiman and Kiki Krajcek. Even with a full team, we still have the advantage on paper, but this should tilt the balance firmly towards us. We still have to worry about 2 of their chief attacking options though. Deadly Djordje If you think this headline is familiar, that’s because I warned us about him before the last time we played Hougang. And yes, he scored. He is in a very rich vein of scoring form, scoring 9 goals in the last 8 games for Hougang. He is also joint-top scorer of the Singapore Cup, along with Richi, Diego, Shawal and Balestier’s Shuhei Hoshino (all on 5 goals). Djordje is deadly because of his pace, finishing instincts, and ability to finish on either foot. You will remember him scampering onto a through ball from Nazrul Nazari when we met Hougang in the group stage. This is something that we can expect to see more of tonight. Hougang are quite adept at using the fullbacks to put long balls into the channels for Maksimovic to chase. Which brings us to… Nazrul Nazari Ever since the Hougang injury list started growing in the last few weeks and months, Nazrul Nazari has started growing in stature too. Not his height – he still remains a pocket-sized footballer. On the field though, he has started to take on more creative responsibilities in the absence of his key teammates like Kiki and Shahdan. In 21 games in the league this season, he has picked up just 1 assist. However, in the past few weeks, he has managed 3 assists in the Singapore Cup, and 1 more in the AFC Cup. If we look at Hougang’s assists and goals chart in the Singapore Cup, it is pretty clear the the burden of creating has fallen on his shoulders. If we stop Nazrul and Djordje, we can feel a lot better about our chances of winning the game. Magic Max And now the attention shifts back to one of our own. Our Player of the Year Maxime Lestienne is going through a bit of a barren streak in front of goal. In our last article, I said this – Maxime last scored in October, against Kitchee from the penalty spot. Since then, he has played in 7 games and not scored a goal – definitely his longest streak without scoring this season. That is almost unbelievable, considering how easily he has put the ball in the back of the net this season. 25 goals in 24 league games is amazing stuff, even if you don’t look at his assists tally. Thankfully for us, even though he hasn’t scored, his assists haven’t stopped. He has notched 5 assists and is quite clearly the chief playmaker for our Sailors. By his own admission, he said that he should have got a few goals against Tampines in the last game – so I predict Max will finally find the scoresheet tonight to break his little cold streak in