Match Previews

Having crashed out of the AFC Champions League in midweek, tonight’s clash against old foes Tampines Rovers allows our Sailors a quick chance at redemption. Will fatigue play a part in this game? Will the absence of Yasir Hanapi be a key one? Let’s dive into some of my thoughts about the game. Quick Thoughts on Bangkok Loss Sorry for not getting a proper post-match thoughts article out for our loss against Bangkok Utd. I am still on holiday with the wife, and if I spend too much time doing SailorFanTalk stuff, I suspect she won’t be best pleased haha. Sorry also that this extended trip means that I will not be able to do a post-match interview at the stadium. It sucks to break the streak – we’ve done one for every game this season, but I guess it ends tonight. (Joseph is also busy with a wedding – not too late for some last minute cold feet from the bride or groom eh? Jk jk) The team came in for some criticism midweek. Generally, there was a feeling that our boys should have set out to attack a little bit more, especially as a win was realistically the only way we could qualify for the group stage (finishing 2nd is not a guarantee that we would be one of the best 2nd-placed teams). There was also plenty of criticism for Anu – for not jumping in the wall. My feelings on this are a little mixed. When goals get conceded, people often tend to get a little black-and-white or a little simplistic in their analysis of the goal. In this case, perhaps it really is black-and-white, so let me say it loud and clear – Anu should have jumped. On this point, I agree with the many people online who said that he should have jumped. If he had a time machine, he’d get back in time and he’d jump. Was there a miscommunication with the keeper? Was it fear that the ball would hit him? Misjudgment of the ball? I guess we will never know. What I do know is that regardless of who made the error and the magnitude of the error, I do not believe it warrants online harrassment or over-reaction. I saw shameful behaviour from so-called “fans”, who tagged Anu in Instagram, and told him he should retire, or that the goal was his fault. Hey, if you were a true fan, maybe don’t rub it in? And certainly don’t make it personal. You can point out the error, but also show some compassion, love, and some support for the players you are supposed to support. Even if you think there are better players than him that the club should sign, that can’t change till next season – so get behind our boys please. Also, and this is the more important point. We lost by a goal to Bangkok Utd, and we all know that margins at the top level are fine. But if you want to go down the route of assigning blame, how about we blame Zharfan also for not at least diving to get the ball? How about we blame Shawal Anuar for not just not jumping, but ducking as well? The ball could well have gone right above Shawal’s head – but it went over Anu’s. This is an outcome-based criticism of Anu when Shawal did the same or even worse. How about we blame Maxime for wasting 1 or 2 chances to put better balls into the box when we got the rare counter-attack? How about we blame Shawal for missing the 1v1? How about we blame Rui Pires for a few misplaced passes in midfield? Does he get insulated from criticism more because mistakes in his role seldom directly lead to conceded goals? Where I am going with this is simply that in supporting a team, you should not be singling out players for abuse. It’s a team game after all. You can criticise them, but let’s be fair and balanced in our criticism, and even then, let’s be a little kinder with the actual words we use. Back to analysis of the game – our Sailors will be raring to go to show that despite the loss, they are still the top local side, and what better way to do that than to do it against our old rivals on their home patch? Speaking of home patch… Pitch Imperfect The first leg of the semi-final will be held at Our Tampines Hub, which was used by SAF for a passing-out parade just yesterday. Hundreds of people marched around the hallowed grounds of Tampines Rovers, potentially causing damage to it. This is not without precedent – earlier on in the year, a Tampines game was postponed due to poor pitch conditions after a football tournament was held there. Could there possibly be a postponement? While I hope not, I think the condition of the pitch could still adversely affect Tampines. As we’ve seen this season, Tampines likes playing a controlled game revolving around numerous short passes in the backline. With a pitch that might have some slight tears lying around, it may be good for the Sailors because they are capable of playing some much more direct football than Tampines, who rely on their quantity of passes. In fact, this was their downfall against us because some sloppy passing led to Maxime capitalising to score a wonderful chip. Oh, and that reminds me – who gave the ball away? Yasir Hanapi He is suspended after his reckless foul led to a red card against Geylang in a group stage match. That is definitely good news cos he’s the captain. His industry in the middle of the pitch is an example for all, and sets the tone sometimes for some very ferocious intense Tampines pressing. Besides that, let me hit you with a quick stat attack on why he is so influential for the team – However, it

If it feels like a really long time since the Sailors last played, that’s because it has been 2 weeks since our Sailors were last in action, when they deservedly lost 3-0 to Jeonbuk in the Jeonju World Cup Stadium. I’ve summed up my thoughts in the post-match thoughts article, so if you haven’t read it yet, please go take a look. So do we have a better shot at picking up a point or even all three? Let’s jump straight into the preview then! Smaller Astroturf Pitch In the official club interview, Super had this to say – “It’s going to be a different game here because it is hotter here than in Korea, the field is smaller and we are playing on an artificial surface. Jeonbuk play really nice football, but we are going to make it tough for them,” So that got me checking – what exactly is the size difference? Turns out, actually it’s quite substantial. (stats taken from transfermarkt.com) Smaller Pitch Jalan Besar Stadium – 98m x 64m Jeonju World Cup Stadium – 105m x 68m In the post-match article, I talked about how Jeonbuk’s wingers exploited our defence on the wings, and I just wonder, now that the pitch is significantly smaller, whether we will be able to contain them a little better. Don’t look down on what may seem like a measly 4m difference. Especially when we are playing 5 at the back, there will be less space for each defender to cover width-wise. Length-wise, it also allows us to get from back to front that little bit quicker, and that may suit us on the counter-attack. Artificial Pitch It is no secret that foreign teams that come here absolutely hate playing on our astroturf. The ball bounces different, the surface is hard for the players, and it takes a while for teams to get used to it. Some of the greatest nights in Home United’s AFC Cup history were achieved under the lights on the bouncy astroturf pitch at Jalan Besar Stadium. If you cast your mind back a couple of months, you will remember that a technically proficient team like Bangkok United also took more than a half to get to grips with the astroturf surface. Am I clutching at straws? Maybe a bit – we still did ultimately lose to Bangkok United, and Singapore’s national team has also lost games before at Jalan Besar despite this supposed pitch advantage. But hey, something is better than nothing. Jeonbuk’s FA Cup Final Defeat Jeonbuk come into this game having led 1-0 and 2-1 against bitter rivals Pohang Steelers in the Korean FA Cup Final. However, 3 goals in the span of 17 minutes ensured that they will not finish with any domestic silverware this season. How will that affect them coming into tonight’s game? It’s anyone’s guess, really. They might be angry and want to bounce back immediately, or they might still be hurting and turn in a listless performance. Or it might be something in the middle – this is not a computer game after all where morale is measured in terms of quantifiable numbers. Let’s try to make an educated guess by looking at their form this season after suffering a loss. Considering Jeonbuk on paper should have easily been the top 2 or 3 teams in Korea this season, it is quite surprising to see that on five separate occasions, they followed up a loss with a draw/loss. I have highlighted those occasions where they did not bounce back with a win by bolding those lines. 25 Feb 2023 – lost to Ulsan, drew with Suwon Bluewings 19 Mar 2023 – Lost to Daegu, lost to Pohang Steelers 15 April 2023 – Lost to Suwon 26 April 2023 – Lost to Daejeon Hana Citizen, lost to Gangwon, draw with Seoul 29 May 2023 – Lost to Pohang Steelers 24 June 2023 – Lost to Gwangju 21 July 2023 – Lost to Pohang Steelers 19 Aug 2023 – Lost to Ulsan, draw with Daejeon Hana Citizen, draw with Jeju United, lost to Gangwon 30 Sep 2023 – Lost to Daegu, lost to Bangkok Utd Does this suggest that they do not have mental strength and cannot bounce back? No I don’t think so. I just checked to find out if there was a trend, but it doesn’t seem like there’s anything noteworthy there. I already did the work though, so I thought I’d just share! Rest Time What may be more crucial though, is the rest time that the Sailors have had compared to their Korean counterparts. Since the last time we faced Jeonbuk, they have played 3 matches in 7 days, culminating in that cup final loss to Pohang Steelers. While there has been some rotation, key midfielder Paik Seung Ho has started all 3 games, and the hope of course is that fatigue will help to take some of the sharpness off the Jeonbuk players. While following the FA Cup final on the weekend, I was secretly hoping it would drag on to extra time, and then to penalties, to prolong the game, and add some unwanted minutes into those tired legs, rendering them a weaker prospect to deal with. The obvious counter to this point is simply that Jeonbuk rested 4 key first-team players against us and still came away with a handsome victory last time they faced us – so perhaps their strength in depth will make this less of an issue for them. Must-Win Game I don’t think much more needs to be said once you look at the table. Should Jeonbuk beat us, they’ll go up to 9 points, and we’ll be stuck on 3. Assuming Bangkok United beats Kitchee, then Bangkok will be on 12 pts, Jeonbuk on 9, and even if we win our last two fixtures, Jeonbuk just needs 1 more point from their games against Bangkok United and Kitchee to ensure we do not finish in 2nd. A draw

I am writing to you from Korea. LCS has put us up in a nice cosy hotel right in the heart of Jeonju, where tomorrow’s action will take place. I will admit first that this preview may not be as useful to you as some of the other preview articles put out in the past. The reason for this is that I was not able to ask any of the Korean football experts to comment on their team in a meaningful way. I don’t think anyone is under any illusions about the magnitude of the task that faces our Sailors tomorrow. There is a huge gulf between the standard in the K-League and that of the SPL. However, in the wise words of Singaporean singer Linying – “we did it before, and we’ll do it again”. We faced K-League side Daegu twice last year and came away with 3 points, impressively beating them 3-0, before losing narrowly in the torrential rain 2-1. Could we do it again? Let’s dive into the preview. The Mad Green Boys If the following paragraphs about the fans sounds very complimentary, please forgive me for being nice to our very hospitable hosts. It’s 1am here in Korea and they have taken us out and about for the past 6h, first to a charcoal-grilled chicken place, and then to a seafood place. Copious amounts of alcohol were also consumed at each place, making the writing of this article a little harder – but write it I must, so let me tell you why this is relevant. The results achieved against Daegu were fantastic, but I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that out of the 6 fixtures in this group, this is by far the hardest. Supporters can sometimes be the 12th man, and numerous studies have shown that referees tend to give better decisions to home teams due to the pressure and atmosphere created by the crowd. The biggest difference between beating Daegu last year and attempting to beat Jeonbuk this year is an actual home advantage enjoyed by Jeonbuk. This is incontrast to last year’s centralised tournament held in Buriram. Part of the advantage stems from the Mad Green Boys, who are permanently given the no. 12 in the squad, underlining their importance to the team. I watched on TV their game against Daegu – away from home, and they were LOUD. It is no wonder that they were voted by their fellow fans as the most intimidating set of supporters in the K-League in 2016. There’s something quite intimidating about a large bunch of people in green jumping up and down with wild abandon, and having witnessed first-hand their enthusiasm and vigour throughout this evening’s festivities, I can say for certain that the Crew is gonna be outshouted for sure tomorrow. While the numbers may not be as impressive as for weekend games, I expect a healthy number to still turn up and create a formidable wall of green. It will be intimidating. Jeonbuk’s Struggles This Season Tipped by many to be the winner, and automatically assumed by most to challenge, Jeonbuk have been disappointingly off the pace. Their attack in particular, seems to have suffered following the departure of former Swansea forward Modou Barrow. He notched 13 goals and 8 assists for Jeonbuk in his final season, from a mere 28 games. That is not easy to replace. His style of play also helped to create chances and relieve the pressure for his team because his supreme pace meant that teams dared not press as high up. You add to that the mid-season departure of Cho Gue-sung to the Danish league, and then it becomes even more telling why the attack has sputtered this season. If the name rings a bell, Cho was the Korean striker who scored 2 goals against Ghana at the World Cup in 2022, announcing himself to the world. Of course, they still have Gustavo, and other attacking threats. However, their scoring numbers fill me with 1% of hope that perhaps we can do well to shut them out. You be the judge – Remember that Cho Gue-Sung is no longer there, and Gustavo is not a striker who can create his own chances upfront too. However, given adequate service in the box, he is absolutely deadly, so we have to keep a close eye on him. It is fair to say that we are lucky they are not the force they were last year, or in the years prior, where they made mincemeat of Tampines Rovers. How will the Sailors line up? I think the squad pretty much picks itself. For me, the only doubt would be whether Shawal Anuar features after his superb cameo at the weekend. If you go with 5 at the back, that necessarily means you need 2 central midfielders and those will be Rui Pires and Anu. That leaves 3 spaces up top and it will not be surprising for LCS fans to see Diego Lopes, Lestienne and Zivkovic picked as the starters. Having watched Jeonbuk play, they like to press very high onto their opponents. Led by Boateng in the middle, they tend to want to snap into challenges in or around the penalty area. This of course leads to turnovers – something that we need to watch out for. However, it also gives us an escape route. Should we be able to evade the press somewhat, we can try to go long, and hope that there is enough space behind the backline for our forwards to deal with. This is where perhaps keeping Shawal on the bench may help. He very seldom lasts the whole game anyway, so it’s good to keep him in reserve, and then release the secret weapon against tiring legs in the second half. One thing I noticed while watching Jeonbuk this season is that they seem to have an inability to clear their lines properly when they defend their goal . I think

It’s been a while since we last saw our Sailors in action. More than 2 weeks ago, we managed to come away with a win in Hong Kong that reinvigorated our slim hopes of making it to the latter rounds of the AFC Champions League. While us supporters have had a chance to really kick back, relax, and bask in the warm glow of the away win, the players have not had such a luxury. Do we rotate and give us the best chance in Korea, or do we try our best to effectively sew up qualification in the Singapore Cup so the last game takes on less significance? 4 Games in 17 Days Of the 25 Lions called up to play the two matches against Guam, 10 were from the Sailors, and 9 featured. The only player who did not see any gametime was Zharfan. This has been a hectic time for these players. Let’s take a look at their schedule since the Kitchee game. 4 October – Kitchee v Sailors 12 October – Singapore v Guam 17 October – Guam v Singapore 21 October – Sailors v Tanjong Pagar Should our national team players feature again, it might be a case of 4 games in 17 days, along with 4 flights as well. That is a tiring schedule, especially taking into account he 13h journeys by air to and from Guam. The likes of Anu, Lionel, CvH, Mamat, Hariss, and Shawal saw significant gametime, and I do wonder if there is some temptation to give a rest to a few of them. However, given the injury and unavailability issues faced by the Sailors, it may not be feasible to rest all of them. One of the key figures that might dictate if people like Anu and Lionel may play is Bailey Wright. He has been out since early-September when he picked up an injury in a closed-door friendly against Albirex. Given that Anu, Lionel, and Hariss played many minutes against Guam and Kitchee, and Bailey hasn’t played at all, it would be ideal to let Bailey play – if he is fit. Is Bailey Fit? Plus Other Injury News Bailey Wright It’s really tough to say. Unlike Singapore’s favourite league, the English Premier League, injury news is very hard to come by as local clubs are often tight-lipped about player injuries and how serious they are. We are thus left to guess based on club training videos – a skill picked up through years of playing Fantasy Football (FF). For those unacquainted, FF is an online game where people pick players from various Premier League teams and sort them into a lineup of 11 players, and these said players then pick up virtual points based on their real-life performances in matches. FF is also a game taken way too seriously by people like myself, which thus results in crazy, irrational behaviour, such as looking for the littlest clues in training videos as to whether a player we picked is injured and will feature at the weekend. So, if you look at the training video below, scroll to around 2:30 and watch on for 10 seconds – you will see that Bailey Wright has resumed pitch training, and crucially, resumed pitch training in a group. However, of course, it must be said that that was a rondo/monkey training drill, which may not involve as much rigour as other drills which were not really shown. Nothing in the video shows Bailey doing anything that would really extend him as well, so it is hard to say if he will feature tomorrow. I guess we’ll see. If you don’t see Bailey, it’s cos his back is turned to the camera. Haha I am a psycho. Same applies for Pedro Henrique. While he cannot play tomorrow because he is not registered in our Singapore Cup squad, Coach Rankovic may be tempted to push one or two of Lionel/Anu/Hariss for the full 90 if he felt that Pedro Henrique was fit and ready to start against Jeonbuk on Wednesday. Kodai Tanaka This one’s not entirely relevant for tomorrow’s game but I just thought I’d comment on it. Kodai was injured on 9 March against Albirex. However, it was not until around the end of the month before he had his surgery. This can be seen from his post on 1 April, where he said he had his surgery two days prior. This is normal for ACL injuries – you cannot operate immediately. According to Dr. Andy Williams, an ACL reconstruction expert, you need to let the swelling go down and for the knee to go “quiet”, if not you risk adding to the trauma and in the long term, you may stiffen up the knee even more. So from 1 April till now, that’s about 6.5 months. You have seen from Kodai’s instagram posts that he has resumed training for quite a while already. While at first it was just solitary gym work, he has returned to the pitch to do solo training, and now he’s back in group training. As to the extent of how intense his training is, we can only guess from his posts and the training video above – but 6-9 mths is the usual timeframe. If you scroll to 4:31 – you will see that in a small-sided game, he comes sliding in to intercept a pass. To me, even though I am not an expert, I think this is a heartening sign. We definitely won’t see him against Tanjong Pagar, but maybe he’ll make it for the Jeonbuk game as a substitute? Let’s see if he travels with the team. It doesn’t seem like there’s any other injury news, so if Ranko is trying to more or less secure qualification tomorrow, this is perhaps a good chance to do it. Going for a Win to Secure Qualification A win will almost certainly put us into the semifinals. It is not mathematically confirmed of course, but let

Abit of a late one – have been so busy clearing work to make time to fly over to Hong Kong to support the boys, and rather interestingly I got lost for an hour earlier in the meandering streets of Central, Hong Kong. But I am safe now, and in the next couple of hours before I head to dinner with some Kitchee fans, here is my preview of tomorrow night’s must-win game. Why, Eddy, you may ask, is this a good time to play Kitchee? Head Coach Sacked! Kim Dong-Jin Steps In Or rather moved aside to a “youth development” position – but we all know what that means. Alex Chu was sacked. Up steps Kim Dong-Jin as interim head coach. He is also the Technical Director of Kitchee. If you think his name sounds familiar, it may be because you watched him as a player playing for South Korea at the 2006 World Cup, or winning the Europa League with Zenit St. Petersburg. The reason for the sacking was touted as a move to “bring harmony to the club in pursuit of major trophies“. I mean that could mean a lot of things – but given that it came on the back of a poor performance in a 4-1 defeat to closest title challengers Lee Man, and a 2-1 defeat to Jeonbuk, could mean that there is some dressing room disharmony. Kitchee fans have also told us that not only was Alex Chu redeployed, several backroom staff also faced the same fate. It is not a happy camp at the moment, and I don’t need to look too far away for an example of how dressing room disharmony or dissatisfaction with management can lead to a team performing below par on the pitch – Sailors Singapore Cup campaign 2022, anyone? One thing though, will a Korean interim coach mean that Kim Shin-Wook, our old friend, returns to the starting line-up and plays a pivotal role? Korean Konnection Kim Shin-Wook was always a player who divided opinion amongst the fanbase. He had his supporters, fans who loved his goals and how he would oblige fans who mimicked his celebration (dropping to his knees and pointing to the sky), and yet other fans who felt that LCS’s starting striker given our resources should be much better, or at least more mobile. He did score 24 goals in 35 games though – I think opinion about him would have been a lot better if Boris Kopentovic did not have such a brilliant season last year. At the end of the day however, I think all fans would probably be united in agreeing that Richairo Zivkovic has been an upgrade. 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. I tell you why I like this guy though – I think it takes some balls and also shows that the player cares if he goes to the fans and talks to them, knowing full well that they don’t have full faith in him. Prior to this season, he also cut short his summer break so that he could train more in a bid to raise his performances. However, even if Kim Dong-Jin gives him a chance and starts him against us (unlikely), I still think Kitchee may not be the force they were last year when they qualified for the knockout stages because Wookie is no DEJAN DAMJANOVIĆ. Big Dejan-Sized Hole in the Attack Kitchee qualified for this year’s ACL by virtue of them finishing first in their domestic league. They also won the treble, and usually treble-winners are kinda invincible, no? Well, even though they had Dejan Damjanović with them at the tail-end of last season, it was interesting to watch in an interview with Hong Kong football expert Christie Leung that she felt Kitchee only just barely clung on to win it at the death, and the performance was not convincing. And that’s with Dejan in attack! Why all this fuss about Dejan, you may ask. Well, Dejan Damjanović is only the top ACL goalscorer of all time. He is also a K-League legend. I will let his numbers do the talking for me. The pitch graphic is for number of appearances, the blue-ball graphic is for goals, and the green ball graphic is for assists. Just an insane player – and you consider that what he did for Kitchee was after he had turned 39 years old? Just madness. And he turned in solid performances in the ACL campaign too, not just in the domestic league. Christie Leung also mentioned in the interview that Dejan’s absence is compounded by Kim Shin Wook’s failure to step into his massive boots. The Kitchee fans had hoped that following the same blueprint in bringing over a K-League legend in Kim, might have led to similar success, but it was not to be. Kitchee’s performances this season have not been useful for me to analyse because the gulf in quality between them and the other Hong Kong sides (with the exception of Lee Man, which they lost to) means that there

The upcoming ACL campaign somehow feels even bigger than last year’s. I am not sure what it is. Perhaps in an era where Covid-19 dominates the headlines, football takes a bit of a backseat? Or maybe it’s the largely-empty stadiums? Another factor could be that last year’s Champions League campaign was played in a centralised format, and all 4 teams of our group were in Buriram for about a month and played all their games back to back. There was no home crowd cheering our players on, or that of our opponents. Urawa Red Diamonds have to be commended for making their matches against us feel like home games with the strength of their away support – both in terms of numbers and loudness. I have told this story before to my friends, but what impressed me about them was not just that they were strong in numbers, and very loud. What impressed me most was that when I started chanting alone in the cavernous Thunder Castle (Buriram’s home stadium), they had the grace to allow me to chant out loud in support of my team for a few minutes. And I knew it was not coincidence, because whenever I stopped chanting, they would start a new chant. They could easily have used their hundreds of voices to drown me out, but they did not. I guess that’s the beauty of football, and an example of how fans can put their support of the team to one side, and respect fellow fans of their opponents. Even in the lead-up to this round of ACL games, I have experienced the warmth and generosity of fans online who have stepped up to help me with this article. Let’s dive straight into the preview. Our Opponents If you haven’t read the pre-preview of our tie against Bangkok United, please go and do so here. Huge shout-out again to Matt Jenkins for his contribution. Just a recap of what he said – You’ll meet a strong BUFC side. With our stalwart Brazilian centreback Everton captaining the side, and organising a back four that’s pretty much all Thai / or Thai-German, sitting in front of Pattiwat the Thai national 2nd goalkeeper. Midfield normally sets up as a 3 or 4, with strong Thai influence, who run and run, again 2 or 3 here in the national side. The front line is made up of Mahmoud Eid, a Palestinian forward who drops deep and plays across the front, Willen Mota, a Brazilian who plays more centrally, and Rungrath, another Thai who offers more width and can easily slip back into midfield. Matt Jenkins – Bangkok United fan This was how our opponents lined up in their last league game against Sukhothai United, and it is highly likely that they will go with the exact same players. I have done some checking and of the four league games played so far, these players (with the exception of no. 26 Suphan Thongsong) have started all four games, and are flying in the league right now. 3 wins and a draw, with several players looking very bright. The night was spent looking at these players in their first 4 fixtures, and my oh my, will we have a huge task on our hands. The summary of what I have seen is this. They have a multi-talented midfield that is very athletic, capable of defending, capable of arriving late into the box to score, capable of breaking at pace, and capable of making killer passes into their lethal front 3. Mahmoud Eid is gonna be hell to defend, because he is big, strong and fast. Rungrat is capable on both feet and loves taking on his man. Willen Mota is a constant threat as he flits around in the frontline, sometimes dropping deep to connect with the rest of his teammates. In the backline, Everton is a strong presence (unlike in the English Premier League, haha), while Nitipong at right back is a real menace in attack, because he bombs on down the right flank with purpose, and has a hell of a cross on him. I could go on and on about how good Bangkok United is, but let’s focus on Mahmoud Eid. Mahmoud Eid Mahmoud Eid is a Palestinian international who was born in Sweden. He is 30 years old now, and the biggest name on his CV is Kalmar FF, a Swedish top division team, where he played for about 5 years. His career prior to that was predominantly in the Swedish 2nd and 3rd division, where he scored a respectable amount of goals. Nothing crazy though. Last season at Bangkok United is where he really caught the eye – in the league he notched up 10 goals and 4 assists from 26 games, and he wasn’t even the main striker. The main attacking threat in the team was the excellent Heberty, who has since moved on to join JDT. This season, he has 3 goals and 3 assists from 4 games. His size makes it seem like he’d be a classic target man, but while his physique allows him to hold up the ball well and bully defenders in the air, his mobility and composure on the ball in the finish is what our defence definitely has to keep an eye on. How Will We Line Up? Since the Spurs game, our fans and pundits have been speculating that we may line up in the ACL with a back 3 – Super and Pedro flanking Bailey Wright as the central centre-back, Hafiz Nor and Chris van Huizen on the outside as overlapping wingbacks providing width. This might well be the situation for us tonight, though Bailey Wright’s absence at the weekend does call into question whether or not he is fit enough to start tonight. If he isn’t fit, we will still be able to call upon the likes of Hariss Harun and Lionel Tan to fill in at the back. While it will be

“Dead rubber” is a weird term. I don’t quite know for sure why a meaningless game is called a dead rubber, and it seems that even a quick Google doesn’t answer that question 100%. There’s talk of the term originating from “rubber bridge”, a version of the card game, bridge. There’s also talk of the term originating from “rubber” being another word for eraser, and since in some games where you keep the score, you erase the score from the previous game before you go on to the next, a “dead rubber” meant a useless erasing of the score because the next game doesn’t really matter. I’d dig further, but then SailorFanTalk becomes an altogether different website so I didn’t. Answers in the comments are welcome. Dead Rubber for Both Teams Potentially We’ve all known for weeks now that Albirex have been crowned champions, and Tampines’s horrible slump in form has meant that we can’t be caught. So it’s a dead rubber for us. Had Balestier got even a point in their last game, it would be a dead rubber for Geylang as well. However, a loss in their last game has meant that should Geylang beat us tomorrow, they might end up in the top half of the table. All this, provided Balestier don’t get a single point against Tampines Rovers later today. If Balestier get a point, then it’s a dead rubber for Geylang as well. Could this possibly peter out into a nothing game? I honestly have no clue. There are too many possible permutations that might play out. Fringe players may see this as a chance to impress and perhaps force their way into Rankovic’s plans. This may be used as a game to give competitive minutes for players who have lacked minutes in their tank. For example, Rui Pires, who impressed on “debut” against Spurs, is definitely going to start against Bangkok United. Are we gonna throw him in without him at least getting some competitive minutes in the league? But if you do start him, what if he gets injured? Will the players give a little less when it comes to tackles and 50-50s, knowing that any injury rules them out of the Champions League and Singapore Cup games? Will Coach Rankovic feel that a win is the best way to keep the momentum? Too difficult to predict what is going to happen! What Formation Will We Line Up In? We’ve seen how the Sailors lined up against Spurs, a solid five at the back featuring three central defenders and two wingbacks. Coach Rankovic mentioned in a recent interview (around the 4:40 mark) that this is an option that we may use in the Champions League. He mentioned how we would probably use it against opponents who dominate possession. The aim probably is to remain solid at the back, and then pick and choose moments to counter-attack and score. Regular followers of SailorFanTalk will also remember Richairo Zivkovic discussing this very topic, when he said that sometimes in the ACL we will be under great pressure, and if we have good counter-attacking opportunities, they may be our best chances to score. If so, will we see it against Geylang, given that they are not likely to dominate possession? Would it be wise to use this game as a dress rehearsal for the Bangkok United game even if the opponents are likely to be very different in ability and style? Potential Debut for Harith? Given that Nur Adam is suspended for this game, I think there is a good chance we see Harith Kanadi line up against his former club. It will be good for him to get minutes for the club, especially if rumours surrounding Nur Adam’s enlistment prove to be accurate and we miss him for much of the Champions League campaign. As I understand, the club played two friendlies during and before the international break, and Harith played a part in both those games. Maybe us Sailors fans will get to see him in action! If he does play, he will be directly up against Yushi Yamaya. I’d call that a baptism of fire of sorts, given that Yushi is one of the best right-wingers in the league, and definitely the most dangerous player we will face tomorrow, given that Vincent Bezecourt is out of action. He is basically their mini-Maxime, a talented left-footed right winger who leads the team in both goals and assists. 9 goals and 7 assists for Yushi, allied with his direct running style – it will be some test for Harith. One person Harith will be relieved not to see is Arshad Shamim, who I believe will be ineligible for this game given that he is on loan from us. Imagine having to defend against Yushi cuttiing inside and Arshad making the outside run – nightmare. Does Maxime Lestienne Have to Perform Once More? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Maxime Lestienne has to be Player of the Season. 25 goals and 21 assists in 23 games. What kind of stats are those? It’s pure fantasy stuff. 2 goal contributions a game. And it’s not just quantity – it’s quality as well. Some of the goals and assists have been breathtaking. That performance in Our Tampines Hub where he basically turned into a UK fast food cashier, asking “and would you like chips with that?” I heard that even now, Syazwan Buhari still looks up into the sky occasionally to check for flying balls. That time against Geylang when we were far from our best, Mamat kept us in the game with some blocks, and then up stepped Maxime to curl home two brilliant free kicks. I am sure Hafiz Ahmad is still sick of the sight of him. The back-flick goal against Hougang United. Oh, how Hougang must hate him. 3 games played, 4 goals 6 assists from the brilliant Belgian. He’s only had 3 games all season where he did not