Match Previews – Page 7

[Preview] Balestier Khalsa v LCS – Don’t Waste The Albirex Win

1 Comment / Match Previews / Eddy Hirono

I am not really into bowling, and I’ve never been really good at it. The one thing good about bowling is that while it’s considered a sport, it takes place in air-conditioned halls, doesn’t involve running, and in between frames I can eat instant noodles. But enough about me, let’s bring it back to the relevance to Balestier v LCS. One thing I absolutely hated when I bowled was the emotions you go through when you achieve a strike, and then in the next two throws, you get something pathetic like 0 and 3. For those not very familiar with bowling rules, when you throw a strike, you not only get 10 added to your score for knocking down 10 pins, you also get a bonus of having the score on your next two throws added as well. So it’s truly a waste if you bowl a strike, and then follow it up with lame throws and get only a few bonus points added. The Albirex game was the strike. A glorious achievement that could and should prove vital for the team’s morale moving forward. If we didn’t actually believe it before, we should now believe that we are title contenders. However, it would mean little if we go on to drop points against teams that we should not be dropping points against. Balestier Khalsa’s Strength I waxed lyrical about Balestier Khalsa the last time I wrote about them. Even though the season was only 3 games old at that point, I had seen enough to suggest that Balestier Khalsa are not a shit team, and would pose teams in the league some problems. In the 9 games since I wrote that, they have picked up 4 wins and 5 losses, and are 4th in the table, the “best of the rest“. This is no mean feat for a team that many regularly underestimate. They come into this game with the league’s 3rd-best attack (better than Tampines Rovers), and in Ryoya Taniguchi and Daniel Goh, have two absolute weapons that people really fear. Ryoya is joint-top scorer in the league with 10 goals, while Daniel is on 5 goals. Assists-wise, Ryoya and Daniel both have recorded 4 assists. I referred to them as a dynamic duo 3 games into the season, and they have not disappointed thus far. Balestier Khalsa also record more shots and more shots on target than our beloved Sailors, and if you were to poll every SPL fan for their top 5 central midfielders in terms of form this season, I think it’s likely that Ho Wai Loon’s name will pop up very often. However, we still must beat them, and here’s why. Worst Defence in the League Balestier have conceded 35 goals in 11 games – more than 3 goals a game. Even considering that they try to play a progressive brand of football and score a truckload of goals, they still concede at an alarming rate. Why is this so? I am no master tactician – but my view is that it comes down to a few key points – lack of a steely defensive midfielder to screen in front of the back four, lack of a commanding goalkeeper, and lack of an able defensive partner for Madhu. I won’t dive too deep into any of my points above – maybe just a few lines each to elaborate. No steely DM – Alen Kozar has helped with ball progression, but for some of Balestier’s goals, there’s just this gaping hole in front of the defence that opponents repeatedly take advantage of. Opponents are allowed far too much time on the ball sometimes – we saw this for the 1st and last Albirex goals against them in the last game. Especially for the first goal, you can see that Madhu had to come out to one Albirex player, and when the pass was made to Kunori, there was still noone else helping out, so Madhu himself had to get out there to close down. Someone with more tigerish bite is needed for the Tigers if they are to stop leaking soft goals. Lack of a commanding goalkeeper – I don’t think I am being harsh when I say that Hairul could have done way better with half of the goals conceded against Albirex. For the 2nd goal, he parries a weak shot right back into the danger zone. For the 3rd goal, he probably predicted that the striker was going to shoot to his left, and made up his mind too early, but even then, the eventual shot was so near to where he was, that he should still have saved it. It was much the same for the 5th goal – probably predicting a hit to the far post, Hairul was completely foxed by a tame shot to the near post by Fuwa. This continues a pattern of him performing below par this season – who can forget him conceding against Maxime in the reverse fixture? The ball was mishit by Maxime and the volley bounced into the ground and up into the air. It should have been an easy save, but he couldn’t regain his footing and meekly watched it sail in. His defenders were so stunned they just stood and watched long after the ball had gone in. Partner for Madhu – Madhu this year has shown shades of going back to his best, especially in the game against Tampines where he shackled Boris Kopitovic and really limited his impact on the game. While Boris did score two penalties, but I think even he would admit that Madhu had the edge over him that game. However, his defensive partner has not been a constant. Amer Hakeem, Fabian Kwok, and Emmeric have all been tried next to him, and I can’t quite tell who is the best partner for him. They’ve all been unconvincing, so this may be part of the reason why Balestier have let in so many goals. However, all

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[Preview] Disgustingly Good

2 Comments / Match Previews / Eddy Hirono

Albirex are not a good team. They are a disgustingly good team. You probably didn’t pay good money just to hear me tell you this. Wait a minute, this website is free and you don’t pay at all lol – but the point remains. You do not need me to tell you that Albirex are disgustingly good – but let me take a few paragraphs to tell you how monumental this task ahead of us is. Attack is the Best Defence, but Defence is also the Best Defence, and Fouls are also the Best Defence What the heck was that long sentence that doesn’t seem to make any sense? Patience, my friend, read on. Albirex are the top-scorers in the league, and also boast the best defensive record. They’ve scored 30 goals, 4 more than the Sailors who are the 2nd-highest scorers, despite playing one game less. They have also conceded 3 goals only. THREE GOALS. After playing 9 matches, to have conceded only 3 goals is frankly ridiculous. Of course, Hassan Sunny’s addition has boosted their backline with experience, and also a fearsome shot-stopping goalkeeper, but according to the SPL website, Hassan Sunny has only had to make 19 saves. Compare that with Zharfan having to make 43 saves, and I think you can draw your own inferences about how much protection the 10 outfield players are giving to their respective custodians in goal. Their attacking prowess is no fluke as well. They have the most shots in the league, and the most shots on target in the league. I’ll throw in another interesting stat for you – despite their superb form, Albirex are also the team with the highest number of fouls in the league. Their tally of 133 fouls in the league is the same as DPMM’s, but DPMM has played a match more, so the foul-iest team in the league is Albirex! Bet you wouldn’t have thought that. This is a purring attacking side capable of mixing it up with a tinge of dirtiness. To confound your mind even more – despite having the most fouls in the league, they have the fewest yellow cards, and no red cards. A purring attacking side capable of mixing it up with a tinge of dirtiness but also disciplined enough to avoid censure from the referees? Wow, end me now. Dangermen Usually when I do previews, I like to talk about some of the dangermen in our opponents’ squad. It’s … kinda hard to do this here. Do we go with Seia Kunori? The top-scorer with 7 goals? Keito Komatsu with 5 goals? The commanding midfield of Albirex? Hassan Sunny in goal? Old man Tadanari Lee with his bags of experience (and also 4 assists, the most in Albirex)? Riku (who we’ve written an article about earlier this season)? It’s really impossible to pick just one, or even two dangermen to focus on. And that poses a problem for us. Our defence has not been the most commanding this season. We’re obviously still missing Pedro Henrique and we’ve conceded 15 goals from 10 games so far. It’s the 3rd-best record in the league, but nowhere near good enough if we have serious ambitions of winning the title. This defensive porosity has also resulted in us dropping 4 unnecessary points against Young LIons and DPMM Brunei. I posed the question to one of our supporters last week – if we cannot keep out DPMM and Young Lions, what hope do we have against Albirex? The fan (Ryan) said what he needed to say – that though the chances are slim, there’s still a chance. I guess because the ball is round, anything can happen, at the end of the day it’s 11 v 11. There, I’ve thrown out all the football cliches I can throw out. Back to the point of dangermen – when a team doesn’t have just one or two dangermen, it becomes very difficult to try and keep them out. For Albirex, if they keep Maxime and Diego quiet, chances are they will get the win. Of the 26 goals scored by the Sailors, only 4 of those goals did not feature either a goal or an assist by the dynamic duo. If they can work out a plan to shut the two down, we are in some serious trouble. We have a lot of talent on the pitch, so I hope that Coach Risto will come up with a plan to get the local boys more involved as well. For us, it will be difficult if we try to focus on any of their dangermen – they’re ALL dangermen. If we focus too much on a few of them, we lose sight of the others, and that could be fatal. Not all Doom and Gloom We have Maxime in the form of his life. Top of the scoring charts, top of the assists charts, and always capable of some magic. We have Mamat looking back to his best and hopefully coming back this game. We have Diego still chipping in with assists. We have quality off the bench that we can call upon. If Tampines can beat them, then there is no excuse for us to not believe that we can as well. We have a 100% home record as well, so maybe there’s something magical about the Bishan pitch? I am really clutching at straws here, I am freaking afraid of Albirex lol. Conclusion I always back my team and I am always optimistic, but I honestly find it hard to be optimistic about this one. I’ll still of course be supporting the team and willing them on to victory (from Japan, sad that I am not around for this match), but I’ll be happy with a point here. A defeat leaves us 7 points behind, and they will still have a game in hand. In a shortened season this year, that will be almost impossible to come back from. We have also not

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[Preview] Unexpected Home Advantage

Leave a Comment / Match Previews / Eddy Hirono

The fact that this match is taking place later today at Jalan Besar Stadium is a bit of a bonus. This match was supposed to be played in Bandar Seri Begawan but they are still experiencing some stadium issues. spl.sg had a bit of a weird stat when they previewed this game – have a look yourself. I mean….yes, but surely the circumstances are very different, considering that home games in 2019 for them involved an away team travelling to Brunei and playing in front of a crowd without their fans. Considering how many games the Sailors play at Jalan Besar Stadium, and how the Sailors fans are likely to turn up in numbers for this one – this is almost home advantage for us. Hopefully we capitalise. This preview is gonna be a short one cos it’s been a long work week and also because I think there’s not much to talk about facing DPMM. Let’s dive straight into some key points then – Still no SEA Games boys Nur Adam, Abdul Rasaq and Bill Mamadou will not be back in time for this one, despite Singapore getting dumped pretty unceremoniously from the SEA Games. They should be back for the next game, but this one just comes a bit too early. This might mean another start for Nathan Mao, who certainly didn’t look out of place when he played in the last game. (check out our comments in the previous article outlining our post-match thoughts against Geylang). I think many supporters would actually be very excited to see Nathan Mao start again, and hopefully this time, end up with a goal or an assist. The other possibility of course, is Danish Qayyum, who was just a bit short for the last game. We Sailors fans have not seen much of him, and it would be nice for him to get a start here I think. He’s obviously abit more experienced than Nathan Mao, and it might be important for him to be re-integrated into the team, especially when facing the two DPMM dangermen. Voronkov and Hakeme Between the two of them, they have 12 goal contributions (goals and assists). To say that they are a vital part of the team would be an understatement. In the previous match at Bishan Stadium, Hakeme particularly, was a danger throughout. With a good shot and a quick turn of pace, our defenders are going to have a handful with them. Voronkov and Hakeme are also very trigger-happy, so Zharfan will need to be at his best. It must of course be said that even though DPMM is a trigger-happy side, they create much lower quality chances, which is why they outshoot the Sailors (111 shots v 107), but have ended up with 14 goals compared to our 23. High Press In recent matches, we have bemoaned the fact that the Sailors seem to stand off a bit too much from our opponents, and don’t look to dispossess them early in their half. Against DPMM, I hope this changes. We will not get a better chance than this – DPMM’s defenders are not good at playing out from the back. In fact, they have the lowest passing accuracy (73%) in the league by some margin. The next closest to them would be Young Lions’ 77% passing accuracy. In case you’re wondering, LCS’s passing accuracy is 85%. DPMM also have the lowest average number of passes per game in the league. This is not a team that is going to be able to play out of defence if we get our pressing right. I really hope Coach Risto is going to set up the team to press the shit out of DPMM, and force them into errors. In terms of a long ball to break out of defence should they choose to employ it, Voronkov is also not the paciest forward especially given his age, so we really shouldn’t show them that much respect. Conclusion In every metric that can be measured, we’re a much better team than DPMM. Goals scored, shots on target, conversion percentage, pass accuracy, etc etc etc. We simply have to win this game to temporarily leapfrog Tampines into second place. COME ON YOU SAILORS! Score Prediction Joseph, Ethan, and myself 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: DPMM 0 Sailors 4 Joseph’s prediction: DPMM 1 Sailors 3 Ethan’s prediction: DPMM 0 Sailors 4 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!

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[Preview] Must Capitalise on Tampines Slipping Up

1 Comment / Match Previews / Eddy Hirono

You know I don’t actually hate Tampines Rovers or anything, but it’s always funny to see teams slip up in a bad way when they are involved in the title race with your team. Nothing personal, just business. Tampines have been impressive this season, but in their last three games, they have not reached anywhere near the high standards they set for themselves. No goals from open play in 2 of the matches, defensively looking a bit suspect, Boris Kopitovic is the saddest-looking person despite scoring 3 goals in 3 games. All penalties, of course, and he even tried his best to miss one of them. All of this is well and good, and is very funny, and it makes me smile, and it makes the world a better place, but it all will mean nothing though, if the Sailors cannot capitalise on Sunday night. Had Tampines won last night, as they should have, if you believe the bookmakers and pundits (Balestier were at 10-1 odds to win), then they would have opened up a 7-point gap on us with 1 game in hand. As it stands though, they are a much more catchable 4 points away from us. If we win the game in hand, we go to 1 point below them. Not ideal of course, given the disparity between our resources and their resources, but also not fatal, and with time and remaining games to catch up to them. We come up against Geylang though – who are a bit of a bogey team for us. In the last 5 games against Geylang, we have lost 2 and drawn 1. Not good enough at all. The manner of the losses as well was deeply depressing. If you remember those games from last season, we were comprehensively outplayed and Geylang just looked like they were much more up for the fight than we were. But no matter, different season, different outcome perhaps. We swept Geylang aside easily 3-0 barely two months ago, and we will be looking for a repeat. Here are a few key points that I think will decide the game. Who Starts as our U23 Player? With our U23 players all at the SEA Games, we cannot count on any of Abdul Rasaq, Bill or Nur Adam to start the game on Sunday. As such, we are looking at Danish Qayyum as the most likely starter. He has played only 4 minutes this season, coming on as a late sub for us in our season opener against Tanjong Pagar. He came on at left midfield, which is the position that he played most last season with Young Lions. To be honest, I am surprised we have not seen more of him , especially in games where we have a comfortable lead. Anaqi Ismit is also U23, but I believe he is currently injured still, and so is not an option. Another option who may start is Nathan Mao, I guess? After all the fanfare of his 5-min cameo which sparked a lot of debate from people who said that it was just a PR stunt, or that he “did not deserve to break the record”, it would be a strong show of support for him and his burgeoning talent if he were to start in this game. I find this to be unlikely though, given that attacking midfield is an important part of our build-up play, and if he starts, he will come up directly against some really seasoned and good defensive players, such as Rio Sakuma, Takahiro Tezuka, and Josh Pereira. But who knows, maybe a half for him to show what he can do, and then replace him with an experienced player for the second half? One can dream! Zharfan’s Key Role in this Game Some things don’t need to be said – for example, I don’t need to tell you that Maxime Lestienne is a key player for us. He has the most goals (6) and most assists (8) for us, and 14 goal contributions in the first round of the SPL season is insane. He seems to have taken the Player of the Year snub quite personally. Which is good for us. But some other things need to be said. Zharfan will play a key role in this game, and he must be on top form. I’ve mentioned this before in a previous article, but it is pretty worrying that Zharfan has had to make so many saves. We even spoke to him about it in this little interview. A title-contending team should not be giving up that many shots, even if they are from speculative range. This match should see this pattern of him having to make saves continue, because Geylang is a team that loves taking shots. The stats above are taken from spl.sg, and you can see that Yushi Yamaya and Vincent Bezecourt seem to have a shoot-on-sight policy. 53 shots, and of those, 22 are on target. While a good number of these shots have been from long range, they are also getting their shots on target, as can be seen from this table below. Anything could happen from a shot on target, and I hope we can slowly but surely start to work on limiting our opponents and stopping them from taking shots. But if the shots are gonna come in, then Zharfan, we’re gonna need him to have a good game. Keep it simple, no spills, no thrills for us. Who Starts in Attack? With Kodai Tanaka out for the season, and Abdul Rasaq away at the SEA Games, we have only two realistic options when it comes to centre-forward. The first option is Bernie, while the other is Shawal. Bernie has not set the world alight so far, it’s fair to say. And of course, this should be expected given his injury troubles and how long he has been away from professional football. He has shown his physicality thus far, but the sharpness of

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[Preview] Young Lions v LCS – Normal Service to Resume

1 Comment / Match Previews / Eddy Hirono

The last time we met Young Lions, it was an absolute disaster. If you want to relive it, you can check out our post-match thoughts, and tactical analysis back then. We struggled to create any really good chances, and considering last season’s Young Lions were on the end of some really poor scorelines, to draw 1-1 with them was terrible. The expectation is that tonight’s game will be very different, and should result in a comfortable Sailors win. It is after all, the second-best attack in the league vs the second-worst defence. Let’s take a look at some of the differences between last season’s game and this season’s game. A More Settled Defence (than last season’s SG Cup game) We started a back four of Hafiz Nor (LB), Anu (CB), Amirul Adli (CB), and Haiqal Pashia (RB)) last season against Young Lions in the 1-1 draw. That’s ridiculous considering we had the likes of Iqram Rifqi and Hariss Harun on the bench. Surely we could also have played some youngsters who were natural defenders? We have no such problems coming into this game hopefully. Nur Adam was on the bench in the last game and may come in for Chris. Bill may also come in either in central defence or on the right, if Coach Risto wants to shuffle his pack a little bit considering this is the second game in a week. Other than that, it’s highly unlikely that we have to do what we did last season. One thing about our defending this season though, is that we are allowing a large number of shots from our opponents. It has been a recurring theme this season for Zharfan to have saved a lot of shots, even if sometimes it seems that the Sailors are allowing their opponents to take shots from long range. It’s not even close, the number of shots he has saved. On top of that, he tops the list for supersaves as well, which discredits my theory a little that most of the shots faced by the Sailors have been long-range speculative attempts. Hopefully, moving forward, Coach Risto finds a way for us to be less reliant on our keeper pulling off saves. This is a Better Young Lions Team Not only have this Young Lions team added two foreigners in Jun and Kan Kobayashi (not brothers, just a common Japanese surname), they also have Jacob Mahler back in the team after his recent suspension and a horrible injury layoff last season. Interestingly, Jun Kobayashi is leading the league in number of defensive challenges won, and ranks pretty highly in aerial challenges won as well. In their 8 games this season, they have had better xG than their opponents in 3 of the games. This has resulted in them picking up 1 win and 1 draw in their 8 games so far, which is far better than last year’s record where after 28 games in the league, they only won twice and drawn twice. They have also shown their mental strength in picking up these results. Both times they were behind – 1-0 against Hougang, and 2-0 against DPMM Brunei, but managed to get 2 late goals to put points on the board. LCS Attacking Options in Form The last difference I will touch on is that LCS attackers are currently in-form. Maxime is looking insane currently. His tally of 13 goal contributions so far is the highest in the league. It would be a brave man to bet against him notching at least a couple of goals/assists tonight. Abdul Rasaq has 5 goals this season from 5 games, and has already equalled his tally from the whole of last season. Diego Lopes has 2 goals and 5 assists from 7 appearances, and has a great understanding with Maxime. I do not envy the Young Lions defenders tomorrow if these 3 start. While Bernie didn’t score on his debut, he absolutely bodied one of the Hougang defenders during his time on the pitch. He also looked like he knew how to utilise his size to hold up the ball perfectly for his teammates. It was a debut with some promise, and you don’t get many better opponents than Young Lions to try to open your account for the season. Conclusion This is a must-win game given the profile of the opposition. Anything less than a win will invite a lot of debate about whether or not the Sailors are up for the fight. I think it is going to be comfortable, especially if we can get an early goal. COME ON YOU SAILORS! Score Prediction Joseph, Ethan, and myself 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: YL 0 LCS 6 Ethan’s prediction: YL 0 LCS 4 Joseph’s prediction: YL 1 LCS 4 And here’s the leaderboard – 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!

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[Preview] Hougang United v LCS – Walk in the Park?

2 Comments / Match Previews / Eddy Hirono

The thing you should focus on most in this headline is the question mark. It is no surprise that LCS are huge favourites coming into this. While we stumbled last time out against Tampines Rovers, we must bear in mind that Tampines are unbeaten in a run that stretches all the way back 14 games to last season – they have been playing very well, and they were a tough opponent, as we illustrated in our preview. We have lost to Albirex and Tampines so far this season, but in all our other games, we have done enough to get the win. Some wins have been more convincing than others, but at least we are getting results, and I don’t think we played badly in those games. Contrast that with Hougang United, who have lost 5 of the 6 games they have played, and in 3 of those losses, they even took the lead first. In fact if you look at their only victory this term, their 3-2 win against Balestier Khalsa, they came close to throwing away a 2-goal lead there too, when they allowed Balestier to come back to 2-2, but managed to grab a late winner. It is perhaps an understatement to say that they have been thoroughly unconvincing this campaign. Soooooo walk in the park for the Sailors? Or walk in the park but then you look into the trees and see a pontianak (a type of ghost that loves hanging out in trees)? Let’s try to break it down. Comparing 2023 to 2022 Trying to diagnose Hougang’s problems is a tricky task – you don’t quite know where to start. Let’s take a look at the stats comparison – They are down in almost every statistic, except number of passes per game, and pass accuracy (which feed into a superior ball possession stat too). Worryingly, their chances created and number of key passes is almost half – which suggests that while they are holding the ball, they are not translating it to goalscoring chances – it is inefficient football, or “sterile possession”, a term used to describe late Wenger-era Arsenal, where the teams were accused of holding the ball for the sake of holding the ball. But why is this the case? No Shahdan, no Krajcek One possible reason is that the team really misses their key players. Krajcek’s absence is perhaps the easiest factor to pinpoint. Just this season, Hougang looked good against Geylang in the first half. Then, Krajcek went off, and they promptly collapsed and ended up losing that game. In 2 league games this season, Krajcek has 1 goal and 2 assists, a total of 3 goal contributions. Despite not playing since then, Krajcek has been involved in half of the total number of goals scored by Hougang – they have only scored 6 goals this season. This is a major problem. If you look at last season’s stats as well, Krajcek has 12 goals and 17 assists from 33 games. That’s almost 1 goal contribution per game. Take that out from the team and attacking-wise, you’re bound to suffer. Defensively, Krajcek also averaged 5.3 tackles and 4.4 interceptions per game. You’re perhaps beginning to see the real influence that Krajcek has on the team now – not just offensively, but defensively. This is why there was an excited flurry of activity near where I was seated in the Geylang v Hougang game when Krajcek went off – as the punters around me started talking about the possibility of having a wager or two on Geylang to come back in the game. Krajcek’s influence is obvious for all to see – he is the one who starts the moves, is in the middle of the moves, and also the one who finishes the moves. Hougang’s acquisition of Shahdan could perhaps have helped alleviate the creative burden on Krajcek’s shoulders, but it is unfortunate that Shahdan himself has also been injured. Shahdan had 5 goals and 6 assists last season for the Sailors, and chipped in with an average of 0.66 key passes per game. This could have been helpful for Hougang, but he is also someone we do not need to contend with tonight. Brian Ferreira Simply put, his output is not good enough. When you watch him, it’s very easy to get frustrated, even as a neutral. 7 matches, no goals, 1 assist. That is not good enough for someone who is tasked with leading the attack or linking midfield to attack. Add to that the shocking stat that he has only made one key pass all season, and his lackadaisical approach to moving to get the ball from his teammates, or win the ball back, and it is no surprise that my friends who are Hougang fans are calling for his head. Regardless of whether he is a foreign player or a local player – the above stats are simply not good enough. But of course, stats don’t always tell the full story, so sometimes the eye test comes into play. The eye test tells me that Brian Ferreira can’t be bothered to get the ball if it involves a full sprint. He is often jogging, or even walking, and that makes it hard for his teammates to get him the ball. Interestingly, the last Hougang match I watched, when they surrendered a 1-0 lead to lose 2-1 to Tanjong Pagar, Brian Ferreira ran a lot more, and had a new determination to his game that I had not seen before in his previous 6 appearances. I am not sure why there has been such a change – it could be tactical, it could be that he was previously dealing with an injury, but whatever it is, hopefully tonight we see the Brian Ferreira of the last 6 games, and not the Brian Ferreira of the Tanjong Pagar game. Shifting the Focus back to Sailors Enough about Hougang United – let’s look at our own Sailors. Doubtlessly, the

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[Preview] Tampines Rovers v LCS – Stopping the Top Team in the League

2 Comments / Match Previews / Eddy Hirono

If you read the title of this post and felt it was familiar, you’re right. Our last post was titled “Stopping the Top-Scorers in the League”. Balestier Khalsa came in to the last game as top-scorers of the league with a swashbuckling style of football that ensured goals at both ends, but after a convincing 3-0 win against them, we are now the top-scorers in the league, with 12 goals after 5 games. Leaving aside the 4-0 defeat against Albirex, we have scored three goals in every game and generally looked comfortable, if not fantastic. Why are Tampines the top team in the league though? Through a combination of watching the matches, combing through the stats, and talking to my fellow fans of the SPL, I had hoped to conclude that it’s because of luck. However, it really isn’t. They are controlling their games well, scoring goals, and Faris has really found his groove. Bad news for us. Tampines in Control There’s a whole bunch of stats up there for you to take notice of, but I try to focus on Tampines’s very impressive average Opponent’s xG of 0.67. This probably goes a long way to explaining how they have kept all those clean sheets, including against Albirex. Their defence looks a lot more settled than at the same stage last season, where they had already conceded 9 in their first 5 games. Credit that to the addition of Milos Zlatkovic maybe, but my opinion is that it’s more than just that. Tampines are in control. They have a very impressive ball possession percentage of 63%, and an accurate passing percentage of 87%. This alone does not always tell the full story as there are teams that achieve high passing percentages because they just pass the ball aimlessly around the back without actually going forward or trying to create anything. This is why I included the last stat in the table above – entrances to the final third. This shows that as much as Tampines like to knock the ball around at the back, they also do get forward, and do in fact get the ball into the final third far more often than the Sailors do. It is pretty telling as well, that going into this match, Zharfan Rohaizad has the most saves of any goalkeeper this season. In previous articles, I gave praise to the Sailors defence for mostly limiting shots from our opponents to speculative efforts from outside the box, but conceding a high number of shots on target can still potentially bite us in the ass, as it leaves us vulnerable to any number of things that could happen from those shots – keeper blunders, rebound goals, a sense of unease spreading through the defence and the fans, etc. Faris Ram(li) Has Got it Going On Faris Ramli is a man on fire, and a man with a point to prove. Before we talk about his goalscoring achievements this season, I feel I am obliged to say that Faris is a real gem of a person. He was released by the Sailors but unlike others (or maybe just one player) who were released, he was professional till the end, and never moaned and whined about not getting a new contract. I mean, that’s what a contract is, isn’t it? It works both ways. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, a long contract is a double-edged sword for a player. While it guarantees financial security, it can also mean that they will find it hard to get offers for them when they are playing well, because the club can just point to the contract and say “nope, if you want my guy, you’re gonna have to pay what we want”. Even if there were some hard feelings about not being retained, Faris thanked the fans, still maintains a good relationship with us, and bade farewell to us with a cracking goal against Dortmund. (I am just jinxing myself, aren’t I? He is gonna score a last-minute winner, run the length of OTH and do a knee slide right in front of the LCS fans? Hahahaha hope not!) But back to the football. Faris Ramli, 4 goals in 5 games, what a start. Add to that 2 assists as well to Boris Kopitovic, and you can see that he is really in top form. For context, Faris only scored a total of 4 goals last season for LCS (including cup games). I am happy for him that he has been able to rehabilitate his career and his reputation a little, even if it sucks that he is doing it in the black and yellow of Tampines Rovers. Let’s hope he doesn’t score tonight, and if he does, let’s hope he doesn’t celebrate it that hard. Diego and Maxime But it’s not all doom and gloom, is it? Of course it isn’t. This will be the first time that Diego and Maxime start a match against Tampines together, and as far as I know, they are not weighed down by any injuries or niggles. This is something that we should be excited about. As much as Tampines’ defence has improved, we all know what Diego and Maxime can do together. Just ask Daegu last season. This season, the pair of them have started off really well too and are both at their creative best. I’ll let the numbers speak for themselves. Those stats are not even funny. They lead the league in terms of accurate key passes – meaning passes that lead to a shot being taken. The gulf between Maxime and the rest of the league seems funny, but it’s true. And we all know how difficult teams have found it to keep this pair at bay. With a combined total of 8 assists between them, I am very excited to see what they can do against this new-look Tampines defence. I only wish we had Kodai Tanaka to gobble up these chances. If

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[Preview] LCS v Balestier Khalsa – Stopping the Top-Scorers in the League

3 Comments / Match Previews / Eddy Hirono

Before every game, we will do a short preview and share some of our thoughts, and also predictions. Starting this season, all 3 of us at SailorFanTalk will give you our predictions, and we will track these over the course of the year. 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). Balestier Khalsa are the top-scorers in the SPL. Yes, you read that right. It is very curious, but whenever you speak to anyone about Balestier, you would think they are the worst ever team (except Young Lions of course). Everyone automatically writes them off. This season is no different. I go around asking people for predictions all the time before Sailors’ games, and unsurprisingly, this match has had the most lopsided scoreline predictions so far. I’ve had people tell me 4-1, 6-0, 7-0. Which is strange, considering we are missing Kodai Tanaka, who was supposed to bear the goalscoring burden. People must really think that Balestier suck. But they really don’t. But back to the headline – let’s dive deeper into this and take a look at what’s changed, because last season, they were the second-lowest scorers. Of course, Young Lions were the lowest scorers – no prizes for guessing that. This Is Not Last Season’s Balestier Khalsa So far this season, they have picked up 2 wins against the Young Lions and DPMM (after the Bruneian side went down to 10 men). However, they were also arguably unlucky to lose to Hougang after coming back from 2 goals down. And they have scored 10 goals, did I say that already? That’s 1 more than us, and amazingly, Shuhei Hoshino, their reliable source of goals over the years has only scored 1 goal, and Masahiro Sugita has also not been playing ever since he got injured in the first game of the season. If you take a look at the stats this season versus last season, you will see that not only are they scoring more, this seems to be a direct result of them passing more, passing the ball more accurately, and holding the ball much more than last season as well. This could be a result of Alen Kozar’s signing giving them a bit more control in midfield and linking up the defence and attack better. This could also be a result of them not playing on the potato patch that is Toa Payoh’s stadium field anymore, which allows them to play a more controlled short passing game. The uptick in goals can also be attributed of course to the deadly duo of Daniel Goh and Ryoya Taniguchi – because as much as the passing is better this year, the xG is only marginally better, which indicates that the finishing this year is deadlier. Daniel Goh and Ryoya Taniguchi – Dynamic Duo This has been a good season for Daniel Goh. He has 2 goals and 1 assist, and has looked absolutely electric down the right flank. He seems to have really mastered the art of timing his runs this year, while his teammates are also searching for him much more regularly. Look out for this trademark move tomorrow if you’re at the stadium – facing their own goal, a pass will be played in to either Shuhei Hoshino or Ryoya Taniguchi dropping a little deeper to escape the attention of our centre-backs. Without looking, they will attempt to play a long diagonal in behind Chris van Huizen for Daniel Goh to chase. I can almost guarantee this will happen, especially if CvH pushes up into attack as he usually does. Speaking of Ryoya Taniguchi, he has 4 goals and 1 assist from 4 games, and he is an absolute livewire on the pitch. Whether we win or not will depend a lot on whether we can keep him out. Last season, he scored a hattrick against us in their 5-3 win which effectively ended our fight for the title. This season he has shown no signs of stopping – scoring a perfect hattrick (left foot, right foot, header) against DPMM to snatch victory for them at Jalan Besar Stadium. Taniguchi and Daniel Goh were also unlucky not to combine for a goal against Tampines, with Daniel Goh blazing over the bar when presented with a good chance in the box after a good run and pass from Taniguchi. Interestingly, Taniguchi has a slight preference towards playing on the right – so this combination will really test CvH and Super. See his heat map below for evidence of this. Honourable mention also of course, to Ho Wai Loon, who has 2 goals and 2 assists this season. Will the old boy come back to haunt us? Not All Doom and Gloom However, perhaps now is the right time to also tell you that aside from the Young Lions, no side has conceded as many goals as Balestier Khalsa. Their 10 goals scored is matched by their 10 goals conceded. Perhaps a result of their more attacking approach, Balestier have often been caught outnumbered at the back. Defending transitions does not seem to be their forte as well. This is what gives me quite a bit of hope going into tonight’s game. If we can counter-attack with pace as we did against Geylang and Tanjong Pagar, then we should be able to really hurt their defence. An interesting stat from the official SPL site – our Sailors have the best conversion rate of any team this season (22%). I alluded to this in a previous article, saying that we are patient in attack and prefer to create better chances rather than shoot on sight – this perhaps explains this stat, and also why Kodai’s goals this season have been tap-ins. (Sigh, Kodai. Sigh. Poor, poor thing. Please get well soon.) If we stay patient, the movement of our attackers should

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[PREVIEW] LCS v Geylang International – Bouncing Back is Crucial

Leave a Comment / Match Previews / Eddy Hirono

Before every game, we will do a short preview and share some of our thoughts, and also predictions. Starting this season, all 3 of us at SailorFanTalk will give you our predictions, and we will track these over the course of the year. 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). Both teams come into this game on the back of a damaging loss. The Eagles went down meekly to Tanjong Pagar United after claiming in this Instagram post that they were “mentality monsters”, while our very own Sailors suffered a harsh red card, but even so, put in a performance that couldn’t really give the fans something to be energised about. I think we all felt that being down to 10 men, we wish the Sailors would show a bit more fight – but we went down and looked very tame. For more on this, check out Zach’s piece yesterday, where he particularly examined the lead-up to the 2-0 goal which put the game beyond our reach, even before the half-time whistle sounded. I don’t think there’s very much left for me to say in this piece, but here are a few talking points – How Will We Line Up in Attack? Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you will have heard by now that Kodai Tanaka has been ruled out for the season. Who starts in attack then? Will it be Shawal as a false 9? Maxime as a false 9? Haiqal Pashia brought into the side to accommodate this? Noone knows for sure how we’ll line up. There’s even the off-chance that Adam Swandi comes in to play a floating left-winger, so that Maxime can take the position up top. Whatever combination we settle on, what is clear is that the Sailors are still supposed to be favourites against a Geylang side with a much smaller budget. Just take a look at the potential line-up we can field: Zharfan Hafiz Nor, Bill, Lionel, CVH Hami, Hariss Haiqal Pashia, Diego, Maxime Shawal The above is a very strong line-up still, and certainly has a good mix of ability and experience that will start as favourites against the Eagles. As such, I hope that we get a positive result tonight, and if we don’t, please let’s not use Kodai’s absence as an excuse. Is Anu suspended? Who replaces him? There are a few ways to replace Anu, who is suspended for 2 matches as a result of his straight red card. One way is as shown in the line-up above, where Bill tucks into the middle, and Hafiz Nor or Arshad comes in at rightback. Super, our new signing, may also come in, though that’d be surprising unless he was already training with us prior to his unveiling. Hariss may also drop back into defence, and that would then see either Rusyaidi Salime or Adam Swandi coming on. I would worry that the midfield may lack some bite if it is Adam Swandi + Hami Syahin, two creative types. I guess we’ll see what Coach Risto comes up with. Geylang has not looked impressive so far These may very well be famous last words, but Geylang have not looked impressive thus far. Their two wins came against Young Lions and Hougang United. Young Lions are Young Lions – you are expected to beat them. Hougang United led when Kiki Krajcek was on the field. Once Kiki went off, the initiative swung to Geylang, but even then, they did not create a consistent threat in front of goal. They had to rely on some uncharacteristically poor goalkeeping from Zaiful Nizam to parry the ball into his own net after a shot from range from Vincent Bezecourt. That being said – we are coming off a 4-0 defeat, and Geylang had our number last season, performing well in every game they played against us. Conclusion Sailors should win this and I think if we are serious about our title ambitions, we have to win our games on our own patch, especially against Geylang. Score Prediction As mentioned above, this will be a continuing feature as the season goes on. Joseph, Ethan, and myself will 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 2 Geylang 1 Ethan’s prediction: Sailors 2 Geylang 1 Joseph’s prediction: Sailors 2 Geylang 0 We are a little pressed for time, so we will do the leaderboard sometime later! Written by Eddy Hirono [UPDATE]: Get your new jerseys on Shopee!!!! If you click on the links below and make a purchase, SFT gets commission of like a dollar plus, and you don’t pay more. Show your support for the work we do! And don’t forget to use your vouchers if you are a member. Check out Lion City Sailors Football Club 2023 SPL Home Jersey for $65.00. Get it on Shopee now! https://shope.ee/5panI7G7On?share_channel_code=2 Check out Lion City Sailors Football Club 2023 SPL Away Jersey for $65.00. Get it on Shopee now! https://shope.ee/5AL6Uq6bH0?share_channel_code=2 Check out Lion City Sailors Football Club 2023 SPL Purple GK Jersey for $65.00. Get it on Shopee now! (this one is our favourite!) https://shope.ee/d0Nxqsd7?share_channel_code=2 Check out Lion City Sailors Football Club 2023 SPL Green GK Jersey for $65.00. Get it on Shopee now! https://shope.ee/5fHWk5vXwf?share_channel_code=2

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[PREVIEW] Albirex Niigata (S) vs LCS – Time to End The Streak

1 Comment / Match Previews / Eddy Hirono

Before every game, we will do a short preview and share some of our thoughts, and also predictions. Starting this season, all 3 of us at SailorFanTalk will give you our predictions, and we will track these over the course of the year. 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). You’ve heard it time and again from local football podcasters, rival clubs’ fans, press, etc. They say it in a variety of ways – some with a smirk, some matter-of-factly, some even with a sense of condescension, as if they had anything to do with the mighty Albirex team keeping up this impressive record. I am, of course, referring to the fact that LCS has still not beaten Albirex in competitive action (except in the Community Shield). It’s getting annoying to keep hearing this and while there is never a good time to play 5-time SPL champions Albirex, tonight’s game does fill me with some hope. Maybe it is because I am an optimist, maybe it is because I am an LCS fan. Or maybe I am just deluded – but if you’re still reading this, maybe you can see if you agree with me or you think I am grasping at straws. Albirex is a new team This is not a new problem, of course. I liken Albirex to a fearsome snake. Every year they shed 95% of their team, but somehow they still possess the ability to be so deadly, so dominant. Like a snake. Except snakes aren’t polite and do a cringeworthy dance with their supporters after every game. Ok ignore me – I am trying to generate some rivalry here. It is so difficult to hate Albirex. Their community outreach efforts are amazing, they have a fun academy dedicated to cheerleading, they play some lovely football, and most of all, they are always humble. Ok so maybe they are not like snakes at all. I digress. Back to the point about them being a new team, Albirex won the title last season but you may remember that they struggled at first. Out of the first 6 games, they dropped points in 4 (!) games, losing to Tanjong Pagar, and drawing with LCS, Hougang, and 10-man Geylang. This is unsurprising as unlike the other clubs who usually at least retain at least half a team, Albirex almost always have to start from scratch. In fact, it is amazing that they can always put up a strong showing, but that is probably testament to how strong the football scene is in Japan, such that even talent from their tertiary institutions and lower league clubs can thrive here. Like us, Albirex have already played two games this season, and recorded positive results in both. 3-0 vs Hougang in the Community Shield was followed by another 3-0 vs Young Lions in the League. However, that was about 2 weeks ago, and of course, the hope is that their team have not had a run of games to gel with each other yet. The form of Maxime Lestienne Maxime has started the season like a house on fire. 3 assists in the first game against Tanjong Pagar was followed by a good team goal against DPMM Brunei. Against DPMM, Maxime was unlucky not to add to his goal tally. A fizzing cross by Hafiz Nor was turned onto the post by him when it looked easier to score, while later in the game, he skipped through the whole DPMM midfield to fire a shot headed for the bottom corner, only for the keeper to deny him by pushing it against the post. He also came close to adding to his assists tally, while it was his searching cross that found Diego Lopes to head across goal for Kodai to find the crucial 2nd goal. He was a menace all night, and there is no reason that he can’t repeat the trick tonight. Crosses from Christopher van Huizen In Christopher van Huizen, Maxime has a very able ally down the left side of defence. We assume that Chris will start because Nur Adam’s injury means that the most likely U21 player to start will be Bill Mahmadou at rightback. While Chris is not the most robust of defenders, his ability to cross with both feet accurately and with pace make him a very valuable weapon down the left. As you can see from the Ball Touches Map from the last game against DPMM, Chris is not shy to get deep into enemy territory to support and/or offering a crossing option. This may mean that opponents will find it harder to double up on Maxime, because he will then be able to lay the ball back for Chris to put a dangerous cross into the box. With Kodai in the box, it has the potential to be a deadly combi as well, given Kodai’s aerial prowess. He has not had an assist yet, but mark my words, it will come. Who to look out for – Riku Fukashiro Of course, this preview would be too one-sided if I didn’t also highlight what we should fear from Albirex. Diminutive forward Riku has caught the eye despite not starting either of Albirex’s games. He has been a 2nd half substitute both against Hougang and against Young Lions. In that time, he has dazzled supporters with his nifty footwork, and sharp dribbling skills. He was a thorn in the side for both opponents and even managed a goal against Hougang. Even though he is a new player, there was already such an air of expectancy everytime he picked up the ball in or around the left touchline. He did not score against the Young Lions, but he was close – hitting the post barely 4 minutes after he came on. Watch him do his thing tomorrow –

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