Post-Match Thoughts

With 3 games played in the ACL2, we sat on a very tidy 7-points tally, having just defeated Port FC away from home in an impressive 3-1 victory. Depending on results, victory in the 4th game would have seen us through. That didn’t happen. We came into this 5th game knowing a win would have sent us through. That didn’t happen. And now it looks like having put ourselves in a commanding position midway through the campaign, we are in danger of pissing it all away at the end. If you think about it, our points tally in the group has been a little like how we performed against Persib and Zhejiang in the last 2 games. Get an early lead, give the fans tons of hope, and then end in absolute disaster. The only difference? We still have a chance to remedy the situation in the group, whereas those 2 games are gone already and no amount of gnashing of teeth or regretting will bring those games back. So how did we throw this one away this time? Here are some of my thoughts. The Persib Loss was Worse Just typing that title is painful. You shouldn’t have to compare between two devastating results like that. Especially when it’s in consecutive games. It’s like asking someone whether they’d rather be heavily constipated, or have a terrible bout of diarrhoea. Whatever the answer, it’s still shit. A list of reasons for why I feel though, that the Persib loss is worse. Standing in the away end in Zhejiang, I could honestly say that I have some sympathy for the conditions the players had to play in – it was really cold and I am sure some players adapted to that better than others. To do that for 90min against a top opponent can’t be easy. Also – I think the achievement to go 2 up away from home deserves more credit. In the first half, the gameplan was perfect. Zhejiang was reduced to nothing but half-chances, and their fans grew increasingly frustrated at the lack of action. To cap off an impressive first half with a goal made it even better. The second goal came from a moment of brilliance from Song, who has previous when it comes to AFC competition. I think there is a tendency to feel a lot worse about such results because of the promising position we put ourselves in – but credit has to be given for being in that position in the first place. And contrary to what some critics have said – no we didn’t go into a 2-goal lead because we played attacking football and hence we lost the lead because we started parking the bus after the 2-goal lead. We were already playing defensive football from the get-go – it’s just easier to defend when your opponents are not playing their best players. And that brings us to … The Introduction of Franko and Kouassi – Plus a Lack of Legs Sometimes, we have to look not just at ourselves, but also what our opponents did. Unlike the Persib game where I felt there was a complete implosion and Persib barely deserved to get their 3 points, Zhejiang were much the better team in the second half, even if we did get a Song goal that looked to provide us enough buffer. Kouassi was about a million times more dangerous than Debeas was in the first half, while Franko slowly started to pull the strings in attack in a way that Gao Di never did in the first half. When your opponent brings on such quality from the bench, it can be harder to cope. When we caught up with Coach Rankovic after the game, this was a factor he pointed to. He said that we have to see who comes off our bench, and who comes off their bench. I am not sure I fully agree with that. I think when we are clearly the underdog team, we might need to consider that energy can sometimes give us a better chance at victory than pure footballing ability. Our players looked dead on their feet entering the last 10min. If you look at the 4th goal, Rui Pires is jogging back instead of putting pressure on Li Tixiang, a player I marked out in the preview as being one to keep tabs on because of his playmaking quality. He was allowed the freedom of the middle of the pitch to stride forward, and play a pass behind our defence. Unacceptable. I love Maxime as well, and his quality was what even put us ahead in the first place, with that deadly freekick that Datkovic converted. However, I am of the belief that noone is safe from criticism. Whether his legs were gone, or whether his head was gone, he stopped running once we went 3-2 down. That is unacceptable. If it was his head that was gone, then he needs to be reminded harshly that he wears the Sailors shirt and needs to give every ounce of effort, ESPECIALLY when the chips are down. Nothing more frustrating for supporters who have stood in the cold for 90min, chanting and clapping, than to see someone give up, especially when he is our best and highest-paid player. If it was because his legs were gone, then the blame turns to the coach. If a player’s legs are gone, his legs are gone, take him out of the pitch. In a game where alot of the threat came from the wings, we desperately needed players who can run back from midfield and attack to help the defenders. Take the 2nd Zhejiang goal for example. Chris is outnumbered 3 to 1 here on the left flank. You’d think Maxime is near the player furthest right on the screen, but he isn’t. 7 seconds later, after Chris and Lionel unsuccessfully double up on the guy in red to try to win the ball off him,

Fuck fuckity fuck. Fucking fucked-up fuckfest of a fucking end to a fucking football game. Fuck! You’ll hopefully forgive me for that expletive-laden start to this post. That was probably what was going through my mind on that night in Jalan Besar, which was more than a couple of nights ago now, but is still fresh in my head. And if you thought that was what was going through my mind when we conceded the third goal, you’d be wrong. That was what was going through my mind when we conceded the SECOND goal. The third goal? Well, my mind just went fucking blank. How does that happen? (If you are offended by the use of the F word, it’s your chance to close this page now, there may be more coming. Also, if this graphic triggers you, maybe don’t continue as well.) Sigh. It absolutely does not help that we looked fucking imperious in the first half. It’s like you’re eating this decadent chocolate cake oozing with goodness, and as you carry on eating, the chocolate sauce continues to ooze out from the middle of the cake. Just when you’re about to finish the cake, you realise though, that right in the middle, wasn’t actually a ball of chocolate sauce – it was a fucking alive but gangrenous rat having a fucking mad bout of fucking chocolate diarrhoea. I am sorry for that visual, but hey, I was forced to sit through some real terrible trauma last week, and I suspect if you are reading this, you were too. This is part of your therapy. Never too early to start. Before we talk about why it went down like that, let’s focus on the trauma a little first. The Trauma You’d think as an Arsenal fan I’d be used to trauma. 8-2 loss to Manchester United, 2-1 loss in the 2006 Champions League final, 6-0 loss to Chelsea in Arsene Wenger’s 1000th game, the list goes on. But a comeback like that that leaves me with flashbacks days after? I think it only really happened to me after the 2014 Suzuki Cup group stage match against Malaysia. Remember this game? To add on to Straits Times’s succinct summary, Safee Sali got Malaysia a goal and so we needed an equaliser. We got the equaliser in the 83rd minute through Khairul Amri, and it looked like we were going through to the knockout stages. But in stoppage time, the referee awarded a crazy penalty kick, and that was then followed by an empty-net goal after Hassan Sunny had joined the attack. The National Stadium was packed with 48000+ fans – imagine that. There was an explosion of emotion when we got into the equaliser. That was us going to the knockout stages! And then came the absolute sucker-punch. I can still remember Indra Putra running around the Sportshub after he made it 3-1. The Malaysian fans went mad in the stands as well. Don’t remember it? Well you can go watch it again. To be in a stadium with 48000 other Lions fans, and suffer such trauma together, I couldn’t forget that easily. I remember as well how usually well-behaved Singaporeans started throwing bottles at the referee after the final whistle – it got so bad that they transported out the tunnel and the referee had to be escorted off with the moving tunnel. I remember every minute, every image, every word uttered by those around me on that night. And I hoped never to relive that again. But such are the ups and downs of football – 10 years later, I am given the privilege of seeing Persib Bandung fans going mad in the stands, Persib’s bench players running onto the pitch before the match was over, because they knew, the match WAS over. Sheer ecstasy and disbelief, etched on each of every one of those faces. Walking out of the stadium and having to congratulate every Persib fan I see because I know if I didn’t, they would mock me. So, just congratulate them first to avoid the mocking. Still didn’t stop one fool running at me from distance shouting “WE WIN WE WIN HAHAHAHA BYE BYE SAILORS”. Fuck him. The memory as well of knowing that Port FC had scored a late winner against Zhejiang, which meant that if we could hold on to our 2-1 lead, we would have secured qualification to the next round. And then to have it all go wrong in the space of a few fucking minutes. As I type this, I know these memories will stay with me a long time. I didn’t write about the match back then though, because I didn’t have a blog or a website or anything. Maybe now that I have a website and I can share my thoughts with you guys, it will help with the recovery process. Ok so where did it all go wrong? Too Passive in Second Half? This has been mentioned many times by the fans after the game. And I think it’s quite true – but I only half-agree with it. We took off Shawal in the 65th minute. I understand that Shawal has issues with his body – Coach Ranko spoke about this at the pre-match press conference. Shawal gave us a good hour, and our opening goal of the night. What a brilliant goal it was too, but it will now join the ranks of Maxime’s brilliant curler against Tampines Rovers at OTH – goals that we cannot truly enjoy because we remember the shitty result that came with it. To be honest, at 65 minutes, with Persib barely threatening us, I genuinely thought it was an OK decision to bring in some experience. We can’t be hindsight merchants and now say that perhaps Ranko should have tried to replicate Shawal’s attacking effort upfront with someone like Abdul Rasaq or Haiqal Pashia. Hindsight is 20/20 and you don’t wanna be that fan that is always saying “I

What. A. Win. I didn’t see it coming at all, and if you had offered me a chance to take a point away from home against in my opinion, the strongest team in the group, I would have taken it, no questions asked. I suspect many supporters would have done the same, having seen us get pummeled away from home 3-0, and 5-0 this season in continental competition. Yes, Port dominated the ball, and made a heckload of passes. See below. But when it mattered, we came up with the goods. Besides goals, another key stat to look out for is big chances created – interestingly, Port had nothing on that front. Izwan hardly had a save to make all night. Let’s talk about some of what we saw in an important and potentially historic away victory that puts us in a very good place with half the group matches done. Intensity Wins Games In continental games, especially away fixtures, I would love to see how much additional effort our players have to expend. Our Sailors can be accused of taking it a little easy in domestic fixtures, but you can really see them running their socks off whenever they come up against better opposition. I don’t think it’s just a motivation issue – it simply is about survival. If you don’t run, if you don’t close down the spaces, you get punished big time on the continental stage, purely because of the greater quality of our opponents. And when we talk about intensity, our fans, especially those who have supported since the Home Utd days will think of Song Uiyoung. This season, we have not seen him at his sparkling best, but the image of Song sprinting around the pitch, sometimes seemingly like a headless chicken is one we will associate with him always. He was undoubtedly the star of the show two ACL campaigns ago, as we downed K-league side Daegu once, and almost did it twice. He was also the star of many AFC Cup games back in the red and white of Home United. I think it’s fair to say that this season, we have not seen the best of him yet. And it looked likely to continue as he blasted over when presented with a half-chance in the box. The score was 2-0 then, and I feared that it would be a costly miss. Of course, we now know that he would score from a heavily-deflected shot in the second half to seal the points for us, but I wanna talk about his intensity instead. From the first whistle, he sprinted around like a man possessed. I have been critical of Song this season in some games when I felt like he wasn’t at his best, but this was the Song I know and love. Not the biggest guy, but always pressing, always scrapping, always getting his arms and elbows and legs in the way of opponents, making it hard for them to settle. And it was this quality that brought us our crucial second goal, when he fought for the ball that wasn’t even 50-50. I think it was 30-70. Noboru always looked likely to win it. However, Song’s presence meant that Noboru didn’t get a clean connection with the ball and only managed to scuff it into an area where Shawal could pounce on and capitalise. Song’s robust presence in midfield (along with some reliable passing – 13 out of 16 successful passes) let our opponents know that we were up for the fight. While that intensity may have been set by some early Song duels, but it was seen in every single person out there. You think about how our central defensive trio reacted when put under some intense pressure in the second half, you think about how much defending Lennart Thy and Shawal Anuar had to do, often helping out as far back as in the flanks outside our penalty area, and you can see how such results are borne out of a lot of hard work. But of course, hard work alone isn’t a guarantee of success, you still need some quality. And that brings us to … Shawal Anuar the Superstar Everytime we see Shawal Anuar put in such a performance, it is worth thinking about how difficult this journey of his to the top has been. He is 33 this year and isn’t getting any younger, but some of his best football has been seen after he turned 30. Coach Ranko often calls Shawal his MVP, his superstar, and with such performances, it’s easy to see why. If you don’t know how difficult his journey was, I suggest you check out this excellent article by Straits Times writer Deepanraj Ganesan. From cleaning glass panels in shopping malls while getting paid a S$50 allowance to play, to cleaning the floor with his opponents in the ACL2, he has certainly come a long way. The first goal was a simple finish for him, set up by an inch-perfect cross by Chris van Huizen (whose name was mispronounced about 400 times by the commentator that night), but it was an example of him making the right run into the right space. I would also like to point out that Lennart Thy and Shawal Anuar both saw the play unfold, and worked together as a strike duo to make the right runs. Shawal burst into the area in front of goal, while Lennart was on his bike as well, but upon seeing Shawal in that position, occupied the area behind Shawal in case of a cutback from Chris. The second goal is by far the more impressive one. First, he had to have the instinct to sniff that the ball was going to reach him. If you watch the replay, you will see that he already started his run even when the ball was still in the air. He sensed that Song might win that aerial challenge, and while Song didn’t,

I won’t be the only one who felt a little apprehensive when I saw the starting lineup for our Sailors on Sunday evening. Maxime on the bench, no Bart and Lenny at all in the squad. Haiqal Pashia playing right wing-back. Youngsters like Bill and Carmona, starting in defence, Obren starting on the wing. On paper, this was certainly not the strongest Sailors line-up. My immediate thought was that this was a huge gamble, one with the upcoming fixture against Port FC in mind. Thankfully, the gamble paid off, and Tampines were unable to gain any ground on us. Let’s dive into some of my post-match thoughts. That Equaliser – Did we Get Lucky? There’s nowhere else to start, is there? Tampines looked on the verge of getting a crucial win with some good play in the second half, but were denied when Shawal Anuar leapt high into the air to plant a header on target. What happened next is the subject of much controversy. Syazwan grabbed the ball – but where? Was it over the line? The referee and assistant referee didn’t give it. The Sailors players were livid, and play continued for a bit before the ball finally went out of play. VAR continued checking, and in the end, the goal was given. But was it a slice of luck for us? In my opinion, yes. When the assistant referee and referee don’t see the ball cross the line, they cannot give the goal. So they didn’t. What comes next is while the play carries on, the VAR is checking to see if the ball did cross the line. Unlike in the English Premier League, there is no goal-line technology. There are also probably fewer camera angles, which is why the best angles were this two angles. With the greatest of respect to the VAR team, I am not sure that you can clearly give a goal with these 2 angles as your evidence. Other circumstantial factors come into play, such as Syazwan’s guilty look on his face, him having to roll the ball forward after accidentally taking it backwards, and the vehement protests of the Sailors players. All these may convince the refereeing and VAR team that the ball did indeed cross the line – however, none of this is 100%. Why does it need to be 100%? Well, because once the goal isn’t given, then the threshold for VAR to intervene and reverse that call is that it must be a “clear and obvious error”. The green between the ball and the line shows that it must have been really close, but it is not in and of itself a factor that guarantees the ball did cross the line. In my opinion, we got lucky here. Had the roles been reversed and Sailors conceded such a goal, I’d be livid. Shawal Anuar – Defying His Age Shawal gets better with age, doesn’t he? How does this man keep doing it? Speed of feet is one thing, speed of thought is another. For the first goal, we saw both. The former contributed to him outpacing Shah Shahiran, a man much younger than him. The latter contributed to him taking the shot on early, with his weaker foot, reading the situation quickly to realise that he just had to lift it above the retreating Syazwan. The former meant that he could close down Shah Shahiran’s shot in the first place, but it was the latter that saw the danger and responded to it. Sometimes you can try to analyse goals, but if you look at the paragraph above and break it down, you miss the point of the goal, the artistry of the goal. It would be like me trying to describe why Sydney Sweeney is a very good-looking person. Don’t do it, just enjoy. What a goal it was, and it will live long in the memory. If we thought that Shawal’s goal last season against Balestier Khalsa (also a left-footed first-time shot from near the halfway line) was good, then this is about 15458x better. Then the 2nd goal – just when I was remarking to the fans seated near me that we were not going anywhere with our repeated crosses into the box, Shawal leapt up like a salmon and proved me wrong. I should have never doubted him. Izwan + Zharfan I am so happy for Izwan. Right after I publish a long article discussing in detail how he could have done better in Hanoi, he goes and does this. A mature performance (both goals were not his fault), and a penalty save to boot. The perfect way to bounce back. On the flip-side though, you do feel for Zharfan. Imagine what’s going through his mind. He was replaced when the team was trashed 5-0 and he made 1 mistake. In midweek, Izwan made a couple of mistakes and the team was trashed 5-0. The next couple of days, he would have had to play the role of supportive teammate to Izwan, but inside he would have been wondering – “is this my chance?” Then came matchday, and the announcement of the starting lineup, and he would have felt a minor setback. If that wasn’t enough to reinstate him into the team, even in a rotated lineup, when will the chance come? To then sit on the bench, and watch as the rival for your place in the team saves a penalty – that must have led to all manner of conflicting emotions for him. Some fans remarked that while the team was being serenaded by the fans after the final whistle, he abruptly left and headed for the dressing room. I say we cut him some slack – it’s a tough situation to be in, and he is human after all. We are blessed to have two of the best goalkeepers in the land in our team (perhaps only bettered by Hassan Sunny and Naumovski) – so here’s hoping there’s some way

Wow, that was terrible wasn’t it? If you haven’t caught the preview yet, please go take a look at how I said that while CAHN is not easy opposition, this was the perfect time to face them. OK I guess not. 5-0 and a game where I don’t think we really tested their keeper much. What went wrong? Or are we just not at the level required to compete against other ASEAN teams when we play away? Some thoughts this way. Are We Too Defensive? My short answer to this is “No”. Some may point at our away duck in terms of not just getting results, but also getting just goals, and say we have been too defensive. Besides the Kitchee game, we have failed to score in our last few away matches. 3-0 to Jeonbuk, 1-0 to Bangkok United, 3-0 to Borneo. It doesn’t make for pretty reading. And when you’re not scoring goals, then you’d hope the defence is solid. I think the Jeonbuk game people can understand the magnitude of the challenge, but against Bangkok and Borneo, I think fans can be excused for expecting a little better. We fell to a late heartbreaking goal against Bangkok, and this time against CAHN, we conceded 1 in the first half to a very well-worked goal. Some quick passing between the men in red led to what you see above. A great through pass into the box for their right wing-back to latch on to. Look at the top – Hafiz Nor is caught ball-watching and doesn’t realise the danger of his man running past his blind spot and eventually into position to score. In what was a superbly well-worked goal, this was perhaps the only error that was made – the only thing that made it more “preventable”. You can see by the time that the cross comes in, Hafiz Nor is nowhere near his man. It’s not a pace issue, Hafiz Nor is rapid. He was just caught ball-watching – this is where his lack of defensive instincts perhaps shows. He is after all, a winger, not a wingback. What I think is worth talking about is before this well-worked goal, CAHN hardly troubled us. We hardly troubled them as well besides some speculative attempts, including one from Lestienne in the opening minutes that curled just wide – but in an away game, we stayed solid and hard to break down, and I don’t think that’s the wrong way to play. We do have a backline that is not blessed with pace, while our strength as a team lies in how we counter-attack. In an away game against superior opposition, I think we have to be smart and play to our strengths. Had we continued to keep up the solid display at the back, frustration will creep in from the home side and their fans, and that’s when they start to lose focus or over-commit on attack. Also, you saw what CAHN did to us on the counter-attack when we lost the ball. They are a rapid team on transition as well, and if you’re gonna find yourself in 1v1 situations with them – be it striker vs centreback, or winger vs fullback, I guarantee you they beat us 8 out of 10 times. You saw what Quang Hai did to Bailey in the 48th minute – his twinkle toes bamboozling our defence before he nutmegged Bailey easily, and then laid it on a plate for Vitao, who didn’t impress with his finish. They are just a quality team, and against quality teams, you have to play smart. It is a pity that we didn’t manage to hold on till half-time. Half-time 0-0 and the game turns out very different. But these are the margins in continental football. Local teams just don’t have the quality to hurt you in the same way. Izwan Will Be Disappointed with Himself I don’t particularly like singling out players for criticism – but I feel that he would be disappointed with his performance in this one. Just as we lauded him (and the whole Singapore team) for the battling 0-0 in the Saitama Stadium against Japan all those years back, by the same token he should be open to being criticised for his performance in Hanoi. Football is a very funny game in that unless you watch full games, you never quite know whether a team DESERVES a result. 5-0 in this case, I genuinely feel it was undeserved because Izwan had such a poor game by his own lofty standards. On any other day, this would have been a 2-0 or a 3-0, a result that is much easier to take, and much less embarrassing. I’ll talk about some of the goals, and you can be your own judge of whether Izwan could have done better. Let’s start with the 2nd goal – he’s beaten at the near post and that got him quite a bit of criticism. However, I think it’s not easy when a shot comes through a sea of bodies, and the quality on the strike – not just how hard and well-placed it is, but also the guile to disguise the shot means that the keeper may be half-expecting a shot towards the far post. Izwan does well to get down to the shot despite all this, but it just wasn’t enough. Not his fault, this one. Maybe Hafiz Nor and Lionel could have done a bit better to block the shot? The 3rd, 4th, and 5th goal though – in my opinion there’s something to be said about Izwan for all these goals. 3rd Goal In the 65th minute, there’s a corner kick, there’s a big shout of “KEEPER!” and Izwan comes out to deal with the arcing ball. Now, you’ll see a rather weak punch and I am no professional goalkeeper of course, so take my words with a pinch of salt here – but I think he gets caught in 2 minds

When you have a potential banana peel of a game, the two things you want most are your opponents not turning up for the fight, and your opponents handing you gifts. Both happened in the first half of the game against Balestier Khalsa, and so despite rotating half the team, we managed to navigate this difficult fixture. The Spill There seemed to be little on when a routine cross was played into the box by Carmona. The cross had too much height and too little pace – so Hafiz Ahmad had all the time in the world to come out and gather it. However, maybe Shawal Anuar knows something we don’t. If you watch the replay, he is looking at the ball the entire time, and almost half-expecting the keeper to spill it. In fact, what is most impressive about the goal is that when Hafiz Ahmad spills it, Shawal Anuar receives the ball and controls it even before it hits the floor. It looked like one fluid motion for him to control the spilled ball, put it in front of him in his stride, and then cut it back for a gleeful Abdul Rasaq who can’t quite believe his luck I think. Regardless of how it was scored, this was a gift, and Hafiz Ahmad immediately put his hand up to apologise to his team. The gifts didn’t stop though. The Defence Was Out of Sorts Even before Chris van Huizen tucked the ball into an empty net from outside the box, Balestier Khalsa already looked out of sorts in defence. Not to overstate the importance of one player, but perhaps this is where the experience of Madhu was sorely missed. Take a look at this situation for example. Hami picks up the ball in midfield, and that is possibly the worst-looking defensive line you’ll see. Basic football 101 – if there is no pressure on the ball-passer, the defensive line must drop back to deal with a potential through pass. In this moment, Jordan Emaviwe is distracted by Abdul Rasaq trying to fend him off and doesn’t call his defenders back. Haiqal Pashia (left wing) is completely free and there is an easy pass to be played to him. To make matters worse, Shawal Anuar (right wing) is on his bike and ready to go, but Masahiro Sugita doesn’t realise it. 2 seconds later, Shawal Anuar is now in acres of space, and having had the run on Masahiro Sugita, in a great position to score. We all know what happened next. Somehow, from this position, Shawal didn’t capitalise. He tried a dink over the keeper and got it badly wrong. If I could have one criticism of how this situation was handled, I feel Haiqal Pashia should perhaps have continued his run at full pace, to ensure that not only does Shawal have an option of squaring it to him, the keeper may also be distracted in having to deal with 2 threats. As it is, because Pashia didn’t offer himself as an option, Jordan’s recovery run covers him and the keeper can fully concentrate on Shawal. Shawal should still have scored though. Then of course, came the killer moment which led to van Huizen’s goal. Fudhil’s backpass was criminally underhit, and Rasaq was quick onto it, forcing Hafiz Ahmad to make a desperate tackle. At the moment I couldn’t tell if it was a penalty or not, but it didn’t matter because the ball broke to Chris van Huizen outside the box and he was calm enough to stroke it back on target into an empty net. A calamitous goal for Balestier Khalsa to concede, and really necessary for us especially as we had heavily rotated. Heavy Rotation Against one of the best sides in the league, you would normally not expect half the team to change. However, circumstances really dictate how much we can push our A-team. We all saw how much defensive effort was necessary against Zhejiang FC. We also know that Cong An Ha Noi is perhaps one of the best opponents we will face in the Shopee Cup – and we face them away from home. Then factor in the fact that we face a potentially title-defining clash against Tampines Rovers at the weekend – a Rovers team that will have the benefit of a full week’s rest while we have to travel to Vietnam and play a difficult game. With all those factors in mind, it was hard to see anything else but a heavily-rotated team. I wrote about how Hariss and Hami may have to play the whole game because Anu was suspended and Adam Swandi injured. However, I did not foresee that Coach Ranko would trust Song Uiyoung as one of the 2 central midfielders. I always believe that Song does his best work when he is not confined to a single position and can run free like a horse with no jockey. However, he turned in a disciplined, mature, and fighting performance in midfield which I think set the stage for us to come away with a relatively untroubled win. There was a sequence in the first half where he snapped into 3 tackles consecutively and the fans lapped it up. More of this Song, please! Other people who came in who were not first-team regulars were Abdul Rasaq, Carmona, and Haiqal Pashia. Carmona kept up his run of attacking contributions, with a crucial third goal just when Balestier had scored one goal to get back into the game. (Sidenote – that was some terrible defending from Lionel and Toni Datkovic, who seemed to confuse each other and allow Emaviwe to score from a Kodai corner kick). Carmona would add some of his usual good crosses into the box from a left-wing position, and it really seems like even though defensively he was badly exposed against Tampines, perhaps this attacking side of his game is something that we should really look to take advantage of, especially in

The goals may have captured the imagination of the fans at the stadium, and watching on at home, but to me, what really caught the eye was the immense defensive effort put in by the team. If we defended like this in our league games, I am pretty sure we’d still be unbeaten this season. What stuck out to me? Let’s take a quick look (because I haven’t written the preview for tomorrow’s game). Maxime was Defending! Prior to Maxime scoring THAT goal, I had a friend text me to say Maxime was having a poor game. I think if you’re focusing on offensive output, then yeah sure, it wasn’t as high as his usual standards, but it was understandable because of the amount of defending he was asked to do. Often in the first half, with the score still at 0-0, he was behind the ball, forming a midfield block with the rest of his midfielders. Here you see him winning the ball in midfield, before sprinting forward to take up an offensive position. And here you see him, back in position to ensure there is no overload on the left side. While he obviously wasn’t making tackles galore or intercepting every pass like N’Golo Kante, his presence there was crucial in ensuring we were hard to break down. He wasn’t the only one, of course. Lennart Thy put in a huge shift shutting down players from the front, while Bart Ramselaar defiinitely did more defending in this 1 game than he has in his entire time playing SPL games. It’s just surprising because Maxime is usually the “luxury player” allowed to drift around upfront and “cheat”. “Cheating” of course, is the term used to describe the practice of not dropping back on defence in the hope that when your teammates win the ball back, you are free to pounce without your defender on you. Having seen how our Sailors can do this, I am hoping that we can similarly repeat such performances when we come up against the likes of Balestier, Geylang, Tampines in the league as well. Let’s not assume that these sides are not worth the effort. Teams like Man City and Arsenal only achieved the consistency they did in the league last season because they took every team seriously. Defensive Focus In a performance full of defensive grit and focus, it is difficult to single out any player for praise. Everyone did their job perfectly. However I’d like to highlight the focus of the team, and in particular Bart Ramselaar, who often times felt like the defensive organiser of the forward line. Here you see him gesturing towards Lionel hurriedly to get back into position. What happened here was that Lionel had just won the ball brilliantly against his opponent, and then found an opportunity to burst forward. Instead of releasing a pass to one of his attacking teammates, he decided to go it alone, and eventually lost the ball. Both Bart Ramselaar and Lennart Thy were furious at the missed opportunity and started berating Lionel, but just 2 seconds later, Bart immediately switched back to match mentality, and urged Lionel to get back into his position quickly. Check it out if you want at 62:09 of the game. We were excellent at the back, but much of the good work started from the front. The Goals These goals will live long in the memory. In a post-match interview with Lionel, he pointed out that some members of the dressing room saw parallels between Hariss’s “goal” in the Champions in Blue music video, and also the goal that he scored against Zhejiang. He wasn’t the only one to spot it, I spoke to some fans in the stands who also immediately saw the funny side of it. Hariss’s goal came at a time when we had been putting more pressure on the Zhejiang goal – but to be honest, it was merely half-chances and speculative shots from range hit straight at the keeper, nothing very threatening. When the goal finally came, it was an accurate Izwan kick that started it all. He was quick to spot that Maxime had gone into a pocket of space on the left wing, and a direct ball found him with time and space. He put in a good ball for Lennart to attack, but it went just beyond him. Lennart then did well with Hami Syahin to keep the play alive before finally the ball broke to Hariss and he lashed it in from range. I think the keeper could have done slightly better, but I am not complaining. Maxime’s goal was a stunner too – but maybe more stunning for the keeper than it was for us. We are simply so used to his brilliance week in week out that I am sure some of us knew exactly what he was gonna do there. He was gonna do the keeper like he did Syazwan Buhari about 25 times in the past. Look at his eyes in the replay of the goal. He never once looks towards goal – he can sniff it without having to look at it. He gave the keeper the eyes, and faked him out – the keeper definitely thought he was going for a cross or a pass. We all know what happened next. So cool. Conclusion This was much better than the Borneo game wasn’t it! Let’s play like this all the time, guys. Full commitment, defensive solidity, and a good gameplan. We limited Zhejiang to two good chances, and these came after we had already taken the lead. Both times, Izwan Mahbud came to the rescue. In midfield, Hami and Hariss put in a professional, tidy performance full of hard running. At the back, our 3 centrebacks kept it safe. Everyone did their bit, and did it excellently. On to the next game today, a tough one against Balestier Khalsa! Written by Eddy Hirono If you’d like to support the work

Being sick like a dog is no fun, and it would have 100% sucked more if our Sailors didn’t win. Was there a little trepidation when I saw that this was a lineup devoid of our big foreign stars? Yes. But then be careful what you wished for, right? A few weeks back in the lead-up to the Geylang game, I had this to say. Well, it turned out fine in the end, let’s dive into some post-match thoughts yesterday from me watching under my blanket. The Need for Rotation + Rasaq is Back! The lineup was inevitable given that we have 6 games in 22 days coming up. The break was nice but those games will really catch up on our players’ legs. You look at our opponents coming up every 3 or 4 days, and who else would you leave Maxime Lestienne and Lennart Thy out against? Zhejiang, Balestier Khalsa, Cong An Ha Noi, BG Tampines Rovers, and Port FC. That is some insane schedule of quality opponents. But I guess that’s what you become a professional footballer for – to play in the best tournaments, and against the best teams. Domestically, Tampines Rovers are unbeaten, while Balestier Khalsa is probably the team in the league that plays the most attractive brand of football. Regionally, all three foreign teams come from leagues stronger than ours, and we will need to be at our absolute best to get anything out of those games. Yesterday was thus the right match to rotate. And while we looked a bit tentative at the start, and I did wonder where the inspiration would come from, TPU did us a huge favour by conceding a bone-headed penalty, which allowed Abdul Rasaq to step up and score a goal on his comeback start. It has been a long time out for him, so I totally understand the emotion. Some people don’t though. I’ll be charitable. Maybe this is a fan who doesn’t remember the full context of Rasaq’s circumstances – his injury stopping him from building on a very promising first season . His comeback being filled with little setbacks and eventually coming back to the pitch, slowly in the U21 league, and then finally, in the SPL. Or maybe I won’t be charitable. This person probably has the intellectual capacity of a stool (furniture or fecal matter, both work). If he is a Sailors fan, we are better off without him. If he is a fan of an opposing team, then bro, get a life. Lcarteblanche? More like Lcutyour fingersoffyoushittyasskeyboardwarrior. Carmona – Maxime Lestienne in Disguise So Carmona went and casually dropped 3 assists this game. On a day where we wondered where the service was gonna come from, he answered it quite emphatically. 3 brilliant left-footed crosses from him led to goals from Adam Swandi, Lennart Thy, and Shawal Anuar. The crucial first goal also came about because of his incisive through pass behind the defensive line – Obren took it on, got fouled, and then Rasaq put the penalty away. After that, some idiot took to Instagram to comment “its just a penalty smh“. First, it’s “it’s”, not “its”. “It’s” is short for “it is”, whereas “its” is used to signify ownership. Second, the person didn’t even have the guts to use his real account to comment, had to use some burner account. What a coward. Third, I realise I have an issue and I really can’t let go of grudges. Ok enough with this digression. Carmona provided inspiration on a day where we badly needed it, and I hope this does wonders for his confidence. I am sure he will have been a little shaken by the 5-0 defeat to Tampines, so this is perhaps the best cure for that. Ok I really can’t let it go. I need help. Anu, why, why, Anu, why? That has to be what was going through everyone’s mind yesterday. It was a rare start for him, and he was playing oh-so-well. Snapping into challenges like there was no tomorrow, keeping the momentum up for us in midfield, and it was a really tidy performance – UNTIL THE RED CARD. I can’t quite understand why he did it, and if I were to create an excuse for him, it would be because he was enjoying himself too much. On a few occasions I felt, wow, this is the old Anu. We’ve missed this! And I think the over-exuberance got to him too. It was a terrible decision though, that has wider repercussions. We’ve spoken about the fixture congestion, and we’ll need everyone we have in the squad. For one of our most experienced players to do this, it’s just sad, but it is what it is. I am sure the coach will have some harsh words for Anu. The fact that we were already 3-0 up and up a man will not be lost on the coach – there was absolutely no need to do that. Lennart Thy He started on the bench, but yet was able to come up with 2 very well-taken goals. That takes him up to 9 goals and 3 assists in 12 appearances in the league for us. Pretty good for someone described in some quarters as a flop. Hoping to see him lead us to some silverware this season! And then there was this. Watching it at home I could hear the Crew singing this at the top of their lungs, and it really made me smile. Nice that the commentators picked up on it too! A touch of humour is sometimes necessary because football gets a bit emotional and aggressive at times. This reminds us that at the end of the day, we are just fans and we are all here to have a good time. Adam Swandi Last but not least. Thoughts and prayers for Adam Swandi. It’s always scary when a player goes down without anyone touching him. Thankfully we have this update from him.

Well, that was expected wasn’t it? As predicted in the preview, Tomoyuki Doi and Noor Ali would give us some trouble and a win was not going to be straightforward. There can be some regret this morning because even though I think we didn’t play well enough to deserve all 3 points, we were in a good position to take the 3 points after two moments of quality from the Bart-Maxime pair that led to two goals. On the bright side, Tampines also dropped points, unexpectedly to a resurgent Hougang team, so their lead doesn’t widen. We could have gone top of the table though! Let’s dive right into the post-match thoughts. Bart and Maxime Let’s start with the positives. Moments of quality from the pair of them, a goal and an assist each. Bart was pushed and bodied on the way to scoring his goal but managed to just keep his feet enough to poke the ball in past Rudy Khairullah – just brilliant. Maxime did Maxime things – a goal and an assist for him a just reward for his efforts yesterday. Oh, another positive, while I was away in Jordan, I could hear from the stream that the fans were really loud, and importantly, still having a lot of fun. Just amazing. Both Teams Sloppy Perhaps due to recent results, both teams seemed to lack any attacking fluency in the first half. Coach Ranko touched on this in the post-match interview, saying that the decision-making wasn’t the best sometimes when they were attacking Geylang and were presented with 4v4 opportunities or 4v3 opportunities. I’d go a bit further than that, I’d say not only was the decision-making sometimes poor, it was the execution as well, even if the decision was correct. How many times did we see what was seemingly an easy pass roll out for a throw-in, or be hit with so little pace such that the Geylang defender could intercept it easily? Thankfully for us, this disease seemed to hit Geylang too in the first half. That was a major contributing factor towards both teams’ disjointed performances and I can’t recall any shots of note in the first half. The second half got better and we created more chances, but unfortunately we failed to finish some of them. Is Finishing the Issue? Coach Ranko also touched on the finishing not being as good as we hoped for, indicating that had we been able to finish better, we would have won. I don’t necessarily agree that finishing is the issue. Did we really test Rudy Khairullah and Hairul Syirhan a lot? I don’t think so. Two occasions come to mind when we talk about better finishing. First, the Lennart Thy header off a fantastic Maxime cross – that was eventually saved by Hairul Syirhan expertly when he jumped into the air and made himself huge. Second, the Shawal Anuar chance when he had the whole goal to aim at but only succeeded in shooting at the Geylang defender on the line, with the goalkeeper taken out of the equation. Do we score these on another day? I’d say yes. We’ve been unlucky in a sense that for the past two games, the opposition goalkeeper has pulled off an insane save at a crucial point of the game. However, you can’t just blame luck. I’d say that the bigger problem is that we are not creating more clear-cut chances. Games like these happen – your opposing goalkeeper will suddenly have the best game of his life, your striker might miss a sitter, you might hit the post, the ball takes a weird bobble in front of goal, etc. A team like Sailors should be able to shake that off, and just go about creating the next chance, and the next, and the next. Is that too much to ask for? I don’t think so. I think with the calibre of players at our disposal, we should work out a system where we are doing it more consistently rather than just playing on the break, which we did for about 2/3 of the game yesterday. Is Lionel Tan the Issue? Lionel Tan is as much at fault for the defeat yesterday as Shawal Anuar and Lennart Thy, and arguably I’d say even Rui Pires. I know it’s a cliched statement, but you win and lose together as a team. Was it a rash challenge by Lionel, going in too fast and too strong and misjudging the situation? Yes, it undoubtedly was. But that’s one bad decision. How can a player be scapegoated for making one bad decision in a game which requires you to make hundreds of decisions over the course of 90min? I think as fans, we have a tendency to pick out easy targets. I am not immune to this as well. I tend to fixate on goalkeeper errors, or centreback errors more than those errors made further upfield. When a ball is passed from the centreback into midfield, and it’s underhit, I immediately blame the centreback. The crowd also shouts “HEY JUST CLEAR IT!” It’s natural, we don’t like danger, we don’t like the uncertainty that comes with it. In the example of build-up play, I’d say that there’s a larger picture in mind – certain risks have to be taken and when we all calm down and think about it, we realise that we can’t be clearing every ball. Sometimes, we need to take those risks to draw our opponents onto us, and create the space that we need to attack. But back to Lionel and his challenge. It was a poor decision, but in my opinion, no poorer than the many decisions made by his teammates over the course of 90min which led to us only having a 1-goal advantage. Song, for example, how many times did he give the ball away? I’ll dedicate a section to him. There are some worrying signs, in my opinion. Rui Pires – what I like

Oh dear… Oh dear… Oh dear… With the main man off exploring Jordan as the Women’s Team embark on their AFC Women’s Champions League debut, I’ve taken on the unfortunate task of reliving this match over and over again to bring you some post-match thoughts. If you read Eddy’s preview, you’d know we weren’t expecting another 7-1 hammering in our favour. But surely, most of us still thought we’d come away with a hard-fought win, or at most a draw. After all, Albirex have not been firing on all cylinders this season. Well, Eddy was right about it being anything but straightforward, and his 3-1 score prediction was spot on—just for the wrong team. Ouch. Squad Depth? We knew there’d be some rotation, and sure enough, Bailey Wright and Rui Pires made way for Hariss Harun and the returning Obren Kjlajic. Shawal also came in for Song, meaning we had a few changes from the side that started against Borneo FC Samarinda on Thursday night. But from the off, it didn’t look promising. The Sailors seemed all at sea in transition, giving Albirex far too much room and causing a few heart-in-mouth moments in our box. The team looked disjointed, with players having some rather animated discussions about who should be doing what defensively. Attacking-wise, no movement, no creativity—just flat. The team looked knackered, while Albirex came close to scoring several times. Obren, who was clearly struggling with fitness, had to be subbed off after just 30 minutes. He didn’t look his usual lively self as he headed back to the bench. Was this sub purely because of fitness? Tactical? We’ll never know. The fans were getting a bit antsy, and I can’t say I blame them. It’s been a tough week, and this performance felt like the result of weeks of minimal rotation and our first taste of fixture congestion in what’s turning into a marathon season. Some fans I spoke to reckon our squad depth might not be as deep as we thought. Chances Go Begging – A Familiar Tale The second half started more brightly. The movement was better, but we were still missing that creative spark. We came close to taking the lead—an Albirex goal-line clearance and a brilliant save from Hassan Sunny kept us out. But, as they say, football’s a game of fine margins—right before Albirex’s opener, it could have easily been 2-0 to us. In the post-match interview, Coach Ranko said it plainly: when you get those chances, you HAVE to put them away. We didn’t, and Albirex punished us, catching us on the break to go 1-0 up. The match stats surprised me, to be honest—despite the result, both sides were pretty evenly matched in possession, attempts, and shots on target. According to Sofascore, we posted an impressive 3.42 xG, a full point higher than Albirex’s. While that may make it sound like we did quite alright, obviously it’s the result that matters most – we just couldn’t finish our dinner on a night where we had the chance to go top of the table. Insult to Injury – Or Injury to Insult? As if the night couldn’t get any worse, Toni Datkovic took a nasty knock to the ribs after colliding with Hassan. Losing a key player like Sicario with important fixtures ahead is far from ideal. Here’s hoping Toni bounces back soon—we’re all rooting for you, Sicario! What Next? I’ve seen some fans and the usual suspects on social media throwing around some rather outlandish comments. There’s the usual, sack this coach, sack X player, etc. But surely it’s onwards and upwards from here, right? As fans, our job is to rally behind the team and give them the support they need to get back on track. The title race is far from over, so it’s definitely not all doom and gloom. (Shoutout to Eddy for that one!) This is the first time the lads have lost two games on the trot in over a year (back-to-back 3-1 defeats to DPMM and Albirex last season). But they’ve shown time and again that when they’re down, they’re never out. The team’s got work to do, and we fans can do better too. If we want to bring the domestic treble back to Bishan, we’ve got to do it together. Conclusion This wasn’t the easiest piece to write, but if there’s one positive to take from that disappointing night in Jurong, it’s the fans. What a turnout from The Crew for an away trip to the West—singing their hearts out right to the bitter end! So, 3-1 to Albirex—a familiar disappointment at Jurong East Stadium and probably a fair result. Credit to Albirex, who’ve found new life under their new management. But we’ll bounce back. Next up, it’s Geylang at home as we return to Bishan—and, hopefully, to winning ways. Friday can’t come soon enough! I’ve got faith in the players and the coaching staff to iron out the creases and bring this club back to where it belongs. With a string of continental fixtures on the horizon, it’s now or never to turn this season around. COME ON YOU SAILORS! Written by Calum Lim 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!