Post-Match Thoughts

You’ve read the preview – I thought our Sailors would hang on and survive and just about squeak through to the semi-finals. But we did much more than that. Coach Ranko delivered on his promise, and the tactics were spot on. We didn’t just sit back and weather the storm, we forged forwards at times against the wind, with our sails proudly hoisted. Can we, without batting an eyelid say we definitely deserved progress? No, I think that would be a stretch. We were soundly beaten 6-1 in the first leg in Hiroshima. Valere Germain or not, I don’t think the result would have been much different, even if he did get one of the six goals. However, I think the circumstances being what they were, we did our best to prove to Singapore and the rest of Asia that we are at the same time not an imposter team that doesn’t belong in the final four. And that’s important – I discuss why, and more, in the post-match thoughts. Don’t Name Your Son or Daughter Germain First, let’s not escape the elephant in the room. We didn’t qualify for the semi-finals purely based on on-field merit – we progressed because the name of the elephant was Germain. Ryo or Valere? Both, I say. Valere Germain’s contribution was obvious: his introduction meant his club’s 6-1 win was transformed by AFC into a 0-3 loss, handing us a vital advantage ahead of the second leg. However, even then, you will see how apprehensive I was in the preview article. I wasn’t alone, some other fans also were very nervous, given the footballing lesson Sanfrecce Hiroshima delivered last week to us. And then Ryo Germain happened. Rendered ineffective in the first half, he must have been frustrated at the start of the second when he inexplicably swiped at Bailey twice, connecting with his face in the second swipe. Red card. He tried explaining to the ref that it was accidental, that the swipe wasn’t deliberate – like a man mass-swiping on Tinder without really looking closely at the pictures. But that excuse was never gonna fly. Off he went. With the score locked at 1-1, there may have been hope of Sanfrecce scoring 3 goals in the second half to take the tie to extra time. However, without their main striker, and playing with 10 men, it was gonna be impossible. Moral of the story? Germain is an unlucky name. But one thing that had nothing to do with luck? Coach Ranko’s decision to start with Lennart upfront. Excellent Tactics + Starring Performance Upfront from Lennart 5 at the back is something we’ve come to expect from our Sailors team, but there was one notable omission from the lineup which must have surprised even our opponents. Goalscoring hero from the first-leg 3-0 win (heh), Shawal Anuar, was not in the starting eleven. In his place, Lennart Thy. This proved to be a tactical masterstroke, not only because he scored, but because of his physical presence and hold-up play. Being 3-0 up, we didn’t really need a goal, but we knew that we couldn’t just defend the whole 90min – if you do that, Sanfrecce are bound to score. And so Lennart Thy was unleashed on our opponents as a defensive forward, a physical wrecking ball up front designed to disrupt and disturb. He set the tone right from the start – in the 2nd minute he chased down a long ball from Izwan and shoved a Sanfrecce defender to the floor. Lennart’s physical strength and aerial prowess came to the fore many times during the game, and one of those occasions led to our goal. From a goal kick, Izwan launched it onto the head of Lennart. Lennart got up into an aerial duel with his marker, and not only won the ball, but continued his run, seeing that his header had gone to Shawal. If you look closely, you can see that his defender is still smarting from the duel, and is clutching his face a little. Shawal chests the ball up to himself, and then pulls off a sepak takraw-style flick to Lennart. There’s still a lot to do at this point because Shawal’s pass is slightly behind Lennart given the pace he is running at. However, Lennart’s first touch from almost behind his body is a perfect one, flicking it into his stride where his next touch is a well-placed shot into the back of the net. Coach Ranko promised that we wouldn’t just park the bus, that we would defend well, but also pick the right moments to attack. His plan worked perfectly. Mentally, this moment must have really discouraged Sanfrecce. They were 4 goals down away from home. Lennart continued to impose his physicality on the Sanfrecce defence, and was almost rewarded further in the second half when he exerted just enough pressure on a Sanfrecce defender, forcing him to play a terrible back-pass to his keeper. Though he really should have scored. He tried to go around the keeper here, but he really should’ve gone keeper’s right if he really wanted to, given that there was a defender breathing down his neck. Or he should really just have shot from here. The keeper was coming out, and had hidden his arms behind his back for fear of giving away a handball foul. Any placed shot or chip would have been very hard to defend. But that’s not what I will remember from this game. When I think back to this game, I will remember his perfect first touch and how important the goal was. And I will also remember how a big-name foreign signing of a striker ran around like a man possessed to fight for every loose ball, and put his opponents under pressure. So often you will get a foreign player who is a bit of a primadonna – I am so glad that Lennart isn’t one. Hariss Harun Rolling Back the Years

There are two mysteries in life – who built the Stonehenge, and why the heck was Stjepan Plazonja the Man of the Match for the match on Sunday instead of Zaiful Nizam? Zaiful Nizam made save after save, while Stjepan Plazonja spent more time shouting “WHERE IS CARD?!?!?” to whoever would listen than playing actual football. Jokes aside, I do understand why the adjudicators probably felt he had a good game. He worked hard all night on the left flank to try and contain Akram Azman and Maxime Lestienne, while also almost scoring at the end. But come on, surely the Man of the Match had to be Zaiful Nizam. And on that note, let’s dive into some brief post-match thoughts cos I really cannot focus on this game with tomorrow’s huge game coming up. Zaiful Nizam the Real Man of the Match Goals shape narratives, goals shape perception. The talk post-match was about how solid Hougang’s defence was, on top of Zaiful’s stellar goalkeeping. However, if two of those seven shots he saved made it in, the talk may be about the goalscorers getting important goals while the team played badly. Football is funny like that. Header after header was saved by Zaiful – and it seemed like they increased in difficulty as the match went on. The best save was the one right before Ali Alrina’s disallowed goal. Shawal got a lot of power on the header from very close range, but Zaiful got down to the floor so quick, and stopped it from going in. He wasn’t the only one who did well in the Hougang backline – Tajeli put in a defensive masterclass against his former side. Jordan Vestering was tested throughout and had a lot of difficulty but I like that he never gave up. Even after he should have conceded a penalty for his tackle on Akram. Which brings me to … VAR Missed Something At 50:45, Akram gets cleared out in the box by Jordan Vestering. It all happens very quickly so I don’t blame the ref for not spotting it. But when you slow it right down – which the VAR can do, then you can just about see that Akram gets to the ball first, and then he gets kicked. In the grand scheme of things, this probably doesn’t matter much, and we should still have done enough ourselves to win the game and not have to rely on the referees, but you do wonder whether the VAR process can be improved. Perhaps they can do a show or something every month where they compile all the controversial decisions and then explain them? It might even help with educating the fans on what their process is. Max Played the Whole Game Not sure this was the plan – but I was surprised Max played the whole game. With the first half lineup being kinda strong, I think Coach Ranko’s plan was perhaps to win the game early and then bring on all the subs. I am not sure that was the best choice – the players looked a little like they were trying to conserve themselves or at least ensure they didn’t get hurt. There wasn’t the same intensity or the same appetite to get stuck into a challenge. And I am not sure I begrudge them for it – it’s totally understandable. The intensity only seemed to come when Hougang started kicking us around a bit and then I think personal pride took over. But of course, Zaiful did Zaiful things, and we’ve already covered that. Conclusion This is the shortest post-match article ever I think, and that’s cos really the mind is pre-occupied with tomorrow’s game. See you in the preview for that one! COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE! 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!

I may have been too optimistic in my preview. Oops. Sanfrecce were a class apart, and honestly, as much as we are Sailors fans, we are also fans of football. It hurt seeing goal after goal go in, but I think the 90 minutes shows just what standards we should be aspiring to. Japanese football wasn’t always this good, and even when the J-League was producing winning teams, it sometimes still relied on foreign firepower at the top – but nope not Sanfrecce on Wednesday night, it was an all-Japanese starting lineup, and they were so so good. It perhaps gives us hope that someday we can come close to something like this, provided the country does the right things. The other thing that warmed our hearts? THAT Shawal goal. What a moment it was. And with that happy thought, let’s dive into some of my post-match thoughts. Superior Fitness One thing we knew before kickoff, but repeatedly witnessed and saw the power of first-hand, was the superior athleticism and fitness of our Japanese opponents. It always seemed like they pressed our ball-handler with 2 players, and even when the ball was circulated well to evade the press, there would still be 2 people pressing the next guy – and the next – and the next. It was wave after wave of pressure, and it wouldn’t stop until they regained the ball. It was truly impressive. Look at this press for example. Ryo Germain forced Bailey onto his weaker left foot, while his teammate starts sprinting towards Toni Datkovic, to make that option a risky one. When Bailey turns backwards to try to look for Izwan, he is then dispossessed through some strong body pressure, and only a superb Izwan save plus an equally superb Hariss block prevented us going 2-0 down. Look at how aggressive this press is – where does Diogo Costa go? They literally man-marked all his potential options for a pass, while also applying pressure to him. 10 Reasons Why We Lost Big I realised that if I were to go in-depth and explain everything I observed, this article would last forever. Sanfrecce were simply brilliant. So let me just try to keep it a bit shorter and list out 10 reasons why we were so outclassed. Build-up to Sanfrecce’s 2nd Goal It starts here, where there doesn’t look to be too much trouble. There is a Sanfrecce player out of frame that orange-boots is passing to, but the spaces between the defenders looks decent – the back 5 is holding strong. This pass sets off a simple chain of events though. Pay attention to the guy circled in blue – you can already see he is starting to sprint. And now you can see what is doing. This is a textbook third man run. Diogo is attracted to the pass and the blue guy has burst into the large space between Toni and Diogo. Toni tries to close him down, and you’ll see what happens next. Toni closes him down well, but look when he plays the cross and where Ryo Germain is. Ryo still doesn’t really look like a threat because the cross in must be perfect. It must first evade Toni’s block, it cannot be too close to the keeper. It cannot be too weak because Bailey will cut it out, and it cannot be too powerful because Ryo Germain has to make up some ground to get to the cross. Well, you know what happened. It’s a beautiful goal, and sometimes, as much as we hate it, we have to applaud a good goal. Our opponents were much better than us on the day, and this goal showed it. Also, on a random note. Why did Valere Germain put up “6” when he had scored the 5th goal? Is he a time-traveller who knew they were gonna get 6 goals? Was he indicating that he had scored the 6th goal of the game? Is he saying the 2nd leg will end 3-3? Answers on the back of a postcard please, thanks! Conclusion I have an Italian friend who recently became a Sailors fan after watching a few games. He’s a Cagliari fan and he remarked that Sanfrecce was simply world-class. He also showed me this. Let that sink in. Opta Power Rankings somehow ranks a J-League team over a Serie A team. The current Sanfrecce Hiroshima is an ACL Elite team. They finished 2nd last season and will play in next year’s ACL Elite. They are favourites to win the tournament, and we saw first-hand why. BUT – we scored a brilliant goal against them. Shawal’s goal will stay with us for a long time. The confidence to chop back onto his right foot to completely bamboozle the covering defender, and then the calmness to curl it low into the far post, what a goal. That feeling all of us felt, whether you were at home watching, at the Mattar watch-party, or for those who travelled to Hiroshima – football gives you these moments for you to savour. For a few minutes, we were level with a Japanese powerhouse team. Not the ideal result in the end of course, and it will take some major miracle for us to come back, even if we will be playing at Jalan Besar. But hey, stranger things have happened! Maybe there will be 1 or 2 (or 3 or 4) early red cards for the Sanfrecce players in JBS? Maybe there will be a probe uncovering some illegal dealings within the club that gets them thrown out of the competition? Maybe they’ll field an ineligible player and a walkover will be declared? Maybe a UFO will appear over JBS and abduct all Japanese players on matchday? But let’s not dream that much. All we want to see is a good spirited Sailors performance next week. If we can keep it tight, and grind out a draw, I will be a super proud supporter.Let’s not

A crucial win for us in the title race, that puts us in a very commanding position in the table. 9 points ahead, with a game in hand and a very healthy goal difference advantage too. With only 8 games left to play for BG Tampines Rovers, the title race isn’t over, but it would take a monumental collapse from our Sailors to lose from here on out. Let’s dive right into some of the post-match thoughts, including some thoughts about the fan rivalry. Thank you Diogo and Izwan In the aftermath of the game, we were all swept up in Lionel-mania. Much-maligned Lionel finally deservedly got his flowers, but only really because of his goalscoring contribution in such a pivotal moment – in such a big game. Because of his seemingly awkward running style and occasional defensive errors, Lionel has consistently come in for unfair criticism from local football fans – sometimes even from Sailors fans. However, contributions from two other members of the backline ensured that the Lionel moment could even happen. The first half was largely a cagey affair, with both teams reluctant to over-commit. However, BG Tampines was first to create a clear goalscoring opportunity in the 36th minute. Glenn Kweh beat Hami down the left with good dribbling work and laid it on a platter for Joel Chew (I think), but once Diogo sees that Joel is about to strike, he makes himself big and manages to block the shot. Great block, but we got away with it – on any other day this is a goal for BG Tampines. Then, they create their second goalscoring opportunity a minute after. Again, we got away with this thanks to a stunning save from Izwan. Made me think of his save in Saitama. If you’re a younger reader and are not familiar with what Izwan did 10 years ago against Japan in the Saitama Stadium, please go and watch the highlights. It was truly magical. But yes, a save from a header from point-blank range. BG Tampines will be kicking themselves that they hadn’t scored a goal despite creating these two brilliant chances. Sometimes in football, I think there is a tendency to fixate too much on the result. I know also that we tend to joke about coaches like Gavin Lee or Mikel Arteta who repeatedly say “trust the process” – but you look at how games sometimes turn on fine margins like that, and you wonder – this could easily have been a win for BG Tampines, and then the title picture looks a bit different, perception of Gavin Lee looks a bit different. It’s also why I encourage myself and other supporters to not over-react sometimes, whether it be a positive or a negative result. It may sound a bit stupid to say this, but the first time we played BG Tampines at Bishan Stadium this year, they didn’t really create a chance till just before half-time too, and then they scored every shot on target they had. Who knows what might have happened had they scored first here? Unsurprisingly, it is BG Tampines that created more xG in a match that didn’t see too many chances given up by either team. It could have been a very different game had BG Tampines taken either one of their two chances, so we have Diogo and Izwan to thank for getting here. Here’s hoping Izwan’s save is some sort of positive omen ahead of Wednesday night’s game against Sanfrecce Hiroshima. We’ll definitely need him to turn in a goalkeeping masterclass on Japanese soil again. Lionel Messi or Lionel Tan The goal was wonderful. Composure, skill, the finish – every bit of it was wonderful. Never mind Lionel, if any striker in the world scored that goal, we’d still call it a great goal. At this point, with the ball in the air, and with Fox about to get rid, Lionel brings the ball down from mid-air with his left foot, and without having to readjust himself, sets it up perfectly for him to hit the ball in with his right foot. Just brilliant, and the celebrations after really showed that he is a popular member of the team. Sometimes there are things you don’t see if you don’t come to the stadium for games, and there’s something that the team has done the past few games. Against Muangthong, when Shawal put in a great performance, at the post-match celebrations the players insisted that he get his deserved plaudits from the crowd, by pushing him in front of everyone, closer to the fans. They did this again, this time for Lionel. I think the team spirit right now is very healthy, and long may it continue. Sometimes in the past, it may have felt that the post-match celebrations with the fans was a bit of a formality, but I think the players really do appreciate the fans abit more now. Something about experiencing the euphoria and adversity together both in foreign lands and at home has tightened the bond, and I think it shows. Fan Rivalry Pre-game, a post from the Yellow Knights sparked a bit of debate amongst Sailors fans. At first glance, it’s just banter. “Shopee FC”, for example, makes fun of our Sailors in a light-hearted way, indicating that we’re a money-backed team that has more resources than the rest of the league. “The Franchise” – another example of painting this image of our Sailors being a team that is swimming in cash. I remember looking at this post, and immediately thinking it wasn’t very nice. It went beyond the usual banter. Now, before I carry on, I want to stress that I respect what The Yellow Knights have done for BG Tampines Rovers, and in the wider sense, Singapore football. However, I think we should be careful about the things we say and the things we write, and what kind of emotions they might stir up. Here’s a few thoughts I

A comfortable win, with no injuries. During this hectic schedule, that’s all everyone at the club would have wished for. But we got one better than that – we got a match where our players could take it a little easier because of a man advantage. A 38th min red card to Fudhil I’yadh when our Sailors were already 2-0 up meant that we played more than half the game with a man advantage, further resting those legs we are gonna need on Wednesday, and in Hiroshima. Let’s dive right into some post-match thoughts, including my take on why the red card was a little harsh. Was It a Red Card? In my opinion, it’s debatable. I have marked in red the spot the ball first bounced, to show you how near Max was to getting to the pass. Considering that Max was already on the run, he would likely have got to the ball ahead of Fudhil, who started his run later. However, if you look at where the ball eventually landed as an indicator of the trajectory of the pass, it can also be said that Max would have got to a slightly wider position. I think the trouble with these decisions is we don’t get any insight as to why the referee has decided a certain way, and why the VAR has advised the referee to have a look at the monitor. I am quite comfortable with this decision had it gone either way. If the referee felt it was only worthy of a yellow card, and cited factors such as distance from goal and also, the eventual wider position that Maxime would have ended up in, I think I’d be OK with the decision – but I would also be OK if the referee felt it was worthy of a red card, citing the lack of a covering defender nearby, and also the fact that Maxime was likely to reach it ahead of Hafiz Ahmad, who was off his line, but not sufficiently off enough to get to the ball first. However, if enough people agree with that, then I’d make the case that this is a debatable decision, and the referee, who initially showed a yellow card to Fudhil, cannot be said to have made a clear and obvious error. Interestingly enough, this situation occurred to Sailors 2 years back against Albirex. It was from even further out, and the player said to have been denied an obvious goalscoring opportunity is legendary Japanese player Tadanari Lee, who by that point in his career was slower than a turtle. (Yes, I mean turtle, not tortoise because turtles are not supposed to be able to move on land, and that’s what I am comparing Tadanari Lee to). Am I bitter about the red card still? Yes. Similarly, in that game, I felt the red card was also a debatable decision, but having produced a yellow card, I wasn’t sure that it was a clear and obvious refereeing error not to give Anu a red card. You can read it again here – I really dive deep into IFAB’s guidance for Denial of Obvious Goal Scoring Opportunity (DOGSO) situations. So, my conclusion is that the red card is OK to give, but having given a yellow first, I am not sure it crosses the threshold into clear and obvious error, and in that sense, it is harsh. I hope that Singaporean referees can have a show or tiktok or IG reel sometime, to talk about some refereeing points / guidelines when it comes to such situations? It may help to educate the public like me on how they reach certain decisions. In any case, it didn’t really affect the result I think, we were well on our way to victory anyway. We were 2-0 up and should have been 3-0 up right before, but Maxime refused to shoot on his right foot, having already scored one on that foot a few minutes earlier. Balestier managed to get away with that one, but barely 1 minute later, the red card incident happened. As stated, I think the only real effect on the game is that it made it much easier for us to conserve legs, as we controlled and saw out the rest of the game. Stoppage Time Speaking of “didn’t really affect the game” – I noted that the commentary talked about how it was surprising that only 2 min of stoppage time was indicated after the second half. It was also referenced in Raushan’s podcast (Sporting Minutes). Regular readers will remember that this is territory that we’ve covered. And guess what, it was the same referee! Click here to read. However, I think it was nowhere near as egregious this time. Against DPMM last season, they frequently dropped to the floor as they looked to see out the win. In my calculations in that article, I only counted stoppage time for injury stoppages, plus VAR checks. I did not count your “regular” stoppages like goal kicks, throw-ins, etc, where DPMM took their time too. Shockingly, the difference between what was indicated and what was given was a whopping 9 min. That’s 10% of your match. This time round, I did the same checks. 2 min of stoppage time was indicated, when the minimum should really have been 4 minutes, because of course there are your other “usual” stoppages as well. I must say I don’t quite get it. There was a long check for Kodai’s eventually disallowed goal. Surely the ref should be adding that time back on? This is even if I want to make excuses for the ref and say that since Lenny’s goal took a shorter time to check, maybe he chose not to add that time on. Added time serves the purpose of making our players more ready for games that last longer and are more intense. We don’t have to look so far back – Muangthong scored against us in the

Where do you even begin? Do you talk about how the Sailors controlled the game from start to finish? Or how 4-0 is our biggest win in continental competition in our short history? Do you talk about how in a side littered with foreign stardust, Shawal claimed the Man of the Match award, and also the hearts of many? Or do you focus on the fans, and how loud and united they were? Well, we’re gonna talk about all the above, and also how Thursday night’s match was in many ways, a culmination of efforts on and off the pitch, by the club, and everyone associated with the club. Let’s dive right in. (I will refer a lot to incidents in the game. So if you wanna follow along, please use this link to the full match.) Lightning Start Last week, our Sailors took the lead after barely 18 seconds, as Izwan’s long ball wasn’t properly dealt with, and in the end Maxime Lestienne swung in a cross that Shawal poked into the goal ahead of the goalie. Well, this time around at Jalan Besar, it was yet another long ball. And if you think surely Muangthong surely learnt their lesson, they actually did! In the first leg, as the ball was worked back to Izwan from kick-off, no one bothered pressing him. But this time round, Melvyn Lorenzen is trying his best to get there. He first fights off Hami, then Hariss, and then Hariss again, trying to get into a position to pressure Izwan. Well, it didn’t work. Izwan’s pin-point long pass found Bailey (who goes up into attack direct from kick-off nowadays), who flicked it on for Maxime, who flicked it on for Shawal. Shawal made a blind-side run past Aly Cissokho, and the keeper brought him down. 14 seconds on the clock and we had the perfect chance to extend our aggregate lead to 2 goals. Max made sure we did. If you’re the type to come a little late for games thinking you won’t miss anything, think again! Come early so you can get through security, find your seat, buy a beer, and get settled in before our Sailors score. it’s clearly something they work on like a set-piece Defensive Discipline I am gonna sound like a broken record here, but I’ve always stressed that when our Sailors work hard, we tend to win games. Even though Shawal, Bart and Maxime will dominate the headlines, make no mistake about it, this was a victory achieved by the entire team. Each of the players was locked in defensively, and knew what they had to do to stifle Muangthong, who do have good attackers. In the first leg I spoke about Poramet and how he is such a bright talent – we didn’t see anything from him when he came on in the second half. Emil Roback, the former AC Milan player barely made an impression. Melvyn Lorenzen, who scored in the first leg and can list the Bundesliga and Eredivisie in his resume, was stifled in this game. This doesn’t happen by chance. It was a defensive masterclass that was 50% tactics, and 50% grit. You can set up in the best systems, and play the best players in the world, but unless you work hard, there will always be a way past you. And boy, did our Sailors work hard. I could pick out dozens of occasions where this happened, but let me try with this series of events. Hami Hustle Here is Hami, at 44:34, circled in red, trying to put the press on our opponents to force a quick turnover. Muangthong do well to pass it out of defence, and Hami gives chase. Bear in mind this is already close to the end of the first half, and he’s already been running around all evening. He then notices Lorenzen (on the ball) break free and run at the Sailors backline. He could look at the numbers, and trust Bailey and Hariss to deal with the situation. Rui is also in a good position to slot in in defence. Or he could do this. Hami (circled in red on the floor) tracks him all the way back and tackles him before he gets a chance to beat the defensive line. This effort by Hami not only wins the ball back with a great sliding challenge, it also allows the spine of our defence to stay in shape. Noone needs to shoot out of the defensive line to try and deal with the threat of Lorenzen. And he wasn’t the only one. Chris van Huizen tried to win the ball high up the field as well, but once he was bypassed, he sprinted back like a madman. Throughout the game, noone was spared from these defensive duties. Even Maxime, Bart and Shawal got back to tackle or put pressure on their opponents. Awareness of Duties + Defending from the Front Look at this picture. What jumps out at you? I’ve already drawn in red two things to look out for, but tell me what you see, and tell me why you think I’ve highlighted this moment. Ok – first. With a 2-goal lead on aggregate, there is no need to over-expose ourselves in defence. Look at that defensive line. Beautiful – 5 across the back, the spaces between each of them perfect as well. Second, I’ve circled Bailey Wright in red. You may be wondering what he’s doing there. And if he is there, who is in the middle of defence? Let’s take it back a few seconds. In the aftermath of the Hami tackle, Lorenzen loses the ball, but it squirts out to a Muangthong midfielder. Bailey gets a foot in and manages to disrupt his opponent, and Rui comes into help. Bailey’s pressure is to ensure that the opponent can’t turn and launch an attack. However, once they don’t win the ball in the first few seconds, Rui drops back into the

Football is a funny thing. Just a week ago, I was bullish – insisting that bringing home a 1-goal lead was an advantage and that we should forget that the advantage was once 3 goals. However, as the match approaches, there is a sense of nerves creeping in. And I’m just a fan! I wonder how the players must feel. I don’t know what it is – maybe it’s cos our Sailors have shown before this ACL2 campaign that they like to do things the hard way, or maybe it’s cos I’m an Arsenal and Singapore fan, so there’s this inbuilt pessimism. Whatever it is, let’s dive right into the preview. Song’s Suspension We kick it off with the bad stuff. You already know that Song will be suspended for this game, because of the controversial red card received in Bangkok. Well, if we make it through tonight, he will be suspended for both legs of the game against Sanfrecce Hiroshima as well. We will miss his fighting spirit, and also his goals. We joke and call him AFC Cup Song because he seems to reserve his best performances for continental games, but that joke is borne out of reality. Song in AFC competitions is really different gravy. He has 5 goals and 1 assist in ACL2 this season, while in the league, he has 5 goals. Considering the number of games played in each competition, and the superior quality we face in ACL2, that form doesn’t make sense. But we’ll miss his continental form. Song’s absence will always be felt. In our maiden ACL campaign, it was his goals that lit up our group stage campaign. He got us the all-important opening goal in the historic 3-0 win over Daegu FC, and he gave us hope of qualifying for the next stage as well when he scored from range against Daegu again in our final group game. (sidetrack here, but one of my favourite post-match reactions filmed was in Buriram when Song scored against Daegu in the 3-0 win. Check it out here.) And then this season, when we most needed Song to show up, he showed up in both games against Port FC, notably getting a hat-trick at Jalan Besar Stadium in our 5-2 victory. When the chips were down at 2-2, and we were staring at elimination having given up a 2-goal lead again, it was him who popped up with a stupendous scissor kick to put us ahead. We won’t have him tonight, so we’ll be looking to his teammates to supply the attacking threat, and the combative spirit in midfield. Early Goals 1, 1, 11, 14, 17, 23. Not TOTO numbers, but just an example of how early our goals have come in this ACL2 campaign. A feature of our games so far has been how early we score, and how we always score first. Or score TWO first. In 7 games thus far, we have led 2-0 in 6 of the games . The other game? We conceded first to Persib to draw 1-1 away from home. Given our 1-goal advantage, should we go out again and try to get an early goal? It’s hard to say. You can make the case for either an offensive or defensive approach. Offensive – Opponents take time to get used to the Jalan Besar turf. The bounce is weird, the surface is hard, and it has an effect on opponents’ minds. Just look at how much moaning and groaning our opponents always engage in when they have to play at Jalan Besar, be it against us, or the Singapore national team. Muangthong may have trained on astroturf all week in the lead-up to this game, but that also shows how much this pitch is playing on their minds. So why not attack early, get an early goal, and really make them feel like they have a mountain to climb, staring at a 2-goal deficit? Defensive – This one doesn’t need much explaining. We have a 1-goal advantage, if we sit deep and frustrate our opponents, they need a goal and they’ll commit men forward more and more. We can then exploit the gaps with our superior attackers. Lestienne and Shawal in particular will absolutely love the space being afforded to them on the counter-attack. Of course, either approach has its pros and cons. I fancy us to go on the offensive actually. While we were down to 10 men last week, we were under the cosh a lot. Aside from the 2 goals they scored, there were a few other near-misses that I would have expected us to defend better. Our defensive record in the ACL2 isn’t stellar as well. That being the case, why not play like we always do, and try to get a goal to dampen the mood of our opponents? Gino Lettieri is A Fool, but he is Fooling Noone Gino Lettieri – is he senile, stupid, bitter, or all of the above? In case you missed it, he told the press ahead of tonight’s game that he was “angry” that the Sailors looked to “stay down on every contact”, and that they should play “honest”. Before I start with the analysis on this stupid statement, let’s reproduce it in full so you can savour the stupidity of it. (and before you proceed, I get a little angry and bitter in this section so if you don’t like vulgarities, scroll away) Like a goldfish taking a lift, this statement is stupid on so many levels. Of course, maybe I am the stupid and bitter one, for falling into this trap. He might just have said all this to try to rile our boys up, distract them from the gameplan, or tempt them to go harder in challenges so he can profit from another controversial red card. Or maybe he was dropped on his head as a baby and didn’t receive any love from his parents, leading him to grow up to be

Different week, same result. I wrote a post-match thoughts piece a week ago talking about how we achieved a fuss-free win and would start looking ahead to the next match against Muangthong. I must say it’s very tempting to just copy and paste the whole article here again. There were similarities – the result was never in doubt once we scored first, we missed a truckload of chances, Tanjong Pagar put up a combative performance, Raihan was his tigerish self in midfield, and Tanjong Pagar scored from a dead-ball situation. Super tempted to just end the article here, (and in fact I just straight up re-used the cover photo from last week’s article cos it’s the exact same scoreline and nature of victory) … but let’s dive right into some post-match thoughts. Foregone Conclusion Given TPU’s Absentees Once I saw that Salif Cisse was out once again, and to top it off, Zenivio Mota was also injured, I knew we would win handily. My 2-1 prediction counted on both of them being available, and us having to deal with the threat they pose – but seeing a TPU lineup without them is like seeing a declawed cat trying to hurt you. They probably caaaaan? But it’s very very very difficult – like trying to kill someone with a spoon (the cutlery not the action). Also, this 2nd-string line-up is probably capable of finishing mid-table in the SPL, especially if you add Bart Ramselaar and Bailey Wright to the mix, as Coach Ranko opted to do. Song would have started regardless because he is suspended for Thursday’s game, but I was genuinely surprised to see Bart and Bailey start. Bart did eventually come off in the 65th min despite being on a hat-trick. Sometimes players don’t like that because they want a chance to complete their hat-trick but I don’t think Bart will care. He will probably want to be as fresh as possible for Thursday’s game. I mean, that’s just a sick lineup considering we made 8 changes. Our depth is insane, and that is why again, I feel there is no excuse for us not to win the league. Akram Azman On an evening where everything was in cruise control, and no one really busted a gut to do anything, I felt Akram Azman stuck out. His endeavour down the wing meant that he was often in attacking positions, helping to stretch play and being an all-round menace. Though of course, that doesn’t mean that he didn’t come back and defend. In fact, it was him doing the defensive work that led to Tanjong Pagar’s penalty. An awkward bounce off his leg / turf meant the ball bounced up onto his hand. He won’t want to see that again. But, he atoned for it. He laid on chances for his teammates – one in particular saw him cross the ball for Lennart, but Lennart couldn’t head it in. He also managed to get into goalscoring positions – the first one saw him blaze over the bar on his left foot when it was easier to score, but second time was the charm for him, as he latched onto a long pass by Anu and bundled the ball home. (What a pass by Anu by the way.) Coach Ranko was pleased with his game and said so in the post-match interview. It was especially impressive from a mentality point of view considering he had just given up a pen and allowed Tanjong Pagar a way back into the game. He was totally unfazed by it. When we spoke with Akram post-game, he was modest and said he could still improve and he would like to build on his performance. From our POV? To do what he did on his first start was pretty impressive. Another interesting thing was this – with Lionel on the pitch, Akram was responsible for taking the long throw that led to Bart’s 2nd goal. This opens up possibilities for future games where if we’re really chasing a goal, even Lionel can be inside the penalty area with Akram chucking it in. So, an encouraging full debut for Akram, but I do wonder where this leaves Mamat, even If we assume that Hafiz Nor leaves at the end of the season. Perhaps something worth thinking about in another article. Rasaq and Nathan Not much to really analyse here – it was just a very good through pass for Nathan that Rasaq could just run onto and finish without breaking his stride. It is nice to see these 2 players get more minutes, and the hope is that our cup run will afford them more chances to shine. Conclusion Maxime Lestienne and Shawal Anuar were on the bench but were not required to come on, given how comfortable we were. We got three points and built up a healthy goal difference. We cruised and no key players got injured. Ali was bleeding from a bad clash and we hope he’s fine, but he wasn’t likely to start on Thursday anyway. All attention now turns to Thursday’s massive clash. Our rotation means we enter the game on level footing (physically) with Muangthong United, given that they had the weekend off due to the Thai FA postponing their game. I can’t wait. 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!

What a result. Away against an in-form Thai league team in 3rd position in the table, and we walk out of Thunderdome Stadium with not just a draw, but a win. I know a lot of the focus will rightly be on the red card and the late goal, but it really really shouldn’t. Let’s dive right into some talking points for this game. An Unlikely Away Win Time to throw out a footballing cliché. If you’d offered me a draw before the game, I’d have bitten your hand off. Now time for a new take on that old cliché. If you’d offered me a win before the game, I’d have bitten way more than just your hand off, I would have bitten all of you. I wouldn’t care how the win comes about – it can be a lucky win with our goal coming off a deflected shot that goes in off a defender’s bum. A win is a win. So it’s a bit surprising to see some negativity even after achieving more than what we came for – an away win. It feels a bit like a lottery winner winning a million bucks and then feeling sad that he is burgled 1 hour later and loses a hundred thousand bucks. You’re still up – and crucially, with money you never had. I think some of us got so excited by our first-half performance that we felt like our Sailors were the favourites. Far from it – our Sailors were always the slight underdogs, simply by dint of being in an inferior league. Of course, I understand some of the negativity and I’ll write about the Song red card soon, that came at a time when we were 3 goals up. However, let’s remember that we are bringing back a 1-goal lead to Jalan Besar Stadium, and our regional rivals absolutely hate that pitch. Now, let’s talk about that red card. Song’s Red Card – Soft? I think it’s a soft red card because 1) it’s not an elbow, and 2) Song doesn’t make a fist and harden his forearm before making contact. Try it yourself. Make a fist, and touch your forearm with your other hand – see how hard it feels. Now open up your palm, and touch your forearm with your other hand – see how hard it feels. Alot of difference, eh? It probably didn’t hurt much at all, and it was more of arms flinging around than a malicious attempt to injure an opponent. However, even with that said, I’m gonna be honest here. I can see why the red card was given. It’s soft, but it’s not a horrible decision. Just a harsh one. I hope I am making myself clear here. Had it been the other way around, I would be happy of course that we benefited from a red card to our opponents, but I wouldn’t say it’s an unjustified red card. Song does have a little look to see where his opponent is, and he took the risk by putting his arm higher than it needed to be. It’s not as if our opponent lowered his head and Song caught him there. It was a high arm – he gave the referee a decision to make, and the ref made the harshest one possible. It happens. Should we go all in and blame Song though? I don’t think so. I wrote this about Song when he was a crucial part of our 3-1 away victory against Port FC. Oops. This is Song’s game though. And just like Wayne Rooney, or Patrick Vieira, or Luis Suarez, the red cards they receive are not a bug, it’s a feature of the player. Take away that ferocious competitive spirit and you get a player who contributes so much less to the team. You may have them available for a few more games here and there because they don’t get suspended as much, but you don’t get 100% of the player in the matches they do play. It’s also slightly sad that it is Song’s desire which even puts him in that position. At 3-0 up and as part of a midfield duo, he could have been forgiven for holding his position in the centre of the park and not make that many attacking runs. However, he makes that run all the way down the right channel to give his team an option to play out, and they find him. That’s when the unfortunate incident happened, after Muangthong did well to shepherd him away from the box. If only he had less desire to help his team out of a tight spot, he might not have landed them in a tight spot – the irony. Also I remember in one of SailorFanTalk’s very first episodes, when we spoke with former players Abdil Qaiyyim and Aqhari Abdullah, they said that even in training, Song is always competitive, always running around, always getting his arms and elbows in the way. His fierce, combative nature is what makes him such a pest on the field. (Wow that picture really takes me back.) In the cold light of day, I would ask Song – was it really necessary to be so physical when we are already 3-0 up? I suspect it’s not an easy question to answer. Football isn’t an exact science where you can turn off features of your game and not wonder if the cumulative effect of players across the pitch all choosing to give a little less will end up in a goal being conceded. We move on. Dazzling Attacking Trio At times, the attacking trio of Shawal, Maxime and Bart looked like our very own Singaporean version of the Messi-Suarez-Neymar connection that won so many games for FC Barcelona and delighted the world. They each had a goal, and in the first half, it really looked like they would add to their tally. We already noticed that against Tanjong Pagar, there was a

After the listless display in midweek, it was important for our Sailors to bounce back with a win in the domestic league. That, we did, and with minimal fuss. 4-1 was the scoreline, but it really should have been 6 or 7. And it wasn’t even like Tanjong Pagar were poor. I think they did pretty well, all circumstances considered, but the gulf in class was just huge, and it showed on the pitch. With the packed schedule ahead, three points and no injuries was the order of the day, and in that sense, Sunday was perfect for us. Let’s dive into some post-match thoughts. Thy Ceremony It’s been coming for some time, but Lennart Thy finally has his first hat-trick in Sailors colours. I think the fuss-free nature of the Sailors win was mirrored by Thy’s hat-trick. None of the three goals was particularly difficult. The first was by far the hardest, where Lennart had to be sharp to turn on the spot and finish with his left foot. The other two goals were basically tap-ins, but you do need to be in those spaces to score those goals. (Remember Dirk Kuyt’s hat-trick of goals against Manchester United in the 2010/2011 season where he basically scored 3 tap-ins from a combined total of 5 yards?) He’s had his critics, but I felt he led the line well last night, and he’s now top-scorer for LCS in the league this season, with 18 goals, 3 more than Shawal Anuar. That’s also his 7th Man-of-the-Match award this season from just 21 games. He’s finding his feet at the right time, and here’s hoping he brings along this form to the ACL2 as well, where we’ll really need to be clinical with our chances. Physicality – Up for the Fight Unlike on Thursday night, I felt our Sailors were really up for the fight, literally. Tanjong Pagar are a long way from their thuggish ways just a few seasons back, but I felt they were aggressive all night (not in a bad way). When you’re up against a side that is alot better in terms of quality, you have to fight, you have to make it uncomfortable for your opponents. I felt TPU did that, and generally didn’t cross the line. Hariss, Bailey, Song, and Maxime may disagree, as they were subject to some tough challenges, but I felt that these challenges were merely normal hard fouls. As the top team in the land, you’re gonna receive such fouls, it’s par for the course. So it was heartening to see that we gave as good as we got. Bailey was elbowed by Rezza Rezky when they challenged for a header, but he himself dished out some punishment to Syahadat in the 81st minute, bodying him off the ball with a tough challenge. Hariss as well, pushed by Matt Silva needlessly, dealt out his punishment to a couple of TPU players as well. Raihan was busy all night, tackling and fouling away, but we were able to look after ourselves, and more. And then we come to the Bart incident. I think Bart escapes a yellow card there. In my opinion, I think the ref giving a yellow card each would be a fair and expected outcome. Some TPU fans have expressed their opinion that Bart is holding back Faizal, and Faizal is just trying to escape Bart’s clutches. I think that’s true to a certain extent only. In my opinion, Faizal flings his arms back in an attempt to get free, yes, but I think he’s absolutely looking to also assert himself in that challenge. There is no excuse for your arms flailing around like that – it’s not a natural movement. Those who’ve played football before, we know, if we want to shield the ball, we will put our arm out straight, but it’s a stationary arm that acts as a barrier, it’s not an arm that’s constantly swinging looking to catch someone. Of course, Faizal does that because Bart is annoyingly grabbing on to him to prevent him from advancing, But that is no excuse for retaliation. Bart deserves a yellow, and Faizal does too – because his arms flailing around do not constitute a red card offence. It’s very common for refs to go “ah there’s a scuffle here, let me book both parties”. In fact, Sailors were on the end of that two games ago, when Diogo Costa puts in a nothing challenge on Naqiuddin Eunos, and Naqi aggressively shoves Diogo. It should be a yellow for Naqi and nothing for Diogo, cos it was just a normal foul, but the ref gives it to both, and not much is said about that. It’s only called into question now because it was a second yellow, and because Bart wasn’t booked. So anyway, TL;DR – Bart should have seen yellow too, ref could have been a bit more lenient considering that this was to be a second yellow, but by the letter of the law, the referee could do what he did. I just sympathise with TPU because it is abit harsh on them. Perhaps the ref was refereeing them based on how they had been tackling all night – which yes, is harsh on them cos each incident should be judged on its own merits. But this wasn’t a crazily bad decision – just harsh. A crazily bad decision is when Timur Talipov pulled off a basketball dribble in last week’s game and both the referee and the VAR cleared it. Anyway, back to the game, the red card came when we were 4-0 up so it didn’t really affect the result, if not there might be even more controversy. Hafiz Nor – A Hat-Trick of Misses Well, I wouldn’t have thought this would happen prior to the game. No exaggeration to say that on any other day, Hafiz Nor gets at least 1 goal from this trio of chances. Maxime Lestienne (more on him later), absolutely