Post-Match Thoughts – Page 8

[Post-Match Thoughts] Momentous

Leave a Comment / Post-Match Thoughts / Eddy Hirono

The only thing better than a Double McSpicy is a Double McSpicy meal. Beating Albirex is a Double McSpicy. Beating Albirex when 2-0 down at halftime is a Double McSpicy meal, upsized, and also ticking the option on the machine to add one piece of McCrispy. Yes. Apologies once again for the super late article – I am currently overseas and have been tiring myself out clocking on average more steps daily than I do in a few days back home. The mind has been very very willing to do this post-match thoughts article, and for obvious reasons. If you had read my preview, you would have known that the best I hoped for was a draw. Post-match, my thoughts are much the same – Albirex are still a fantastic team and deserve all the plaudits they get. They are still the frontrunners for the title, both mathematically, and also on paper (yes, more thoughts on this later). However, this was still a momentous day for the Sailors – not just in the context of this season, but also what it means for the Sailors’ confidence moving forward. These are just post-match thoughts, not a detailed analysis, so let me touch on some points that made me think. Importance of this Win First – let me deal with the easy point. There’s been people moaning and groaning about how Sailors players and fans have been celebrating this like they already won the title, people asking us to calm down, pipe down, take it easy, etc etc. I thought long and hard about how I should respond to all this (2 seconds), and I have this to say. I couldn’t give less of a fish. And that fish is an ikan bilis. Simply put, I think these complaints miss the point. First, I have not seen or heard about anyone celebrating like they won the title. Sure, the players and fans may have been happier at full-time than usual, but they just beat the reigning champions who have been sweeping aside all opposition (except Tampines) this season, so surely they should be granted some licence to celebrate. Now, add to that the fact that the Sailors have never beaten Albirex in the league in their short history, the fact that we were playing with none of our starting centre-backs, the fact that we came into this match in pretty patchy form, the fact, that had we lost this game, we are probably out of the title race, and of course, that we turned the match around from 2-0 down at the break in dramatic and deserved fashion, and I think it becomes completely understandable for the fans and players to be delighted at the achievement. Second, who cares what other people think? Football is a game of emotions and I’d much rather have supporters celebrating wildly than the opposite. Separately, if I were to make a bigger point about this as well, part of the reason for the wild celebrations may even be down to the gloomy climate surrounding local football. We’ve just come off a very difficult SEA Games football tournament, where from top to bottom, anyone involved in local football has been criticised. Confidence in Singapore football has not been lower in my lifetime. Maybe I am over-thinking this, but perhaps part of it has to do with the fact that we have so little faith in our own system now, and when coming up against this Albirex juggernaut, we see it as a huge thing to register any sort of victory over them – not least a 3-2 come-from-behind victory. And that brings me to my next point – the Japanese system. Japanese System I will just share some quick thoughts here because I just came back from watching Sagan Tosu vs Jubilo Iwata live in Tosu. It was a Cup fixture that pitted J1 Sagan Tosu v J2 Jubilo Iwata. Jubilo prevailed on the night with an impressive 2-0 away victory. I will write a longer post when I have the time about what I think we can learn from them in terms of fan experience, what I observed, and also perhaps share with readers what I think is impressive about what the Sailors are already doing that approaches good/best practices in the industry. For now, my purpose for referring to this game is simply to illustrate the huge gulf between the Japanese system and the Singapore system. The gulf in quality is really very large. Watching these two teams play, what struck me most was the intense pace of the game throughout, and how the teams could press, and press, and press. Fitness was top-notch for sure. The passing and the touches of the players were also top-notch. You couldn’t tell sometimes which was the J2 team and which was the J1 team, and that’s a real credit to Jubilo – but also the wider system of footballing talent in Japan. Pretty telling that Atsushi Kawata, who was Albirex Niigata (S) top-scorer in the S-League some years back and now plays for Sagan Tosu, was one of the worst players on the pitch. He was subbed off early, and frankly despite putting in a real shift in terms of hard effort – it looked like he was a lucky draw winner that won a chance to play on the same pitch as other professionals. That’s the kinda gulf we’re talking about. And he’s already one of the rare ones who can make it back into the J-League. If we look at some star performers over the years, very few of them managed to carve out meaningful careers back in Japan. Kazuki Hashioka for example, the flying wingback who terrorised the league few years back – not even in a J3 team. He is playing for a regional side in Tokyo. I digress – point is simply, it’s very hard to beat Albirex, and I hope the Sailors take a lot of confidence from this, knowing

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[Post-Match Thoughts] Dropped Points, Again

1 Comment / Post-Match Thoughts / Eddy Hirono

When you want to win a title, you cannot afford to drop points in games you completely dominate. This was Young Lions, all over again. When you take a look at the advanced statistics, Young Lions and DPMM are comfortably the worst sides in the league, so it is very disappointing that we gave up 3 very poor goals and failed to get the 3 points we needed to close the gap on the leaders Albirex before we play them this weekend. How did we end up drawing a game where we looked so comfortable? Let’s take a look at a few points. Height Differential You may have noticed, that for all 3 DPMM goals, we were beaten in the air. The first goal came from a corner, where somehow Voronkov was marked by Adam Swandi. The second goal came when Voronkov won a header in the box and then we did not deal well with the second ball and the resulting shot. The third goal came when Adam Swandi was once again beaten in the air and the flick-on left DPMM with a numerical overload to attack our box. If you think I am blaming Adam Swandi for the goals, let me clarify that I am not. In the absence of Hariss Harun, Coach Risto decided for a midfield of Adam Swandi and Hami Syahin, which is a technically secure midfield, but one that lacks the size and height in my opinion, to deal with the physical threat of DPMM. For context, Adam Swandi is 171cm, and Voronkov is 187cm. Quite why Adam Swandi was detailed to pick up Voronkov for a corner kick, I will never know. If I have some sympathy for the coach, we had a very short team – the average height was definitely lower than DPMM’s. However, if you look at the graphic below, could Anu not have been the one assigned to man-mark Voronkov, while Adam Swandi defends the space in front of the keeper? Anyway, we can file this away as a good set piece from DPMM which gave them an early lead. However, Sailors did so well to come back and be in a winning position. This inability to deal with the aerial challenges would surface again later in our 2nd and 3rd goal. At some point you have to wonder, should we perhaps have started with someone taller? One solution might have been to start Bill at centreback with Lionel, and then shift Anu up into midfield. That would have given us a bit more height, and perhaps we’d be better equipped to deal with the aerial threat of DPMM? At this point I may sound like I am contradicting myself, because it was also Anu who was beaten for the 2nd goal. However, I guess all I am saying is that when faced with a team containing quite a few players who are pretty short, it becomes clear that we may struggle defensively. And so that leads us on to the next point of discussion. Is Bernie Struggling? Let’s discuss Bernie’s impact on the team. I’ve seen the memes floating around – he’s the next 007, 0 goals 0 assists in 7 games (or so opposition supporters hope). However I think this was the first time I thought Bernie actually moved well. If you look at the replays of the goals, it is his runs which help to pull the defence away, giving space for Lestienne to score. Here above, you see him highlighted in yellow, and his run has created the space for Diego to ghost into the area to finish with aplomb for the 1st goal. You see in the build-up to the 2nd goal, Maxime is all the way on the right and is trying to make up the ground to get involved in this attack. It is Bernie’s unselfish run into the space ahead of him that drags his defender away from Maxime, and results in Maxime receiving the pass in acres of space, and with tons of time too – so all he needs is to pick his head up and curl it into the far corner. It is the same for the 3rd goal, where he drags his defender away from Maxime, giving him the space to cut in and shoot. Three goals, three unselfish runs. If Bernie isn’t scoring goals, then hey at least he’s contributing to his teammates scoring goals. Of course, I still hope we can see him break his duck soon, and be more of a goal threat himself. He’s a huge guy, and I would ideally like to see him physically bully opposing centrebacks. Attack – Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde It’s very strange how in the first half, our attack looked so free-flowing, and it looked like we were gonna end the night with a huge scoreline of 5,6,7 goals, but in the second half, we were kinda toothless. Here’s a stat for you – all 6 of our shots on target came in the first half. I am not a master tactician or something, so I can’t put my finger on why the second half saw us not register a single shot on target. I know we tried, but it was just not to be. One thing I noticed that I felt was quite strange was we did not seem to be targeting the players who were already on yellow cards and clearly tiring. The DPMM defence picked up 4 yellow cards in the space of 10 minutes in the second half as they struggled to cope with the pace and intensity of our players. I felt we should have kept that going – and it was notable that Coach Risto did not send on our substitutes who might have helped to really up the intensity with their fresh legs. The only sub he made was Abdul Rasaq for Bernie in the 75th minute. Coach Risto has to figure out why the second half performance

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[Post-Match Thoughts] Not Our Best But Some Positives

3 Comments / Post-Match Thoughts / Eddy Hirono

I usually try to wait for Instat to come out with some stats about the game before giving you my thoughts, but those jokers are taking their own sweet time, so here goes. In the preview article, I spoke about the need to capitalise on Tampines slipping up against Balestier Khalsa. We did just that, getting the crucial three points. However, I think the performance left much to be desired. We were ultimately bailed out by two free-kicks from Maxime Lestienne (who else) and a great defensive display by Zulqarnaen Suzliman. Here’s a few post-match thoughts. Maybe I’ll start with the positives and then slowly work towards the negatives. Maxime Lestienne The dude’s a machine. What else can I say? 8 goals and 8 assists in 9 games is pretty mental. That’s 1.78 goal contributions per game. Imagine lining up against a player knowing that statistically, he is gonna score/assist about 2 goals – that must be kinda demoralising. But it’s what we’ve come to expect from our brilliant Belgian. If Forrest is reading this, please sign him up. Renew his contract for x number of years, where x is 55 or 78 or something. We want him here forever. Not only is he a real asset to the team, he is also someone that excites us fans. Speaking of someone who excites fans … Nathan Mao There has been much buzz online about whether Nathan’s 5 minutes cameo against Tampines Rovers was a publicity stunt, and whether he deserved those 5 minutes. I mean for me, I didn’t think it was that deep, really. The game was lost, and there was no harm giving a few minutes to a prodigy from the academy, just to allow him to experience an SPL game. If I were to be cynical, maybe it was to distract the supporters, give them something else to get excited about on a day when we played at a level so far below Tampines Rovers. If you wanna relive the match and how it played out, be my guest, check out our depressing post-match thoughts where we spoke about Nathan as well. So, Nathan not only played against Geylamg. he started. In so doing, he became the youngest-ever player to start a SPL game at 15 years and 42 days old. Previously, the record holder was Raoul Suhaimi for Young Lions (15 years and 239 days old). Not only did Nathan start, he played an hour. Of course, this is in part due to the U23 rule where a U23 player must be played, and most of them are at the SEA Games. We referenced this in our preview article as well. However, it must be said that the U23 player can be removed at half-time, and we have seen clubs in the league do that, LCS included last season. It is to Nathan’s credit that he stayed on past half-time. In the first half, Nathan looked brave with the ball and in a half that was crying out for some attacking verve and impetus, something for the supporters to get excited about, Nathan was arguably the only one to provide it. Trying my best to analyse his performance without the “oh-he’s-15-years-old” lens, I genuinely feel like he did very well. There were some moments where he brought the fans off their seats – for example, 3:25 onwards in this brilliantly-shot video. Throughout the time he was on the pitch, he never looked out of place, and that’s the greatest compliment I can pay him given he is at such an early point in his nascent football career. It would be easy for someone making his first professional start at that age to just take the safe option all the time, but he mixed it up, sometimes opting for the easy pass, but sometimes also running with the ball and beating his man, getting fouls. Very encouraging to watch, and he was given a warm reception from the fans when he was subbed off. Even our former CEO had nice things to say about him in the post-match interview. Keep it up, Nathan! Zulqarnaen Suzliman (Mamat) A monster game from a full-back who we expected huge things from ever since he came back from Young Lions last year. His performances for the national team and in the league actually got me quite excited when he came back, but unfortunately due to injury, I think it took a long while before we saw the true Mamat. This was a monster performance and a vital one, because in defence, it looked like we were so vulnerable to the counter-attack but Mamat was able to bail us out on three occasions. First, he blocked a shot on goal off the line, and he then denied Yushi Yamaya on two separate occasions with determined last-ditch tackles. Don’t take my word for it – the club has put together a nice little compilation of those moments. Check it out here and decide for yourself – We spoke to Mamat after the game, and he showed humility and said he’s happy he saved the team from conceding three goals, and that it was just his defensive instincts kicking in. Aside from contributing in defence, he also went up the other end and got fouled for the crucial freekick that Maxime scored to equalise. It came as a result of the team collectively picking up the pace in the second half, and Mamat tried to run beyond the defence to get onto a clipped pass over the top. This led to the defender fouling him to impede his progress. In a match where Geylang were content to shuffle from side to side in a deep defensive block and attack on the counter, it was vital that our wide players (including the fullbacks) tried to get behind the defence and outnumber the Geylang defenders. Thank you Mamat for your contribution this game! Substitutions of Hafiz Nor and Shawal Anuar I mentioned above that collectively

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[Post-Match Thoughts] Poor Officiating but Even Poorer Sailors (Young Lions 1 LCS 1)

Leave a Comment / Post-Match Thoughts / Eddy Hirono

In the preview article, I said this would be comfortable for us, especially if we get an early goal. Oops. Our Sailors did the first part, but then made Young Lions look like they prime Mourinho’s Internazionale. Speaking to fans after the game, Ishaq (who is a regular member of the Crew and always sings loud and proud) made the point that as a Sailors fan he is disappointed, but as a Singaporean fan, he is proud of the Young Lions for the resolute defensive display. You can check out his interview, along with that of Charmaine (also loud and proud Crew member) over here. Well – to that I say, while I agree with him. It’s a bit …. bittersweet, no? It is of course, a very unique situation, because very few countries’ leagues have both a national team and a club team in the same league. Usually, you support your club team for 80% of the season, and then when it comes to international breaks, you forget about your club for a bit and support your country. Young Lions are abit special I guess. I chose “Hide Your Pain Harold” as the cover pic because we pretend to smile about the Young Lions’ display but at the same time, we’re in pain because we know this was a major missed opportunity to put some points on the board. There’s tons of stuff to get into, and that’s without the usual Instat stats I like to use to supplement some of my points. For some reason, the Instat people are taking an age to come up with the stats for this game, so I decided – heck it, I’ll write my thoughts out without the stats anyway. But yes, tons of stuff to talk about, and I’ve picked out a few main points. Poor Officiating Right off the bat, I want to say this – criticising the referee for a shambolic penalty decision does not mean that I think the Sailors can just rub their hands with glee and just blame the referee for what happened. The two things are mutually exclusive. As Charmaine rightly pointed out in her post-match interview, if we created more chances, or took the few chances we had, the horrible penalty decision would not have any consequence. It would have been the difference between a 2-0 win or a 2-1 win. No big drama. However, a bad decision is still a bad decision – so let’s talk about why it is a bad decision. Once again, VAR rears its ugly head. We accept that referees are human and can make errors. However, when someone in the control room has time to rewind and agonise and deliberate over an incident from multiple angles, I don’t think it’s too much to expect higher standards. This decision was curious from start to finish – in fact, even before the penalty was awarded, you have to wonder why so much time was added on anyway. Take a look at the timestamp here. You’ve seen this a thousand times before – the keeper holds onto the ball for about 5 seconds or so, launches it high into the night sky, and the referee blows his whistle for full time. But no, not this ref. He decides to let Young Lions attack one more time by hook or by crook. 93:10, and the game still goes on. In fact, the Sailors almost scored from this after a defensive mix-up. 93:21 and you can see the ball high in the night sky here, after Super has cleared it back into YL’s half when they pumped it long. Once again – this is always a cue for the ref to go “Yup, thank you fellas, i’mma blow the whistle now, please hand me the ball”. Inexplicably, again no. By the time Young Lions get the freekick, it’s closer to 94 min than it is to 93 min. No justification for it at all – there was hardly any time-wasting by the Sailors. (EDIT (18 Apr 3pm) – I have since been educated by a friendly person in The Goal Difference Telegram chat that actually, the amount of stoppage time indicated is usually accurate as of the 88th minute. That is to say, if there are further stoppages between 88-90min, then it will be added on later as well. I wound back the tape and took a look – indeed Harhys did receive treatment for about a minute from the 89th min onwards, so I stand corrected, I have maligned the referee on this issue – he was entitled to play another minute. SORRY) As an aside, I was abit ticked off by Bernard Tan’s comments on this stoppage time issue in the Hougang game (even though the referee was absolutely spot on there to give that additional time). While Kiki’s injury and the time he took to receive treatment did contribute to added time BEYOND the allocated stoppage time, the rest of the injury stoppages that Bernard was referring to have already been accounted for in the 6min of stoppage time, so it was irrelevant to raise it again. Also surprising that he would surface when his officials made very controversial calls in both the Hougang and the Sailors game – but hey, he’s entitled to post on his own page. If you’re curious, you can go check it out, I replied to him and I hope he takes it the right way. It was unnecessary and dare I suggest, unprofessional, for him to slander Kiki Krajcek like that for no reason, especially given that he is President of FAS and he must be aware that his words carry some weight. Anyway, back to the Sailors. Sorry for that digression, I sometimes blog in a very unstructured way, but that’s cos I type whatever I think. Ok, aside from the referee unjustifiably adding on close more than 30 seconds for no reason when he had ample opportunity to blow the whistle,

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[Post-Match Thoughts] Five-Star Performance (Hougang 0 LCS 5)

2 Comments / Post-Match Thoughts / Eddy Hirono

Life is much easier, and writing is much easier when the Sailors win, and win in such fashion. If you thought that this game was a walk in the park (which was something we suggested in our preview), then you’d be both wrong and right. To help illustrate that, let’s take a look at the stats. Some very interesting stats. You would be forgiven for thinking that the Sailors were lucky to win the game if you look at the respective xG achieved by each team. However, that came down to two reasons – more patient chance creation, and better individual quality. More Patient Chance Creation 2.5 xG vs 2 xG suggests that Hougang created nearly as good chances as the Sailors did – however one look at the Shots stat changes that thought. Hougang took 25 shots, mostly speculative, while the Sailors were a bit more patient with their possession, and took only 15 shots. If you do some very basic back-of-the-napkin math, Hougang clocked in at 0.08xG per shot taken, while the Sailors clocked in at 0.17xG per shot taken – so each Sailors shot was twice as likely to make it into the back of the net. That probably accounts for the Sailors’ high passing stat as well. As much as Hougang are a possession-hungry team (this was only their 2nd out of 8 games where they have less possession than their opponents), the Sailors played more passes than Hougang, perhaps in a bid to fashion better chances for their forwards. I will now show you a comparison of Sailors shots against Hougang shots, with a particular emphasis on shots that are 0.20xG and above. Hougang’s shots above 0.20xG LCS’s shots above 0.20xG (Diego’s goal + 2 Abdul Rasaq goals) In fact, if you look at Hougang’s shot chart, 14 of their 25 shots came from non-threatening areas of the pitch. Of these 14 shots, only 4 made it on target. Perhaps with a little more patience, Hougang could have fashioned slightly better shooting opportunities. That being said – Coach Risto and his staff must be analysing the tape to see if they can limit the number of shots being taken. Even if these shots are from non-threatening range, how many times have we seen bad things happen just by virtue of the fact that the ball is in dangerous areas? A wicked deflection off a defender leaving a keeper stranded, an unsighted goalkeeper not seeing a shot till it’s too late because of the mass of bodies in front of him, an unlucky bounce off an uneven pitch (thank goodness TPY Stadium is no more), a save that is parried out to another attacker – the possibilities are endless. To achieve true domination and to allow for less variables in the game, we should be trying to limit our opponents from taking such shots. Looking at the graphic above, 11 of those shots were in a decent area, and 3 were on target. On another day, some of these will go in, or lead to major chaos. Better Individual Quality SPL Twitter, SPH, and the club’s official website all led with similar headlines – Maxime Lestienne stole the show. It’d take a real fool or contrarian to argue that Maxime didn’t have a good game. 2 goals, 2 assists, all of which where he looked a class apart from the rest on the pitch. He kicked things off with a stunning free kick, and wrapped things up with an unerring finish into the far corner after blitzing past the Hougang defence. In between, he was involved in what is becoming a trademark cutback for Abdul Rasaq to finish, and also a move straight from the futsal courts where Diego used him to hold up the ball and then release to him for an easy finish in the box. It’s now 5 goals, and 8 assists in 7 games for our Belgian superstar – the only game where he did not register a goal or an assist is the 4-0 defeat to Albirex where we were reduced to ten men for the majority of the game. Even opposition fans will concede that Maxime is a class apart, and this ties in to the point made earlier. I showed you the graphic with 3 of our goals being 0.20xG and above. Well, the other 2 goals were below 0.20xG and they were Maxime’s goals. One was the beautiful freekick that had Zaiful Nizam grasping at thin air, while the other was pretty underrated if you ask me. Media outlets described it as a “neat finish”, but I don’t think that does justice to the difficulty of the finish, especially given that Zaiful is a very accomplished keeper. Maxime basically put it into the only part of the goal where Zaiful would not be able to reach, and that finish, particularly while running at pace, is not an easy one. But the night wasn’t just about Maxime. Shoutout also to Zharfan, Abdul Rasaq, and maybe a surprise one in this list, Anu. Let me elaborate Zharfan In the post-match reactions, I spoke to a fan and assumed that he would name Maxime as Man of the Match, given he notched 2 goals and 2 assists. However, I was caught by surprise a little as he named Zharfan as his pick for Man of the Match. And that got me thinking – while the score was 5-0, games really can turn on moments. Hougang is a team low on confidence, but what would have happened if they managed to get one or two goals when the Sailors had not raced away to a 3-goal lead yet? That might have turned the game, and if you look back at the game, Zharfan did pull off some crucial saves, not least the double save from Sahil who absolutely thwacked the ball at goal from a narrow angle, which was followed up by a good parry when Gabriel Quak tried to curl

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[Post-Match Thoughts] Not Good Enough (Tampines 4 LCS 3)

3 Comments / Post-Match Thoughts / Eddy Hirono

It took a while to write this one because work was busy af. If I am being completely honest with myself, perhaps a part of me just knew that this was gonna be painful to write. To lose this game by 1 goal only felt like a major stroke of luck – and I am not just talking about Glenn Kweh’s exquisitely-taken volley which gave us an undeserved glimmer of hope. Really, what a goal. It reminded me of Robin Snake van Persie’s goal against Charlton all those years ago, just of course, at the wrong end. It was a rare moment of joy in what was otherwise a terrible game to sit through. At no point did I feel that the Sailors deserved to win the game. We played well for 8 minutes, deservedly took the lead with a sublime pass from Maxime Lestienne (of course), and Shawal Anuar got a goal on his first start for the club. After that, it was just terrible to watch. We were so so passive, and although the fans tried their best to keep chanting and keep encouraging the team, I could audibly hear the frustration growing amongst the supporters. I put off looking at the Instat statistics for a long time, because I was afraid of what I would see. But here goes – a stat attack: Out-shot, out-passed, out-fought – the stats confirm what the eyes tell us. I think if I wanted to write all my observations and list all my disappointments, it’d take an eternity, so I will limit myself to two or three main points. I will also highlight some positives – ok I’ll start with this because I’ll be done in a jiffy. So, let’s get the positives out of the way. Nathan Mao Huge positive, this. Earlier this season, Sailors fans were introduced to the talents of 16 year-old Jonan Tan. On Friday night, it was the turn of an even younger prospect – Nathan Mao. Nathan was only 15 years and 5 days old when he made his debut, in the process breaking the record for youngest debutant in the SPL, previously held by Young Lions defender, Raoul Suhaimi (who I am a big fan of). Nathan came on late, and I think most of us thought that this was just a chance for the young lad to get some minutes – and it probably was. I don’t think Coach Risto sent him on thinking that he would make a difference and help us clawback a 2-goal lead. But it didn’t matter to young Nathan, who made the most of his time spent on the pitch. Within seconds, you could tell he wasn’t just gonna see out the minutes meaninglessly and just be a stat. He came on, and made incisive runs to try to get the ball. He was also a prolific “scanner”, immediately checking over his shoulder repeatedly to see where the space was, and where any potential opponents may be. For those who may be less acquainted with “scanning”, or “visual exploratory frequency”, this article may be of help. He managed to win 2 free kicks in his time on the pitch, including the incident where he got crunched by Milos Zlatkovic, who decided not to take any risks, even though the lad was 14 years old barely a week ago. Congrats Milos, you can add child abuse to your CV (just a joke, calm down). A proud moment for the boy and his family I am sure, and it was nice to see that regardless of what happened in the game, the Sailors fans were in full voice welcoming Nathan to the pitch and cheering his every touch. Nathan is one to watch! Anu In a match crying out for some movement, some aggression, it was kinda shocking that it took until the 84th minute for Anu to come on. Even though we never stopped singing for the team, it was clear to us once Faris scored that we were not gonna launch any sort of comeback. Anu’s introduction gave us something to shout about. And when Nathan came on too, suddenly there was movement, and even though we fans never truly believed we would get the equaliser, the heart and the effort made it easier for us to be loud and proud. Fans have a responsibility of lifting the team when they are down, but I truly believe that it’s a two-way process – the players also have to give something for the fans to hold on to, or the fans will lose steam. Anu gave us that. Now let’s move on to the negatives. Hariss Harun Believe me, I hate to do this. As a 35 year-old, I grew up supporting football not old enough to really take in Fandi’s talents, or enjoy watching the whole career of legends such as Nazri Nasir, Rafi Ali, Aide Iskandar, etc. So my hero growing up was Hariss. I have Hariss shirts at home and I think it is clear that he is no longer as mobile as he used to be. Thing about Hariss is that he still is able to affect games with his experience, and his decision-making. His leadership qualities are also held up by many as a reason to continue playing him in the national team and in the Sailors team. As recently as a few weeks back, when we spoke to Hami Syahin, he mentioned how Hariss actually gives a sense of calmness to the players when they defend transitions. Unfortunately, I think the Tampines game is one where he was really shown up. On transitions, it did not look like Hariss knew how to stop Tampines. On more than a few occasions, instead of pressing up to the ball, us fans were disappointed to see Hariss decide to take up a conservative position as he actively jogged away from the ball instead of trying to win it. This resulted in Tampines having a lot

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[Post-Match Thoughts] Stop Taniguchi, Stop Balestier (LCS 3 Balestier 0)

3 Comments / Post-Match Thoughts / Eddy Hirono

Older fans will remember Hiro Nakamura of Heroes coming back from the future to say “Save the cheerleader, save the world”. If you just read that and have no idea what the hell I am talking about, you’re too young and I am very envious of your youth. That was a phrase from the hit TV show in 2006, where basically one of the main characters came back from the future to tell the characters of the show that the cheerleader was pivotal to their chances of saving the world. For some reason, the Sailors stopping Taniguchi made me feel like bringing back that old reference. In our pre-match preview we talked about the importance of stopping the dynamic duo of Daniel Goh and Ryoya Taniguchi. As it turned out, I felt the overwhelming thought that kept coming back to me was how committed the Sailors were to stop the counter-attacks from Balestier. We did so in two ways – first, by not giving the ball away as much, and second, by running like madmen back to stop the counter-attacks. The First Step – Not Giving The Ball Away The Sailors achieved an impressive 89% passing rate from 493 passes, which helped them keep 59% possession. What was once again interesting was that the Sailors again decided against crossing the ball into the box, and always passed around, looking for a better opening. At times, it meant recycling the ball through to Super and Lionel Tan, but if they had to, they did it. Of course, this isn’t rocket science, but a ball into the box, if cleared, will play right into Balestier’s hands. You can picture it. Ball drops to Kozar, plays a quick pass to Taniguchi, who switches it out to the right wing for the electric Daniel Goh to run down the wing and cross for Shuhei Hoshino to miss. Ok scratch that last part, that was me being mean to Shuhei for his form in front of goal so far this season. But you get it. By not giving the ball away, we dramatically reduced the number of chances Balestier had to run at us – and the best evidence of that is just by looking at Taniguchi’s numbers. Let’s show you a comparison of his numbers before the Sailors game, and during the Sailors game. That’s how quiet we kept him. All the above three stats were his lowest of the season. He was nowhere near as influential as he was in recent games, and as a result, Balestier suffered and were unable to create as many chances as they usually do. Only two real chances come to mind – the early chance for Daniel Goh which was well-saved by Zharfan, and the moment in the second half where Shuhei inexplicably was allowed an eternity to dwell on the ball, settle himself, and then shoot, while in the box. Zharfan once again proved the hero. The Second Step – Running Back to Stop Counters In previous articles on this site, both Zach and I have highlighted that there seems to be a little bit of unwillingness to track back when it comes to our attackers. That was not in evidence in the game against Balestier. Whether it was Coach Risto’s instruction, or the players’ own initiative – there was an extra desire, it felt, to win the ball back and stop Balestier’s counter-attacks. Perhaps that is the biggest compliment I can pay to Balestier – their attacks are so dangerous that all 11 men felt a need to come back and really help out in defence. If you look at Rasaq’s heat map, you will see what I mean. For a forward to put in such a shift in defence, it’s remarkable and is a testament to how hard the team worked to stop Balestier. You can see that not only was Rasaq active in attack, he also seemed to spend quite a lot of time in midfield and even defence. Along with putting his body in there as a screen for the defence, he also managed to win two tackles in the game, and I remember one stopping a rather promising attack from Balestier. He wasn’t alone. Diego and Maxime also put in a good shift on defence and that contributed to the clean sheet – as much as Zharfan’s steady saves. The return of Zulqarnaen Suzliman Mamat ‘s return is a welcome one. He has been out of regular action for a long time – his last start was in July 2022, and so it was great that he managed to get through the full 90min and contribute to a clean sheet. That will do wonders for his confidence. We spoke to him after the game, and he admitted that at first he was a little nervous after this long-awaited start, but he certainly grew into the game. His stats from this game were quite impressive. All this on his first start in so long? Very impressive. We will need him to be in top form, because other than him, the options at right back are kinda thin. It’s either him, Arshad Shamim, or Bill Mahmadou – but Mamat is the obvious one with the most experience and so should be looking to lock down that slot. If he can keep up his form there, then it will also allow Hafiz Nor to concentrate on wreaking havoc further up the pitch, rather than being brought back to be a right-back again, as he was played last season. With Kodai’s injury, it is even more important that Hafiz Nor stays as one of the wing options, so that Shawal Anuar can be deployed in some games as a lone forward. Conclusion In conclusion, a good outing for the whole team. From back to front, everyone played their part. I thought Lionel and Super were outstanding, while the overall energy and effort also helped ensure that Balestier could not play their usual game. Back

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[Post-Match Thoughts] Three and Easy (LCS 3 Geylang 0)

1 Comment / Post-Match Thoughts / Eddy Hirono

There were a few hairy moments, but in the end, the result never felt in doubt. Let’s hit you with a stat attack first – which may make it look like it was abit less comfortable than it was. Now that you’ve had some time to make your own snap judgments of the respective teams and what they did well, I leave you with a few thoughts. Zharfan’s Impact on the Game Zharfan had a good game. He saved 9 shots, and while most of them were from non-threatening areas, every shot/chance/interaction does present a keeper with the chance to screw up – and he did not. The same could not be said of Ridhwan Fikri, who had a very nervy game. Not only did he concede a penalty, his ill-advised rushes out of the box, coupled with the lack of composure in those situations, led to pretty disastrous results. Some of these were punished, some weren’t. He could also arguably have done better with Hafiz Nor and Rasaq’s shots, given that he managed to touch them. Back to Zharfan, look at the areas where those shots were coming in. Of the 9 saves, only 4 of these were from inside the box, and 3 of them were from reallly far out. 1 shot stands out in particular, and that’s the dot that is right next to the penalty spot. This was when Iqbal Hussain was given way too much time to sweep a shot on target, but luckily for us, he hit it tamely and Zharfan caught the ball well. For the other 3 shots on target in the box, the Geylang players were surrounded by Sailors defenders, so the angle did not favour the Geylang players. Zharfan will have tougher tests to come, but it is definitely encouraging for him to pick up his 1st clean sheet, especially after the chastening result last week against Albirex and the mistake he made against DPMM. Sailors Stay Patient and Create Better Chances While Geylang sought to test Zharfan from everywhere, you can see that the Sailors opted for a more patient approach, waiting to get into the box before shooting. This in the end contributed to the Sailors win. You can see this in the xG comparison between the teams, which stands at 2.5 for the Sailors v 0.94 for Geylang. Even if you remove 0.75 from the Sailors tally because it is inflated by the penalty award, it still is a healthy differential of 1.75 v 0.94. It was also important especially I feel, for Chris van Huizen to finally get off the mark in terms of assists. More and more you will see in games that opponents like to collapse their defence into the box, and stay compact and narrow to avoid being sliced open with a Maxime/Hami pass, or a Diego/Shawal dribble. It is then important in such games that Chris is able to punish these defences for defending just the width of their box, with his trusty crossing. Chris is a rare Singaporean player who can get some real whip on his crosses whether on his left or his right foot. On Wednesday, the second goal was created by patient play from two players – Adam Swandi and Maxime Lestienne. First, Lestienne passed up a chance to shoot, when Ridhwan rushed out and made a hash of his clearance. See below. He could have chosen to shoot from there, but he did not. He dribbled all the way into the box, and then instead of whipping a blind cross into the danger zone, he had the presence of mind to pick out Adam Swandi on the edge of the box. Even from here, you could have expected Adam Swandi to perhaps try to curl a shot in to the far post – but he turns that down, and instead waits for Chris van Huizen to provide support on the left. CvH is not even in the frame above yet, but Adam buys time and then plays him in for him to cross to Diego to score. This pattern of trying to create better shooting chances was also repeated in the last goal of the game, where Maxime turned down a chance to shoot, and instead squared the ball back for Rasaq to smack into the net. In light of Kodai potentially missing the whole season, the Sailors may need to continue creating high-quality chances, rather than quantity, now that we lack an elite finisher. Shoutout to Bill Mahmadou Quick shoutout to Bill Mahmadou, who only played half a game, but whose contribution indirectly led to the first two goals being scored. If you watch the highlights of 1-0 and 2-0, you will see that it seems like Bill was targeted by Geylang as a pressing trigger. Each time he got the ball, two or three Geylang players converged on him, trying to put pressure on him. This didn’t work as intended, as both times he managed to get a crucial pass away – first to Diego Lopes in acres of space, and then to Maxime Lestienne for him to launch an aerial through-pass behind the high backline (who had pressed up also to support Geylang’s press). It was incredible footwork and composure, especially for someone so young and so tall/big. Bill also gave the supporters something to cheer about when he absolutely bodied a Geylang winger into touch with a strong bodycheck. He not only passed the eye-test, he put up some really encouraging stats as well, despite only playing 45min. The stats back up what we see. He was efficient in using the ball, won most of his challenges, and even got in the occasional dribble. A very encouraging outing for the big man! Hopefully his injury is not serious, because he is one of the few U23 players we have who has really cemented a first-team spot. With Nur Adam also out, we will need Bill to stay fit. Frivolous Thought of the

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[POST-MATCH THOUGHTS] – Clear and Obvious Refereeing Error (Albirex 4 LCS 0)

Leave a Comment / Post-Match Thoughts / Eddy Hirono

The first 10min of the game was pretty even, and you probably know what happened after that, and what we are going to spend 99% of the time in this article talking about. Yes – it was that horrendous decision made by the refereeing team to send Anu off for an innocuous pull on Tadanari Lee on the halfway line. Let’s get this straight. Foul? Definitely yes. Yellow card? Definitely yes, it was cynical, calculated to stop an opponent from going past him. Red card? Nah you’re having a laugh. Anyone who’s ever played football knows this – if you’re gonna bring your man down, bring him down early. Do not let him go all the way into the penalty area, or just outside, where conceding a freekick or a penalty kick can have disastrous consequences. Manchester City practically turned this into an art form – the sight of Fernandinho putting on an innocent face after he trips someone on the counter is both annoying and also funny. Enough of the preamble – let’s dive right into it. I will try to be as objective as possible and lay down the facts as they are – feel free to let us know in the comments, or on our IG post if you have an alternative view. We’ll do a step-by-step analysis. We won’t even bother to talk about the rest of the game because once the red card was shown, the referee killed the game. Facing Albirex is tough enough with 11 men – with 10 men it’s almost impossible. Was it a foul? And was it a foul deserving of a yellow card? I don’t think Anu, or even the most hardened LCS fan will deny that this was 101% at least a yellow card. Tadanari Lee had cleverly flicked the ball around Anu, and was about to race onto it when he was pulled back slightly. I don’t even think Tadanari Lee made a meal of it. He was blameless in this – he tried to go for the ball, he was pulled, it was a tactical foul. Answer: Yes it was a foul, and yes, it definitely deserved a yellow. What is the VAR process? When can a VAR intervene? To answer this question, there is no better place to start than looking at what FAS themselves said in a press release prior to the start of the season. This is consistent with the International Football Association Board’s rules, specifically the VAR Protocol, which states that – Looking at the above rules, the VAR should assist the referee to check if a red-card offence has been committed. The on-pitch referee had given a yellow card, but it is appropriate for the VAR to check, and advise the referee if he feels there has been a mistake. In this case, we can assume that the VAR felt that this was a foul that denied a goal scoring opportunity. Not only that, but the VAR felt that this was a potential sending-off offence. Let’s look at IFAB’s rules when it comes to sending-offs for denying goal scoring opportunities. Focus on the wording here. The key words to look out for here have been highlighted in yellow. To qualify for a red card, the referee needs to be sure that Anu’s actions have denied a goal, or an OBVIOUS goal-scoring opportunity. There are two questions to then ask:- Was Anu’s foul a foul that denied an obvious goal scoring opportunity? I shall start referring to the denial of an obvious goal scoring opportunity as a DOGSO offence for the ease of my typing and your reading. Whether or not Anu’s foul is a DOGSO, is dependent on four factors. These four factors are :- General direction of the play Let’s clear up the easy one – “general direction of the play”. This is an important factor to consider because even if the foul were to happen in the penalty area for example, which is obviously a dangerous area of the pitch – if the attacker was moving away from the goal to such an extent that he is unlikely to score, then it cannot be said that an OBVIOUS goal scoring opportunity has been denieed. In this case, I would say that Tadanari Lee’s push of the ball is right towards goal, and so factor no. 2 is fulfilled. Distance between the offence and the goal The next easy one is factor no. 1. There is obviously a reason for why distance between the offence and the goal is a factor to be considered. Generally, the further away from goal a player is, the more uncertainty there is when it comes to scoring the goal. Any number of things can happen – the player may lose control of the ball, the defenders may catch up, the keeper has more time to set himself, etc etc etc. Let’s take a look at the still image of when Anu fouls Tadanari Lee. Try not to chuckle (or chuckle in pain if you are me) when you see that the foul literally happens not just in the centre circle, but on the halfway line. An easy decision here on whether factor no. 1 is fulfilled – it is very far from goal and so this is a clear “no”. Likelihood of keeping or gaining control of the ball I think the touch taken by Tadanari Lee to bring it around Anu is a smart one, and I think he pushed it the right distance to still be able to get to the ball. As much as I hate to admit it, it was a very good touch, and Tadanari Lee would have been able to reach it and regained control of the ball. Factor no. 3 is thus fulfilled. Location and number of defenders I think this one is debatable. You can see in the image above that there are 2 other defenders with Anu. Bill is closer to his own touchline

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[POST-MATCH THOUGHTS] – Winning On A Cold Rainy Night In Bishan (LCS 3 DPMM 1)

1 Comment / Post-Match Thoughts / Eddy Hirono

Pre-game, the club cheekily said in their Instagram post that it was time to do it on a “cold rainy night in Bishan“. For those who may not be familiar with the reference, this is one of English football’s greatest cliches, where if you wanted cast doubt on a foreign signing, you would claim that while he may be a world-beater, you would question if he would be able to “do it on a cold rainy night in Stoke“. The origin of this phrase was from Andy Gray who in 2011 ridiculously claimed that while Messi was a world-class talent, he would not be able to do well in an away game at Stoke, presumably because the physicality of the Stoke players, and awful weather conditions would combine to nullify Messi. DPMM Playing Like Stoke? Enough with the history lesson. If there was any team that was going to be Stoke-like last night, it certainly wasn’t the Sailors. DPMM, making their comeback to the SPL were physical and robust all night, fighting and scrapping hard to try to wrestle some control of the game. In some ways, it was pretty admirable to watch, given that they managed to pump themselves up for the fight when they had not played a high-level competitive league game for three years. I had the privilege of speaking to Coach Adrian Pennock after the game, and he gave praise to his players for their attitude. He also said he was filled with enthusiasm after the performance especially because he was dealing with some injuries in the squad, and also because key midfielder Josip Balic was out. However, even though it pains me to say this because Coach Pennock was such a gent in the post-match interview, the fans (myself included) did get mighty pissed off by the time-wasting antics of the Bruneians in the first half before the goal went in. The keeper seemed to take an age with every goal kick. He Pickford-ed at every opportunity (do yourself a favour and check it up on youtube to see what I mean – but basically this means a keeper wasting time by dramatically falling onto the ball and taking a long time to get up even though it is a routine save). In fact, he wasted so much time that at one goal kick, a small boy in the stands behind me shouted “What’s wrong with this goalkeeper? He take one kick take 50 years ah?” Kids say the darndest things, don’t they – but in this case he wasn’t exactly off the mark. Perhaps if we can have some sympathy for them, this is their first competitive game in a while, and Coach Pennock also referred to the fatigue suffered by his players, especially in the second half, so maybe they were just trying to slow the pace of the game down a little. Still doesn’t make all that diving and time-wasting OK, but oh well we got the win, so, moving on. Defensive Frailty? Much like the Tanjong Pagar game, there is a bit of a worry within me watching our Sailors play because while we look to be in control for large parts of the game, when we come under some pressure, it really seems like a sense of panic spreads within the team, and this period of pressure becomes a little sustained. We then have to rely on excellent goalkeeping, or last-ditch tackles to really try and keep our opponents out. Last night, the goal came from an error by Zharfan Rohaizad, who up till then had been pretty decent. He was called upon to save a few shots, and he did that well. He was also good with distribution too. However, the error was a glaring one as he passed the ball straight to Varankow and this eventually led to a goal. I think this happens sometimes when we play out from the back, and I liked that Coach Risto played down the error when he said – Zharfan had a decent game otherwise, especially considering the wet conditions. He made saves when he had to, clung on to some of the crosses well, and although I am sure he will not be happy with his overall performance, it is definitely something to build on. Defensively, I thought Lionel Tan had a great game and he seemed to crunch into many challenges, getting on the nerves of the DPMM players, who repeatedly got into verbal tussles with him. He was involved in 15 challenges, and won 11 of them. Impressively, he only gave away one foul despite his front-foot approach towards defending which led to him sometimes being pulled out of his favoured central-defensive position. Also impressive was his 93% passing completion rate with 54 passes played – a high percentage considering one of the often-held criticisms about him is his lack of ball-playing ability. Anu won 82% of his challenges as well, and was generally untroubled until a spell in the second half, where the whole team seemed to lose composure for a little bit. In our post-match interview with Hami Syahin, he mentioned that there will inevitably be times in a game where the players lack a little focus, or the opponents look to be dominant in attack, but the team would rely on Hariss to calm them down and help them remain composed. I have to admit that from my perspective in the stands, it really did seem that the period before DPMM’s goal already showed us hints that DPMM were going to trouble the scoresheet soon – so I am not so sure that the composure was really visible to us fans. Why the apparent sudden defensive frailty in the 2nd half? Frankly I cannot tell. I’ve already tasked Zach to look into this, and hopefully he will have some answers for us in the Tactical Analysis piece that should come out in the next few days! Quick Thinking Makes the First Goal Before I

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