Post-Match Thoughts – Page 9

Post-Match Thoughts – Half-Fit Kodai With a Brace (LCS 3 Tanjong Pagar 1)

Leave a Comment / Daily Musings, Post-Match Thoughts / Eddy Hirono

This season, SailorFanTalk endeavours to do a Post-Match Thoughts article after every game, followed by a Tactical Analysis column (usually written by Zach Wu). The former focuses more on thoughts and opinions from our perspective as fans watching the game, while the latter is more technical and seeks to be more neutral in its analysis of gameplay – after all, it is written by a Hougang United fan! It has been an exhausting week content-wise for us at SailorFanTalk. Monday saw Joseph and myself head down to Mattar Road (where the LCS Training Centre is located) for Media Open Day. Tuesday saw me heading to Yahoo SEA HQ to record a podcast with the affable pair of Han Keong and Neil Humphreys. Wednesday was spent trying to collate all the material gathered from Monday’s Media Open Day and publish it before the season opener. Thursday saw the first-ever SailorFanTalk and The Goal Difference collab, and then of course, the most important of all, Friday was matchday. Perhaps it’s just my conditioning as an Arsenal fan, maybe it was due to the Sailors’ implosion last year, or maybe it was just the fatigue built up over the week trying to juggle SailorFanTalk with a demanding full-time job – for some reason, I walked into Bishan Stadium today predicting a 2-1 win, but deep inside expecting a Tanjong Pagar upset. I know it’s strange given the Sailors are way stronger on paper, but when I saw the lineup had no Shawal, no Anu, had a half-fit Kodai leading the line, and a new-look backline of Bill and Lionel, I felt a little apprehensive. Add to that the number of former Protectors/Sailors in the opposing lineup, including Naqi, Faizal, Tajeli, Kenji, Shahrin and of course Shakir, and that apprehension turned into a real palpable sense of unease. And so when Mirko Sugic stepped up to take the penalty, the Arsenal fan in me went “Ah, here we go again, same old shit again“. The penalty came after a spell of pressure that Tanjong Pagar had put us under, pressure that was non-existent in the first half. Luckily for us, he missed, and we went on to win pretty comfortably – we were never troubled that much after the penalty miss. A few thoughts post-game – The Hami-Jonan Show I’ve said it before all the way back from Home United days – Hami Syahin is an absolute gem in midfield. He is the Singaporean Thiago. Always getting on the ball, always using deft little touches to maneouvre the ball away from his opponents, and then using a combination of short and long passes to keep the play moving. However, with Shahdan in the club, Hami never really got his chance to play much for the Sailors (7 appearances only last season). Shahdan is an absolute maestro, and almost anything Hami can do, Shahdan can do better, except maybe dribbling at speed with the ball. Even so, I did question last season whether players like Hami could have been relied more upon nearing the tail-end of the season Hami finally got a chance to start tonight and he was magnificent. I would love to see the stats when they come out to confirm that whatever the fans observed is true. He must have played many progressive passes, and maintained a high passing percentage. Despite his small frame, he also put himself about and bravely entered into duels with intensity. It was overall, a very impressive performance. Hami then came off injured in the 81st minute – hopefully it’s just cramps. He was replaced by Jonan Tan, and the young lad who turns 17 in June came on to rapturous applause from the Crew. I think the fans were very excited to see the debut of someone so young, partly because it fills us Sailors fans with hope that despite all the high-profile departures, the club still has a solid youth pipeline to supplement the first team with. And so it proved. Jonan was certainly not lacking in confidence. It started even before he came on. With the crowd cheering his name while he waited for the substitution to be called, he looked at the supporters half in amusement and half in appreciation. Where other young players making their debut might be experiencing all sorts of butterflies in their stomach, Jonan did not look unnerved at all. He was tidy with his passing, and even drove through midfield with the ball on occasion. He started the move for the crucial second goal, riding a half-challenge, and playing a pass into Lestienne on the left wing for him to set up Kodai’s goal (more on this later). It must have been a pretty sweet moment for Jonan, and we are certainly hoping for more to come from him. We leave you with an amazing little fact. Our current Academy General Manager, Tan Li Yu, was Jonan’s first coach when he was just 5 years old. We can confirm that we have seen a super-cute picture from Li Yu on this, and we are unfortunately unable to share this with you! Just have to take our word for it that it’s super cute. More to come from Jonan I am sure! Kodai is only Half-Fit Let that sink in. Kodai was injured in the back-end of the Singapore Cup last season. Funnily enough, his injury (fractured toe) was apparently caused by Lionel Tan – and they are teammates now. Not just teammates, but when asked by Grandstand, Kodai said Lionel’s his best friend in the club. He has not played football for 3 mths, and only resumed light training with the team 2 weeks ago. In fact, in the post-match conference, Kodai said that he ran to hug Coach Risto after his goal because he was so grateful that Coach Risto showed faith in him to start him despite him not being in peak physical condition. Coach Risto himself described Kodai as only 50% fit. And yet,

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Post-Match Thoughts – Too Little Too Late (LCS 1 Albirex 2)

Leave a Comment / Post-Match Thoughts / Eddy Hirono

Much, much improved from our previous games. In yesterday’s post (https://sailorfantalk.com/2022/11/04/albirex-match-preview-play-for-the-badge/), I asked for the players to show fight – “That’s all we ask for – give us a performance that we can be proud of, so that whatever the result, we can feel that they’ve done their best.” They certainly delivered. It was a much more gutsy performance, and right from the first whistle, it looked like it was only going to be a matter of time before the Sailors would open the scoring. Faris was leading the press up top with vigour, Anu was snapping into challenges even after receiving a harsh yellow. Hariss rolled back the years with a combative display in midfield. Bill Mahmadou was also switched on right from the start. Everyone put in the hard yards, and was not shy of making challenges to try to get the ball back for us. And so it was pretty sad that the first goal went to Albirex. They had struggled in the first half to mount any meaningful attack, and then the ref gave them a soft freekick at the edge of our area. This was to be a theme all night as the inept referee repeatedly turned a blind eye to fouls by the Albirex players. Up stepped set-piece expert Idetsu, and he curled it into the near post, past Izwan. An undeserved lead, and it left us with a mountain to climb. However, we didn’t seem that affected. The players still played the better football, but crucially couldn’t finish. Gabriel, Diego Lopes, Faris Ramli, all had great opportunities to get a goal but it didn’t happen until Hami Syahin’s switched pass was brought down by Maxime Lestienne, who then faked out the Albirex defence before passing it coolly into the bottom corner. 1-1, game on. Except it wasn’t to be. As the Sailors pushed forward, gaps were left at the back, and Kodai Tanaka stepped up to kill the hopes off. The Young Lions game was the problem As stated above, I think the players were blameless this game. They gave it all they got. Where I think we lost it, was against Balestier Khalsa and the Young Lions, but especially the Young Lions game. No attacking urgency, sloppy in midfield and defence, we deserved nothing from that game. Unfortunately, those 2 games not being capitalised on have come back to bite us on our ass hard. And sadly, across the 3 games, we deserve to go out. It was thus our last game of the season. We will have tons of time to look into why the season finished the way it did, and what the Sailors should do for next season. For now, I think it’s fair to say that these standards fall way short of the standards needed to play for the Lion City Sailors. Good in the last game, but abysmal the two games before. Till next time.

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POST-MATCH THOUGHTS – BLUE (YOUNG LIONS 1 LCS 1)

3 Comments / Post-Match Thoughts / Eddy Hirono

Well, that was bleak. In my post previewing the Young Lions game, I talked about how it was a must-win game. I also spoke about how Young Lions were missing Raoul Suhaimi, one of their most promising players. Yesterday, when the line-ups came out, two things stood out to me. 1) Jordan Emaviwe wasn’t playing. He’s been their key attacking outlet, so this was definitely good for us. Their “striker” was a central midfielder. 2) Bizarrely, we chose to line up with only 1 recognised defender. I was hoping to see lots of goals in the first half, because I had to leave at half-time to go play in the Fan Club Futsal League. The Crew had a match against Olympique Marseille Fan Club (we got smacked 11-0 haha), and I had high hopes of seeing the Sailors kill off the game in the first half. Instead, I was treated to a lacklustre display where players seemed to not want to take any risks when they circulated the ball, passing it about in a U shape. Try to visualise it – but basically the passes would go from left wing back to central midfield, back to Anu, Anu passes it to Amirul Adli, who then passes it to his right, and then it ends up at the wing again, and they do the same thing the other way round this time. It was painful to watch. There were also moments when the Young Lions started playing tiki-taka football. It is not often you get to associate the Young Lions with dynamic one-touch passing moves, but it happened, and it unfolded right before my eyes. I guess if I wanna be truly optimistic I can be happy that Singapore has some young players who are able to play good football. But as a Sailors fan, it was horrifying to watch. This is real football, not FIFA Also, is it just me, or does anyone else think it was absolutely crazy to play so many non-defenders in a back 4? Anu has deputised there this season on a number of occasions but I think even he himself would not say he excelled in his stints there. Then on the fullback positions it gets more bizarre. Hafiz Nor at rightback we’ve gotten accustomed to seeing due to long-term injury to Mamat, and the expulsion of Tajeli – but this time he was shifted to leftback. Rightback Haiqal Pashia? He’s never played there before in his life I think – please correct me if I am wrong. Was this arrogance? Tactically naive? I don’t know what it was, but what I do know is that when you’re trying to score a lot of goals to rack up goal difference, it’s not as simple as sticking on as many attackers as possible. I can only assume that this was Lalic’s idea of squeezing in as many goal threats as possible. However, how can people attack with conviction, if they know that behind them, their teammates might not be equipped to deal with a counter-attack? This isn’t FIFA, where defending is easy as long as your players are fast. Defence is an art, managing the gaps, dictating the height of the line, knowing when to push up, and when to drop back, etc etc etc. I felt that the defenders seemed not to know when they should press higher, and when they should drop off. When things got tougher and they came under pressure, I felt they dropped too deep. But can I blame them? No I don’t think so. When you have Iqram Rifqi on your bench, and you decide to play Hafiz Nor as your leftback, I have to ask “Bro, what?” The shocking own goal And then we come to the incident just before half-time. Was it Amirul Adli’s fault? Izwan? Both? I would say both, but I lean towards Amirul Adli more I think. It’s almost half-time, the stadium announcer had already loudly announced that there was only gonna be 1 minute of injury time. A hopeful long punt forward saw Amirul Adli do well to get in front of his opponent – and he would have seen that he was being chased down. The whistle was gonna blow very soon – why not just clear it to the sides? For Izwan, goalkeepers are sometimes told to stand to the side as well, so that even if they fail to trap any backpass, the ball will go out for a corner. Well, no need for me to relive the goal for you. If you haven’t watched it yet, do go and see it. It has to be seen to be believed. These are our national team players. Kim Shin Wook – should he have been sent off? Yes. Not much debate here. The answer is Yes. We got away with it. That he managed to score after that will make Young Lions feel even more shit. Conclusion We now need to beat Albirex – something we have only done once in our history. I have to say I am not confident, but with Maxime and Diego, you never quite know. Stay tuned for Zach’s in-depth tactical analysis. That should be out tonight.

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Post-Match Thoughts – Chaos (LCS 3 Balestier Khalsa 3)

Leave a Comment / Daily Musings, Post-Match Thoughts / Eddy Hirono

Well, that was …. interesting I guess. We had two guests from the UK over to watch the game, and they were thoroughly entertained. Which is not exactly great for us. Three times we went ahead, three times we were pegged back by what seemed like very avoidable (and very chaotic) goals. First goal, I thought Izwan should have parried it away harder, but unfortunately it went straight back into the middle of the penalty area and the rebound was swept home. Second goal and third goal, I thought Hafiz Nor could have done way better. But to be fair to him, he’s not a traditional right-back. If Tajeli and Mamat were available, he would not be in that position at all. It is a worrying sign that we seem to be struggling against a side that is the second-bottom in the league. It is also a very worrying sign that while we had 20+ shots, our opponents also had 20+ shots. This is why I picked the word “chaos” to describe last night’s game. I am not privy to the stats but I do wonder if the LCS fitness staff can see a drop-off in performance in terms of hard yards run because to the naked eye, it really seems to me that we look very tired. And let me get this straight – I am not blaming the boys for this. I think we can all see from last season how Tampines suffered badly after they came back from their Champions League games. Physically, they looked spent. And I feel we’re seeing much of the same from our Sailors in the past 2 months. It really seems like when an attack breaks down, our players just don’t have the legs to get back in time to keep our opposition out. If there’s anyone / anything to blame, I think I’d question why more of our squad players were not used earlier in the campaign. I look at someone like Hami Syahin, who I used to call the Singaporean Thiago Alcantara, and wonder, could he not have replaced Shahdan in some games once the game was won? Could he not have started in more games? The gulf between our lineup and the lineup of our opponents should be a huge one – at least on paper. If there is any criticism of Kim Do-Hoon, I guess he was abit too conservative and did not trust the bench players more. Might that have helped to preserve some of the legs of our key players a little? It’s hard to say. I will probably address all this in a longer post in my end-of-season review. I have seen a lot of talk also about how Luka Lalic is to blame for this alone. I am not so sure about that. While I am not the greatest fan of his big talk and how he shat on Kim Do-Hoon after his appointment, I think the players have to take some responsibility too. Their opponents are mostly not national team players, while we’re chock-full of them and have the luxury of calling on players like Hami Syahin and Gabriel Quak off the bench. Surely, man for man, we’re the Galacticos of local football. That we have to rely on Maxime Lestienne again and again is not really making me feel very optimistic about the Sailors, and by extension, our national team. This is essentially the mild version of what Joseph had to say. If you want the full blow of his disappointed rant, please head on down to his post-match reactions taken last night (Post-Match Reactions – Lion City Sailors v Balestier Khalsa (Singapore Cup 27 Oct ’22) – YouTube). For now, just two things before I end this post. 1) I hope Lalic manages to find a way to minimise errors from our players moving forward. If we continue making these mistakes, we will definitely not win the Cup. 2) We have got a guest writer to write tactical analysis posts on our Singapore Cup games, and tonight we will be publishing the first of these posts. Look out for it!

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