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[Preview] Hougang United v Sailors – Season Opener, Plenty of Unknowns

1 Comment / Match Previews / Eddy Hirono

So after the excitement of lifting the Community Shield, we finally have the real season opener, a match with proper consequences, the first chance to get 3 points on the board. What can we expect from a heavily-revamped Hougang United? Let’s dive right into it. Still no Kiki Krajcek As has been mentioned on this site many times before, Krajcek is the heartbeat of this Hougang team. No Krajcek, no party. The only time they managed to even escape defeat against us without Krajcek was last season in the Singapore Cup when we had all but qualified from the group stage and we fielded an almost-entirely-local starting XI. Well Krajcek is still out, and is not expected to make his return for a couple of months still. He has been out and about doing community work for the team, but we understand from the Hougang fans that he will not be playing this week. His absence is perhaps going to be less fatal this time as compared to last season, because Shahdan has been getting some minutes in pre-season, and also because of a signing that has largely been slept on – Shodai Yokoyama. For me, Shodai Yokoyama was one of the standouts in last year’s Albirex team. A left-footed Steven Gerrard. Capable of scoring off late runs into the box, or with belters from range. Last year, he scored a total of 7 goals (if you count the Community Shield), and got 8 assists. That’s a very healthy goal contribution rate. They don’t have Zulfahmi Arifin anymore and so will miss his left foot, but in my opinion, Shodai is more than an adequate replacement. Some of his goals for you to check out. Here, here, and here. The Unknown Strikers I know jackshit about Hougang’s new strikers, Petar Banovic and Stjepan Plazonja. Let’s first check out what our friends from hougangunitedfans.com have to say about them. As part of my due diligence, I didn’t take what the Hougang fans said as gospel. I also did a real deep dive. No actually I didn’t. I pulled up a Youtube video set to shitty techno music. Of course, such compilation videos you have to take with a huge pinch of salt. What I’d add to their summaries, is that Stjepan Plazonja really really reminds me of Lukas Podolski. Booming left foot? Check. One-dimensional running without any tricks up his sleeve? Check. One-footedness which means no shots on the right foot, ever? Check. But let’s really not allow him to use his left foot in the box, lads. It is very lethal. He’s also really quite fast. He likes to push and run a lot, so we’re gonna have to be wary of that. It’s quite a sight, really, seeing someone so tall sprint so much! Petar Banovic – has a decent goalscoring record in the Prva Liga FBIH. But it’s hard to know how that translates to SPL prowess. Probably not as hard as trying to pronounce “Prva Liga FBIH” without sounding like you are replicating a fart in amateurish fashion – but still hard. We’ve spoken before about how Sime Zuzul had a shit record before coming to Singapore shores and tearing it up. Đorđe Maksimović as well, who has of course, left Hougang, did really well last season but thankfully is no longer around. So goalscoring records in other leagues don’t really tell the full story. For context, in case you are an expert in obscure European leagues, Prva Liga FBIH is the first division of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both of them are really tall too, by the way. One is 1.88m, while the other is 1.92m. It’s good that Lionel is playing rightback, because I think they are going to rely on the long diagonal into the air for their twin towers to attack. If Hafiz Nor is played there, then we’re really left to making sure we get to the second balls from the knockdowns. And I am sure Datkovic will share some banter with this duo as well. Let’s hope it gets spicy! The Unknown Centreback (no plural this time) There is no plural this time because one of the centrebacks is Ensar Bruncevic (usually referred to as Bruno in his time at Balestier Khalsa). He did not really impress last time out, and was almost always referred to as one of the worst foreigners in the league. Has he improved? Well I don’t know because I don’t watch the Serbian Super League. And even if I did, I don’t think I’d be able to glean much, seeing as he only made a handful of appearances. But it’s not likely to matter much – because it’s not like Hougang’s Japanese pair at the back were super impressive. So if he does an average job, then there won’t be much of a difference to last season. Unless of course, his partner, Faris Hasic, is really solid. He’s a 20 year old centreback, hailing once again from the Prva Liga FBIH. Unlike Ensar, he actually started a whole bunch of games. And just like Plazonja above, I did the dirty work, I sat through a video set to some shitty music. Let me clarify that statement. Faded by Alan Walker is not a shitty song. But stupid remixes of the song? Yes, shitty. Football compilation videos love to use the song “Faded“, which is ironic. “Faded” shouldn’t be used on a promising young centreback. It should be used on people like Pogba, or Casemiro, or Varane, or Maguire, or Erik Ten Hag. Ok you get the point, I don’t really like Manchester United. Faded can also be used on our 2022 title challenge after we sacked Kim Do Hoon. Ooof. #toosoon I digress. Back to the point – Faded by Alan Walker is an OK song, but football compilation videos tend to use shitty remixes of it in their video. This offending video even manages to use TWO different stupid shitty remixes of

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[Player Profile] Bart-er Trade – Will Bart Fill the Diego-Shaped Hole in our Team?

1 Comment / Player Profiles, Transfers / Eddy Hirono

If you haven’t read our piece on Diego yet, and seen how highly we regard him, do yourself a favour, click here and read it please. Bart Ramselaar comes with a similar price tag to Diego, but with arguably the bigger reputation. He will be expected to deliver right from the get-go as it very much feels like one-in, one-out. In this article, we will take a look at how his journey through football has led us here, and also what kind of player we can expect when we finally get to see him in action. Excellent Social Media Buzz Prior to the signing of Toni Datković, our beloved Sailors had been pretty quiet on the social media front, with limited content due to the fact that players were still on their holidays. We had some content when Hariss Harun and Lionel Tan went down to do giveaways of merch to fans, and also when the club opened its doors to some ardent fans who won a matchball in some other giveaways. But none of that really compared to the buzz when the club announced its new signings. The signings alone would probably have generated buzz, but the masterful way in which the club did it really set the pulses racing. Serious posts were mixed in together with the informal posts. You had your formal interviews with the pair of new signings where they outlined their ambitions for the club in the season ahead, but you also had Toni trying to figure out Singlish phrases, while I probably watched the amazing Bart Simpson v Bart Ramselaar video a few too many times. Those with fantastic eyesight would also have caught that in a teaser video hinting at a signing announcement in the afternoon, Bart Ramselaar’s face actually appeared for a split second. Go see it for yourself here and see if you can pause it right at the moment where you can see Bart’s face there, hiding in plain sight. And if all that content on Instagram was not enough, you get long-form content on Youtube where you can really hear at length from our signings. And if you’re more of a reading guy, the excellent articles on the official site give more depth to the person behind the footballer. Overall, just outstanding effort from the Sailors, and this is the excellence that we fans have come to expect from the club on all fronts. First Dutch International to Play in Singapore If I am wrong, someone please correct me, but I think Bart may be the first full Dutch international to play in our domestic league. Richairo Zivkovic has registered multiple appearances for the Dutch international youth teams, just as Bart does, but Bart has gone one step further and made 3 appearances for the senior national team. He has played with the likes of Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder and Virgil van Dijk. He has trained under the likes of Mark van Bommel, Philip Cocu, and Erik Ten Hag. He was well-loved at FC Utrecht, and had won the Eredivisie with PSV. I’ll address the big question everyone has – so why is he here? Why is Bart Here? Bart’s answer when asked in various interviews was that he had spent 10 years in the Eredivisie and it was time for an adventure to explore a different league. I am sure that this is part of the truth – but I would hazard a guess that he would have been able to seek adventures in other leagues of far greater quality. This is all speculation from this point on – but I think his big injury suffered in April 2022 had a huge part to play in how he ended up here. He was having a stellar season in 2021/2022, scoring 9 goals in 26 games and earning rave reviews for his performances. He was flying, starting every game and was an integral part of the team. However, he then suffered a knee injury which kept him out for 10 months, and when he came back in the 2022/2023 season, he was no longer a first-team regular. The situation continued into the 2023/2024 season, where he probably did not get as much game-time as he wanted. It is pretty heartening that he did start 4 games spanning December 2023 and January 2024, which suggests that he is fit and ready to contribute to the Sailors this season. In an interview with former Dutch international Andy van der Meyde, he revealed that one of the toughest times of his career was when found himself on the bench at PSV, so it’s not too much of a stretch to suggest that perhaps his lack of game-time also contributed to his decision to come to the Sailors. Nothing wrong with that – we should acknowledge our status also as a team participating in a league that is nowhere near as glamorous as the top European or even Asian leagues. Top players who come here from Europe are usually unhappy in some way with their situation. In this case, the fact that Rankovic has previously worked with him before in FC Utrecht probably didn’t hurt! Let’s just sit back and enjoy the talents of someone like Bart, whatever the circumstances may be that led him here! What Kind of Player is Bart? It is interesting that for someone who operates in midfield, Bart has more goals than assists in his career. 37 goals and 21 assists in 212 league and cup games in the Netherlands. In fact, in his stellar 2021/2022 season where he performed outstandingly well and was being talked about as potentially being able to make a big move at the end of the season, he registered 9 goals and 0 assists in the league. When you watch his highlights on Youtube, you begin to see why. He clearly has a knack for arriving late in the box to finish off team moves, and is a very sharp finisher. The

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[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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[Preview] Disgustingly Good

2 Comments / Match Previews / Eddy Hirono

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

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[Preview] Unexpected Home Advantage

Leave a Comment / Match Previews / Eddy Hirono

The fact that this match is taking place later today at Jalan Besar Stadium is a bit of a bonus. This match was supposed to be played in Bandar Seri Begawan but they are still experiencing some stadium issues. spl.sg had a bit of a weird stat when they previewed this game – have a look yourself. I mean….yes, but surely the circumstances are very different, considering that home games in 2019 for them involved an away team travelling to Brunei and playing in front of a crowd without their fans. Considering how many games the Sailors play at Jalan Besar Stadium, and how the Sailors fans are likely to turn up in numbers for this one – this is almost home advantage for us. Hopefully we capitalise. This preview is gonna be a short one cos it’s been a long work week and also because I think there’s not much to talk about facing DPMM. Let’s dive straight into some key points then – Still no SEA Games boys Nur Adam, Abdul Rasaq and Bill Mamadou will not be back in time for this one, despite Singapore getting dumped pretty unceremoniously from the SEA Games. They should be back for the next game, but this one just comes a bit too early. This might mean another start for Nathan Mao, who certainly didn’t look out of place when he played in the last game. (check out our comments in the previous article outlining our post-match thoughts against Geylang). I think many supporters would actually be very excited to see Nathan Mao start again, and hopefully this time, end up with a goal or an assist. The other possibility of course, is Danish Qayyum, who was just a bit short for the last game. We Sailors fans have not seen much of him, and it would be nice for him to get a start here I think. He’s obviously abit more experienced than Nathan Mao, and it might be important for him to be re-integrated into the team, especially when facing the two DPMM dangermen. Voronkov and Hakeme Between the two of them, they have 12 goal contributions (goals and assists). To say that they are a vital part of the team would be an understatement. In the previous match at Bishan Stadium, Hakeme particularly, was a danger throughout. With a good shot and a quick turn of pace, our defenders are going to have a handful with them. Voronkov and Hakeme are also very trigger-happy, so Zharfan will need to be at his best. It must of course be said that even though DPMM is a trigger-happy side, they create much lower quality chances, which is why they outshoot the Sailors (111 shots v 107), but have ended up with 14 goals compared to our 23. High Press In recent matches, we have bemoaned the fact that the Sailors seem to stand off a bit too much from our opponents, and don’t look to dispossess them early in their half. Against DPMM, I hope this changes. We will not get a better chance than this – DPMM’s defenders are not good at playing out from the back. In fact, they have the lowest passing accuracy (73%) in the league by some margin. The next closest to them would be Young Lions’ 77% passing accuracy. In case you’re wondering, LCS’s passing accuracy is 85%. DPMM also have the lowest average number of passes per game in the league. This is not a team that is going to be able to play out of defence if we get our pressing right. I really hope Coach Risto is going to set up the team to press the shit out of DPMM, and force them into errors. In terms of a long ball to break out of defence should they choose to employ it, Voronkov is also not the paciest forward especially given his age, so we really shouldn’t show them that much respect. Conclusion In every metric that can be measured, we’re a much better team than DPMM. Goals scored, shots on target, conversion percentage, pass accuracy, etc etc etc. We simply have to win this game to temporarily leapfrog Tampines into second place. COME ON YOU SAILORS! Score Prediction Joseph, Ethan, and myself predict the scores, and track our success in a table. Stay tuned to find out who is the prediction king! 3 points for exact scoreline predicted correctly, 2 points for predicting the winner and margin of victory correctly (but not the exact scoreline), and 1 point for predicting the outcome correctly (win, lose or draw). Eddy’s prediction: DPMM 0 Sailors 4 Joseph’s prediction: DPMM 1 Sailors 3 Ethan’s prediction: DPMM 0 Sailors 4 Written by Eddy Hirono If you’d like to support the work we do here at SailorFanTalk, you may want to visit https://ko-fi.com/sailorfantalk and leave us a tip!

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[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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[Preview] Must Capitalise on Tampines Slipping Up

1 Comment / Match Previews / Eddy Hirono

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

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[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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[Tactical Analysis] Sailors the Manchester United of the SPL (Hougang 0 Sailors 5)

1 Comment / Tactics / Zachary Wu

The following tactical analysis is from Zach Wu, who’s not a Sailors fan, but we just thought it would be good for someone without rose-tinted glasses to analyse the tactics of our games. We hope to make this a regular column so that we can better appreciate what is going on in our games from a tactical perspective. Two of the league’s big budget teams clashed here, but the side with the bigger budget got an entirely lopsided result. Hougang’s gameplan In recent weeks, in the absence of Nazrul Nazari, Hougang had reverted slightly to an old formation. Instead of a 2-3-5 build up with the 2 fullbacks as halfbacks coming into the center of the pitch, they had reverted to a 3-2-5 instead. For today’s 3-2-5 shape, it was Anders that joined the other 2 centrebacks in the first line of 3, Krajcek and Zulfahmi the midfield pivot in the two. Vestering would join the front line and play wide left, hugging the touchline. On the ball they tried to switch the ball out to the wide players using Zulfahmi. This was somewhat effective with Gabriel getting in behind Chris van Huizen, the weakest link in the Sailors back line with Super having to deal with a few balls hit in behind. However, Hougang did not manage to switch the ball consistently out to Gabriel to target Chris and Chris had a decent game himself, rendering this not an extremely effective method for Hougang to penetrate the Sailors backline. Vestering being so high up the pitch would prove to be important for LCS’s 2nd goal later as Lestienne was switched to the right wing and exploited the space behind Vestering. Vestering could not get back in time to stop Lestienne and Abdul Rasaq scored from the cutback Lestienne provided. LCS’s game plan Their game plan was the typical LCS big game gameplan. Set up in their 4-4-1-1 block, defend well and hit Hougang on the transitions. Hougang punished Hougang in the first half actually played well. They held onto the ball and stopped a lot of LCS counters. They themselves also created 0.52 xG (not great but not terrible) and even had a goal ruled out for offside. Sailors, in comparison, created 0.42 xG in the same period. However, they shot themselves in the foot with 2 mistakes from the midfield pivot. For the first, Krajcek gave away an early free kick which Lestienne dispatched. For the second, Zulfhami miscontrolled a pass from Krajcek, gave away the ball and failed to track back in time to prevent Rasaq from scoring the cutback. Second half Having a comfortable lead, the Sailors sat back and let their opponents move the ball. They allowed Hougang to make the mistakes and finished their chances clinically. Sailors were pretty impressive, creating 5 shots having more than 0.2 xG each. They certainly can create good chances, especially on transitions. As the game dragged on, with tired legs, Hougang got even more desperate to score a goal and left even more space for counters, allowing LCS to pick them off on counter attacking transitions and rack up the scoreline. Conclusion Against Hougang, it was an efficient performance at both ends of the pitch. Yes, this was vintage LCS. It was no surprise LCS would beat Hougang especially given their lack of confidence, form and a striker in particular. While Sailors did give up 25 shots to Hougang, Hougang clocked in at 0.08xG per shot taken, while the Sailors clocked in at 0.17xG per shot taken. While the Sailors could do better in restricting the number of shots taken by the opponent, The Sailors generally restricted Hougang to half chances. Sailors are the Manchester United of the SPL. They can bully lesser opposition with their strong attack but are still too reliant on counter attacking to get results in big games. It is no surprise for both teams, they have been put to the sword when better teams can utilize the ball better and crowd out their counter-attacking threats. Hougang however on the other hand have really hit rock bottom and will need to regroup quickly. It has been a shocking start for a club tipped to challenge for the title and Firdaus Kassim will definitely be looking over his shoulder in the coming weeks. Written by Zach Wu Edited by Eddy Hirono If you’d like to support the work we do here at SailorFanTalk, you may want to visit https://ko-fi.com/sailorfantalk and leave us a tip!

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

1 Comment / Match Previews / Eddy Hirono

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

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