Month: August 2023
In an electrifying encounter at Our Tampines Hub on Friday (4 August), the Lion City Sailors turned in a dominant performance to secure a convincing 5-2 victory over Tampines Rovers in the Singapore Premier League (SPL).
The result – coming off the back of a Maxime Lestienne first-half hat-trick and a quickfire second-half brace by Richairo Živković – saw the Sailors strengthen their grip on second spot in the nine-team SPL standings, and keep their faint title hopes alive with just two games left to play.
The Sailors have 48 points with Tampines on 44. League leaders Albirex Niigata (S) hold a five-point advantage over the Sailors and have a game in hand over both sides.
Speaking after the frenetic encounter, Sailors Head Coach Aleksandar Ranković was effusive in his praise.
“I think it was one of the best first halves that we have played, the only thing we missed in that first half was a fourth goal. I thought we deserved the win for our performance throughout the game,” said Ranko, of his charges’ complete domination of the first period that ended 3-0.
“I would rather have not conceded a goal but we conceded from two set pieces: a penalty and a corner. We were really very good at dealing with these in previous games, but now we have to get back to the drawing board.”
“Nevertheless, I am very proud of my side for this tough win.”
The match started with a flurry of action with the Sailors quick to impose their style of play, taking just 10 minutes to open the scoring.
In a Maxime inverted winger masterclass, the Belgian glided in from the right, cut inside, and curled the ball past Tampines custodian Syazwan Buhari from outside the box to make it 1-0.
Maxime would score his second goal of the night just nine minutes later. The 31-year-old intercepted a loose Shuya Yamashita pass in the Tampines half, and instinctively let fly with a 30-yard chip that drew another despairing dive from Syazwan who was caught in no man’s land.
Maxime would complete his hat-trick in the 36th minute as he slammed the rebound home after his initial lob over Syazwan came back off the post.
This was the former PSV Eindhoven man’s second hat-trick of the 2023 SPL season, and puts him atop the SPL goal-scorers chart with 23 goals, two ahead of Balestier Khalsa’s Ryoya Taniguchi.
The Stags emerged for the second half with all guns blazing, and hauled themselves back into the game with a 58th-minute goal courtesy of Miloš Zlatković’s header off a corner.
In the 74th minute, Tampines were awarded a penalty when Bailey Wright was adjudged to have blocked Yasir Hanapi’s shot with his arm. Boris Kopitović – who came on at half-time – scored the resulting spot-kick to reduce the deficit to just one goal.
But their joy was short-lived.
The Sailors halted Tampines growing momentum just three minutes later. Second-half substitute Adam Swandi delivered a perfectly timed ball over the top to Richairo, who raced into the box and slotted past the goalkeeper.
The former Ajax Amsterdam man pulled the rug out from under the Stags’ feet another three minutes later, tapping home from close range after Adam’s attempted shot fell kindly at his feet in the 80th minute.
“We did a big job today: getting the three points. This gives us some space to breathe in terms of securing second spot, but in this competition you cannot get fooled that you are going to win the games easily,” said Ranko.
“We have two games left to play and they are tough opponents too, so we just have to focus on ourselves, and get the job done.”
The Sailors will next face Hougang United away at Jalan Besar Stadium on 13 Aug, before closing their 2023 SPL season more than a month later against Geylang International at home on 16 September.
While the Sailors have a firm grip on second spot, Maxime refused to close the door on his faint hopes of a league title.
“Today was a very important game for us to be second in the league but the objective for the whole season was to be champions. That is very hard now, but we will give everything until the end,” he said.
“Honestly, I don’t care about being the top scorer, my objective is to help the team win games so we can win the title – and now to make sure we finish second.
“We have two more games and we will continue to give everything.”
After a resilient showing in which they scored late to down title rivals Hougang United 1-0 in the Deloitte Women’s Premier League (WPL) on Sunday (30 July), the Lion City Sailors Women’s Team will be looking to finish Round 1 of the league strongly when they face Tiong Bahru FC on Saturday (5 August).
The Sailors Women are perched atop the pinnacle of the 10-team WPL table with 22 points from eight games, while Tiong Bahru occupy 9th position – second-from-bottom – with just three points to their name.
Sailors Head Coach Sheau Shyan revealed that there will be a somewhat different look to her lineup this weekend, but not because the Sailors are taking Tiong Bahru lightly.
“Our youth players, such as Cara Chang, Madelin Lock, Josephine Ang and Tia Foong will get to play more this Saturday. I want to help them get game time to progress and give these girls greater exposure,” said the 45-year-old.
“We are not complacent against Tiong Bahru at all, instead, we are just confident that our younger players can deliver the same results.”
There were also some external factors that nudged Sheau Shyan in this direction.
The Sailors are bidding farewell to three Under-16 players – Chloe Koh, Ardhra Arul Ganeswaran and Natasha Naszri – who have been granted prestigious overseas scholarships through the Unleash The Roar! (UTR) national project.
This will be Chloe’s and Ardhra’s last game with the team as they will leave Singapore next week to spend the next three years at IMG Academy’s programme in Florida, USA, while Natasha will be leaving in September to be enrolled in ESC LaLiga Academy in Madrid, Spain.
The Sailors have already bid adieu to Paula Druschke and Madison Telmer – key players in the 2022 WPL campaign that saw the women win the title as Invincibles – who left Singapore to further their educational aspirations, while they also lost key centre-back Fatin Aqillah for the rest of the season due to an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury.
“In this game, I’d like to see how it would be without some of our crucial players and whether we can continue playing in the style that we want, but with a new set of young players coming in,” said Sheau Shyan.
“It does not matter if we are playing a stronger team or a weaker team, we will always try to impose our style of play on the game. Building an effective recognisable style of football remains important for us, and we will continue to do this even as we look to get results.”
Sailors’ leading goal scorer, Nur Izzati Rosni, shared similar views.
“We have several younger players coming up into the squad now, and I will try my best to guide them to play our style of football – in fact this is the mindset that us senior players have adopted because we will all have to do our part,” said the 24-year-old, who is also the WPL’s joint-second top scorer with six goals.
“We need to use these games to showcase what we have worked on on the training ground, and to continue to improve on our style of football in each game, we must be focused every time we step out onto the pitch.
“At the end of the day, we want to put on good performances for our fans who always come to the stadiums to support us, and become champions of the WPL again.”
The Singapore Premier League (SPL) is well into the business end of its 2023 season, and it has thrown up another high-stakes encounter this Friday (2 August): the Lion City Sailors are set to take on Tampines Rovers at Our Tampines Hub (OTH) in a head-to-head battle for second place – and that coveted spot to represent Singapore at Asian Football Confederation (AFC) club competitions in 2024.
The Sailors hold a slight edge, their 45-point tally is one ahead of Gavin Lee’s Tampines in a match where victory could all but secure second spot in the nine-team SPL standings, and see the Sailors stay within mathematical reach of Albirex Niigata (S) who are on 50 points.
The pressure is real but central defender Lionel Tan has a plan.
“They have a squad that has been playing together for several years, and that familiarity is going to make it difficult for us in a high-pressure situation, and the only way to come out on top is to face the pressure and really embrace it,” said the Singapore international.
“If there’s no pressure in football, it’s not really football, is it?
“We failed to deliver in a couple of moments this year, but we’ve got another chance on Friday and we will grab it with both hands.”
It was a 1-1 draw the last time these two sides faced each other in June, with the Stags edging things 4-3 in the year’s first encounter in March.
The Sailors have lost two recent games – 3-1 defeats to Brunei DPMM and the White Swans in July – but Lionel believes the way to make things work is to turn focus inwards, towards facets that can be controlled.
“They have terrific chemistry and they have players that have played together for a number of years and they play a possession based style of football, and try to create things out of that. But at this stage, what is more important is that we focus on ourselves, how we want to play and what we really want to achieve,” he said.
“We have so much quality in our ranks that if we’re able to do that, I’m certain we can come out of the game with all three points.”
After his thunderous goal against Balestier Khalsa on Monday, a goal that saw the raucous crowd at Bishan Stadium jump to their feet, the Singapore international is eagerly looking forward to the Sailors fans’ bringing a similar energy to OTH.
“This is definitely one of the biggest fixtures in the league this year and I foresee a fantastic game ahead because both teams are still fighting hard for second spot,” said Lionel.
“We are playing away and that’s perhaps why it’s even more important that everyone heads to Tampines and spur us on in the same way that they do at Bishan – because there really is no doubt, the 12th man effect is real – and it’s wild.”
The Lion City Sailors dispatched Balestier Khalsa 5-2 at Bishan Stadium on Monday (31 July) night to go second in the Singapore Premier League (SPL), in a match that saw three penalties, moments of brilliance and an avalanche of goals.
The match was far from a one-sided affair though, as the Sailors had to hustle and overcome several challenges to secure a hard-fought win over Balestier – who played with one man less for most of the game following Madhu Mohana’s early red card.
While satisfied with the three points that put his charges in prime position to become Singapore’s representatives in Asian Football Confederation (AFC) club competitions in 2024, Head Coach Aleksandar Ranković believes there is still much room for improvement.
“We won the game and scored five goals and some of the players that didn’t start as much previously (such as Zulqarnaen Suzliman, Abdul Rasaq Akeem and Christopher van Huizen) played today, and that is very positive. But we had an extra man from the ninth minute of the game, and we should have finished this game much earlier,” said the 44-year-old.
“But I am happy for the win.”
This result meant that the Sailors are second in the nine-team SPL standings on 45 points, one ahead of Tampines Rovers in the race to finish as the top local side. League leaders Albirex Niigata (S) are still the favourites for the title with a five-point advantage over the Sailors and a game in hand.
The game sprung into life early on when Balestier centre-back Madhu was given a straight red card following a VAR review, this after tugging Abdul Rasaq down in the penalty box.
However, Richairo Živković’s resulting penalty on 11 minutes was denied by Tigers goalkeeper Hairul Syirhan as the score remained level.
Six minutes later, it was Balestier’s turn to be denied from the spot as Sailors custodian Zharfan Rohaizad tipped Ryoya Taniguchi’s effort around the post after Bailey Wright was deemed to have fouled Daniel Goh in the area.
The Sailors went on to break the deadlock in the 24th minute, with Richairo at the right place at the right time to tap home after Maxime Lestienne’s shot was parried onto his path.
Balestier took just three minutes to draw level.
Taniguchi managed to convert a penalty on his second attempt after Masahiro Sugita was brought down in the area by Sailors captain Hariss Harun.
The Sailors retook the lead in the 35th minute. With the ball at his feet and a clear sight of the goal, Lionel Tan unleashed an audacious shot from nearly 30 yards out, the thunderous shot swerving in the air before bulging the Balestier net.
Ranko’s charges carried the momentum into the second half and went 3-1 up in the 47th minute with Bailey rising highest to head home his first goal for the club off Maxime’s corner.
Balestier halved the deficit through Hoshino’s unstoppable shot on 60 minutes, but the Sailors kept going and restored their two-goal advantage just a minute later with Shawal Anuar popping up in the box to convert Chris’s teasing inswinging cross.
The rout was completed in the 74th minute as substitute Diego Lopes struck a precise corner delivery to tee Bailey up for his second headed goal of the night.
It was the Australian’s first-ever career brace and he got the Man-of-the-Match for his efforts.
“It is a much better feeling for me than what it was in my debut for the Sailors and we showed good character today as a team. Even though we made some bad decisions, we got on with it and we got back in the game and I think we deserved to win,” said the 31-year-old, who was shown a straight red card on his Sailors debut – July’s 3-1 loss to Brunei DPMM.
“There are a lot of positives today such as scoring some really good goals and having some good play but it doesn’t matter what the result is, there is a lot that we can always improve on.”
But Bailey remained modest about his goal-scoring exploits.
“Scoring those two goals was nice but thinking about the goals can hide away the things I didn’t do so well. I want to get better and better and make sure I am at the top of my game week in week out and to do that, I need to have an honest opinion of my performance,” he shared.
“To be honest, I am a bit frustrated with my personal game tonight, like giving away a penalty and few other things because as a defender we do not want to concede any goals and be more solid.
“As a defender, I would rather keep a clean sheet and not concede, and I will look back at the game because there is a lot I want to improve on.”
The Sailors’ next SPL assignment comes around quickly as they travel to Our Tampines Hub to face Tampines on Friday (4 August) night.
