The Lion City Sailors will look to get off to a winning start in the inaugural ASEAN Club Championship (ACC) Shopee Cup at the Batakan Stadium tomorrow (22 August) night, but their task will not come easy against an in-form Borneo FC Samarinda side.
A Borneo side in fine form
The Dolphins have begun the 2024/25 Indonesia Liga 1 season in fine form, with victories over Semen Padang (3-1) and Arema FC (2-0) in their first two games. They are now joint-top of their domestic league, along with PSM Makassar and Bali United on identical records based on goals scored and conceded.
They had also excelled in the annual pre-season President’s Cup, progressing all the way to the final, where they lost to Arema on penalties after a 1-1 draw in regulation time.
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Joint-top scorer in that tournament with three goals, Borneo’s new Brazilian no. 9 Léo Gaúcho carried that form into the league as he netted against Semen Padang on his Liga 1 debut.
The 23-year-old is one of several new foreign signings Borneo brought in during the off-season, along with Burundian midfielder Christophe Nduwarugira, Argentinian forward Mariano Peralta, and compatriots Ronaldo Rodrigues, Berguinho and Lucas Salinas.
Complementing a strong roster of former and current Indonesia internationals such as Diego Michiels, Stefano Lilipaly and Nadeo Argawinata, Borneo are heading into their first-ever regional tournament with optimism.
“We’re happy to participate in this competition, we’re fit and ready to play after a good start to the season,” said Borneo Head Coach Pieter Huistra at the pre-match press conference.
“My expectations for the team are always high – we want to win our next game. So far, it’s gone quite well, but of course, international football has a different dynamic to it. Furthermore, we only have a few clips of the Sailors, so it’ll be difficult to predict how they’ll play.”
Under the guidance of the 57-year-old Dutchman, Borneo finished the 2023/24 Indonesia Liga 1 regular season eight points ahead of eventual Championship series winners Persib Bandung, who are coincidentally the Sailors’ Group Stage opponents in the upcoming AFC Champions League (ACL) Two campaign.
Sailors going in with equally solid shape
The Sailors, too, are bullish about their prospects in the Group B opener, having started the season with nine wins and a draw in their first 11 league matches of the season.
A first defeat of the season to BG Tampines Rovers in mid-July served as a wake-up call for the team, who have since bounced back with three successive victories over Young Lions, Hougang United, and Brunei DPMM, to stay well in the title hunt.
“There’s no doubt about Borneo’s quality, and it’ll be tough, but we’re coming into this in a pretty good spot, given how our season has gone so far. The team will be ready to compete and try to represent the nation well in this tournament,” said Sailors tactician Aleksandar Ranković.
The Sailors can count on a fit-again Bart Ramselaar, who has recovered from a hamstring injury that kept him out for the past four games. And the former PSV Eindhoven man is ready to play an influential role for the Sailors again in the attacking third.
“I’m happy to be back helping the team and playing this regional competition,” said the 28-year-old, who has scored five goals in six league appearances for the Sailors since arriving in the off-season.
“The intensity will be quite high and I know Indonesian clubs have big fanbases, so we’re expecting a huge crowd tomorrow. But that will only motivate us to prove ourselves on this stage.”
A testing schedule ahead for the Sailors
Along with Thailand’s Buriram United and Philippines’ Kaya FC–Iloilo, the Sailors are one of three teams playing in both the Shopee Cup and ACL competitions, on top of competing in the domestic league.
The Sailors will return to SPL action soon after the Borneo game to take on defending league champions Albirex Niigata (S) on Sunday (25 August) evening. This marks the start of a gruelling sequence of games for the Sailors in the continental competitions and domestic league matches in the coming months.
While Ranko acknowledged this would be a challenging period for his team, he has backed his charges to rise to the ocassion.
He said, “It’s going to be a challenge, that’s for sure, because we’re playing in four different competitions (including the Singapore Cup), and if you see our schedule especially from August to October, it’s pretty busy. So, my job is not only to get the team performing, but also to keep the squad fit.
“Out of experience, it’s not going to be easy, but I have full faith in the boys and I know they have what it takes to be competing on different fronts.”
