With 11 additions over the summer, Lion City Sailors fielded a new-look side against Tampines Rovers, with seven new signings in their starting eleven as the two sides clashed in the season-opening Community Shield.
Only midfielders Kyoga Nakamura and Bart Ramselaar retained their starting places from the Sailors’ final league game against the same opponents back in May, but it was Ilhan Fandi who stole the spotlight on his return to Singapore after nearly four years abroad in Belgium and Thailand, announcing his arrival in style.
Singapore’s top scorer at the recent ASEAN championship with four goals, Ilhan continued where he left off from international duty, bagging a brace on the way to a convincing 2-0 win over the Stags.
“(It was) amazing because I haven’t felt this atmosphere in a long time in the Singapore Premier League. It’s a good start to get off to with my new team, so I am just delighted, but of course, there’s still a lot of room for improvement. And I just can’t wait to see what the season holds for us… Hopefully, we all have an amazing season together and have something special to cheer about this year,” Ilhan said.
With two draws, two defeats and just one win over Tampines across all competitions last season, the Sailors’ dominance last term en route to winning the domestic double often counted for little against their bogey side.
But there was no such struggle on Sunday (Sept 6) night, as the Sailors put the Stags to the sword, avenging last August’s 4-1 battering when Tampines lifted the Shield while sending a warning shot to the rest of the league.
“Really happy with the performance from the boys, given the less-than-ideal situation over the past two weeks. But the players were very professional, keeping to the task, and staying focused for this important game because we know last year how much the team was hurt after we lost the Community Shield. So for me as a player, (the goal) was to get revenge, and I’m just glad that we did it,” Ilhan said, referring to the abrupt departure of head coach Jesus Casas.
It took all of 17 minutes for Ilhan to open his Sailors’ account when he started a nice passing move down the left and finished it off, connecting well with Diogo Costa’s first-time cross, getting low to head it into an empty net.
Just nine minutes later, the 2022 Young Player of the Year recipient doubled his tally when a neat one-two between Ramselaar and Farhan Zulkifli utilised the latter’s explosive acceleration to great effect down the right. Despite scuffing his shot from Farhan’s cutback, the ball bobbled its way to the far corner off the post.
Tampines finally had their first sight of goal in the 33rd minute when last season’s top scorer, Hide Higashikawa, raced onto Yuki Kobayashi’s punt into the box.
New signing Victor Aznar came off his line to clear, but misjudged the ball, allowing Higashikawa to take it past him.
However, Higashikawa’s effort cannoned off the post.
The Sailors flexed their depth with a raft of substitutes in the second half and never seemed to have to kick into second gear as they saw out the win comfortably.
On the loss, Tampines head coach Nazri Nasir said, “There’s a lot of positives when you look at it. We played great football… and, importantly, created some really good opportunities as well.”
“(The Sailors) can afford to do a lot of rotation, and when they change their players, they are all quality… It’s difficult, but we had a game plan, and before the game, I told the players, ‘we can look at their new signings, but we have to stick to our game plan and believe in ourselves.’ Unfortunately, (we lost). But we played good football, and looking forward, it’s positive.”
The Stags will have little time to dwell on this loss as they face Balestier in the SPL opener this Friday (Sept 11) at Our Tampines Hub.
