Submitted by: Vesuvius | 22nd August 2024
We still remember the fight from Hougang to comeback from a 3-0 deficit to Balestier in round 1. It was a glorious display of semangat from the boys. However, grit and spirit is sometimes not enough to win a game.
That's when you have to resort to unorthodox player-on-player tactics to get the upper hand.
And in the fight for supremacy the last time around, we left it too little, too late to grab the 3 points.
We are set to battle the tigers again this 23rd August at the Bishan stadium. So here are some things we should be wary of against the tigers!
Let's delve into the talking points of: BALESTIER KHALSA VS HOUGANG UTD - SPL 24/25 round 2 here we go! đ„đ„
importance of using unorthodox tactics
Like many, I enjoyed the Paris olympics; watching athletes outmuscle and outwit their opponents. One particular sport which captured my attention was Judo. Here's what went down...
In the final gold medal match between Japan and France, France found themselves 3-1 down in a "best-of-six" sets showdown. For context, 4 years ago the French took the gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics. This year, the Japanese sought to return the favor on French soil. The Japanese, as usual, displayed extraordinary, unorthodox tactics to wrestle some victories from the bigger-sized French judokas.
How are you supposed to throw-down an opponent you couldn't carry and throw? Well... the Japanese sought to use unorthodox tactics.
In one of the lightweight matchups, they employed a nimble Japanese judoka who played to her strengths â engaging in a ground fight! In that fight she laid down and tossed her opponent using her foot. In another instance, in another weight category, another Japanese judoka skillfully threw her opponent to the ground from a seemingly disadvantageous position where the japanese judoka was on her knees. This was just a few moments from the French judoka towering over the Japanese and angling for a big throw. In the heavyweight category, the Japanese employed a 170+ kg judoka to make sure the French had a hard time angling for a big throw.
Alas, the Japanese didn't win it despite leading the sets at one point, by a large margin. It took an inspired French performance and unorthodox strategy to win back-to-back sets to win the Japanese. It was a joy seeing both teams evolve and change their tactics to outwit their opponent.
In the same vein, Hougang now has to face an uphill battle against a Balestier side who seemingly is an unstoppable force. To differentiate ourselves from the competition we have to employ unorthodox tactics to gain an advantage. Keep the opponents guessing.
The Throw
Speaking of Judo throwing and unorthodox tactics, We get on to my next point â Madhu's throw. We know Balestier uses Madhu's flat bullet throws from the throw-ins to Jordan Emaviwe and/or Amer Hakeem. Both guys are 1.90+ metres in height.
Anyways, this setpiece throw-in is a "unique" Balestier weapon that they employ whenever they play at home where Madhu can start his run-up from the running tracks. Against DPMM we saw it produced 2 goals, and against Tampines, we almost saw another two. Don't forget that in 2022, we conceded 2 goals from a Madhu throw-in in a 6-1 thrashing at Toa Payoh Stadium.
You can check out this video highlights from here.
Hougang needs to decide how we're going to stop those throw-ins from being effective. Could we stop their targetmen instead? We do have height in the team. Hope we put that to good use!
The Sweeper keeper
When Balestier started their transformation last year by way of attacking football, they often left their defensive side in tatters. Despite being fourth, they conceded a hefty 71 goals. Only Young Lions conceded more at 76 goals (and YL ended bottom last year). It doesn't help that Balestier has a slow backline.
This year, Peter de Roo sought to solve this issue by employing a sweeper keeper in the form of Hafiz Ahmad. The lad is very comfortable with the ball at his feet. Most importantly, Hafiz defends the empty space vacated by his backline when they push forward to box-in their opponents in their own half.
Against their most recent game against BG Tampines we saw that when he cleared those thru-balls to the path of Boris Kopitovic repeatedly. This effectively quelled the danger of Boris as he failed to score in that match.
Fortunately, this also represents a silver lining. If we somehow can catch Hafiz off his line, we could shoot from range. In the previous games, players like Faris Ramli, Syahadat Masnawi, Tomoyuki Doi have tried to capitalise when Hafiz is off his line.
But make sure we make our chances count though, because of all teams in the SPL, I genuinely feel Balestier has a wide variety of attacks they can count on. As an example, Hafiz has used his ballplaying skills to do thru-passes to release his team mates on goal turning defense into attack in an instant!
Variety in attack
So if you read this website's previous article on Balestier, you'll find we laid out the variety in their attacking arsenal.
Variety of Attack | Instigators | Explanation |
Long range shot outside the box | Fukashiro, Kozar, Tajeli | All 3 have the ability to do so from range. Fukashiro (sometimes Kozar) will look to stay back to put their laces into stray second balls outside the box. |
Crosses | Harith(left side), Darren/Sassi(right side), Tajeli(from deep right) | As shown against Tanjong Pagar where four out of five goals were started by crosses, BKFC is a real threat here. Worse is how Tajeli can deliver crosses from deep for attackers to latch on to. Bruno and Faris would have no excuse as they have the height advantage. |
Throw-ins into the penalty area | Madhu | Madhu has repeatedly done this, and he will have no qualms to do it in Bishan Stadium |
Sweeping counter-attacks | Hafiz Ahmad | Hafiz represents Balestier's desire to have a sweeper keeper who will turn defense into route-one attack. Against Geylang, their first goal came from Hafiz sweeping the ball out to the right to Fukashiro to cross to Tanaka. This could be their double edged sword. |
Wall-passes in the penalty area | Their entire forward line + Kozar and Sugita. | I think this is balestier's bread and butter where they can move the ball in tight spaces fast. Watch out for the left side of BKFC where their Japanese players look to combine this way. |
In our last encounter, we conceded the first goal with a wall-pass from outside the penalty area. Sassi passed to Fukashiro and got the pass back before he unleashed a shot past Zaiful. That simple movement caused chaos amongst our defenders as we failed to properly track runners. Other than that, we fortunately kept all their attacking variety in check.
We lost the other 2 goals to a penalty and a silly thru-pass. But I digress.
Balestier will always set up with a front three and that's how they can have so much attacking variety â creating overloads in attack. Plus the front three will always aim to pin the backline of the opponents and their roaming wingbacks.
I foresee they will aim to do so again against hougang to nullify our usual counter-attacking wingplay. This is where we need to dig deep and come out with unorthodox solutions. Watch out!
Some stats
Let's talk about our head-to-heads: In our 38 league matches from 2011, we have won 17 games while Balestier has won 13. We drew 8 times. Historically, we are the slightly stronger side. But we do have to clean up certain elements of our play though if we want to stand a good chance of winning.
We need to spread out our goals more. We cannot rely on turning on the semangat from the 60th minute onwards. We've been known to be slow starters and the lack of goals in the 0-15mins and 45-60mins proves that point.
One thing to take note also is how Balestier is more dangerous in the second half. A case in point is in the Balestier vs Geylang match where they miraculously rescued a point being ten men down. The second half is when we need to be focused and defend well. Coincidentally, it's the second half where teams are leading Balestier that they take the foot off the pedal against Balestier. That's when Balestier will aim to strike back.
Strangely for us, it was us who took the initiative in the 2nd half to overcome a 3-0 deficit in our last head-to-head encounter!
In this other stats, generally, we see relatively close stats between the two except for goals scored and the average goals scored.
Balestier is twice as likely to score! These stats are gathered from soccerway. Go check the website out if you have the chance!
in summary
We will be going against one of the sides to beat. It will be great to prove doubters wrong again and continue on our winning streak to prove to them that our wins are not flukes. But we have to be mindful of the ultra-attacking style that has embodied the new-look Balestier Khalsa.
This time the trip to Bishan will present unorthodox and new challenges to us i.e. Madhu's throw-ins, uneven pitch to play a passing game etc. We must be prepared and hatch out a gameplan that will pit bizzare with the bizzare. Let Balestier come and turn up the bizzaro ante and we shall return in kind!
My challenge to the boys is to keep focus and get a clean sheet on balestier's home ground. And then we strike them when they think they have the upper hand. Just like the Judo Gold match in Paris 2024, let's do the unorthodox! We believe in you! #1H1H
Balestier Khalsa vs Hougang Quick Report:
- 3-4-3 formation preferred (Balestier).
- Injured: Mukundan Maran, Syukri
-Tajeli is suspended.
- Dangermen: Tanaka, Sassi, Ignatius Ang,
-Danger of throw-ins in Bishan stadium: Madhu will target Jordan Emaviwe or Amer Hakeem.
-Hougang needs to continue showing another excellent defensive display again. But this time, also score aplenty!
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