Lion City Sailors squander lead twice in thrilling 2-2 draw with Geylang

SINGAPORE - The Lion City Sailors secured an early lead not once, but twice in their Singapore Premier League clash with Geylang International, but were unable to maintain their advantage as the match ended in a 2-2 draw at the Bishan Stadium on Aug 30.

It proved costly for the Sailors as they were aiming to leapfrog BG Tampines Rover to top spot on the table before the international break. Instead, the Stags retained their No. 1 place after a 1-1 draw with Hougang United on the same day to put them on 31 points, two ahead of their rivals.

After a third straight winless game, Sailors coach Aleksandar Rankovic lamented his side’s inability to convert their chances, but believed there is still cause for optimism.

The Serb said: “If you look at the whole game, we were the better team. We had more chances and of course, (Geylang) are happy with the 2-2 draw so good for them. There were so many chances you’d expect to score... and this is something that’s been happening now for a long time.”

A busy schedule of six games in 20 days await them after the break, with Rankovic adding: “The positive is that nobody got injured and we’ve got some players back. The only thing is we have some players going to the national team. That’s not really helping, but we have two weeks to prepare for the very difficult period.”

Both teams squandered opportunities to break the deadlock in the first half, before the Sailors took the lead in the 49th minute.

Maxime Lestienne skipped past a challenge before cutting the ball back for Bart Ramselaar, who was knocked off balance but managed to apply his finishing touch past Rudy Khairullah.

Geylang drew level nine minutes later when Shakir Hamzah put the ball on a plate for Tomoyuki Doi to convert, but the Sailors restored their advantage in the 65th minute when Ramselaar slipped the ball through to Lestienne, who slotted it past Rudy to score.

There was late drama when Ryoya Taniguchi was taken down by Lionel Tan inside the box, with Doi converting the resulting penalty in the 86th minute for his 22nd goal in 14 appearances.

Rankovic was disappointed with the manner in which the goals were conceded, saying: “With our experience, we should be able to control the game, but maybe because of pressure, we started giving the ball away too easily.”

Eagles coach Noor Ali was pleased with how his team bounced back from their 4-2 loss to Brunei DPMM on Aug 24. The 49-year-old said: “They showed good character, and though there’s still a lot of games to play, but it’s important to come back stronger every time when you have a defeat like last game.

“The intensity was much better, moving the ball and defensively, we pressed together as a team and it was nice to see that. It’s a fair result for both teams.”

Stressing that his focus is on helping the team, Doi said: “I don’t have any targets of how many goals I want to score in this season, just that in every game, I want to take every chance to score as much as I can because that’s my job.

“Honestly, I feel quite happy... but I need to keep going, it’s going to be a long season.”

It was an improved performance for the Sailors from their earlier 3-1 loss to Albirex. While they showed more intent, it was still far from their best and their offensive players need to create more clear-cut chances if the team are to dominate games like they used to.

At the back, lapses of concentration by the players must be addressed in order to stop conceding unnecessary goals, especially against teams like Geylang who have the firepower to punish them.