Bok: Kashima are a different class

Tam Cheong Yan
info@sleague.com

SAFFC coach Richard Bok held his hand up and admitted Kashima Antlers “showed their class” after they had overrun his team 5-0 in the AFC Champions League Group G match on Wednesday.

The reigning J-League champions had already beaten the Warriors 4-1 in Singapore two weeks ago, but the manner of their rematch in Japan went even further in illustrating the disparity in football standards between the two nations.

SAFFC started the match brightly as Ahmad Latiff Khamarudin and John Wilkinson shone in midfield, but their resistance was broken shortly before the half-hour mark when Takuya Nozawa opened the scoring.

From then on, there was no way back as Shinzo Koroki scored once in each half, Mitsuo Ogasawara blasted home on the rebound early in the second half and teenage sensation Yuya Osako netted with a cool finish.

Proud as Bok was of his team’s effort, he made no attempt to hide the fact that they were outclassed by their hosts.

“We have already played to the best of our abilities, but Kashima are definitely at a different level than us,” he toldsleague.com.

“We had the first shot at goal, the first corner, and things were looking pretty well. But then we conceded some soft goals, and the second half was quite open.

“Technically, their off-the-ball movement was tremendous. We competed well in the first half and troubled them to an extent, but they showed their class as the game went on.”

While Bok spoke with much admiration of the way the Japanese had played, he admitted that getting his own team – or any other Singaporean side for that matter – to reach similar standards would not be an overnight process.

Having previously identified budget as a key reason why the best in the continent have been able to make vast improvements to their game, the 39-year-old added history and attention to detail in preparations as two other important areas to note.

“The technical quality Kashima showed is much, much better than us,” he stated simply.

“We’ve done our best with the quality we have and the resources we have, but that is all we can do now. It won’t take one night for us to try to play like them; it is going to take a much longer time.

“They have been building up from the 1980s to where they are today, and if we want to be like them, then we have to invest our time and resources into taking some action. We have to learn the way these clubs do their things in preparation for matches like these.

“These teams send people to see you play two or three times before they meet you, and they send people to check the hotels you put them up in and the food you serve them one month before the players actually arrive. Details like these, we must learn as well.”

SAFFC had played the match without talismanic midfielder Therdsak Chaiman, as Bok decided not to risk him with several crucial matches looming over the horizon.

In his absence, Wilkinson was the standout performer for the Warriors in Ibaraki, fuelling suggestions he could become a medium-term successor to a man once voted the AFC Champions League’s Most Valuable Player.

But Bok was keen to play down such claims, preferring to concentrate on how the team would have to do without the Singaproe international for their next game against Shanghai Shenhua after he had received his second booking of the tournament.

“Wilko and Therdsak are different types of players, but he had some good runs down the channels,” the Warriors coach observed.

“He was able to trouble the defence a bit today, and even Aleks (Duric) managed to earn some free kicks. We were able to play the ball into the danger area from these situations, but it is too bad we could not get anything on target.

“We will definitely miss him for the next game against Shanghai. But we have to do with who we have, instead of crying over spilt milk.

“We still need to look at other players who can step in and do a job for us. Other players might have their own strengths and weaknesses, so we have to see where we need to make adjustments to tackle Shanghai.”

The two-time MIKASA Coach of the Year also explained the absence of Shaiful Esah, which turned out to be the consequence of what appears to be an administrative oversight on the part of the organizers.

“Shaiful was suspended because he got two yellow cards – one in the playoffs, and one in the last game,” he revealed.

“We knew he might be suspended for this game, even though we got no written confirmation before we left Singapore and the AFC website didn’t indicate anything. The AFC never sent anything to us as far as I know.

“We confirmed the situation when we got here, because there was some concern on whether the cards carried over from the playoffs. As it turns out, the playoffs, the group stage and the Round of 16 is considered one stage where yellow cards are concerned.

“But we were not upset, because we had planned for the possibility he would be suspended. We figured he would probably be, because we kept track ourselves.”