Different priorities in Kashima
Gary Koh
info@sleague.com
SAFFC playmaker Therdsak Chaiman is unlikely to feature when his side visit Kashima Antlers for the AFC Champions League (ACL) Group G match on Wednesday.
The Warriors' most lethal weapon in the competition suffered a recurrence of his heel problem in their league game against Super Reds and had to be replaced on Friday.
With an eye on the top-of-the-table clash against DPMM FC in Bandar Seri Begawan on Sunday, head coach Richard Bok has decided to save the Thai midfielder for the more important away assignment this week.
He said: “I might rest him for the Kashima game as his heel is still giving him problems. I will have a word with him first and see how he reacts to that.”
The revelation from the SAFFC camp would be music to the ears of Kashima head coach Oswaldo de Oliveira and his players as they seek to ramp up the goals and three points to boost their chances of progressing into the last 16.
Therdsak is viewed by them, as with the other ACL teams in the group, as the most influential player from the S.League champions and has posed many problems when the teams last met in Singapore two weeks ago.
Without their best player, defeat against the J-League pacesetters would eliminate SAFFC from the competition in the group stage.
Despite the inevitable exit, Bok has called on his Warriors to put up another credible showing in front of the Japanese.
“Whatever starting eleven I put in, I expect a good performance from them,” he declared. “I am looking for consistency and defensive compactness and discipline throughout the game as Kashima are better in passing and possession than us.”
The two-time Coach of the Year also hinted on a possible revamped lineup, indicating where his real priorities lie.
“I have got the DPMM game in mind while preparing for this match,” he admitted. “Depending on how the game goes, I might put up some changes.
“It will be good for us eventually if we can play consistently at the same level in the (domestic) league like the way we perform in the Champions League.”
The Kashima game marks the first time SAFFC defender Kenji Arai will play in Japan, since departing in 2004 as the pioneer batch of Albirex Niigata (Singapore) players and his subsequent move to his present employers.
Having tasted limited action in his time with the parent Albirex team six years ago, he is slated for a start against his compatriots after his cameo role in their previous encounter in Singapore.
The Saitama native is relishing the prospects of big-league action in his homeland, with his parents in attendance in an expected 9,000-strong crowd at Kashima.
“It is a different feeling playing against one of the best teams in Japan,” he said. “Everything in Japanese football is very different from Singapore.
“I am not coming back for a holiday this time though. I just would like to go out there and play as a professional, as I would in all SAFFC games.”
Meanwhile, Kashima will be without suspended midfielder Takeshi Aoki after he was given his second yellow card of the competition in their last fixture.
Despite being held to a goalless draw by Yokahama Marinos over the weekend, de Oliveira is likely to keep faith with the majority of the team that thrashed SAFFC 4-1 two weeks ago.
Japan's “Wayne Rooney” Yuya Osako and Brazilian forward Marquinhos will again be called upon to cause many problems and deliver the goods upfront, with Masashi Motoyama and skipper Mitsuo Ogasawara pulling the strings in midfield.
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