Bok: Warriors deserve Suwon’s respect

Tam Cheong Yan
info@sleague.com

SAFFC coach Richard Bok believes his side deserves some respect from Suwon Samsung Bluewings – even though the Koreans had beaten them on the final day of the AFC Champions League group phase.

The victory had ensured Suwon’s progress into the Round of 16, but they were made to work for it as they were pushed by a determined SAFFC side.

A second-string side had staggered to a 2-0 victory over the Warriors when the teams first met in Singapore, in a match which Bluewings coach Cha Bum-kun suggested weather and pitch conditions to be tougher obstacles than their Singaporean adversaries.

That remark clearly still rang in Bok’s ears as he watched his men put up a valiant performance against a much stronger Suwon side this time around, and he was pleased that his side threatened their hosts at the Suwon World Cup Stadium till the very end.

Needing an injury-time penalty from Seo Dong Hyeon to settle matters, Cha’s men had a jittery time the entire evening and hardly resembled a side that had won one of Asia’s most competitive leagues last year.

And Bok could not resist making a reference to the former Korean legend’s now-famous remarks as he looked back on his team’s performance.

“What’s there to say about the weather and the field? It’s their weather and it’s their field!” he told sleague.com.

“They blamed the weather and the field when we played in Jalan Besar. Now they’ve got nothing to blame!

“We made them sweat for their three points, and hopefully they can show us some respect after the performance we gave them. In fact, these six games, we gave our all, and we have been improving with every game.

“The players have all raised their level of play throughout this group stage. I just hope that when we return to the S.League, we can keep on showing this same level.”

Things had not looked so good for the Warriors when they conceded the opening goal after just five minutes, which Bok admitted was a case of poor concentration.

But they rallied strongly after going behind, and Aleksandar Duric put the two teams level briefly with a header off Shaiful Esah’s free kick towards the end of the first half.

Suwon nonetheless went into the dressing room holding a half-time lead as Lee Sang Ho made it 2-1 shortly after Duric’s goal, but resolute defending by the SAFFC defence and some good goalkeeping from Shahril Jantan kept the Bluewings at bay.

Shahril was eventually dismissed for a professional foul just before the end, but his coach still had words of praise for him following his contribution to the team’s maiden AFC Champions League campaign.

“Suwon came off the blocks very fast, because they had to win to make sure they qualified,” said the two-time MIKASA Coach of the Year.

“They came very fast at us, and we gave them way too much space with our marking for the first goal. But I thought that after the first five or seven minutes, we gradually came into the game.

“We gave a good account of ourselves, which is what we’ve always done, and Shaiful’s free kick in the second half almost went in to push it to 2-2. As for Shahril’s red card, if the striker beat him and was brought down in a goalscoring opportunity, it’s a red card.

“It’s like the time when Hassan Sunny brought Aleks down; it is not wrong for the referee to give the goalkeeper the red card in such a case. It’s a sad way for Shahril to end the group phase after he’s done well in all six games, but then he was not so busy today.”

The closeness of the match was a far cry from what had happened in SAFFC’s last visit to Korea, when they faced the same club in the now-defunct Asian Cup-Winners’ Cup.

The Suwon side of that vintage proved far too strong for the Warriors back then, who even with such legendary names as Fandi Ahmad and Nazri Nasir still proved no match for their opponents.

“We’ve been here before in 1997, and we were whacked 6-0,” said Bok, who had ended his playing career with the Warriors that same year.

“We seldom ventured into their half then, but you can see now that we had chances, free kicks, corner kicks, and we even scored! They have gone forward since 1997, but I thought we have gone forward as well.”

Bok concluded by taking time to look at Suwon’s future prospects in the tournament, with a kind but grave warning for his vanquishers.

Having finished second behind Kashima Antlers in Group G, they will face Group E winners Nagoya Grampus Eight in the Round of 16 – and that could be the end of the road for Suwon according to the 39-year-old.

“I think Suwon will need to really raise their game if they are to go further,” he remarked.

“They’re up against tougher opponents in the next stage. Let’s put it this way: If they want to move beyond the Round of 16, they’ve got to work really hard.

“I think in our group, the best team is Kashima, and the results showed that. They are probably far ahead of us, more than Suwon are, and in fact I see Kashima having a good chance of going all the way based on their way of football.

“Suwon on the other hand are a bit predictable, and that’s why we found that we can defend against them to a certain extent. They also had weaknesses in the middle which we did quite well to expose, and if we can expose them, other teams will exploit them.”