ALBWT No.1 Talia Sachet
New joiner to the club, Talia Sachet, featured in six (6!) out of a total of nine clips in the LCSWT 0-2 ALBWT highlight video, putting in a complete GK performance for possibly the highest pressure game of the season so far.
Last season, when it seemed like LCSWT was signing every single high-calibre GK in the league to stand in for their injured regulars, imagine if they had locked down Sachet instead.
Coming at a time of tumultuous change to the ALB men’s team due to the adoption of localisation rules, ALBWT kept the Albirex Niigata Singapore (now Albirex Jurong) banner flying high by winning the SGWPL title last season, and by beating title rivals LCSWT 2-0 last evening in the first leg of The Choasico this season.
A team built on foreign veterans showing that age can be an advantage, a core group of local senior players balancing life while powering the team forward, and a thriving academy to tap from — ALBWT are proving that there can be more than one high-performing ecosystem at the highest level of SG women’s football.
The job is not done yet. LCSWT will keep pushing right to the end. Competition makes us all better. GIWT could do the funniest thing yet. See you at CCK!
If both teams keep to their usual formations (LCSWT: 4-3-3 / 4-1-4-1 | ALBWT: 4-4-2), LCSWT’s midfield three will be a real test for the ALBWT midfield duo of ALBWT No.8 Sitianiwati Rosielin ALBWT No.14 Kana Kitahara. One of the ALBWT centre forwards will likely have to spend more time in midfield assisting with build-up and OOP pressing.
The extreme rotation between all three of LCSWT’s starting forwards (LCSWT No.10, 11 and 32) — them trading positions with each other for 10-15 minutes at a stretch — can be disorienting for any backline.
Both benches are roughly at parity? Or more like LCSWT’s bench is not as scary this season vis-a-vis previous years. LCSWT is missing a non-trivial number of first-team players from MW1.
Quotes on football from Aleksandar Ranković:
“The most thing are the players. You can be [an] amazing coach, in terms of [making] great exercise on the pitch or great PowerPoint presentation… if you don’t have [relationship] with your players and if you don’t really understand them — not only as a player but as a person — you’re done.”
“My philosophy is always — I know it’s going to sound like a cliché — but I don’t want to concede any goal. That is the number one philosophy: no goal first.”
“For me, the most attractive football is when I win. That’s number one. That’s the bottom line. If I can win five, six, seven zero with beautiful football, great; if i can win with one set piece, one zero, same.”
“I had [an] excellent relationship with my players… that’s maybe my strength as a coach. I always have good relationship — in a good way, respectful way. Of course, I’m the coach; they are the players… I don’t treat them like kids.”
