Saturday, July 26, 2025

Derrick scores again after almost 3 years in 2-5 loss

 On 20 Jul 2025 at 5 pm at Tanjong Katong SS, ARFC played against home team Eurasian Association for the very first time and came unstuck with a 2-5 loss.

 

At the request of the opponents, the match was played in 3 30-mins period.

 

ARFC took to the pitch with this 4-4-2 line-up:

 

Jersey No.:

Name

Position

13

Talisman Derrick

Goalkeeper

16

Marauding Guoxiong

Right back

14

Combative Ron

Sweeper

15

Towering Toh

Stopper

6

Unbeatable Darren

Left back

78

Steely Tze Ern

Right mid

7

Influential Sebastian (captain)

Centre Mid

28

Hard-man Tjioe

Centre Mid

19

Skillful Wei Lit

Left Mid

9

ARFC Scoring Legend Haron

Striker

99

Powerful Alvin

Striker

Substitutes:

2

Remarkable Rashid

 

3

Astute-reading sweeper Elvis

 

66

Vintage Chua

 

xx

Divine Delon

 

Missing In Action:

4

Dynamic Soon

 

5

Energetic Kerwin

 

10

Sublime Khim

 

17

Nippy Kenny

 

20

Composed Eng Lai

 

23

Talented Chun Haw

 

26

Rampaging Raymond

 

31

Wonder Wayne

 

98

Impeccable How Meng

 

 

 

ARFC conceded 2 soft goals to trail 0-2.

 

Guoxiong then kept the scoreline down when he headed off the line.

 

Tze Ern was unlucky when he blasted just over when clean on goal.

 

Tjioe then pinged a great ball down the left which saw Wei Lit bearing down at goal.  He then squared the ball across that eluded their GK and defenders but Tze Ern was just 0.11 seconds too late to tap the ball home.

 

In the 2nd period, Haron was unlucky after he was put through by Rashid.  Facing their GK one-on-one, Haron’s first shot was blocked by their GK but from the rebound, Haron sliced the ball wide.

ARFC then conceded 3 more goals to trail 0-5.

 

ARFC did not give up and soon pulled a goal back.

 

From a great long ball from Ron, Derrick (who played as right winger in the 3rd period) was brutally chopped to the ground by their defender, giving the biased referee the easiest of decisions to award a penalty.

 

Rashid stood up and sent their GK the wrong way with a precise ball to the left.  1-5 and this was Rashid’s 5th ARFC goal.

 

ARFC scored its second goal 5 mins later.

 

Chua did well to win the ball at right-back and passed to Guoxiong who duly passed inwards to Sebastian.  Looking up, Sebastian switched the ball to the left, ala Xabi Alonso, and Rashid swooped in like an eagle.

 

Drawing their GK out, Rashid squared the ball across for Derrick who killed the ball with a great first touch but waited too long before prodding the ball into the empty net.  However, his delay allowed their GK to hit his ribs on the pretext of challenging for the ball.  What a dirty GK there!

 

2-5 and with the goal, Derrick has now scored 116 ARFC goals, putting him on level terms with Chun Haw.

 

A check also revealed that Derrick’s last goal for ARFC was on 22 Sep 2022 at Pasir Ris Crest SS, in a 3-0 win over DC FC.

 

ARFC then closed out the match to lose 2-5.

Kenny’s 90th ARFC goal in 2-5 defeat

 Playing its 39th Veterans match overall, ARFC Veterans was played out once again by the referee organiser and lost 2-5 to a very young team, Sky Venture on 29 Jun 2025 at 3 pm at Tampines SAFRA. 

 

ARFC veterans had to call up a guest GK, Nash, as regular GK Derrick was away in Bangkok for his 4thhoneymoon (not same wife but 4th different wives).

 

ARFC Veterans started with this 4-4-2 line-up:

 

GK – Nash (guest GK)

RB – Guoxiong

Sweeper – Ron

Stopper – Toh (Captain)

LB – Tze Ern

RM – Raymond

CM – Rashid

CM – Tjioe

LM – Khim

SC – Haron

SC – Kenny

 

Subs:

 

Sebastian

Eng Lai

Chua

Wayne

Elvis

 

ARFC drew first blood within 10 seconds when straight from the kick-off, Raymond pressured their defender who made a poor back pass to their GK.   Raymond intercepted the ball and rolled it into the unguarded net.

 

1-0 and this was Raymond’s 27th ARFC goals, with a whopping 20 goals coming from Veterans matches.

 

Toh then won the ball with a great tackle in midfield and passed to Haron. Haron showed fantastic vision when he nonchalantly lofted the ball over their defence for Kenny.  Alas, Kenny’s attempted lob was clawed away by the out-stretched arms of their GK.

 

Kenny then returned the favour with a brilliant chip to the right that saw Haron swivelled and volleyed just 0.99 mm over the bar.

 

Haron was unlucky yet again when his header from Rashid’s precise corner was cleared off the line.

 

Suddenly, the opponents equalised. 1-1.

 

Rashid’s corner was then headed back by the defender to him.  With a brilliant floating ball from Rashid, Wayne showed immerse bravery when he challenged for the ball with their GK but saw his header thumped off the crossbar! 

 

The referee then made the mistake of the century in football.  Raymond again chased after an under-hit back pass and managed to reach it ahead of their GK.  As the ball rolled towards the byeline, and with their GK rooted to his spot, Raymond managed to keep the ball in play with at least a metre to spare, and rolled the ball into the net.  To the huge surprise of everyone, the referee blew for a goal-kick when he was near the centre circle!!!!!

 

With virtually the last kick of the half, the opponents then scored from a quick break-away goal to lead 2-1 at half-time.

 

During half-time, Raymond tried to reason with the referee who simply refused to acknowledge his mistake (even though the opposing GK admitted that the ball did not go out of play) and to make matters worse, the referee simply walked off.

 

In the 2nd half, ARFC Veterans were obviously affected which was made worse by the tiredness.  Hence, it was no surprise that the opponents scored 3 more goals to lead 5-1.

 

ARFC Veterans did not give up though.  From the left, Kenny received a ball from Darren and shifted the ball to his trusted right foot before curling the ball home to the top right corner, sparking wild celebrations from Joy and his 4 children who were watching from the sidelines.

 

2-5 and this was Kenny’s 90thgoal, with 6 coming from veterans matches.

 

Rashid then executed a reverse through ball for Raymond but just before he could get a good footing, Raymond suffered cramps and could not get a clean shot in, much to the relief of their GK who pushed the ball away for a corner.

 

Wayne then received a well-weighted lofted ball from Kenny but after rounding their GK, Wayne somehow shot wide with the goal gaping!

 

 

These are the top 5 scorers only for ARFC Veterans’ 39 matches:

 

  1. Raymond – 20 goals
  2. Haron – 17 goals
  3. Darren – 13 goals
  4. Sebastian – 13 goals
  5. Soon – 12 goals

ARFC Veterans starts 2025 with 2-1 victory

 Playing its 38th Veterans match overall, ARFC Veterans was forced to work hard for a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over the Republic Polytechnic staff team (comprising many guest players) at the magnificent pitch at Republic Polytechnic on 28 Mar 2025 at 7 pm.

 

Both teams agreed to play at 3 30-min periods for the match.

 

ARFC Veterans was supported by the family members of Haron, Rashid, Kenny and Elvis.

 

As it was still puasa month, Rashid and haron requested to be on the bench first.  Kudos to them for still turning up to play.

 

ARFC Veterans started with this 4-4-2 line-up:

 

GK – Zhicong

RB – Guoxiong

Sweeper – Elvis

Stopper – Toh (captain)

LB – Ron

RM – Raymond

CM – Soon

CM – Tjioe

LM – Tze Ern

SC – Wayne

SC – Kenny

 

Subs:

 

Sebastian

Haron

Rashid

Alvin

Darren

 

 

ARFC Veterans started brightly and Raymond came close with 2 sliding shots. Otherwise, the first half was a drab affairs.

 

In the 2nd 30-min half, Tze Ern produced a couple of well-delivered corners which were not capitalised by ARFC warriors.

 

ARFC Veterans was dealt a sucker punch when the opponents scored from a quick counter attack. 0-1.

 

In the 3rd 30-min half, ARFC Veterans finally woke up and played some decent football.

 

Raymond won the ball on the right and passed inwards to the impressive Rashid.  Spotting Tze Ern starting his run from deep on the left, Rashid hit a well-timed slide rule pass down the left channel.  At the same time, both Haron and Alvin were so intelligent to made their decoy runs back to our own half.  Tze Ern latched on in a flash and duly lobbed over their GK from distance.  1-1 and this was Tze Ern’s 19th overall goals for ARFC, with 3 of them coming from Veterans matches.

 

The goal galvanised ARFC Veterans team who took the lead 3 mins later. Soon did very well to block their clearance upfield and the ball rolled to Kenny about 40 metres way from their goal.  The distance posed no problems to Kenny who quickly swivelled and unleashed a world-class low shot that eluded everyone and nestled nicely into the bottom right corner. Simply brilliant goal!!

 

2-1 and this was Kenny’s 89thoverall goals for ARFC, with 5 goals coming from Veterans matches.

 

ARFC Veterans then missed several golden chances to put the result to bed.

 

Alvin was the first culprit when he somehow missed a rather easy chance.

 

Alvin nearly redeemed himself when he powered his way down the left bye-line from Darren’s long ball.  Squaring the ball across, Alvin had his arms up in celebration as Wayne was free just outside the 6-yard box.  Inexplicably, Wayne fired the ball high and wide to the astonishment of everyone.

 

Haron then produced a sumptuous right foot volley from 30 matres but the ball flew narrowly wide.

 

Rashid then hit a clever through ball for Raymond to run in from deep. Raymond tried to fool their GK with a clever step-over but his attempt was thwarted by their GK.  From the rebound at acute angle, Raymond side-footed the ball into the side-netting, even though Haron was totally free to his left.

 

ARFC Veterans then held on for a 2-1 victory.

 

For this match, Elvis, Ron and Tjioe produced several key blocks.

 

Tjioe was particularly impressive on one moment when he won a tackle just outside our own box, and dribbled all the way up to their box.  A real box-to-box moment!

 

Both Guoxiong and Darren also came up with so many overlapping runs, and Tze Ern and Soon ran themselves to the ground.

 

These are the top 5 scorers only for ARFC Veterans’ 38 matches:

 

  1. Raymond – 19 goals
  2. Haron – 17 goals
  3. Darren – 13 goals
  4. Sebastian – 13 goals
  5. Soon – 12 goals

ARFC kicked off 2025 season with 1-4 loss

 Kicking off its playing calendar, after playing only 5 matches in 2024, ARFC lost 1-4 to a very young and fit team on 22 Mar 2025 at 3 pm at Nanyang Junior College.

 

ARFC had to call up 5 guest players as the initial responses during the week was very poor.

 

ARFC took to the pitch with this 4-4-2 line-up:

 

Jersey No.:

Name

Position

13

Talisman Derrick

Goalkeeper

16

Marauding Guoxiong

Right back

98

Impeccable How Meng

Sweeper

15

Towering Toh

Stopper

78

Steely Tze Ern

Left back

xx

Justin

Right mid

7

Influential Sebastian (captain)

Centre Mid

28

Hard-man Tjioe

Centre Mid

xx

Jordan

Left Mid

31

Wonder Wayne

Striker

99

Powerful Alvin

Striker

Substitutes:

3

Astute-reading sweeper Elvis

 

6

Unbeatable Darren

 

19

Skillful Wei Lit

 

20

Composed Eng Lai

 

xx

Divine Delon

 

xx

Enoch

 

xx

Ryan

 

xx

Arumi

 

Missing In Action:

2

Remarkable Rashid

 

4

Dynamic Soon

 

5

Energetic Kerwin

 

9

ARFC Scoring Legend Haron

 

10

Sublime Khim

 

14

Combative Ron

 

17

Nippy Kenny

 

23

Talented Chun Haw

 

26

Rampaging Raymond

 

66

Vintage Chua

 

 

 

ARFC went 0-4 down.

 

How Meng then salvaged some pride for ARFC when he scored directly from a free-kick with a thunderous well-placed shot.

 

1-4 and this was How Meng's 22nd ARFC goal.