ARFC laboured to 4-2 victory in friendly

Dear ARFC warriors:

In a match played in front of only 2,000 fans, ARFC laboured to a 4-2 victory over a very-determined but clearly inferior opponent at the Bradell-Westlake Stadia.

ARFC was rocked by the withdrawal of several first-team players, including the reliable sweeper Elvis and top-scoring legend Haron, from the start as only 10 players turned up for the match. As a result, Sebastiano was subjected to a slur of abuses from the ageing ARFC warriors who felt that theur ageing legs would be pushed to the limit. Thankfully, Bernard quickly activated his friend, Raymond, who later turned out to be such a fine, but at times self-fish, player.

To atone for his error, Sebastiano stood in goal for probably the first time in his ARFC career. He was well-covered by Kiat Gulam (sweeper), Towering Toh (stopper), with David (father of Marco Mak) and Bernard flanking the defence. In the midfield, workhorse Tong and Raymond took charge of the centre with Speedy Hee and the sublime Khim taking the wings. Up front, powerful Alvin and unpredictable Blackburn lead the attack.

ARFC started well and completely dominated the proceedings. After some relentless pressure, ARFC open the scoring in the 17th min after a clever ball from Khim bounced over Blackburn and Raymond capitalised on a lapse in oppoenent's defence to volley home the opener. 1-0

Tragedy struck, however, in the 27th min, when David (father of Marco Mak) made an uncharacteristic error by hesitated in his clearance. Their left-winger took a quick shot and easily beat Sebastiano, who did not even make an attempt to dive at all. With that, Sebastiano will be banned from playing GK in the next 77 matches. 1-1 at half-time.

A string of tactical and positional changes resulted in the second half. Just 77 seconds in the 2nd half, Sebastiano made amends for his lousy GK play by delivering a measured ball into the heart of their defence for Speedy Hee. Of course, Speedy Hee lived up to his speedy tag by getting to the ball before their sweeper and GK and top-poked the ball into the empty net. 2-1 now!! This was Speedy Hee's 40th goal for ARFC.

In the 57th min, Kiat Gulam continued his good form at the Braddell-Westlake Stadia by lobbing the ball exquisitely into the top right-hand corner for his 22nd goal for ARFC, and thereby overtaking Jiong jiong in the 9th position in the ARFC top-scorers chart.

ARFC got complacent and Blackburn, as usual, started playing crazily and abandoned his sweeper position at will. Off such a move, the opponent sent a ball into ARFC's defence and with Blackburn at the left-wing position(!!!), their left-winger shot past David (father of Marco Mak). 3-2 now!! It is also noted that David (father of Marco Mak) took almost 7 millimetres per second in his desperate dive to save the ball.

Towering Toh, however, restored the 2-goal lead 7 minutes later. Off a brilliant corner kick by Khim (who else), Toh powered home a header that gave their keeper no chance at all!!! 4-2 now.

David then made 2 superb saves and Toh's another header was also cleared off the line. Tong also had a shot that almost spilled into the net.

After the match, ARFC was locked in the dressing room for about 70 minutes as the ever-loyal fans were clearly unhappy with its inept performance. As a result, the ARFC Board of Directors, Kiat Gulam and David (father of Marco Mak) had to start a media conference and issued a press statement assuring the fans that ARFC would play well in its next match, which would take place on 20 Aug 06 at 3 pm at ITE AMK (the 3rd tournament game).

The press statement can be viewed at all major newspapers and publications, The Straits Times, TODAY, The New Paper, Berita Harian, Tamil Marusu, Lianhe Wanbao and Zaobao, Shin Min Daily, Business Times, Shoot Magazine, Female, Her World, FHM, Maxim, Cosmopolitan and Playboy Magazine.

Thanks.