In a crucial match played fine weather, ARFC blazed Yaakeen 5-1 in front of the boisterous 77,777 fans at ITE Stadia. It was also reported that due to the crucial fixture, about 7,777 fans were locked out of the stadia for security reasons. However, the Board of Directors quickly erected a 77-inch giant plasma Hitachi TV for the fans to enjoy just outside the stadia.
ARFC received a “bad-news brown” when determined Huiming pulled out with a virus the previous night, though sources revealed that he was “working HARD all night” on Saturday. However, ARFC also received a huge boost when turbo-engine Hock, evergreen Eng Lai and David Mak (father of Marco Mak) unexpectedly turned up, prompting chants round the stadia. Of course, the usual suspects were also present for the match.
Jinzhong started in goal, with astute-reading Elvis, Towering Toh, fast-improving Bernard and Kiat Gulam forming the rear-guard. In the midfield, Sebastiano, hardworking Tong, sublime Khim and quick-silver Derrick were deployed. Up front, ARFC scoring legend Haron was partnered by powerful Alvin. Speedy Hee, unpredictable Blackburn, turbo-engine Hock, evergreen Eng Lai and David Mak (father of Marco Mak) were the substitutes.
Clearly heartened by the attendance of 16, the full-house crowd of 77,777 as well as the locked-out 7,777 fans, ARFC warriors immediately went for the jugular right from the whistle. However, ARFC has to endure a few scares as Yaakeen was a good team and had threatened to open the scoring in the opening minutes. Despite so, ARFC held firm thanks to the strong defence led by astute-reading Elvis.
ARFC took the lead in the 7th min. Picking up a loose ball right outside Yaakeen’s penalty box, sublime Khim took a touch and let fly a thunderous shot that had the crowd up on their feet, anticipating a goal. True enough, sublime Khim’s shot landed at the top-left corner that almost burst the net. 1-0!!! The goal led to 7 Mexican waves round the stadia. It was sublime Khim’s 18th goal for ARFC
7 minutes later, ARFC grabbed goal No. 2. Off a superb delivered corner from powerful Alvin, ARFC scoring legend, Haron (who else?) showed tremendous anticipation by stooping low to head past their keeper for his 97th ARFC goal. Chants of “Haron, Haron” went for almost 7 minutes.
In the 27th min, ARFC scored the third goal. Picking up a return ball off his throw-in, quick-silver Derrick whipped in a long ball over to the left and up stepped sublime Khim to exquisitely and expertly side-footed the ball at the bottom right-hand corner. Wonderful and truly world-class execution!! (Someone please help me – I’m running out of superlatives for sublime Khim already!!!!)
7 minutes later, another flowing move by the forwards resulted the ball rolled out to the unmarked quick-silver Derrick. Taking about 7 seconds, quick-silver Derrick coolly placed the ball beyond their keeper’s reach for ARFC’s 4th goal and his 6th goal in his short but productive ARFC career.
In the 37th min, speedy Hee replaced powerful Alvin and he made his presence felt immediately. Off another well-measured pass from sublime Khim, speedy Hee lived up to his nick-name by out-pacing their left-back and swept the ball in. 5-0!!! Wonderful speed!!! Speedy Hee’s goal also took him to the top-5 in the ARFC scoring charts with his 42nd goal, just one goal behind 4th-place Sebastiano’s 43 goals and 1 more than 6th-place WO Neo’s 41 goals.
ARFC then made a string of substitutions in the second half. In the 57th min, Yaakeen pulled a goal back when their midfielder scored a consolation goal with a 47-metres lob over Jinzhong, who was otherwise having a fantastic match with his safe-handling.
As usual, turbo-engine Hock impressed with his hard-running and strength, David Mak (father of Marco Mak) was his usual dependable self, and evergreen Eng Lai had clearly improved. Hard-working Tong was industrious, fast-improving Bernard showed good tackles, powerful Alvin and speedy Hee impressed with good harassing of the opponents, Towering Toh once again ruled in the air, astute-reading Elvis was unbeatable and even managed to bring the ball out of defence on several occasions, Kiat Gulam and Sebastiano were normal, Jinzhong was steady, ARFC scoring legend contributed with his usual high standard. This leaves us with quick-silver Derrick who gave another outstanding game. In fact, he was so good that the opponents targeted him and brought him down time and again whenever he has the ball. But credit to him for not retaliating as we all know that 3-year ago Derrick would surely have landed a Mike Tyson punch straight away!! J
And yes, how can we forget sublime Khim, who was simply out of this world with another breath-taking 7-star performance!!! He should be playing with Steven Gerrard!!!
In the post-match interview with Charlie Webster, David Mak (father of Marco Mak), who is also one of the ARFC founders, was clearly over the moon:
“I wanna thank my lovely wife, Dora and certainly not speedy Hee, for her understanding in allowing me to come for this crucial match. If not, I would have missed out a sterling ARFC performance and sublime Khim’s both goals which are certainly Goals-of-the-Season”.
It should be noted that while David Mak (father of Marco Mak) was giving his interview to Charlie Webster, his eyes somehow was looking at the chest-level…..
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