Wednesday, February 14, 2007

ARFC news........

So far, ARFC warriors Elvis, Sebastian, Jeffrey, Tjioe, Toh, Kiat, Robin and Alan had given their preferred jersey number and name.

For the rest who have not, please e-mail or SMS me your choice.

Thanks.

Separately, I am pleased to announce that ex-ARFC keeper Heng will be a father soon in Aug 07.... On behalf of ARFC, congratulations....

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Lunar New Year break + New Jerseys

On behalf of ARFC, I am pleased to announce that ARFC will be taking a 2 to 3 weeks' break for the Lunar New Year.

On a separate note, I have obtained quotation for the brand-new Umbro jerseys. We will be having 2 tops, one shorts and a pair of socks. Printing of our logo, names, and numbers are included. All this for a price of only $45.

I need you all to do me a favour. Can you SMS me your current jersey number (for exisitng warriors with the old jerseys), and your preferred jersey number as well as the name you preferred to have it on the new jerseys.

For new ARFC warriors who do not have the old jerseys, please also SMS me your first and second choice of jersey number.

Cheers and look forward to your SMSes.

I am also thinking of getting 2 or 3 extra pieces for the guest players as not all ARFC warriors are able to commit to every match. Of course, we will be sharing the costs of these extra pieces.

For anyone who wish to sponsor anything, please do not feel shy. Just approach me or the ARFC Board of Directors.

ARFC hat-trick heroes down the years.....

Tino joined a select band of ARFC warriors who had scored 3 goals or more in a match. Details as follows:

08 Jun 1991 - 11-3 :Robin(3), David(4) and Jiong Jiong (3)
29 Dec 1991 - 6-1 :Jeffrey(3)
26 Jun 1992 - 5-4: Jiong Jiong (3)
05 Jul 1992 - 14-2: Robin(6)
09 Aug 1993 - 7-2: Robin(3)
24 Oct 1993 - 5-1: Robin(3)
13 Mar 1994 - 7-0: JiongJiong(5)
20 Mar 1994 - 11-1: Robin(3), Sebastian(3)
17 Apr 1994 - 11-0: Robin(4)
15 May 1994 - 9-0: Jesmond(4)
22 May 1994 - 10-1: Robin(5) 10 Jul 1994- 9-1: Robin(3)
17 Jul 1994 - 6-1: Robin(3)
07 Aug 1994 - 7-0: Jeffrey(4)
30 Jun 1996 - 9-0: Sebastian(3)
10 Nov 1996 - 8-1: Robin(6)
18 May 1997 - 7-2: Heehe(3)
24 Sep 2000 - 5-2: Jiongjiong(3)
08 Oct 2000 - 6-1: Haron(4)
12 Aug 2001 - 6-1: Haron(4)
28 Oct 2001 - 7-1: Heehee(3)
25 Nov 2001 - 9-1: Haron(3)
22 Jun 2002 - 6-1: Haron(3)
07 Jul 2002 - 8-2: Francis aka Hock (3)
23 Feb 2003 - 6-2: Haron(3)
09 Nov 2003 - 5-3: Haron(3)
23 Jan 2005 - 4-1:Haron (4)
02 Jul 2006 - 7-1: Haron(3), Kiat Gulam(3)
11 Feb 2007 – 5-0: Tino (3)

ARFC's stats after 11 Feb 07 match

After our match on 11 Feb 07, our stats are:

Played - 184
Won - 115
Drew - 30
Lost - 39
GF - 676
GA - 323

Cheers....

ARFC brushed aside NFL Div 3 side

In a match played at the rather bumpy pitch at Bedok North Secondary School under an extremely hot weather, ARFC brushed aside a 10-men NFL Div 3 side Summerville FC in front of just 77 fans.

Before the match, ARFC was rocked by the last-minute withdrawal of astute-reading sweeper Elvis and entrepreneur Guoxiong, leaving ARFC with just 10 players. However, last-minute desperation calls by Sebastiano yielded 3 more players.

ARFC’s starting eleven were: Unpredictable Blackburn as keeper, hard-working Tong as sweeper, Towering Toh in his normal stopper position, left-foot wizard Bernard as left-back with guest player tenacious Raymond as right-back. WO Neo started as right-midfield, Sebastiano and guest player Song in the centre and new-recruit Andrew as left-midfield. ARFC scoring legend Haron was partnered by Speedy Hee upfront. 2 more guest players Tino and Dee were the reserves.

ARFC quickly went on the offensive from the start. ARFC scoring legend Haron had 2 wonderful opportunities superbly saved by their hugely-impressive keeper, who also made several more saves from the ARFC warriors.

As a result, the score ended 0-0 at half-time.

In the 2nd-half, Speedy Hee replaced unpredictable Blackburn as keeper with the latter playing at left-midfield; Dee replaced WO Neo at right-mid; with Andrew dropping to left-back and left-foot wizard Bernard replaced.

7 minutes after the re-start, ARFC’s relentless pressure finally paid off. Unpredictable Blackburn released a fantastic ball to Tino who then played a slide-rule pass to ARFC scoring legend in the box. With a great first-touch, ARFC scoring legend Haron thumped home the opening goal to open up the flood-gates, prompting chants of “Haron!! Haron!! Su!! Su!!” round the pitch. 1-0 and this was his 102nd goal for ARFC.

7 minutes later, ARFC scored its 2nd goal. Another clever exchange of passes between the midfielders put Haron through who then returned the compliments to Tino to scored his 2nd ever goal for ARFC. 2-0.

In the 57th min, Sebastiano intercepted a ball and released ARFC scoring legend Haron down the right-side. Haron sprinted through and squared the ball to the lurking Tino to shoot home ARFC’s 3rd goal. By now, the opponents looked deflated and simply wanted the match to end early.

In the 67th min, hard-working Tong’s thunderous headed clearance resulted in the ball landing at unpredictable Blackburn’s feet. He looked up and delivered an exquisite ball to Tino in the box who then unleashed a thunderbolt that gave the keeper, in fact, any keeper in the world, no chance at all. 4-0 and Tino notched his hat-trick for ARFC, thereby joining an elite band of ARFC warriors who had scored hat-tricks in a game.

Still, ARFC was not done yet. In the 77th min, Raymond won the ball at his right-back position and played the ball to Dee. Looking up, Dee sent a ball down to the sprinting WO Neo who brought the ball under control and headed into the penalty box. Ignoring a score of players shouting for the ball in the box, WO Neo let fly a shot that was so powerful that the keeper could not prevent the ball from going in despite having a hand to the ball. 5-0 and this was WO Neo’s 43rd ARFC goal.

Special praises must also be reserved for the 2 keepers, especially Speedy Hee who prevented ARFC from going down with 2 superb saves. Hard-working Tong and Towering Toh also snuffed out any chances that opponents had, with great support from the full-backs.

Speaking to the gathering reporters which also included several scouts from prominent clubs (Liverpool, Barcelona, AC Milan, Lyon and San Paulo) and not-so-prominent clubs (Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Everton and Al-Ittihad), WO Neo was ecstatic with his 43rd goal for ARFC:
“I wanna thank my lovely wife, Yvonne, for her understanding and support for my commitment towards ARFC. I also liked to dedicate the goal to my lovely elder daughter who was jumping up and down after seeing me scored the goal. Thank you all, my lovely women in my family…..”

Thursday, February 08, 2007

ARFC's friendly match this sunday (11 Feb)

Dear ARFC warriors:

Our friendly match is this sunday (11 Feb) @ 3 pm @ Bedok North Secondary School. I have already SMSed you the details. For those driving, you can park your vehicles at Blk 125 Bedok Reservoir Road.
Pl try your best to make it for 2 reasons:
(i) Response so far is not so good, so need as many players as possible;
(ii) After this sunday, we will again break for Lunar New Year, which is likely to be at least another 2 to 3 weeks' break.
Please SMS me to confirm your attendance. For those who had done so, thanks a lot...

Rusty ARFC falls to rare defeat

Dear ARFC warriors:

Firstly, please allow me to apologise for the delay in posting this match report. Was extremely busy these days.

After a month of rest, ARFC played its first match in 2007 against Marauders last Sunday at the Parc de First Toa Payoh in front of only 77 fans. The usual fans stayed away due to holiday mood and also they missed their home ground at ITE Stadia which had since been taken over by an unnamed Russian tycoon.

ARFC started with only 10 warriors for the first 10 minutes as some warriors could not find their way to the obscure ground, located in a quiet corner of Toa Payoh.

Unpredictable Blackburn started in goal (he was later taken over by Chow, guest keeper), Sebastiano as sweeper with Towering Toh in front. Hardworking Tong had to be the left-back as fast-improving Bernard was in Japan making babies. Determined Huiming started as right-back. In the right-midfield, guest player Di was there while Speedy Hee took up the opposite flank (he later moved to striker as Chow took over as keeper and unpredictable Blackburn moved to his place). Hard-man Tjioe and turbo-engine Hock guarded the centre with WO Neo leading the front-line. After about 10 minutes, Max (another guest player) replaced Di and moved to sweeper, with Sebastiano back to the centre and turbo-engine Hock moving to the right midfield, thereby giving a balanced-look on ARFC.

The one-month break clearly showed as almost all ARFC warriors were rusty in their play. However, ARFC still managed to hold its own and even made several forays into the opponent’s territory. In fact, turbo-engine Hock got himself into 2 excellent scoring opportunities but both his efforts were superbly thwarted by their excellent keeper. WO Neo and Speedy Hee also linked up well as co-strikers.

The first-half ended 0-0.

I would like to continue my match report but I had to leave the game due to a FAS referee commitment. I heard from other warriors that we eventually lost the game 3-1, with powerful Alvin scoring his 17th ARFC goal.

Hope someone will put up the 2nd half report here.

Cheers….