In a match played under cooling weather on a half-soccer/half-water-polo pitch at ITE Balestier, ARFC came from a goal down to defeat a not-so-weak Winning-11 FC. Despite the heavy downpour hours before the game, the usual faithful 77,777 fans turned up to cheer their heroes, including influential Sebastiano’s wife-to-be Caren and Kiat Gulam’s lovely wife, Josephine and daughter.
Missing several important first-team players including determined Huiming, ARFC scoring legend Haron, sublime Khim and Dependable Jinzhong, ARFC started with Kiat Gulam in goal, astute-reading sweeper Elvis, Towering Toh, hardworking Tong and left-foot wizard Bernard as defence; In the midfield, quick-silver Derrick and entrepreneur Guoxiong took up the flanks with influential Sebastiano and hard-man Tjioe at the middle; At the front, Speedy Hee was partnered by unpredictable Blackburn. Powerful Alvin, who was feeling unwell, was the sole substitute.
ARFC took a long time to settle down as it was clear that it could not adapt to the water-logged pitch. What made it worse was unpredictable Blackburn’s unwillingness to close down opponents and chased after balls played to him, leaving Speedy Hee as the only forward chasing after opponents. ARFC’s skilful midfielders also had a hard time as they could not play its usual passing game and could only resort to long balls.
Hence, it was no surprise that the opponents took the lead in the 17th min. Slow to react to their quickly-taken free-kick, Towering Toh was only 0.77 seconds slower to close down and their striker slotted in their opening goal. 0-1!!
However, ARFC did not give up and created several chances but were not taken by our forwards and midfielders.
In the second-half, unpredictable Blackburn replaced Kiat Gulam at goalkeeper and Kiat Gulam took over the left-back role, moving left-foot wizard Bernard up to left flank and quick-silver Derrick partnered powerful Alvin upfront.
This tactical move soon reaped dividends. Just 7 mins into the half, entrepreneur Guoxiong won a loose ball at the middle and relayed the ball to hard-man Tjioe. Looking up, hard-man Tjioe pushed the ball to the lurking powerful Alvin on the left middle side of the pitch. Powerful Alvin, living up to his nick-name, embarked on a powerful accelerating run that took him past 3 defenders before equalizing for ARFC for his 27th ARFC goal. 1-1 and the crowd went wild, chanting his name repeatedly.
17 mins later, ARFC took the lead. Kiat Gulam intercepted a ball on his side and cleared the ball down the channel. The ball, however, unexpectedly found its way to powerful Alvin’s feet. In an almost similar fashion to the first goal, he embarked on yet another powerful run and eluded 3 defenders before coolly placing the ball past their stranded keeper. 2-1 and the crowd went ballistic this time. This was powerful Alvin’s 28th ARFC goal. This was also ARFC’s 707th goal in its illustrious history.
By then, ARFC warriors were tiring and barely hang on to its lead. However, the opponents could not find a way past our experienced defenders and in fact, ARFC missed several glitz-edged chances. 2-1 was the final score.
Speaking to the reporters after the match, Man-of-the-Match entrepreneur Guoxiong enthused: “The stupid water-logged pitch clearly affected us more than them. If it is on a dry pitch, surely we would have walked away with a more emphatic victory. Anyway, please feel free to contact me if you are looking for handphone and /or accessories…….”
On a separate note, astute-reading sweeper Elvis is actively seeking a sponsor to buy him a fresh pair of boots……
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