ill-effect of global warming

For those who still do not believe the ill-effects of global warming, the best evidence came in ARFC’s match just now at St. Wilfred’s. Clearly affected by the Sahara Desert-like temperature, ARFC went down 1-3 to a not-so-good team.

Prior to kick-off, reliable David Mak (father of Marco Mak) and entrepreneur Guoxiong pulled out due to family and work commitment respectively. However, the losses were off-set by the last-minute appearance of Kiat Gulam and astute-reading sweeper Elvis. Mean machine Hock also made surprise appearance. ARFC was also well-supported by Kiat Gulam’s wife+daughter, WO Neo’s daughter, influential Sebastiano’s wife-to-be and Tjioe’s girlfriend.

Dependable Jinzhong started in goal, with astute-reading sweeper Elvis back marshalling the defence. He was supported by Towering Toh, predictable Blackburn and hard-working Tong. In midfield, left-foot wizard Bernard had big shoes to fill in taking ovr sublime Khim’s left-midfield role, WO Neo was at the opposite flank, and influential Sebastiano and hard-man Tjioe patrolled the centre. Speedy Hee and ARFC scoring legend Haron led the attack. Mean machine Hock and Kiat Gulam were temporarily loaned to the opponent, with talisman Derrick and powerful Alvin on the subs bench.

The heat was obviously affecting both teams which took some time to settle down. Both teams cancelled each other out in the opening minutes. ARFC’s class finally told in the 17th min when ARFC scoring legend Haron latched on to a ball just outside the penalty area. ARFC scoring legend Haron side-stepped their defender who appeared to have tripped him. To his credit, however, he stayed on his feet and managed to expertly place the ball beyond the reach of their keeper for his 109th ARFC goal. 1-0!!

The score remained at 1-0 at half-time.

Tragedy struck within minutes of the re-start. Their speedy and energetic right-winger sent in a cross from the right and amongst the confusion, their striker equalized for them. 1-1 now!!

7 minutes later, ARFC fell behind. Off a counter-attack, their keeper pumped the ball deep into our half. A mix-up in communication between astute-reading sweeper Elvis and dependable Jinzhong allowed the same winger to lob the ball over him into the empty net. 1-2 now!!

ARFC had several golden chances to find an equalizer. Off a goal-mouth melee, unpredictable Blackburn struck the post and talisman Derrick later had a one-on-one chance but he exercised the wrong option in trying to square to powerful Alvin.

7 minutes from the end, the opponent struck the final nail in ARFC’s coffin aftr their impressive right-winger won the ball ahead of left-foot wizard Bernard, eluded dependable Jinzhong and slotted the ball into the empty net. 1-3 and this was ARFC’s 42nd defeat in its illustrious history.