ARFC almost mimicked AC Milan's Istanbul collapse

In a Jeykell and Hyde performance, ARFC was held to a 4-4 draw by a very experienced veteran team who kept the ball extremely well.

Playing in front of its usual 77,777 which included Haron’s lovely wife, Su, and even lovelier daughter Afiqah, at the magnificent pitch at the United World College, ARFC welcomed back the injured Derrick but had to make do without Elvis and Kiat who pulled out in the last min. ARFC’s line-up is hence as follows:

Keeper: Ismail
Right-back: Unpredictable Blackburn
Sweeper: Uncompromising Edwin
Stopper: Towering Toh
Left-back: Left-foot wizard Bernard
Right-mid: Hardworking Tong
Centre-mid: Hardman Tjioe
Centre-mid: Dynamic Soon
Left-mid: Speedy Hee
Striker: ARFC scoring legend Haron
Striker: Powerful Alvin

Subs: Influential Sebastian
Talisman Derrick


Before the match, ARFC was already warned that the experienced opponents would pass and keep possession and true enough, they were really good at passing the ball around. ARFC had no answers in the first 5 mins to their passing.

However, with virtually its first foray in their penalty box, ARFC opened the scoring. After a break down the left, the ball was centred to the central area of the penalty box and Tjioe showed nifty footwork by shuffling the ball between both his feet and expertedly stroked the ball home for his 40th ARFC goal. 1-0.

The opponents did not lose heart and almost equalized but Ismail was equal to the task. In the 27th min mark, Sebastian and Derrick came on to replace Hee and Tong respectively.

Derrick made a telling contribution almost immediately. Soon chipped in a free-kick won in the middle and Derrick broke through and reached the ball ahead of their keeper and squared the ball to the left for the on-rushing Alvin to thump home his 54th ARFC goal. This goal moved him level with Sebastian in the joint-4th position in the ARFC scoring chart. 2-0.


Sebastian then made the double substitution worked perfectly to plan when he sent in a high through ball right to the lurking Haron in the centre circle. As Haron was in our own half, the opponent appealed in vain for an off-side decision and Haron duly sped clear and with his calibre, how could he miss? He rounded the keeper and easily slid the ball home for his 122nd ARFC goal. Once again, a smile appeared on Afiqah’s cute face when the ball hit the net……..3-0 at half-time.

When 2nd half resumed, ARFC experienced the most bizarre collapse in its illustrious history, even worse than AC Milan’s Istanbul melt-down, when it conceded 4 goals to trail by 3-4.

Luckily, about mins before the end, Tjioe latched on to a loose ball and touched the ball high and over their defence to Alvin who broke clear. Alvin used his outer-right foot to square the ball to Derrick who was totally unmarked and he lashed the ball for the equalizer for his 19th ARFC goal.

ARFC could have snatched the winning goal but the referee turned a blind eye after Derrick and clearly and brutally brought down by their keeper. Unlucky!!

This was a match where no particular ARFC warrior stood out. Almost all put in mediocre performance thought credit should not be taken away from the experienced opponent that taught ARFC a valuable lesson on passing and keeping possession in matches.