Playing on the Damai SS pitch for the very first time, ARFC overcame an early setback to crush its opponents 6-3 in front of the watching 77,777 ARFC faithful fans including Dora and Marco Mak, 2 hyper-active kids, and Haron’s wife, Su, and daughter Afiqah and Su’s mother.
ARFC welcomed back several stalwarts who were missing from last week’s match, namely Sebastian, Tjioe, Elvis and Huiming. David also made a long-awaited comeback with his appearance. As Haron and Soon were late, ARFC started with this line-up:
Keeper: Dependable Jinzhong
Right-back: Determined Huiming
Sweeper: Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
Stopper: Towering Toh
Left-back: Left-foot wizard Bernard
Right-mid: Hardworking Tong
Centre-mid: Hardman Tjioe
Centre-mid: Influential Sebastian
Left-mid: Unpredictable Blackburn
Striker: Speedy Hee
Striker: Powerful Alvin
Subs: ARFC scoring legend Haron
Dynamic Soon
Reliable David
Prior to the match, Huiming and David were rewarded with a swarvoski crystal trophy in recognition of them being the pioneer ARFC warrior.
ARFC immediately wrest control of the match right from the kick-off and they were defending desperately to prevent ARFC from scoring.
In the 7th min, off their very first attack, the opponents opened the scoring. 0-1.
ARFC, however, did not panic as the warriors know their pedigree. Just minutes after going one goal down, ARFC equalized. Blackburn was fouled at the left-hand side and Sebastian took the free-kick. His lob ball almost hung in the air for about 7 seconds and Tjioe out-jumped their keeper to head in for his 41st ARFC goal.
Less than 7 mins later, ARFC went ahead like a carbon-copy goal of the first, but this time it came from the right side. Tong, who had a superb match, won a free-kick after being fouled near the right touch-line and corner spot. Sebastian again stepped up and whipped in a wicked ball and Tjioe simply had to power home with his head for his 42nd ARFC goal. Fantastic!!
Tjioe and Sebastian were soon tiring and had to be replaced by both Soon and Haron respectively. Alvin was also replaced by David after taking a slight knock.
ARFC threatened to score again but some chances were squandered. Half-time score 2-1.
In the 2nd half, Sebastian and Alvin came on to place Hee and Blackburn.
ARFC continued its relentless assault on the opponents’ goal. Just 7 mins after the re-start, ARFC got its 3rd goal. Sebastian’s delightful Jamie Redknapp’s through pass saw Haron breaking free. However, he dragged the ball too wide away from goal but thankfully he squared the ball back to Alvin who “tone-joed” the ball home for his 58th ARFC goal. His goal continued his red-hot scoring streak of scoring for the 7th consecutive match.
Playing under the watchful eyes of Su, Afiqah and mother-in-law, Haron could not bear to disappoint them. 7 mins later, he got his 124th ARFC goal. Tong and Alvin combined to press their player which resulted in the ball breaking loose to Haron. With a clever touch, Haron pulled away and with his renowned scoring prowess, naturally he side-footed the ball home. Once again, Afiqah smiled at the sight of his father wheeling away in celebration. 4-1 now.
In the 57th min, Sebastian almost scored but his left-foot lob was touched on to the bar by their keeper and Haron just missed with his follow-up header.
By now, Tjioe was looking for his hat-trick and he finally got it in the 67th min. Off a corner by Blackburn which created a melee pin-ball in their penalty box, Haron and Toh almost scored and the ball broker kindly for Tjioe to thump home for his 2nd ever hat-trick for ARFC.
After going 5-1 up, ARFC became complacent and let in 2 more goals for them to make it 5-3.
In the 77th min, Soon was unlucky not to add to his ARFC tally as his header goal was ruled out due to the referee spotted a foul by Toh. Unlucky Soon.
The goal of the match came in the 87th min from Hee. Sebastian’s outside foot through ball had Hee facing their keeper one-on-one. Hee then showed the watching crowd his new trick when he dummied with his right-foot and in just a split 0.7777 seconds, used his left-foot to connect with the ball. This world-class move fooled everyone in the stadia and the ball rolled gently into the net. His goal sparked delirious celebrations as it was the 1st time any footballers, fans, commentators, managers and WAGs had ever witnessed such an exquisite finish!!!!
To be fair to Hee, this was not the most significant contribution from him. His best contribution was his voluntary switching to the left-mid role when Blackburn was clearly losing the plot which created so much pressure and holes for David to plug alone. A tiring David had no choice but to be replaced by Bernard who added much-needed steel in the defence.
For this match, all played well and it was a much-improved team performance from every warrior concern. All credit to most warriors as they were asked to play in different positions in this match which they took it in their stride and performed to the best of their abilities.
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