In a match played under the watchful eyes of 77,777 fans which included Anna, Tracie and Caren, partners of Elvis, Guoxiong and Sebastian respectively, ARFC brushed aside its opponent 5-4 on the back of a brilliant hat-trick by Sebastian.
ARFC started with this line-up:
Keeper: Dependable Jinzhong
Right-back: Hard-running Guoxiong
Sweeper: Unpredictable Blackburn
Stopper: Towering Toh
Left-back: Left-foot wizard Bernard
Right-mid: Hardworking Tong
Centre-mid: Hardman Tjioe
Centre-mid: Dynamic Soon
Left-mid: Influential Sebastian
Striker: Powerful Alvin
Striker: Speedy Hee
Subs: Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
ARFC started the match on the slippery ground and several warriors were undone by the slippery condition and lost their footing. The opponents also anyhow slide and the warriors had to be careful not to incur unnecessary injuries.
ARFC took the lead in the 7th min. Hee chased a ball into the box and pressured their defence and keeper which resulted in their keeper clearing the ball upwards. The ball flew to Sebastian who was about 7 metres outside the penalty box and instinctly planted a looping header over their back-pedalling defender and just dropped into the far corner for his 56th ARFC goal. This goal was almost similar to Diego Maradona’s headed goal for Napoli against Torino (or Verona) in a Seria-A match in the late 80s.
Sebastian’s headed goal was probably his first headed goal since his teenage years when he headed in a goal against a Combined School’s Team comprising Aide Iskandar, Zakaria Awang, Fahmy Abdullah, Nasiruddin Sawardi and the likes in a match sometime in 1989 or 1990.
Things got better for Sebastian in the 17th min. Hee’s corner was cleared back to him and he sent in a high looping cross. The ball seemed to hang in the air for 7 seconds and Tjioe was about to go for a shot when he heard Sebastian calling for the call and moved aside. In almost a similar position where he scored his headed goal, Sebastian struck a sweet volley without the ball dropping that sizzled past their keeper and nestled into the bottom left corner.
Sebastian then wasted a chance when he was selfish and did not pass the ball to Tong who was free and for that, he endured a stinging verbal volley from Tong and several warriors.
Half-time 2-0.
After yet another selfish moment, Sebastian finally got his hat-trick in the 57th min. After some intrigue passing between Tong, Blackburn, Soon, Alvin and Tjioe, Sebastian showed some fancy footwork before curling the ball low into the bottom right corner for his 3rd ARFC hat-tricks. His previous 2 hat-tricks were on 20 March 1994 and 30 Jun 1996. Upon seeing the hat-trick, Caren was so ecstatic that she did 7 Mexican waves on her own.
Jinzhong then spilled a shot to allow them a goal. 1-3 and shortly after ARFC conceded another goal. 3-2 now.
Blackburn then showed all what he is capable of despite his age in the 77th min. His dribble ala Zidane had their defender all at seas and was brought down, giving the referee no choice but to point to the spot. Up stepped Elvis to send their keeper the wrong way for his 5th ARFC goal. After scoring, Elvis sprinted all the way to Anna who planted a kiss on his not-so-thin cheeks. 4-2 now.
The opponent then pulled another goal back. 4-3.
ARFC was not done and got its 5th goal in the 87th min. Blackburn was again the architect as his left-wing cross was chested into goal by their defender after some pressure from Alvin. 5-3.
Elvis and Toh then became Santa Claus again and gifted another goal to them in virtually the last kick of the match. 5-4 and ARFC and its fans went home happy.
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