ARFC won 4-2 in friendly match at Tampines SAFRA

In a friendly match at the Tampines SAFRA pitch on 05 Dec 08, ARFC defeated a rather-youthful team 4-2 in front of 77,777 fans which included Su and Fiqah (Haron’s family) and Caren, Sebastian’s wife who finally lend her support after so many matches away due to tattoo aspirations.


ARFC started with this line-up:

Keeper: Dependable Jinzhong
Right-back: Hard-running Guoxiong
Sweeper: Uncompromising Edwin
Stopper: Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
Left-back: Left-foot wizard Bernard
Right-mid: Mean-machine Hock
Centre-mid: Influential Sebastian
Centre-mid: Dynamic Soon
Left-mid: Unpredictable Blackburn (captain)
Striker: Powerful Alvin
Striker: Speedy Hee;


The subs bench reads who’s who as follows:

Towering Toh;
Sublime Khim;
ARFC scoring legend Haron;
Hardman Tjioe;
Deadly Robin;
WO Jeffrey Neo

Clearly, the quality of the bench will send shivers down the spines of any opponents including the formidable clubs like Liverpool and Real Madrid.


ARFC immediately seized control and it would be a matter of time before ARFC open the scoring. True enough, the opening goal came in the 7th min. Hee was fouled and Sebastian played a quick one by chipping the ball over their right-back to Alvin. Alvin broke clear on the left and when their keeper charged out, he lofted the ball over him and it seemed that he would add to his 74 ARFC goals. However, Hock charged in and make sure of the goal as their defenders were chasing back and Hock simply rolled the ball into the net for his 16th ARFC goal. 1-0

7 mins after the goal, shouts of “ARFC!! ARFC!! ARFC!!” rang loudly down the pitch. It turned out that WO Jeffrey had made a long-awaited appearance and he had brought along his 7 platoons of army recruits to lend support and they were shouting war-cry which WO Neo had taught them.
Strangely enough, ARFC went soft after this goal and several golden chances were well-saved by their impressive keeper. On the 25th min mark, ARFC made 5 substitutions (except Jeffrey as he was still in his No. 4 uniform).

Half-time 1-0.

In the 2nd half, WO Neo made his appearance at right-back, replacing the injured Guoxiong who played on despite his ankle injury sustained just the night before.

Special credit must also be given to Jinzhong who also played despite a thigh injury.

In the space of 7 mins, ARFC conceded 2 goals and went 1-2 behind.


ARFC upped its tempo as the fans were getting frustrated with the insipid display.

The equalizer came into the 57th min. Haron, who had a great match, was fouled outside the box and Edwin shrugged aside Sebastian to execute a world-class bendign free-kick that even Beckham would be proud of. The ball was dropped and spilled and in came Khim, who learn from Hee, to poke the ball home before anyone could do so. It was Khim’s 36th ARFC goal. 2-2 now.

Not contented, ARFC went in search of the break-through goal and it came in the 77th min. Sebastian sent in a long high ball to Hee who was lurking in the box. Holding their defender off excellently, Hee spun and thumped the ball home for his 60th ARFC goal. The goal allowed him to go joint-5th with Sebastian in ARFC’s leading scorer chart.

The icing on the cake came on the stroke of half-time. Hock’s sizzling corner-kick was met emphatically by Edwin and despite their keeper getting a hand to the ball, was unable to prevent the ball from trickling in. It was Edwin’s 3rd ARFC goal and 2nd goal in successive match. 4-2.

All ARFC warriors played well and it was really difficult to single any warrior out as Man-of-the-Match. The exceptional warriors are Alvin, Elvis, Hock, Haron and Hee.

For this match, special mention must be given to the defenders, Toh, Elvis, Edwin, Bernard, Guoxiong, Blackburn, Jeffrey and Jinzhong for giving a stable display which allowed the midfielders and attackers to launch attacks without much worries. Defenders have a thankless job. Mistakes made by them usually ended in goals and they are made villains, whereas for midfielders and strikers, they can miss tonnes of chances and when any one of them scored the winning goal, they would be feted and accorded hero status.

The attendance for this match is also fantastic. Again, special credit must be given as no warrior was unhappy at the limited playing time due to the rotation to try and ensure all have somewhat equal playing time.