Playing in front of 77,777 fans including Anna (Elvis’ wife) and Tracie (Guoxiong’s beau), ARFC suffered a very undeserving 2-1 defeat to Mammoet despite camping at their half for almost the entire 2nd half!!
ARFC welcomed back Toh (illness), Tong (injury) and Elvis (reservist) but Tjioe continued to be out after his injury last week. ARFC started with this line-up:
Keeper: Dependable Jinzhong
Right-back: Hard-running Guoxiong
Sweeper: Elegant Edwin
Stopper: Towering Toh
Left-back: Unpredictable Blackburn
Right-mid: Hardworking Tong (captain)
Centre-mid: Combative Ron
Centre-mid: Dynamic Soon
Centre-mid: Influential Sebastian
Left-mid: Speedy Hee
Striker: Powerful Alvin
Sub:
Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
ARFC started with a lone forward Alvin in a bid to reverse the defeat against the same team just 3 weeks earlier. The moved reaped dividends in the 17th min after some persistent pressing by Tong and Soon resulted in the poor back pass by their defender. In a flash, Alvin intercepted the ball and duly used his outside-right foot to shoot home for his 102nd goal. 1-0
Elvis then replaced Hee who requested the sub and Blackburn moved up to left-mid with Elvis taking the left-back slot.
However, history repeated itself just like the same match against the same opponent. From 2 lapses, ARFC conceded 2 goals to trail 1-2 at half-time.
As Tong has to leave due to praying session, ARFC reverted to 4-4-2 in the 2nd half, with Blackburn joining Alvin in attack and Soon switching to right-mid.
Just mins into the 2nd half, ARFC almost equalized after Sebastian’s corner fell to Soon whose first shot was blocked by their defender on the line. From the rebound, Soon’s shot hit the post and rebounded to safety. Unlucky!!
ARFC was now firing on all cylinders and created so many chances. Particularly, Hee broke clear but was cruelly upended by their last defender. However, the referee merely awarded a free-kick and only booked the defender. From the free-kick, Sebastian’s curling shot just sailed slightly over.
Alvin was also upended at the similar position later. This time the referee did not even booked the offender. Edwin’s resultant free-kick was way too high.
ARFC came close to an equalizer after Alvin’s corner was headed out. Sebastian brought down the loose ball and lobbed everybody but the ball hit the cross-bar. Unlucky again!!
By now, the opponents clearly could not cope with ARFC’s play and resorted to ugly fouls which you see from the Argentina national team and league teams. The lenient referee clearly aided their fouls.
Guoxiong came to ARFC’s rescue when he headed the ball away from the goal-line after their corner almost headed to an empty net. Great defending ala Ashley Cole.
Edwin also ensured ARFC did not fall further behind after he came out tops in his duel against 2 forwards ala Alan Hansen. Fantastic!!
Tried as it could, ARFC simply could not get the equalizer as the opponents “parked a bus in front of their goal”. Real baffling defeat!!
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
10-men ARFC soldiered on for 3-0 victory
Powered by an inspired display from hardman Tjioe, 10-men ARFC dismissed the strong challenge of K-1-K 3-0 at Ahmad Ibrahim SS in front of 77,777 fans. This was ARFC’s 30th match and 23rd victory in 2009.
ARFC suffered huge blows when Toh (severely sick) and Tong (leg pain) pulled out just hours before the match, leaving ARFC with just 10 warriors. In the pre-match briefing, ARFC was urged to play intelligent possession football due to the shortage of warriors. Furthermore, Alvin was sick and Soon had just ran 20 km in the morning!!
ARFC started with this line-up:
Keeper: Dependable Jinzhong (captain)
Right-back: Hard-running Guoxiong
Sweeper: Uncompromising Edwin
Stopper: Combative Ron
Left-back: Influential Sebastian
Right-mid: Unpredictable Blackburn
Centre-mid: Hardman Tjioe
Centre-mid: Dynamic Soon
Left-mid: Speedy Hee
Striker: Powerful Alvin
In a vote of confidence to Jinzhong (for his poor display in the last match), he was made captain of the day. This served to motivate Jinzhong as he would later pull off several miraculous saves to preserve ARFC’s lead.
The match was just minutes old when ARFC opened the scoring. In a ping-pong tussle, Soon headed the ball over their defence and Alvin shrugged off his sick-bug to power clear and tone-joe the ball home for his 101st ARFC goal. This goal rattled the opponents who seemed deflated by this quick goal. 1-0
ARFC nearly went 2 goals up after Hee superbly trapped down a cross from Blackburn from the right and duly volleyed home ala Paul Scholes. However, his goal was correctly ruled out for a slight shove on the defender. Unlucky!!
ARFC was not to be denied in the 27th min. Again, Soon was the architect when he sent Alvin through on goal. Alvin rounded the keeper and was brought down by their keeper giving the referee an easy decision to point to the spot. Despite some antics by the opponent to distract him, Sebastian shut out all disturbances by coolly sending their keeper the wrong way for his 70th ARFC goal.
Sebastian’s goal also allowed him to move past the previous ARFC’s scoring great, Robin’s 69 goals, making Sebastian the 4th other ARFC warriors, the other 3 being Haron, Alvin and Blackburn, to move ahead of Robin.
ARFC suffered a scare when Tjioe was injured during a challenge. Thankfully, he soldiered on, showed his leadership qualities and came back in to help out ARFC. Big credit to him.
In the second half, ARFC merely held out and repelled all their attacks. Jinzhong came out tops yet again when he pushed a violent shot over the bar. World-class!! Simply world-class.
ARFC scored its 3rd goal in the 77th min to effectively killed off the game. Blackburn’s corner looked to be safely caught by their keeper until Hee showed Miroslav Klose-like quality and leaped like a fish by jumping about 1.77 metres above ground to head the ball into the unguarded net for his 68th ARFC goal. Superb!!Brilliant!! Fantastic!!
ARFC held out for a 3-0 victory which bolstered its chances of promotion to Div I. This was also a match where every warriors covered each other very well and all put in superlative efforts to secure this victory. This must be one of the best matches that ARFC ever played.
These are the performance comments of ARFC:
Jinzhong – Truly a captain’s display. Showed very safe-handling and produced several world-class saves to secure a clean sheet yet again. Very Neville Southall-like performance.
Guoxiong – Yet another superb display at right back. Gave opponents no chance at all with his super tackles and recovery. Also, made some surging runs down the right flank. Played like Cafu and Daniel Alves.
Edwin – Marshalled defence very well with his clever interceptions and off-side traps. Played like Alan Hansen.
Ron – Very Carragher-like display with his incessant closing down of opponents whenever they are near him.
Sebastian – Usual display but crucial in organizing the midfield with his shoutings from defence. Cool penalty scored.
Hee – Justified his Most Improved Player with yet another display. Lent great support to Alvin who is lone striker, and also aided Sebastian greatly in defence. Wonderful headed goal which is usually scored by Toh. With this performance, even our very own Khim, who is recognized by every ARFC warrior to be the most complete footballer ever to don an ARFC jersey, would have problems dislodging Hee from the left-midfield position.
Blackburn – Cool display and came out with a great corner scored by Hee.
Soon – Yet another Mascherano-like performance despite his 20 km run in the morning. The opponents could not cope with his tireless running. Re-entered the field after coming down with cramps early in the 2nd half. Great sacrifice for the team.
Tjioe – This must be the BEST performance for him in an ARFC shirt and reminded everyone what Tjioe was during his early ARFC career. His power and strength completed dominated the entire midfield but what was more heartening was that he soldiered on despite taking some heavy knocks at his ankle. This is the spirit that every ARFC warrior should aspire for. A performance that reminded everyone of a certain Roy Keane or Bryan Robson.
Alvin – Whenever he chased after the loose balls played to him, the defenders seemed to fear him. Despite not feeling well, Alvin came up with the goods and if he can produce similar performances by going after the balls, he would conjure up more goals and assists for ARFC. Very Torres-like performance.
Also, for the first time in history, Sebastian did not name his personal Man-of-the-Match. Instead, he polled all 10 warriors in the match and these are their choices:
Warrior Their choice
Jinzhong Tjioe
Guoxiong Soon
Sebastian Tjioe
Edwin Tjioe
Ron Tjioe
Soon Jinzhong
Tjioe Ron
Blackburn Soon
Hee Soon
Alvin Ron
So, the collective ARFC Man-of-the-Match is Tjioe with 4 votes which is very very logical and good choice.
But I also want to add that the other 3 choices, Soon, Ron and Jinzhong, are also good candidates for this award as they also put up fantastic displays!!
ARFC suffered huge blows when Toh (severely sick) and Tong (leg pain) pulled out just hours before the match, leaving ARFC with just 10 warriors. In the pre-match briefing, ARFC was urged to play intelligent possession football due to the shortage of warriors. Furthermore, Alvin was sick and Soon had just ran 20 km in the morning!!
ARFC started with this line-up:
Keeper: Dependable Jinzhong (captain)
Right-back: Hard-running Guoxiong
Sweeper: Uncompromising Edwin
Stopper: Combative Ron
Left-back: Influential Sebastian
Right-mid: Unpredictable Blackburn
Centre-mid: Hardman Tjioe
Centre-mid: Dynamic Soon
Left-mid: Speedy Hee
Striker: Powerful Alvin
In a vote of confidence to Jinzhong (for his poor display in the last match), he was made captain of the day. This served to motivate Jinzhong as he would later pull off several miraculous saves to preserve ARFC’s lead.
The match was just minutes old when ARFC opened the scoring. In a ping-pong tussle, Soon headed the ball over their defence and Alvin shrugged off his sick-bug to power clear and tone-joe the ball home for his 101st ARFC goal. This goal rattled the opponents who seemed deflated by this quick goal. 1-0
ARFC nearly went 2 goals up after Hee superbly trapped down a cross from Blackburn from the right and duly volleyed home ala Paul Scholes. However, his goal was correctly ruled out for a slight shove on the defender. Unlucky!!
ARFC was not to be denied in the 27th min. Again, Soon was the architect when he sent Alvin through on goal. Alvin rounded the keeper and was brought down by their keeper giving the referee an easy decision to point to the spot. Despite some antics by the opponent to distract him, Sebastian shut out all disturbances by coolly sending their keeper the wrong way for his 70th ARFC goal.
Sebastian’s goal also allowed him to move past the previous ARFC’s scoring great, Robin’s 69 goals, making Sebastian the 4th other ARFC warriors, the other 3 being Haron, Alvin and Blackburn, to move ahead of Robin.
ARFC suffered a scare when Tjioe was injured during a challenge. Thankfully, he soldiered on, showed his leadership qualities and came back in to help out ARFC. Big credit to him.
In the second half, ARFC merely held out and repelled all their attacks. Jinzhong came out tops yet again when he pushed a violent shot over the bar. World-class!! Simply world-class.
ARFC scored its 3rd goal in the 77th min to effectively killed off the game. Blackburn’s corner looked to be safely caught by their keeper until Hee showed Miroslav Klose-like quality and leaped like a fish by jumping about 1.77 metres above ground to head the ball into the unguarded net for his 68th ARFC goal. Superb!!Brilliant!! Fantastic!!
ARFC held out for a 3-0 victory which bolstered its chances of promotion to Div I. This was also a match where every warriors covered each other very well and all put in superlative efforts to secure this victory. This must be one of the best matches that ARFC ever played.
These are the performance comments of ARFC:
Jinzhong – Truly a captain’s display. Showed very safe-handling and produced several world-class saves to secure a clean sheet yet again. Very Neville Southall-like performance.
Guoxiong – Yet another superb display at right back. Gave opponents no chance at all with his super tackles and recovery. Also, made some surging runs down the right flank. Played like Cafu and Daniel Alves.
Edwin – Marshalled defence very well with his clever interceptions and off-side traps. Played like Alan Hansen.
Ron – Very Carragher-like display with his incessant closing down of opponents whenever they are near him.
Sebastian – Usual display but crucial in organizing the midfield with his shoutings from defence. Cool penalty scored.
Hee – Justified his Most Improved Player with yet another display. Lent great support to Alvin who is lone striker, and also aided Sebastian greatly in defence. Wonderful headed goal which is usually scored by Toh. With this performance, even our very own Khim, who is recognized by every ARFC warrior to be the most complete footballer ever to don an ARFC jersey, would have problems dislodging Hee from the left-midfield position.
Blackburn – Cool display and came out with a great corner scored by Hee.
Soon – Yet another Mascherano-like performance despite his 20 km run in the morning. The opponents could not cope with his tireless running. Re-entered the field after coming down with cramps early in the 2nd half. Great sacrifice for the team.
Tjioe – This must be the BEST performance for him in an ARFC shirt and reminded everyone what Tjioe was during his early ARFC career. His power and strength completed dominated the entire midfield but what was more heartening was that he soldiered on despite taking some heavy knocks at his ankle. This is the spirit that every ARFC warrior should aspire for. A performance that reminded everyone of a certain Roy Keane or Bryan Robson.
Alvin – Whenever he chased after the loose balls played to him, the defenders seemed to fear him. Despite not feeling well, Alvin came up with the goods and if he can produce similar performances by going after the balls, he would conjure up more goals and assists for ARFC. Very Torres-like performance.
Also, for the first time in history, Sebastian did not name his personal Man-of-the-Match. Instead, he polled all 10 warriors in the match and these are their choices:
Warrior Their choice
Jinzhong Tjioe
Guoxiong Soon
Sebastian Tjioe
Edwin Tjioe
Ron Tjioe
Soon Jinzhong
Tjioe Ron
Blackburn Soon
Hee Soon
Alvin Ron
So, the collective ARFC Man-of-the-Match is Tjioe with 4 votes which is very very logical and good choice.
But I also want to add that the other 3 choices, Soon, Ron and Jinzhong, are also good candidates for this award as they also put up fantastic displays!!
Monday, August 03, 2009
ARFC in 1-4 melt-down
In a 5 pm kick-off match against Mammoet at the brand-new and much-improved Braddell-Westlake SS, ARFC suffered a 4-1 defeat in front of 77,777 fans including Anna (wife of Elvis) and the entire family of Blackburn.
ARFC was boosted by the return of hardman Tjioe who made a miraculous recovery from his injured back to take the field. To prove his fitness level, he even turned up at 3 pm to jog around the school compound 77 laps.
ARFC started with this line-up:
Keeper: Dependable Jinzhong
Right-back: Hard-running Guoxiong
Sweeper: Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
Stopper: Towering Toh
Left-back: Influential Sebastian
Right-mid: Dynamic Soon
Centre-mid: Hardman Tjioe (captain)
Centre-mid: Combative Ron
Left-mid: Speedy Hee
Striker: ARFC Scoring Legend Haron
Striker: Powerful Alvin
Sub:
Unpredictable Blackburn
ARFC was in great mood and morale especially after last Saturday’s awards night where Soon was unanimously crowned the Player of the Year & Players’ Player of the Year. Hence, it was no surprise that ARF totally dominated the first 20 mins.
Inspired by the award, Son opened the scoring in the 17th min. Exchanging a very clever one-two with Haron who made it looked so simple, Soon dashed clear and reached the ball ahead of their keeper. Side-stepping their keeper, Soon slotted home for his 20th ARFC goal. 1-0
Strange enough, ARFC turned very complacent after the goal and did not compete at all. In the27th min, Guoxiong again made a Jamie Carragher-like recovery tackle after a mistake by Jinzhong nearly gifted them an easy goal. Wonderful defending!!
From 2 shots, the opponents then scored 2 goals!!
During the half-time break, the ‘Special Star Award’ was given out by Wenhui to her husband Blackburn for his always full attendance and playing in many positions from keeper to striker.
ARFC tried to mount a come-back in the 2nd half but was let down by many many misplaced passes. It did not help that ARFC lost out in many challenges.
ARFC looked to have equalized in the 67th min. Soon made space down the right flank and his Beckham-like cross eluded everyone to the waiting Alvin at the far post. With a gaping goal, Alvin incredibly headed wide!!
Chasing the match, ARFC had no choice but to push up to find the equalizer and was punished in the 80th min when they scored from a counter-attack. 1-3.
Toh could have pulled a goal back but his thunderous header came off the cross-bar.
In the dying mins, they scored from a free-kick. 1-4.
In all honesty, ARFC did not put in a fight and was deservedly beaten. The opponents also played a great game and all credit to them.
ARFC must learn that effort and hardwork are essential in every match and all warriors must work hard for the each other and for the team, and be prepared to challenge and fight for every ball.
ARFC was boosted by the return of hardman Tjioe who made a miraculous recovery from his injured back to take the field. To prove his fitness level, he even turned up at 3 pm to jog around the school compound 77 laps.
ARFC started with this line-up:
Keeper: Dependable Jinzhong
Right-back: Hard-running Guoxiong
Sweeper: Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
Stopper: Towering Toh
Left-back: Influential Sebastian
Right-mid: Dynamic Soon
Centre-mid: Hardman Tjioe (captain)
Centre-mid: Combative Ron
Left-mid: Speedy Hee
Striker: ARFC Scoring Legend Haron
Striker: Powerful Alvin
Sub:
Unpredictable Blackburn
ARFC was in great mood and morale especially after last Saturday’s awards night where Soon was unanimously crowned the Player of the Year & Players’ Player of the Year. Hence, it was no surprise that ARF totally dominated the first 20 mins.
Inspired by the award, Son opened the scoring in the 17th min. Exchanging a very clever one-two with Haron who made it looked so simple, Soon dashed clear and reached the ball ahead of their keeper. Side-stepping their keeper, Soon slotted home for his 20th ARFC goal. 1-0
Strange enough, ARFC turned very complacent after the goal and did not compete at all. In the27th min, Guoxiong again made a Jamie Carragher-like recovery tackle after a mistake by Jinzhong nearly gifted them an easy goal. Wonderful defending!!
From 2 shots, the opponents then scored 2 goals!!
During the half-time break, the ‘Special Star Award’ was given out by Wenhui to her husband Blackburn for his always full attendance and playing in many positions from keeper to striker.
ARFC tried to mount a come-back in the 2nd half but was let down by many many misplaced passes. It did not help that ARFC lost out in many challenges.
ARFC looked to have equalized in the 67th min. Soon made space down the right flank and his Beckham-like cross eluded everyone to the waiting Alvin at the far post. With a gaping goal, Alvin incredibly headed wide!!
Chasing the match, ARFC had no choice but to push up to find the equalizer and was punished in the 80th min when they scored from a counter-attack. 1-3.
Toh could have pulled a goal back but his thunderous header came off the cross-bar.
In the dying mins, they scored from a free-kick. 1-4.
In all honesty, ARFC did not put in a fight and was deservedly beaten. The opponents also played a great game and all credit to them.
ARFC must learn that effort and hardwork are essential in every match and all warriors must work hard for the each other and for the team, and be prepared to challenge and fight for every ball.
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