ARFC loses to itself

In a friendly match at the magnificent but extremely hot artificial pitch at 1st Toa Payoh SS, ARFC wilted and melted 1-3 against a very young opponent.

ARFC was supported by Anna (Elvis’ wife), Tracie (Guoxiong’s soon-to-be-wife), Jinzhong’s new girlfriend, Cerine, and Ron’s entire family.

Prior to the match, ARFC did not have enough players and hence 2 guest players, Raymond and Adrian Quek, were called up to lend their support. Furthermore, David pulled a thigh muscle during his PE lesson but he still turned up for the match as he had to honour his word by indicating his availability earlier in the week.

Credit should also be given to Guoxiong who wanted to play despite his heavily-injured ankle, and Haron who took a break from his Hari Raya + fatherly duty, after both of them responded to the “SOS e-mail” by Sebastian.

Hence, it was an uphill task for ARFC after taking into account the number of warriors and several injured warriors. First-team regulars like Alvin, Toh, Tjioe and Edwin were also missing. The task was made worse when the opponent turned out to be young and fit though not very good in their football.

ARFC started with this line-up:

Keeper: Dependable Jinzhong (captain)
Right-back: Reliable David
Sweeper: Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
Stopper: Combative Ron
Left-back: Hard-running Guoxiong
Right-mid: Talisman Derrick
Centre-mid: Dynamic Soon
Centre-mid: Influential Sebastian
Left-mid: Unpredictable Blackburn
Striker: Speedy Hee
Striker: ARFC scoring legend Haron

Sub:

Guest players Raymond and Adrian
It was clear from the start that Guoxiong could not sprint and kick the ball due to his injury. To his credit, he soldiered on for about 20 mins before finally bowing out and replaced by Adrian. Raymond also came on for Hee who was tiring.

The opponents took a 2-goal lead after defensive blunders. 0-2 at half-time.

In the 2nd half, Guoxiong came back on and in the 57th min, he whipped in a ferocious cross from the right and their defender clumsily handled the ball giving the referee an easy decision to point to the spot. Sebastian stepped up and leashed the ball very near to the keeper who got a hand to the ball but was unable to prevent the powerful shot from going in. 1-2 and it was Sebastian’s 71st ARFC goal.

Some spectacular saves from Jinzhong helped narrowed the score. Obviously, Jinzhong was inspired by the presence of his new-found girlfriend. These saves more than made up for his error in the 1st goal where he allowed the ball to squirm in at his near post.

The opponent scored their 3rd goal after a clear off-side was missed by the referee. 1-3.

Considering the circumstances – extremely hot weather, 2 injured warriors (David and Guoxiong), 2 unfit warriors (Derrick from long-term injury and Haron from Hari Raya break), not enough substitutes, that ARFC was facing, the score was a fairly good result. It was really heart-breaking to be humiliated by such a mediocre opponent. If ARFC was not missing so many players, we would surely have beaten this opponent.

Man-of-the-Match is jointly awarded to Jinzhong and Ron.