Courtesy of Kenny’s brilliantly-taken debut brace for ARFC, ARFC opened its D2D Div I league campaign with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over a very young, fit and determined Oogleeee Boys at Ahmad Ibrahim SS.
The win was witnessed by:
Rayes (Derrick’s soooooooo-cute son);
Anna (Elvis’ wife);
Tracie (Guoxiong’s soon-to-be wife);
Cerine (Jinzhong’s new-found girlfriend);
Wife + hyper-active children of Darren.
ARFC was hit with the last-min withdrawal of Edwin who fell ill after witnessing Liverpool’s bizarre defeat by Fulham and also performed too much “luma” after that. Nevertheless, ARFC did not let the withdrawal affect their determination to secure the win.
Prior to the match, Haron was given the “Centurion Award” for chalking up 151 goals thus far over a 10-year distinguished career. Alvin is the other warrior to be in the same Centurion Club as Haron.
ARFC started with this line-up:
Keeper: Dependable Jinzhong
Right-back: Hard-running Guoxiong
Sweeper: Combative Ron
Stopper: Towering Toh
Left-back: Unbeatable Darren
Right-mid: Hardworking Tong
Centre-mid: Influential Sebastian
Centre-mid: Hardman Tjioe
Left-mid: Talisman Derrick
Striker: Powerful Alvin (captain)
Striker: Speedy Hee
Subs:
Dynamic Soon
Nippy Kenny
Astute-reading Elvis
Unpredictable Blackburn
Gigantic Andrew
ARFC scoring legend Haron
Just one look at the subs bench would send shivers down the spines of every GOOD team in the world like Liverpool, Barcelona and Spain. We have the ARFC scoring legend Haron, Players’ Player of the year + Player of the year in Soon and Franco Baresi-like Elvis, not to mention Blackburn, Kenny and Andrew. Hence, the starting warriors were urged to give their all as the subs are all very able replacements.
Indeed, all warriors took heed and played like possessed demons by closing down and challenging for every ball. Guoxiong and Tong once again combined effectively to shut out their Indian winger though ARFC suffered some nervous moments when the Indian winger struck the post in the 7th min.
ARFC gradually took control of the match and began to crave out chances with Toh, Haron and Alvin going close. Alvin played like a true-blue captain when he caused countless problems to their defence with his power but his weak left-foot let him down.
In the 27th min came the save of the match and possibly season. The opponent took a shot from outside the box and the ball looked destined to nestle in the bottom left corner of ARFC’s goal when Jinzhong executed a full-length body dive ala Pepe Reina to touch the ball out for a corner. Super world-class save that had Cerine jumping up and down for 7 mins.
Kenny then came on and his first contribution was to unleash a fierce drive from 27 metres which their keeper saved and conceded a corner.
Sebastian also had a ferocious left foot shot which was turned over for a corner.
From the various corners and free-kicks won, ARFC was unable to make full use, mainly due to their 2 tall defenders clearing all balls pumped in.
Tjioe was booked for persistent fouling and had to be substituted for fear of a red card.
In the 2nd half, ARFC came very close to opening the scoring after Haron put Soon through who ran in from deep. After putting the ball away, the referee inexplicably blew for an off-side on Soon which angered the whole world. Clearly a poor decision but ARFC did not let this bad call affect them.
ARFC finally opened the scoring in the 77th min. Andrew, who put in a battling match, and Haron combined which led to Haron feeding Kenny through on goal. With a great first touch, Kenny moved clear of their defence and placed the ball into the car left-hand corner for his 1st-ever ARFC goal. The goal sparked off wild celebrations in the venue and all fans and warriors were behaving crazily which saw Alvin took off his jerseys and run around the field displaying his bulging muscles. 1-0.
However, ARFC conceded an equalizer 7 mins later after yet another Rory Delap-like throw-in was headed into the net past the bewildered Jinzhong. Though a bad goal to concede, it must be noted that this was probably the only occasion where ARFC’s magnificent defence failed to deal with this throw-in as advised before the match. 1-1
ARFC did not allow its head to drop and true enough, ARFC regained the lead just mins later. Soon picked up a loose ball in our half and embarked on a 27 metres run down the middle before releasing Kenny down the left flank. Without much hesitation, Kenny bettered his earlier goal when he let fly a thunderous shot from the left flank that had their keeper beaten all the way and the ball landed nicely into the top left-hand corner. 2-1.
With this goal, the fans and warriors went totally berserk and the Indian grounds-man had to calm us down by treating us to cigarettes, roti-pratas and teh-tariks.
After an eternity where the sky was totally pitch-dark and no one could see each other, the referee finally blew the final whistle.
Credit to the great attendance for this match and also Kenny’s great debut brace for ARFC. Unfortunately, all of you should know by now that Sebastian does not usually give out Man-of-the-Match Award for goal-scorers (very rarely done) and hence Kenny would have to wait to receive one.
Instead, I should say that the entire team played really well. The defence of Ron, Toh, Guoxiong, Darren and later on Elvis was totally world-class. All warriors also played their hearts out and this spirit was epitomized in the dying mins when Alvin came from nowhere to charge in and challenge for a loose ball down the right flank and eventually won a corner (or foul).
But if a MOM award is to be given, the recipients would jointly be to both Guoxiong and Darren who totally gave their wingers no chance at all.
Also, special mention to Elvis for his great understanding and sacrifice as he played the least for this match (I think). The reason for this is purely tactical as it was felt that he might struggled against this young, fit and fast team if he was to play from the start. Andrew also took a bad hit in his left-eye for his challenge for a ball though it was accidentally caused by Hee’s flailing boot. I think this should be the spirit for all ARFC warriors in matches to come – understanding and sacrifice.
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