ARFC in gallant 4-7 loss

Due to the walk-over victory over FC Nitroz, ARFC played a friendly match on Sunday instead against a very young and fit team. In the absence of Sebastian who was "cruising away", Alvin + Derrick took charge of the team on his behalf.

ARFC started with this 4-3-3 line-up:

GK - Weili (guest keeper from Rendezvous FC)
Sweeper - Astute-reading Sweeper Elvis
Stopper - Towering Toh
RB - Hard-running Guoxiong
LB - Unbeatable Darren
CM - Hardman Tjioe
CM - Combative Ron
CM - Dynamic Soon
RF - Speedy Hee
LF - Unpredictable Blackburn
CF - ARFC Scoring Legand Haron

Subs:

Powerful Alvin
Talisman Derrick


Tjioe gave ARFC the lead for his 54th ARFC only for the opponent to equalise. Toh regained ARFC's lead with his 37th ARFC goal but the opponent drew level again.

At 2-2, Alvin and Derrick replaced Ron and Tjioe respectively and ARFC reverted to 4-4-2 formation. Alvin partnered Haron upfront with Derrick going to RF, Hee gone to LF and Blackburn paired up with Soon in the middle.

The opponent took the lead for the 1st time, but Soon pegged them back with his 26th ARFC goal. 3-3 now.

Alvin then scored his 113th ARFC goal to give ARFC a 4-3 lead at the break.

Unfortunately, Toh had to leave for a wedding dinner and hence Ron took over the stopper position. Due to the fitness of the opponent, ARFC conceded 4 goals in the 2nd half for a 4-7 defeat.

Though defeated, nothing can take away the commendable performance of ARFC especially in the 1st half. According to ESPN pundit Serbegath Singh, ARFC lost not because of inferior skills but mainly due to the better fitness of the opponent. Also, ARFC only had one sub for the 2nd half.

Special thanks to Toh for turning up despite a wedding dinner engagement. Also to Guoxiong for sacrificing his "furniture-buying" trip with Tracie to play in this match.