ARFC in battling 1-4 defeat to Team BI

Facing Team BI for the 2nd time in the league which was ARFC’s 10th league match at Temasek Sec Sch, ARFC fought a gallant battle before crumbling to a 1-4 defeat after succumbing to exhaustion. With the victory, Team BI has wrapped up the league title after yet another unbeaten season.

ARFC was supported Anna and Cerine, beau of Elvis and Jinzhong respectively, as well as Ron’s family. Sebastian was also around (though slightly late) but still could not play due to his crocked left knee.

ARFC started with this line-up:

Keeper: Dependable Jinzhong
Right-back: Hard-running Guoxiong
Sweeper: Astute-reading Elvis
Stopper: Towering Toh (captain)
Left-back: Unpredictable Blackburn
Right-mid: Talisman Derrick
Centre-mid: Dynamic Soon
Centre-mid: Hard-man Tjioe
Centre-mid: Combative Ron
Left-mid: Nippy Kenny
Striker: Battling Andrew

Subs:

Powerful Alvin
Speedy Hee
Chuan

ARFC did every well in the opening 20 mins and was able to match the vastly-superior Team BI though there were a couple of moments when they nearly scored but was thwarted by Jinzhong who went on to have an inspired match with several top-notch world-class saves.

ARFC opened the scoring in the 7th min after Soon won possession at the right wing. The ball was passed to Derrick just outside the penalty box and he looked to shoot before laying the ball for Kenny who was coming in from deep. With a clever touch, Kenny eluded their defender and was clumsily brought down in the box, thereby giving the referee a very easy decision to point to the spot. Elvis stepped up and coolly placed the ball to the top left-hand corner of their keeper for his 8th ARFC goal. The goal was also the first time that ARFC had taken the lead against Team BI. 1-0

The turning point of the match came in the 27th min when ARFC nearly doubled its lead. Alvin picked up a loose ball just at the tip of the centre circle area. With their keeper way way out of position, Alvin chipped the ball towards the unguarded goal but the ball just rolled agonisingly wide. Unlucky!!

Not surprisingly, ARFC warriors began tiring out one by one and Team BI scored 2 goals to lead 2-1 at half-time.

In the 2nd half, Team BI scored 2 more to emerge 4-1 victors.

ARFC was indebted to Jinzhong who made at least 4 world-class saves and this feat earned him the Man-of-the Match. Andrew also did very well in this match, as did Kenny who created the goal and his craft troubled Team BI greatly. Chuan is also improving with every match and he would be a good fit for ARFC in matches to come.

Special credit to all ARFC warriors for battling on despite being put under constant pressure by Team BI. Considering our general fitness level which is not high, ARFC also performed admirably.

Also, ARFC would be able to put up a better fight if regulars like Haron, Darren, Khim and Sebastian were around. No excuse, however, as Team BI is really a good footballing team with good sportsmanship.