ARFC faltered to a 2-2 draw

In a friendly match held to commemorate Singapore’s 45th National Day, ARFC led 2-0 before being held to a 2-2 draw by a young Chinese team at East Spring SS.

As it was a long weekend, ARFC was missing a host of regular first-teamers and no WAGs were present. In fact, only 77 fans turned up to watch a patch-up ARFC side comprising 3 guest players.

ARFC started with this line-up:

Keeper: Guohui (guest player)
Right-back: Sze Meng (guest player)
Sweeper: Combative Ron
Stopper: Towering Toh
Left-back: Unbeatable Darren
Right-mid: Talisman Derrick
Centre-mid: Influential Sebastian
Centre-mid: Tze Ern
Left-mid: Unpredictable Blackburn
Striker: Speedy Hee (captain)
Striker: Powerful Alvin

Subs:

Wayne
Norman
Yaoyang (guest player)


ARFC opened the scoring in the 17th min when strong pressure from Derrick, Blackburn and Hee caused panic in their defence. Alvin picked up the loose ball outside the box and with a quick sharp turn, eluded their sweeper and powered just right to the edge of the box. Before their sweeper and keeper can blink their eyes, Alvin executed a outside right foot shot that gave their keeper no chance at all to react. 1-0 and this was Alvin’s 129th ARFC goal. 1-0

ARFC doubled its lead courtesy of yet another Alvin goal. Derrick’s clever through ball found Alvin who again showed world-class deadly skill by thumping the ball past their keeper for his 130th ARFC goal. 2-0

In the 2nd half, ARFC sportingly gave the better performer in the form of Sze Meng to the opponents as they were short of players.

In the 2nd half, ARFC continued to conjure up golden chances but all were spurned. Tze Ern, who impressed with his biting tackles but lacked match fitness, found Alvin with a slide-rule pass but Alvin was denied his hat-trick by the save of their keeper.

Next up, Derrick’s precise right wing cross sailed over their keeper but struck the cross-bar. Hee dashed in for the rebound but his header also struck the same cross-bar. Unlucky for both!

Alvin again had another chance denied when his shot was again saved by their keeper.

Hee had a golden chance to increase ARFC’s lead when their keeper’s clearance found Hee about 37 metres outside the box. Alas, Hee’s lob was agonizingly just 0.77 metres wide.

Off a quick corner from Alvin, Sebastian’s chip was nearly headed in by Toh but he was just a fraction late.

The young and fitter opponents then scored 2 goals after ARFC warriors tired out in the last 20 mins.

Man-of-the-match is jointly given to Darren (for making the left back a fortress in the match) and Alvin (for his Ian Rush-like finishes).

Special mention to Ron for volunteering to be the keeper in the 2nd half.