Fired up by the gritty performance by the Cubs’ 3-2 win over Montenegro in the YOG, ARFC thrashed Team Kangtao 5-1 after captain of the day Kenny put in a virtuoso performance at the artificial pitch at Bedok Green SS in front of 77,777 fans that included Elvis’ beau Anna.
ARFC had lost 1-2 to the same team the previous week due mainly to insufficient substitutes. Thankfully, there were 15 warriors present as Derrick went to the wrong pitch and only arrived late in the 2nd half.
ARFC was further boosted by the return of Elvis after his 2-week reservist duty to serve the nation.
ARFC started with this strong line-up:
Keeper: ARFC Scoring Legend Haron (stand-in keeper)
Right-back: Hard-running Guoxiong
Sweeper: Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
Stopper: Towering Toh
Left-back: Unbeatable Darren
Right-mid: Unpredictable Blackburn
Centre-mid: Influential Sebastian
Centre-mid: Combative Ron
Left-mid: Dynamic Soon
Striker: Nippy Kenny (captain)
Striker: Speedy Hee
Subs:
Wayne
Norman
Tze Ern
En Dian
Talisman Derrick (only arrived late in the 2nd half)
ARFC was determined to put things right from the word go. Our two speedy forwards impressed with their constant harassing at their defence.
ARFC took the lead in the 17th min. Sebastian, whose set-pieces delivery in last week’s match was very woeful, finally got things right. From a free-kick on the right, his curling kick eluded their defence and Ron dashed in and turned the ball for his 1st–ever ARFC goal. 1-0
The opponents then equalized after a rare error by ARFC’s defence. 1-1
Straight from the kick-off, ARFC immediately regained the lead. Hee touched the ball and instead of passing backwards, Kenny pushed the ball 0.77 cm forward and let fly a venomous shot towards the goal. The ball was deflected by their sweeper outside the box and bounced towards goal. Their keeper allowed the ball to bounce once and incredibly he was fooled by the violent spin of the ball and parried the ball into his own net for a comical own goal. 2-1 and this was the 20th own goal conceded by ARFC’s opponents.
ARFC extended its lead in the 27th min. From defending a corner, ARFC counter-attacked and Kenny showed world-class speed ala Ryan Giggs and sprinted down the left flank. At the same time, En Dian, Soon and Wayne also set off towards their goal. Kenny looked up and sent a cross-field ball to En Dian at the right flank. Killing the ball, En Dian paused a while and crossed the ball into the box and there was Wayne to slid the ball home for his 1st-ever ARFC goal. 3-1
The downside is that in scoring the goal, Wayne aggravated his right shoulder injury and had to be replaced. L
In the 2nd half, ARFC almost scored within 77 seconds. Kenny pressured their keeper into spilling the ball at the left-hand side near the touchline. Kenny headed the spilled ball towards the empty net and En Dian dashed in but just narrowly failed to connect and the ball trickled just 0.7 cm wide. Unlucky!
ARFC continued its dominance and twice from Sebastian’s corners, Toh and En Dian both went for the same balls and the chances were lost.
Blackburn was next to come close but his turn and volley flew narrowly wide.
Soon also flashed a shot high over the bar after Norman’s corner was half-cleared to him just outside the box.
ARFC finally scored the 4th goal. From Borman’s excellent corner on the right, En Dian rose majestically and headed the ball home for his 4th ARFC goal. Incidentally, En Dian’s previous goal was also a header at the same field! 4-1
At this point, Derrick immediately changed though there were only about less than 7.7 mins to go.
With almost the last kick of the match, ARFC scored its 5th goal in the match. Derrick made an immediate impact upon coming on. He won the ball at the middle and passed the ball down the right flank for Norman. Norman’s cross found Derrick in the box and Derrick then passed the ball out to the left for the lurking Kenny. Kenny fooled their keeper into committing a challenge ala Messi and rifled the bal into the roof of the net for his 7th ARFC goal to cap off a virtuoso captain’s performance. 5-1
This was a match where every warrior played their hearts out to avenge the previous week’s defeat to the same team. It was earlier predicted that with enough substitutes, ARFC can defeat them which, true enough, was achieved. Hopefully, ARFC will always have about 14-15 warriors for every match.
ARFC’s defence of Guoxiong, Darren, Toh, Elvis and later on Ron, reminded everyone of the famed defences of both Liverpool (Steve Nicol, Jim Beglin, Mark Lawrenson and Alan Hansen) and Everton (Gary Stevens, Pat Van de Hauw, Derek Mountfield and Kevin Ratcliff) in the 80s. In particular, Toh repeatedly repelled their aerial attacks from their long throw-ins, and Darren and Guoxiong also gave their wingers no chance at all. Haron, despite being on fast, showed good reading in the keeper’s position by coming out for a few balls. Wayne did his part when covering at left-back and did very well in scoring his first goal for ARFC.
The midfielders were also alert in this match with Tze Ern, Ron and Soon impressing. Sebastian also regained his accuracy with his set pieces and is really close to regaining match fitness after being out for so long. Blackburn contributed by his ability to play in so many positions in a single match. Norman assisted with 2 goals and will be a good replacement for Derrick in matches to come.
Up front, En Dian proved a perfect foil as a 2nd forward with his clever running into space. If En Dian can join ARFC on a permanent basis, ARFC can at least balance the loss of Alvin who is likely to be out for a long time. Hee showcased his world-class speed with his constant harassing and also took in a few hard tackles at the same time.
This leaves me with Kenny, the captain of the day, who inspired the victory by working endlessly and was finally rewarded with a goal with the last kick of the match. If I remembered correctly, this is also the 1st time that he completed a full match for ARFC. So, Man-of-the-Match goes to him.
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