ARFC’s 7th tournament match against FC Tempestella was cancelled at the last min but thankfully, the organizer managed to arrange a last-min friendly match against Ultras at the same venue and time, Pasir Ris Crest SS and 5 pm respectively.
For fear of affecting attendance, the warriors only found out when they turned up at the match. The fans were subsequently treated a feast of goals from ARFC.
ARFC’s attendance was boosted by Kenny (cup final cancelled) and Alvin who wanted to see if he had fully recovered. ARFC was also supported by Anna and Tracie, beaus of Elvis and Guoxiong respectively. Kenny’ love, Joyce, also made her first appearance as ARFC supporter and hopefully, we will see more of her soon.
ARFC started with this strong line-up:
Keeper: ARFC Scoring Legend Haron (captain)
Right-back: Sliding King Guoxiong
Sweeper: Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
Stopper: Towering Toh
Left-back: Unbeatable Darren
Right-mid: Long-throw Specialist Norman
Centre-mid: Combative Ron
Centre-mid: Steely Tze Ern
Left-mid: Talisman Derrick
Striker: En Dian
Striker: Nippy Kenny
Subs:
Dynamic Soon
Influential Sebastian
Unpredictable Blackburn
Powerful Alvin
Within mins of the match, ARFC almost opened the scoring after En Dian was put through. However, his attempted dink was pushed away for a corner.
ARFC was not to be denied its goal soon. In the 7th min, Derrick worked his way down the left flank, looked up and sent in a delicious ball for the lurking En Dian to plant the ball home with his head for his 6th ARFC goal. En Dian’s goal was also his 3rd successive header goals for the past 3 matches. 1-0
ARFC doubled its lead just mins later. Again, the goal came from the left after Darren galloped down the left bye-line, left their defender for dead and chipped in a high ball into the penalty area. From pressure by Toh, their keeper fumbled and Toh was on hand to sweep home his 41st ARFC goal. Fantastic proacher goal. 2-0
ARFC then conceded a goal after our defence failed to block their shot. 2-1
In the 17th min, ARFC regained its 2-goal lead straight from counter-attack. Guoxiong and Ron did well as right back and won the ball. The ball was passed to Tze Ern, who again had an impressive match, and he brought the ball upfield before releasing Kenny with a slide-rule pass. Kenny gleefully latched on to the ball and with Joyce taking photographs from behind the goal, duly obliged and placed the ball to the far bottom corner for his 8th ARFC goal. 3-1
Soon, Sebastian, Blackburn and Alvin then replaced Derrick, Toh, Kenny and Darren respectively.
Haron then made a world-class save when he palmed the ball over the bar from a venomous shot by the opponent. Simply brilliant ala Pepe Reina.
ARFC got its 4th goal in the 27th min. Norman did well to win the ball at the right flank and guoxiong powered into their danger area just outside the box. Ignoring calls from Alvin, Guoxiong fired in a powerful left-foot shot, which is rare, and the ball took a wicked slight deflection to wrong-foot their keeper for his 11th ARFC goal. 4-1.
Just 7 mins into the re-start, Kenny got his 2nd goal of the match after some strong pressure by En Dian, Alvin and Sebastian saw the ball rolled towards Kenny. With a quick swivel, Kenny fired in a high curling right-foot shot that sailed over their keeper with the ball nestled nicely into the far right stanchion for his 9th ARFC goal. Again, the goal had Joyce performing 7 Mexican waves. 5-1
ARFC had a scare when the opponent spotted Derrick out of his goal-line after his clearance. Turning back the years, however, Derrick showed quick feet to rush back and turned the ball away for a corner.
From the corner, the opponent nearly scored but Guoxiong was on hand to head the ball away. World-class defending ala Ashley Cole.
Kenny tried his best to secure his first-ever hat-trick for ARFC with 2 power-packed shots but both did not find the target.
In the 77th min, Sebastian’s well-aimed corner found Darren’s head at the far post but the ball was deflected away for a corner.
From the ensuing corner, ARFC got its 6th goal. Blackburn played a quick short corner to En Dian who spotted Toh in the 6-yard box. The cross was precise and even before Toh got to the ball, the 77,777 fans were already up on their feet in anticipation of a goal. True enough, Toh obliged as he emphatically thumped home with his head ala Alan Shearer for his 42nd ARFC goal. 6-1
Alvin nearly capped his return his a goal after he went one-on-one with their keeper. Unfortunately, his long lay-off was telling as he used his outside right foot to shoot wide when an easy place-shot would suffice.
Toh also nearly scored his 1st-ever ARFC hat-trick but his left foot instinctive shot went wide.
In the last 10 mins, ARFC displayed fantasy football with clever and quick passing that totally bamboozled the opponents.
Credit must be given yet again to both keepers, Haron and Derrick with the latter only playing about 20 mins in the 1st half. For that, his match fees was waived.
The attendance was once again good. The only negative point is that ARFC still did not keep a clean sheet.
Man-of-the-Match is jointly given to both Darren and Tze Ern.
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