Playing 1980s United for the very first time in the league, ARFC dismissed their strong challenge with a 3-1 score-line courtesy of a very dominating first-half performance.
The match was played under very cool weather at the brand-new artificial pitch at Naval Base SS where ARFC used to play in its early days when the pitch is still “natural grass pitch with baldy patches.
As usual, Anna, Cerine, Tracie and Brandon were present to lend their support.
ARFC welcomed back Hee who was out for the past few matches due to his knee injury sustained on 27 Feb 2011.
ARFC started with this 4-4-2 line-up:
Keeper: Dependable Jinzhong
Right-back: Marauding Guoxiong
Sweeper: Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
Stopper: Towering Toh
Left-back: Unbeatable Darren
Right-mid: Talisman Derrick
Centre-mid: Hard-man Tjioe
Centre-mid: Influential Sebastian
Left-mid: Unpredictable Blackburn (captain)
Striker: Powerful Alvin
Striker: Speedy Hee
Subs:
Combative Ron – late
Dynamic Soon – late
Yao Yang (guest player)
Seh Meng (guest player)
Absent:
Sublime Khim
Long-throw specialist Norman
Wonder Wayne
Steely Tze Ern
ARFC Scoring Legend Haron
Precocious En Dian
Nippy Kenny
With its usual tough back four of Elvis, Toh, Darren and Guoxiong, ARFC’s midfielders and strikers played with huge confidence knowing that its backline would be very secure.
The return of Hee also provided much harassing and penetration for ARFC and Alvin also complemented Hee well. In fact, Hee played like Javier Hernandez throughout and the only thing lacking was a goal for him. Fantastic team player there!
After a couple of near misses, ARFC opened the scoring in the 17th min. A ball was played all the way to the left flank to Blackburn who looked up and swung in a cross. The ball found Alvin just inside the penalty box ut there was an awkward bounce. This did not trouble Alvin as he did fantastically well to keep his body low and scored with a curling low shot with his outside right foot ala Marco Van Basten to beat their keeper for his 140th ARFC goal! What a world-class shot! 1-0
In the 20th min, ARFC replaced Alvin with Seh Meng with Derrick movng up to partner Hee. Shortly after, Yao Yang came on for Hee who was clearly tiring. Tjioe also asked to come off and Soon took his place.
Shortly after coming on, Seh Meng made his mark when he chipped in a delicious high ball which saw Derrick breaking their off-side trap. Facing their keeper one-on-one, Derrick kept his cool by easily rounding their keeper and slot the ball into the empty net for his 34th ARFC goal. 2-0
ARFC could have put the result beyond doubt when their keeper fumbled a corner from Alvin. However, Derrick’s follow-up powerful shot hit their keeper’s chest.
Blackburn was also unlucky when he lobbed their keeper but the ball bounced off the cross-bar!
The opponents then hit the post from a free-kick.
Derrick was then replaced by Ron.
In the 2nd half, Soon took over Blackburn, and Tjioe replaced Sebastian.
1980s United seemed determined to close the score-line and was really unlucky when they hit the crossbar. They also threatened with several corners but thanks to Toh, Darren and Jinzhong, the various balls were clear to safety.
ARFC then conceded a goal. 1-2.
In the last 20 mins, the opponents were leaving gaps behind and ARFC was able to capitalize on that. However, Blackburn squandered at least 2 golden chances when he produced wild shots from distance when Alvin, Hee and Derrick were all not marked.
Toh also came agonizingly close when he met Alvin’s precise corner with a powerful downward header ala Sami Hyypia but the ball was just 0.77 cm over the bar.
With less than 7 mins to go, Blackburn finally did right. Derrick won the ball on the right flank and passed to Blackburn who was standing just outside the penalty box. Bringing back the years, Blackburn showed fancy footwork by tricking his marker not once, but twice!!! before lashing the ball home for his 95th ARFC goal. 3-1
ARFC’s first half display was one of the best half performances that was seen in recent years. All warriors played extremely well with Soon, Ron, Tjioe and Sebastian constantly closing down spaces. Hee, Alvin and Yao Yang also did their part with constantly harassing. Derrick provided much penetration at right flank while Blackburn played very well (except selfish on a couple of occasions). Seh Meng also did well in covering for both Derrick and Guoxiong when he came on and provided one assist. Jinzhong also showed much courage and bravery when he threw himself at their strikers a few times.
On ARFC’s defence, I always believe that so long as we have the back four of Elvis, Toh, Darren and Guoxiong for every match, ARFC would be a match for any teams. Once again, we saw that again and we can all see for ourselves that our midfielders were more daring to venture forward knowing that the back-line would be safe and secure.
Guoxiong never gave their Indian left winger any chance at all, Elvis was commanding as sweeper and Darren, despite facing at times 2 players at the same time, came out tops everytime!
This leaves me with Toh. In my opinion, Toh produced one of his best performances for ARFC when he kept their “Peter Crouch” at bay throughout the match. Not only that, he came close to scoring and what stood out is really his leadership in the match with his constant encouragement and guidance when Sebastian was taking a break in the 2nd half. For all these qualities, he is ARFC’s Man-of-the-Match. A truly Sami Hyypia-like player!!
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