ARFC earned narrow win with disciplined performance

Producing a very disciplined and measured display at Henderson SS in front of Anna, Tracie and Irene, ARFC eked out a hard-fought but thoroughly deserving 1-0 victory over Jaws SC. The triumph was led by Alvin’s performance as he single-handedly led from the front and epitomized by Tjioe’s muscular outing in the middle of the park.

Prior to the match, ARFC received a crushing blow when Soon failed to turn up due to last-min work. Fortunately, the loss was more or less cushioned by the last-min appearance of possibly the best ARFC warrior of all time, Khim, who just touched down from China and came straight from the airport.

ARFC started with this 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: Influential Sebastian
Centre-mid: Combative Ron
Left-mid: Steely Tze Ern
Striker: Powerful Alvin (captain)
Striker: Unpredictable Blackburn

Subs:

Hard-man Tjioe
Wonder Wayne
Sublime Khim (late)

Absent:

ARFC Scoring Legend Haron
Dynamic Soon
Talented Chun Haw
Long-throw specialist Norman
Speedy Hee
Precocious En Dian
Nippy Kenny

True to Sebastian’s prediction, their African striker relied heavily on his push-and-run style to try to get past our defence. However, he was thwarted by Guoxiong’s several ferocious sliding tackles ala Rob Jones, Toh’s towering presence at the heart of the defence ala Sami Hyypia and Elvis’ fantastic reading ala Alan Hansen.

Over at the left side, Darren comfortably dealt with the threat and did not even give their right winger and striker a sniff of the ball at all.

Jinzhong showed his true form when he clawed away a dangerous in-swinging corner. Darren also headed away a threatening free-kick as their striker was waiting to pounce if Darren missed the ball.

Over at the other end, Alvin caused all sorts of problems for their defence but he was not supported by Blackburn thereby giving Sebastian no option but to replace him with Wayne. Wayne’s introduction created much more pace and urgency as he chased down their defenders. Khim also came in for Tze Ern while Tjioe replaced Elvis who took a knock at the shin.

Wayne nearly opened the scoring when a corner from Sebastian was headed back by Toh (or is it Alvin?). When their keeper could not get hold of the ball and spilled it, Wayne reacted quickest but his sharp turning shot struck the up-right. Unlucky!

Derrick also created much nuisance with his wing-play which no other ARFC warrior can match. As a result, he won many fouls but ARFC was unable to capitalize.

Sebastian then found Khim with a crisp low free-kick but Khim was unable to find a footing to shoot.

Expectedly, the half ended goal-less.

In the 2nd half, Jinzhong showed all that he is now back to his very best when their striker eluded Ron and looked set to score. However, Jinzhong had other ideas when he got down sharply to turn the shot round the post for a corner. Real world class and the save was really Pepe Reina-like.

Tjioe then produced several strong probing runs into their danger area but was triple-teamed by them.

The move of the match came moments later. Khim picked up the ball at left, drifted onwards and released Wayne with a no-look reverse pass. Wayne broke the off-side trap but somehow manage to send the ball wide despite having only their keeper to beat. Unlucky but at least Wayne made the run to create another opening for himself.

Blackburn then replaced Wayne and Ron then took over Guoxiong who had a slight knock.

ARFC finally got the goal after Alvin won a free-kick out on the left. Instead of swinging the ball in for the waiting warriors especially Toh, Blackburn laid the ball to Tze Ern who crashed in a laser-like shot that landed at the top right-hand corner. What a world-class goal ala Matthew Le Tissier and I can say that no keeper in the world could keep this one. 1-0 and this was Tze Ern’s 3rd ARFC goal.

One thing to note is that all 3 of his goals were all long-range shots.

ARFC then held on to the lead to keep its first clean sheet in this tournament as well as the first for the past 8 matches. This clean is largely credited to Jinzhong, Ron, Elvis, Darren, Toh and Guoxiong.

Upfront, Alvin showed Fernando Torres on how to lead the forward line.

The victory was also ARFC’s 17th out of 30 matches, and the goal scored by Tze Ern was ARFC’s 90th goal in 2011.

Man-of-the-Match is jointly given to Jinzhong and Tjioe, with the entire ARFC defence coming a close second.