ARFC continued its winning start after chalking up a comprehensive 4-0 win over YVFC at the brand-new artificial pitch at Crescent Girls Sec Sch in front of 777 screaming fans who are all upper secondary students of the school.
Probably due to the presence of the girls, ARFC warriors could not get their game going and the general performance was patchy at best. Despite the subdued performance, ARFC still did enough to score 4 goals.
Prior to the match, regular right-back Guoxiong was surprisingly dropped in favour of Blackburn. However, The New Paper journalists found out the reason was to give Guoxiong more time to talk and give autographs to the girl students there.
ARFC started with this line-up:
Keeper: Dependable Jinzhong
Right-back: Unpredictable Blackburn
Sweeper: Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
Stopper: Towering Toh
Left-back: Unbeatable Darren
Right-mid: Talisman Derrick
Centre-mid: Influential Sebastian
Centre-mid: Hard-man Tjioe
Left-mid: Dynamic Soon
Striker: Powerful Alvin
Striker: Wonder Wayne (captain)
Subs:
ARFC Scoring Legend Haron
Marauding Guoxiong
Speedy Hee
Absent:
Steely Tze Ern
Sublime Khim
Long-throw specialist Norman
Combative Ron
Precocious En Dian
Nippy Kenny
Talented Chun Haw
ARFC was really affected by the hot weather and the screaming fans but still dominated play with Tjioe in the thick of most action.
ARFC took the lead after a clever inter-change of play. Derrick played the ball to Alvin who returned the ball to him. Wayne showed great awareness when he did not go after the ball as he was already in the off-side position. Derrick broke through and calmly slotted the ball under the diving keeper. Soon ran in and touched the ball in but the referee had already blew for a goal. 1-0 and it was Derrick’s 48th ARFC goal which put him level on Khim.
ARFC had a huge scare when they struck the cross-bar.
ARFC doubled its lead with Alvin again the creator. Receiving the ball, Alvin put it through and in came Soon who dashed in and before their keeper could react, he reached the ball and the ball rolled quickly into the net for his 38th ARFC goal! 2-0
Hee, Guoxiong and Haron then came on for Sebastian, Darren and Wayne respectively.
Derrick then turned creator when he provided a slide-rule pass for Haron to latch on. With a great first touch, Haron glided into the box before finishing with much aplomb for his 175th ARFC goal. 3-0
ARFC then turned complacent again and nearly conceded a goal on a couple of occasions. To shore things up at the back, Wayne and Darren replaced Blackburn and Elvis to provide some bite.
In the 2nd half, ARFC really struggled to string 3 passes together though chances were created. Haron put the ball over the bar after being put through by Sebastian while Hee rushed his shot too much.
Toh then took a vicious cannot shot on his head but being Towering Toh, he stood tall and was totally unaffected.
Alvin finally put the icing on the cake with a late goal from a world-class team goal. The ball was passed to Darren at left-back who then played the ball to Blackburn’s feet just outside the box. With a clever reverse pass, Blackburn tricked their defender and the ball found its way to Derrick on the right wing. Taking the ball inwards, Derrick shaped to shoot but instead squared the ball across. Alvin then gleefully swooped in and swept the ball home for his 158th ARFC goal. 4-0 and this was a goal that reminded all of the great Liverpool team in the 80s and the current Barcelona team.
Man-of-the Match is clearly Tjioe though I must say that Derrick, Alvin and Elvis came very close.
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