Playing a friendly match after the conclusion of the league season, ARFC put aside its disappointment in finishing as league’s runners-up by destroying a hapless social team with a 7-0 victory. The win was witnessed by Anna and Tracie, wives of Elvis and Guoxiong respectively.
There was a concern of not having enough players before the match and hence two young players, Alex and Jackson, were called up. Both of them were to go on and impressed in their debuts.
ARFC started with this line-up:
Keeper: Talented Chun Haw
Right-back: Marauding Guoxiong (Captain)
Sweeper: Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
Stopper: Towering Toh
Left-back: Unbeatable Darren
Right-mid: Dynamic Soon
Centre-mid: Influential Sebastian
Centre-mid: Combative Ron
Left-mid: Unpredictable Blackburn
Striker: Powerful Alvin
Striker: Speedy Hee
Subs:
Steely Tze Ern (slightly late)
Talisman Derrick (late)
Alex
Jackson
Absent:
Wonder Wayne
ARFC Scoring Legend Haron
Hard-man Tjioe
Dependable Jinzhong
Sublime Khim
Long-throw specialist Norman
Precocious En Dian
Nippy Kenny
ARFC came out of the block with fury as epitomized by both Hee and Alvin who closed down their defence no end. Immediately Hee drew a foul outside the box but Sebastian skied his shot.
ARFC then went on to create a glut of chances but was foiled by some lucky saves from their keeper who seemed to be always at the right place and right time.
Particularly, Soon and Alvin both missed great chances, with Toh and Derrick also coming close with headers from corners.
Tze Ern and Derrick then took over from Alvin and Blackburn respectively. With about 7 mins to go, Alvin came back no and replaced Hee upfront.
ARFC finally achieved a break-through thanks to a marauding run down the right flank from Captain-of-the-day Guoxiong. He played the ball to Derrick on the right, made an overlapping run, and received the return ball from Derrick. In full flight, Guoxiong looked up and sent in a precise cross right onto the head of Alvin whose powerful header was saved by their keeper but he was unable to prevent the loose ball from spinning into the net. 1-0 and this was Alvin’s 163rd ARFC goal.
Immediately after the goal, the referee blew for half-time.
In the 2nd half, Jackson came on for Elvis while Alex replaced Ron.
ARFC doubled its lead just 77 seconds into the 2nd half. Chun Haw’s superb long kick ala Pepe Reina found the feet of Alvin who was closely shackled by their tough defender. Unperturbed, Alvin laid the ball to Derrick on the right and he picked his spot to beat their keeper for his 51st ARFC goal. 2-0
Within seconds, ARFC scored its 3rd goal in the match courtesy of yet another Toh header. Blackburn’s marvelous corner to the far post looked to be headed to either Darren or Toh but to Darren’s credit, he did not challenge for the ball after hearing a shout from Toh who was behind him. The rest is history as Toh planted a firm header into the bottom right corner for his 55th ARFC goal, and probably more than 50 goals were from headers!! 3-0.
Toh’s goal was also ARFC’s 1300th goal in its illustrious history.
Alex then made his contribution when he made a great run down the right touch-line, drawing a defender with him. Hearing a call from Derrick, Alex back-heeled to Derrick who was then clumsily upended by the same defender. The penalty-taking duty was then given to Darren who sent their keeper the wrong way with a firm placing for his 3rd ARFC goal. 4-0.
Hee then produced a C. Ronaldo-like free-kick when his superb curling ball was so well-executed and powerful that their keeper was rooted to the spot and could not even see the ball almost bursting the net. 5-0 and Hee’s goal was his 82nd which moved him level with Sebastian at joint-4th top scorer chart.
ARFC notched its 6th goal when Sebastian tried to play a wall pass with Blackburn by running down the right flank after passing to him. However, Blackburn did not return the ball and instead rolled his shot just inside the keeper’s post for a world-class finish that reminded everyone of a certain Messi. 6-0 and this was Blackburn’s 108th ARFC goal.
Derrick then scored his 2nd goal in the match after he met Alvin’s laser-sharp corner with a header that flew into the net. It was really impressive considering that Derrick actually took his spectacles out before the header!! 7-0 and this was Derrick’s 52nd ARFC goal.
ARFC then had more chances to chalk up a higher score-line. First, Guoxiong, who replaced Sebastian at centre-mid, turned and drilled his powerful low shot just wide. Then, he completely lost his footing after receiving a square ball from derrick on the right.
This was a total mis-match as the opponents were totally and completely overwhelmed by ARFC’s flowing football and passing. This performance was also one of the best in recent times.
There is no Man-of-the-Match given as every warrior did very well. A complete team effort, especially we did not lose our shape and focus throughout the match though we were going for more goals.
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