Playing against the other Old Victoria Old Boys team, ARFC showed what they are made of with a comfortable 3-0 victory. The clean sheet was extra sweetener and full credit to Derrick for volunteering to be keeper for the whole match. Most importantly, he produced a Man-of-the-Match display with several top notch saves.
Captain of the day Toh sprung a huge surprise when he made the audacious and never-seen-before decision to bench both ARFC leading scorers, Haron and Alvin, and opted for a lone forward in Hee. This is akin to managers benching Ian Rush/Peter Beardsley, Graeme Sharp/Andy Gray, Robbie Fowler/Michael Owen, Mark Hughes/Brian McClair, Sundram/Fandi.
Despite having combined goals tally of more than 360 goals and $777 million worth of forwards on the bench, the ARFC fanatical fans were very understanding and were behind Toh and ARFC all the way. In fact, the fans treated ARFC warriors to 77 rounds of Mexican waves before the match.
ARFC started with this 4-5-1 line-up:
Keeper - Talisman Derrick
Right-back - Marauding Guoxiong
Sweeper - Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
Stopper - Towering Toh (captain)
Left-back - Unbeatable Darren
Left-mid - Unpredictable Blackburn
Centre-mid - Hard-man Tjioe
Centre-mid - Combative Ron
Centre-mid - Dynamic Soon
Right-mid - Weilit
Striker - Speedy Hee
Subs:
ARFC Scoring Legend Haron
Powerful Alvin
Jasper
Absent:
Influential Sebastian
Mean-machine Hock
Wonder Wayne
Steely Tze Ern
Sublime Khim
Talented Chun Haw
Long-throw specialist Norman
Precocious En Dian
Nippy Kenny
The match was even-stevens in the initial stages and Hee did really well in playing the lone forward role. Of course, he was ably supported by our midfielders who poured forward at every opportunity.
Derrick showed his worth by producing some good saves to keep ARFC in the match.
In the 20th min, the searing heat took its toll on the ARFC warriors and Alvin, Haron and Jasper replaced Weilit, Hee and Guoxiong respectively. With these changes, ARFC reverted to 4-4-2 with Tjioe moving to left midfield.
In the 30th min, Alvin threaded a through ball to Tjioe who reached the ball ahead of their keeper. Unfortunately, Tjioe's flick went just 0.77 mm wide of the gaping goal.
In the 65th min, ARFC finally took the lead. Guoxiong's long direct ball was picked up by Haron before their sweeper. Instinctively, Haron shoot on sight but was blocked by their covering defender. From the rebound, Alvin nonchalently chipped the ball ala Matthew Le Tissier over their stranded keeper for his 182nd ARFC goal! 1-0
Derrick then prevented them from equalising with a couple of saves.
In the 75th min, ARFC doubled its lead thanks to its deadly double devastating act of Haron and Alvin. Haron dribbled the ball forward and laid the ball out right to Alvin. Alvin also brought the ball in and returned the ball to Haron who continued his run. With a great first touch to kill the ball, Haron's second touch saw the ball bulging the net for his 181st ARFC goal ala Fernando Torres (the Liverpool version). 2-0
7 mins later, ARFC put the result to bed with Guoxiong's 14th ARFC goal. Off a Darren's stealth throw-in, Guoxiong turned his marker ala Mark Hughes, brought the ball forward and unleashed a thunderbolt that almost burst the net before their keeper could even see it! 3-0
With this goal, Guoxiong moved past Elvis who is on 13 goals.
With this goal, Guoxiong moved past Elvis who is on 13 goals.
Besides MOM award to Derrick, special mention mist be accorded to both Jasper and Weilit who are slowly getting tougher and tougher with each passing match.
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