Playing a friendly match at the rather
brand-new artificial pitch at Anderson SS, ARFC was severely let down by the
referee’s several dubious decisions to draw 2-2.
ARFC started with this line-up:
Keeper - Hao
Min
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
Right-mid - Talisman Derrick
Striker - Powerful
Alvin
Striker - Speedy Hee
Subs:
Dependable Jinzhong
Weilit
Jasper
Absent:
Dynamic Soon
Influential Sebastian
ARFC Scoring Legend Haron
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 quite evenly-matched from the
start.
ARFC drew first blood in the 10th
min, Darren pumped in a long ball down the left flank for Alvin to chase. Alvin
reached the ball just before 0.77 cm from out of play at the byline, beat their
sweeper and pushed the ball inwards and towards goal. His shot, however, was turned away for a
corner.
From the resulting corner, Blackburn, on
hot set-piece form in recent weeks, delivered an exquisite corner to Toh who
simply thumped the ball home with his head for his 63rd ARFC goal. 1-0
The incredible thing to note is that even
way before Toh connected with his forehead and the ball hit the net, all the
commentators like Martin Tyler, Jamie Redknapp, Gary Neville and Shebby Singh were
already screaming “what a great goal!” This goes to show the deadly head Toh
has.
In the 25th min, Tjioe fouled
the opponent and while the inept referee was talking to Tjioe, the opponent
looped the ball forward to their striker who beat Hao Min. Despite furious
protests, the referee strangely allowed the goal to stand. 1-1
However, we can learn from this incident
too – we should always keep an eye on the ball even when the referee had stopped
play.
In the 49th min, Ron played a
one-two with Alvin which saw the latter bursting into the box. However, before Alvin
can pull the trigger, he was upended by their sweeper and the whole audience of
77 million viewers worldwide were expecting a penalty. Incredulously, the referee waved play on!!!!
In the 50th min, a brilliant
cross-field ball ala Xabi Alonso/Jamie Redknapp by Alvinsaw Derrick coming in
from deep and broke the off-side trap. Derrick chested the ball down ala Eric
Cantona and was cruelly felled by their defender. This time the referee awarded a clear-cut penalty
and Elvis stepped up. However, Elvis’s kick to the keeper’s left was saved.
Unlucky!
In the 65th min, ARFC regained the
lead. Blackburn took a quick throw-in to Derrick who returned the ball to him.
Blackburn swung in a high cross that eluded their defence and Alvin then dashed
in and headed the ball home ala Jurgen Klinsmann for his 181st ARFC
goal. 2-1
With this goal, Alvin again nudged ahead of
Haron on 180th goals.
In the 75th min, the referee
further infuriated the ARFC warriors and the 77 million supporters who were
watching the match live. Derrick showcased his world-class dribbling skills by
wriggling his way into the box ala Steve McManaman. Mesmerised by Derrick’s skills,
their defender simply could not deal with Derrick and hacked Derrick down. With
such an obvious foul, even the opponents were expected a penalty to be given
against them but the poor referee had other ideas and waved play on!!
With 3 mins to go, their striker took a
speculative shot that unfortunately struck the out-stretched hands of Ron and
the referee erred again by giving a penalty when it’s not intentional. 2-2
Man-of-the-Match is jointly given to Ron
and Tjioe for their tenacity and industry in covering every inch of the field
and giving the opponents no space to breathe.
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