Tze Ern starred in dominant ARFC 4-2 victory

Playing at the Tampines SAFRA pitch for the successive week, ARFC put in a dominant performance to win 4-2 against a rather-strong team.

The victory was witnessed by Lingzhi (Ron’s wife), Melissa (Hee’s girlfriend), Anna and Tiara (Elvis’ 2 precious).

Special credit to Derrick for turning up to play keeper despite not fully recovered from his knee injury. 77 ice-creams for him!!

ARFC started with this line-up:

Keeper - Talisman Derrick

Right-back - Resolute Jasper

Sweeper - Astute-reading sweeper Elvis (captain)

Stopper - Towering Toh

Left-back - Combative Ron

Left-mid - Sublime Khim

Centre-mid - Steely Tze Ern

Centre-mid - Influential Sebastian

Right-mid - Dynamic Soon

Striker - Speedy Hee

Striker - Powerful Alvin (captain)

 

Subs:

Wonder Wayne (late)

Unpredictable Blackburn (late)

Talented Chun Haw (late)

ARFC Scoring Legend Haron (only arrived at half-time due to fasting)

Absent:

Dependable Jinzhong

Composed Jackson

Hard-man Tjioe

Nippy Kenny

Unbeatable Darren

Marauding Guoxiong

Impeccable How Meng

Skillful Weilit

Booming Boon

ARFC immediately got down to business and hardly put a foot wrong in the opening minutes.  In the 7^th min, Sebastian released Alvin with a slide rule pass and with only their keeper to beat, Alvin only managed to come up with a feeble shot.

After some near misses, ARFC took the lead in the 27^th min. Ron played the ball to Khim who spotted Sebastian running in from deep. Khim’s played a low ball with his outside right foot, Sebastian took a touch, penetrated their central defence by piercing through and was about to pull the trigger when he was crudely brought down in the box. Sebastian dusted himself off the ground to put the penalty past their diving keeper for his 85^th ARFC goal. 1-0

After scoring, Sebastian left the field as he suffered abrasions on his face and knee from the foul.

Soon was next when he was released by Alvin into the box and although it was clear that he was being given a slight push, Soon still stayed on his feet but the momentum was lost. Thus, he could only drilled a weak shot.

The opponents then made ARFC paid for its profligacy when their speedy forward glided into the box to beat Derrick. 1-1 Incredibly, this was only their first real chance in the half.

In the 2^nd half, ARFC continued to dominate. Within 7 mins, ARFC regained the lead.  From about 37.7 metres out, Alvin looked up and looked determined to mimic Ron’s goal last week. He hit a rising shot that kept on rising and rising till it nestled nicely into the top left hand corner.  2-1 and this was Alvin’s 205^th ARFC goal.

Alvin’s goal was almost similar to Ron’s last week goal at the same venue, except the ball landed into the opposite spot.

ARFC extended its lead after some good passing moves. Blackburn played the ball down to Tze Ern who produced a superb sizzling cross that eluded every opponents. Haron showed that the fasting did not affect him at all when he came in from the blind side to fiercely side-foot the ball home for his 191^st ARFC goal. 3-1

ARFC then conceded another goal. 3-2.

Haron nearly scored his 2^nd goal in the match when Blackburn’s bullet-like corner found Haron dashing in. However, the ball was a wee bit too high for Haron and he headed the ball over.

Khim then released Alvin with a Xabi Alonso-like ground ball and Alvin turned and sped away. With their keeper to beat, Alvin again missed.

Hee was next to be the culprit when he was also put clean through. However, he hurried his shot when he actually had time and the chance was gone.

Alvin then made amends for his 2 horrendous misses with the last kick of the match. Alvin robbed their sweeper and placed the ball home for his 206^th ARFC goal. 4-2

The referee immediately blew for the final whistle.

In our voting system, Tze Ern narrowly edged out Alvin for the Man-of-the-Match award. They will be given $10 and $5 respectively.

This is the voting result derived from all 15 warriors present:

1. Tze Ern – 22 pts;
2. Alvin – 21 pts;
3. Soon – 18 pts;
4.  Toh – 12 pts;
5.  Khim – 9 pts;
6.  Sebastian – 6 pts;
7. Derrick – 1 pt;
8. Haron – 1 pt.