How Meng's iron-clad header wins it for ARFC

In a shortened-match caused by a heavy downpour just when the match was about to start, 10-warrior ARFC defeated Danny’s 3-2 on a rain-soaked pitch at Bedok View SS.

Prior to the match, Chun Haw pulled out with a fever, leaving ARFC with only 10 warriors. To make matters worse, Sebastian had just completed his referee fitness test and was virtually limping throughout the match.

Sebastian then sent 4 SOS messages for other ARFC warriors to turn up but to no avail.

Special mention once again to How Meng for playing for ARFC though he played for Triple XXX from 11 am to 1 pm earlier, unlike other Triple XXX players Weilit, Jasper and Jackson who could not be bothered to play despite the 4 SOS messages.

ARFC started with this line-up:

Keeper           -           Impeccable How Meng

Right-back     -           Influential Sebastian

Sweeper         -           Astute-reading sweeper Elvis

Stopper          -           Dependable Jinzhong

Left-back       -           Unbeatable Darren

Left-mid         -           Powerful Alvin (captain)

Centre-mid    -           Unpredictable Blackburn

Centre-mid    -           Steely Tze Ern  

Right-mid      -           Talisman Derrick

Striker                        -           ARFC Scoring Legend Haron        

  

Absent:

Dynamic Soon

Speedy Hee

Wonder Wayne 

Combative Ron 

Resolute Jasper

Skillful Weilit

Towering Toh

Talented Chun Haw

Marauding Guoxiong  

Composed Jackson

Hard-man Tjioe

Sublime Khim

Nippy Kenny

Booming Boon

Jiawei

Despite the numerical disadvantage, ARFC opened the scoring within 77 seconds. Alvin harassed their defence and the loose ball was picked up by Blackburn. Blackburn then threaded in a diagonal through ball to the right and Derrick came in from blind side to steer the ball home for his 70^th ARFC goal. 1-0

ARFC then conceded a goal. 1-1

ARFC quickly regained the lead. Tze Ern closed down the opponent who lost the ball which was picked up by Haron. In a move similar to Blackburn’s assist earlier, Haron repeated the move and Derrick once again dispatched the ball low and hard into the net for his 71^st ARFC goal. 2-1

The opponents then scored another equalizer from the penalty spot.

Things got worse for ARFC when Haron limped off with a suspected pulled thigh, leaving ARFC with only 9 warriors.

Things got worst minutes later when Jinzhong hurt his ankle in a last-ditch tackle and had to leave the pitch. ARFC then soldiered on with 8 warriors.

Jinzhong then returned with about 3 mins to go in the first half. Jinzhong was to go on and produced several crunching tackles later in the match.

In the second half, Haron bravely volunteered to be keeper with How Meng switching to right-back, pushing Sebastian back to his favoured central mid position.

ARFC took the lead for the 3^rd time after a world-class header from How Meng. From Blackburn’s corner on the left, How Meng charged in, leaped highest, hung in the air and using all his back and stomach muscles, proceeded to meet the ball with a violent powerful thumping header to put ARFC 3-2 ahead. This was How Meng’s 2^nd ARFC goal.

The header was so powerful that no keeper in the world could ever save it and the net was almost ripped open by the sheer velocity of the ball. In fact, How Meng’s header could match or even better than many of Toh’s headed goals.

With almost the last kick of the match, Haron came to ARFC’s rescue with a brilliant and instinctive double saves. From their free-kick, the referee somehow was blind to the off-side positions of their 2 players. From just outside the 6-yard box, their striker unleashed a cannon-ball but Haron made himself big by stretching out both his hands and blocked the fierce shot. Their striker picked up the rebound and fired in but the ball was smothered by Haron. World-class saves!

No voting for today but my personal Man-of-the-Match jointly goes to:

·        Elvis – superb commanding on a difficult pitch and against more opponents;

·        Tze Ern – Played like an Ah Soon version 2;

·      Darren – I don’t think any of their different left-wingers got past him at all. Even when he was faced with 2 to 3 opponents, they still could not get past Darren.

Haron reached 200-goal milestone in 5-2 win

Inspired by Ron’s ironman-like performance, ARFC whipped a good social team MPR 5-2 at Greenridge SS yesterday.

ARFC was watched by Melissa (Hee’s super-beautiful beau), Lingzhi (Ron’s super-good wife), Brendan Roberto (GX’s super-ardent referee supporter) and Darren (superman at left-back).

Special mention to the following:

·        How Meng – for playing keeper for ARFC though he played for Triple XX from 1 pm to 3 pm earlier;

·        Soon – for playing after running 30 km in the morning;

·        Khim – for playing after rushing from work;

·        Kenny & Jiawei – for playing after only returning from Malaysia in morning.

NO special mention to Derrick as he pulled out at the last minute due to work as he was trying to ink a $700,000 renovation contract.

ARFC started with this line-up:

Keeper           -           Impeccable How Meng

Right-back     -           Unpredictable Blackburn

Sweeper         -           Astute-reading sweeper Elvis

Stopper          -           Combative Ron  

Left-back       -           Wonder Wayne  

Left-mid         -           Speedy Hee

Centre-mid    -           Influential Sebastian

Centre-mid    -           Dynamic Soon

Right-mid      -           Dick (guest player)

Striker                        -           ARFC Scoring Legend Haron

Striker                        -           Powerful Alvin (captain)

  

Subs:

Sublime Khim

Nippy Kenny

Jiawei

Absent:

Talisman Derrick

Resolute Jasper

Steely Tze Ern  

Unbeatable Darren

Skillful Weilit

Dependable Jinzhong

Towering Toh

Talented Chun Haw

Marauding Guoxiong  

Composed Jackson

Hard-man Tjioe

Booming Boon

Seeing that ARFC’s best player, Khim, was not in the starting 11, the 77,777 ARFC fans voiced their displeasure and started raining down toilet rolls onto the pitch in a scene similar to World Cup Final 1978 in Bourne Aires between Argentina and Holland. As a result, the match was delayed for 7 mins.

Probably affected by the delay, ARFC was sloppy in its initial play but gradually gained dominance.

ARFC took the lead after the opponents failed to clear from a corner. From a high ball, Alvin won a header and the ball fell kindly to Haron. Despite the opponents’ vehement protest that Haron came in from an off-side position, the excellent referee felt otherwise. Despite being challenged by their keeper, Haron kept his composure and lifted the ball over him to notch his 200^th ARFC goal. 1-0

The celebrations were rather muted due to the controversial manner of the goal though the CISCO security officers were desperately trying to stop the 7,777 ex-SQ stewardesses from invading the pitch to hug Haron.

Dick then incurred the wrath of Blackburn when he took a quick free-kick awarded at a dangerous position (just outside the penalty box). However, Hee skewed his shot horribly wide.

Sebastian then kept ARFC in the match when an in-swinging corner eluded How Meng but Sebastian, the back-post man, whacked the ball away in mid-air despite the opponents claiming that the ball had crossed the line. Again, the excellent referee was eagle-eyed in his decision.

ARFC then doubled its lead. Khim chipped in a delicate ball right in the heart of their defence for both Alvin and Soon to chase. Their keeper charged out and challenged Alvin and the rebound fell nicely for Soon to tap into the empty net for his 51^st ARFC goal. 2-0

Strangely enough, ARFC conceded 2 quick goals just before half-time. 2-2

Shortly after the re-start, Kenny made up for his mis-firings in last week’s match by scoring a gem of a goal. Receiving the ball on the left from almost the half-way line, Kenny steadied himself and fired an unstoppable long-range missile ala Ronald Koeman that sailed over their keeper’s head into the net. 3-2 and this was Kenny’s 25^th ARFC goal.

Kenny notched his brace moments later. Again, Khim was the architect when he sliced in a perfectly-weighted ball down the left channel. Again, the referee was spot-on and waved on-side. Kenny brought the ball inwards and all the way into and near the 6-yard box and despite calls from Alvin and Sebastian who were unmarked on the right, Kenny drove the ball past their despairing keeper for his 26^th ARFC goal. 4-2

ARFC put the result to bed courtesy of a quick-thinking by Dick. From a free-kick, Dick noticed that the opponents were still forming the wall and played a quikc ball to Alvin in the box. With the opponents still protesting and rooted to the spot, Alvin prodded the ball home for his 213^th ARFC goal. 5-2.

Again, the opponents protested but the superb referee explained that Dick did not ask for the wall. Excellent referee! World Cup Final 2014 Referee!

With almost the last kick of the match, How Meng showed his immerse talent when he produced a superb one-handed diving save to keep out their fierce shot. World-clas keeper! World Cup Final 2014 keeper!

Last but not least, on behalf of ARFC, I would like to congratulate Haron for hitting the 200-goal mark! Excellent goal-scoring machine! 

These are the voting results:

Ron – 30 pts

Khim – 22 pts

Kenny – 17 pts

Sebastian & Haron – 3 pts each

Soon, Blackburn & Wayne – 2 pts each

Alvin – 1 pt

Congratulations to Ron and Khim for winning $10 and $5 respectively.

How Meng nets debut ARFC goal

In a friendly match played under very cool weather despite a one pm kick-off time, ARFC recovered from last Sunday’s spanking by defeating TGIK 5-3.

The score-line seemed to point to a closely-fought match but in reality, ARFC could easily have scored at least 10 goals in the match. Just a rough estimation, ARFC peppered at least 20 shots at their goal. Kenny alone accounted for 5 to 6 shots, I think.

ARFC was once again supported by Melissa (Hee’s super-beautiful muse) and Tze Ern’s son who is aiming to take over his father soon.  

ARFC started with this line-up:

Keeper           -           Impeccable How Meng

Right-back     -           Dependable Jinzhong (captain)

Sweeper         -           Astute-reading sweeper Elvis

Stopper          -           Towering Toh

Left-back       -           Unbeatable Darren

Left-mid         -           Skillful Weilit

Centre-mid    -           Unpredictable Blackburn

Centre-mid    -           Dynamic Soon

Right-mid      -           Steely Tze Ern  

Striker                        -           ARFC Scoring Legend Haron

Striker                        -           Powerful Alvin (captain)

  

Subs:

Resolute Jasper

Influential Sebastian

Combative Ron

Wonder Wayne

Nippy Kenny

Speedy Hee (late)

Talisman Derrick (late)

Absent:

Talented Chun Haw

Marauding Guoxiong  

Sublime Khim

Composed Jackson

Hard-man Tjioe

Booming Boon

Jiawei

ARFC was sloppy in its play and was nearly punished after 2 of their inviting crosses were just missed out by their out-stretching strikers.

ARFc was then indebted to How Meng who pulled off a fantastic one-on-one save to deny their striker who was somehow left free to take a vicious shot.

A slew of substitutions then galvanised ARFC and it did not take long for ARFC to grab the opening goal.

Sebastian’s floating corner from the left eluded their keeper who charged out but grabbed thin air. Wayne read the ball perfectly and he charged in to the back post to powerfully glance the ball home for his 9^th ARFC goal. 1-0 and Wayne’s goal allowed him to level with Ron and Yoong (ex-player).

Toh was then denied by Soon moments later. Sebastian’s corner from the right was connected powerfully by Toh but the ball was stopped by Soon who was standing just in front of the goal. Unlucky!

Wayne then swept the ball across goal but Haron narrowly failed to reach the ball.

ARFC doubled its lead with Wayne the architect. His left-wing cross-field ball was chested down beautifully by Derrick. Before the ball touched the ground, Derrick sliced in a outside right-footer half-volley into the net, leaving their keeper dazed and rooted to the spot! 2-0 and this was Derrick’s 69^th (his favourite position) ARFC goal –equaling Robin’s previous ARFC record.

After scoring, all ARFC warriors chanted “tkb! tkb!tkb!” and within 7 mins, about 17,777 tkbs turned up at the field as they thought they were wanted by ARFC warriors. 

In the second half, ARFC continued its dominance and Ron came close with a powerful rising shot that simply rose too high.

ARFC then conceded a penalty. 2-1

ARFC won its own penalty after their defender was harshly adjudged to have pushed Hee in the box. A slight touch and tug maybe, but certainly not a penalty.

Regardless, How Meng was cajoled by Sebastian to take the penalty and he duly drove the ball right through their keeper for his debut ARFC goal. 3-1

ARFC then conceded another goal. 3-2

Alvin then struck the cross-bar from Sebastian’s corner on the right.

Toh was next to try his luck but his shot was wide.

ARFC regained its 2-goal cushion after a quick-thinking by Derrick. ARFC won a free-kick just outside the box and while they were busy forming the wall, Derrick toe-poked the ball through to Alvin who, from just outside the 6-yard box, placed the ball past their keeper for his 212^th ARFC goal. 4-2

Alvin’s reward for scoring? To be replaced by Haron.

The opponents then scored another break-away goal. 4-3

ARFC was then denied a stone-walled penalty when Haron latched onto a ball, skipped past their defender and was clumsily upended. However, the referee simply waved away ARFC’s violent protests.

ARFC then chalked up its 5^th goal in the match with virtually and literally the last kick of the match. Blackburn belied his advancing years by chasing after a long loose ball right till the touchline near the right. He looked up and pulled the ball back for the on-rushing Haron whose first-touch fooled their covering defender into committing to a sliding block. With ample time, Haron nonchalantly chipped the ball over their keeper from about 7.7 yards for his 199^th ARFC goal. 5-3.

Immediately after the ball hit the net, the referee blew for the full-time whistle.

These are the voting results:

Derrick – 23 pts

Sebastian – 21 pts

Wayne – 16 pts

How Meng – 13 pts

Ron – 10 pts

Tze Ern – 9 pts

Haron – 7 pts

Darren – 5 pts

Elvis – 3 pts

Alvin – 1 pt

Congratulations to Derrick and Sebastian for winning $10 and $5 respectively.

ARFC slumped to a crushing 1-7 defeat

On a Deepavali weekend match, ARFC was really generous in giving away 3 “gift-goals” in the first half to a Indian team and eventually was whipped 1-7 by them.

In all honesty, however, our opponents were really a class above ARFC and I would even venture to say that they are even better than Team BI. If not for How Meng’s heroics in goal, ARFC would have suffered a record defeat already.

ARFC was once again supported by Melissa (Hee’s super-beautiful muse) and Winnie (Chun Haw’s super-cute girlfriend).  

ARFC started with this line-up:

Keeper - Impeccable How Meng

Right-back - Resolute Jasper

Sweeper - Unbeatable Darren

Stopper - Towering Toh

Left-back - Marauding Guoxiong  

Left-mid - Skillful Weilit

Centre-mid - Talented Chun Haw

Centre-mid - Dynamic Soon

Right-mid - Talisman Derrick

Striker - Unpredictable Blackburn

Striker - Powerful Alvin (captain)

  

Subs:

Dependable Jinzhong

Speedy Hee (late)

Influential Sebastian (late)

Steely Tze Ern (late)

Absent:

ARFC Scoring Legend Haron

Astute-reading sweeper Elvis

Combative Ron

Wonder Wayne

Nippy Kenny

Sublime Khim

Composed Jackson

Hard-man Tjioe

Booming Boon

Jiawei

From their first meaningful attack, ARFC conceded a goal. 0-1

ARFC then conceded another goal after a goal-mouth melee. 0-2

ARFC then fell behind from their long-rang shot. 0-3.

ARFC then showed amateurish defending from a free-kick to go down 0-4.

ARFC had a couple of half-chances but all came to nought.

In the 2^nd half, ARFC put up a better display thanks in a large part to Darren being shifted to left-back. With him there, their right-winger could not even get past him at all. Totally no chance!

ARFC nevertheless still conceded another 2 goals. 0-6

Alvin had a golden chance when he was put clean through by Blackburn but his first touch was very heavy and the chance was gone.

ARFC finally pulled a goal back after another impressive assist from Hee whose cross was headed in by Chun Haw for his 23^rd ARFC goal.1-6

Chun Haw’s goal also put him on level terms with the first-generation ARFC scoring legend, David.

Chun Haw could have made it a brace but his snatch shot was hurried.

Derrick was next presented with a golden opportunity from Soon’s artistry and industry but his hesitation resulted in his shot being blocked superbly by their defender.

ARFC then conceded another goal to go down 1-7.

There is no voting for this colossal loss but my personal Man-of-the-Match goes to How Meng.