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.