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 70th
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 71st 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 3rd 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 2nd 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.
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