Toh's towering performance failed to lift ARFC

In a friendly match played under a surprisingly hot and humid weather, ARFC failed to overcome a sluggish start and lost 1-2 to a very fit and young team, Flora.

Special mention to these warriors:

Ron for turning up to play despite painful leg

Jasper turning up but not to play

Derrick and Jinzhong for volunteering to be keeper for each half

ARFC started with this line-up:

Keeper - Talisman Derrick

Right-back - Dependable Jinzhong

Sweeper - Astute-reading sweeper Elvis

Stopper - Towering Toh (captain)

Left-back - Unbeatable Darren

Left-mid - Speedy Hee

Centre-mid - Combative Ron  

Centre-mid - Influential Sebastian

Right-mid - Dynamic Soon

Striker - Powerful Alvin

Striker - Unpredictable Blackburn

  

Subs:

Skillful Weilit

Talented Chun Haw (late)

Absent:

Composed Jackson

Wonder Wayne   

Nippy Kenny

Impeccable How Meng

ARFC Scoring Legend Haron

Steely Tze Ern  

Resolute Jasper

Marauding Guoxiong  

Hard-man Tjioe

Sublime Khim

Booming Boon

Jiawei

ARFC was really sluggish in the opening 11-15 mins and could not really cope with the fast-pressing style of the opponents which was perhaps not surprisingly considering that the opponents had either just finished their JC studies or still serving NS.

ARFC warriors were often late in their challenges during the opening exchanges. Particularly, Ron was really fortunate to escape without any bookings as he persistently fouled their impressive central midfielder.

ARFC then conceded the opening goal. 0-1

7 mins later, ARFC conceded another goal from their fast counter-attack. 0-2

To its credit, ARFC did not drop its head and gradually regained its footing.

Alvin was put clean through by Sebastian inside the left-hand penalty box just outside the 6-yard box. From an almost acute angle, however, Alvin steered his shot into the side-netting.

Sebastian and Weilit then came close but their shots were charged down.

From Darren’s missile throw-in from the left, Chun Haw just narrowly failed to get a clean shot in as he slipped.

In the second half, ARFC was determined to improve its first-half performance.

Within 77 seconds of the re-start, Alvin capitalized on a defensive error after he picked up a back-header from the opponent just outside their penalty box. Waiting the ball to bounce once, Alvin instinctively pulled the trigger with a dipping volley that swerved about 7 degrees to the right. Fooled by the swerve and velocity of Alvin’s stinging volley, their keeper could not even see the ball coming at him and the next thing he knew it, the ball had bulged the net. 1-2 and this was Alvin’s 218^th ARFC goal.

Hee then demonstrated his usual high work-rate when he recovered from a failed ARFC corner to chase down and block their winger from embarking a dangerous break-away move. A shining light to all.

ARFC then piled on the pressure and despite numerous threatening scud missile throw-ins from Darren, an equalizer did not arrive.

In this match, Toh showed all and sundry of his importance to ARFC when he won ALL the headers pumped up-field by the opponent in this match. With better set-piece deliveries, Toh could even have gotten a couple of goals.

Weilit also put in a decent shift at right-back.

Voting results:

Toh – 32 pts

Darren – 11 pts

Soon – 9 pts

Alvin – 8 pts

Ron – 7 pts

Derrick – 3 pts

Weilit, Hee & Jinzhong – 2 pts each

Elvis & Chun Haw – 1 pt each

Congratulations to Toh & Darren for winning $10 and $5 respectively.