Masters Toh grabs masterly brace in 2-2 draw

Kicking off 2014, ARFC was hit by the unavailability of almost the full team and had to settle to a 2-2 draw with MPR, a team that ARFC defeated 5-2 just on 17 Nov 2013.

ARFC started with this line-up:

Keeper - Dependable Jinzhong

Right-back - Unpredictable Blackburn

Sweeper - Combative Ron

Stopper - Towering Toh

Left-back - Unbeatable Darren

Left-mid - Wonder Wayne   

Centre-mid - Dynamic Soon   

Centre-mid - Edwin (guest player)

Right-mid - Speedy Hee

Striker - Powerful Alvin (captain)

Striker - Nippy Kenny

Subs:

Alan (guest player)

Absent:

Influential Sebastian

ARFC Scoring Legend Haron

Astute-reading sweeper Elvis

Impeccable How Meng

Steely Tze Ern  

Resolute Jasper

Composed Jackson

Talisman Derrick

Marauding Guoxiong  

Skillful Weilit

Precocious Chun Haw

Hard-man Tjioe

Sublime Khim

Booming Boon

Jiawei

In the first 17 mins, ARFC’s midfielders and strikers pressed and charged at the opponents so intensely that they could not even get out of their own half.

7 mins later, ARFC was finally rewarded for its hardwork. From a corner on the left, Wayne floated in high hanging ball that was primed for the taking. Toh leaped and was subjected to a strong challenge from their tough defender. However, Toh did not acquire his moniker ‘Towering Toh’ for nothing and he once again demonstrated why he was ARFC’s top scoring defender when he powered the ball home with his iron-forehead to the top left-hand corner. 1-0 and this was Toh’s 67^th ARFC goal.

7 mins later, Kenny played a quick one-two with Hee on the right. Both speed was so fast that the opponents did not see their legs at all, similar to “no-shadow leg”. Kenny received Hee’s return ball, fooled their covering defender with a cut-back and fired in a ferocious left-foot shot. Their keeper was totally glued to the ground but the ball struck the post. Unlucky!

Despite not playing goal-keeper in recent matches, Jinzhong also showed that he is not rusty at all when he produced several world-class save, in particular a full-body diving save to keep out their shot.

In the 37^th min, the opponents equalized with a Ronald Koeman-like long-range shot that not even the great Bruce Grobblearr, Ray Clemence or Peter Shilton could save. 1-1

In the 57^th min, Alan punted a diagonal high ball up-field and Alvin flicked the ball goal-wards. Kenny timed his run to perfection but could not score after strong pressure by their defenders.

7 mins later came potentially the goal of the season. From yet another Wayne’s floating corner, Toh betrayed his defender status when he came in from deep and thundered in a left-foot volley ala Robbie Fowler which saw the ball flew into the top left-hand corner. The goal was also supreme that everybody, including the opponents, all stood up and performed 7 rounds of Mexican waves together. 2-1 and this was Toh’s 68^th ARFC goal.

Toh’s brace also equaled his total goals for the entire 2013, surely a sign of good things to come from him.

7 mins later, Alan floated in a diagonal high ball over their defender and Alvin instinctively lifted the ball over their keeper but the ball was just wide.

7 mins later came potentially the miss of the season. After intercepting a half-cleared ball, Blackburn brought the ball all the way into the penalty box near the penalty spot area. With their keeper and all defenders out of position, Blackburn chose to whip the ball in with all his available muscles and power and to everybody’s amazement, the ball missed the gaping goal altogether!!

All ARFC warriors were so shocked at the miss that no one could utter a word and merely mutter “ccb” under their breath.

In fact, all ARFC warriors were still in the state of shock and conceded a goal soon.  2-2

In fact, ARFC could have even lost the match if not for a stupendous save from Jinzhong. With 77 seconds to go, the opponent spotted Jinzhong a bit off-position and lobbed him from almost the half-way line. The ball looked to loop over Jinzhong but he had other ideas when he back-pedalled, stretched and punched the ball out. World-class save which is similar to Gordon Bank’s save from Pele’s header in World Cup 1970.