ARFC in shock 2-3 loss

Despite having the lion’s share of the match, ARFC fell to a shock 2-3 defeat to the CJC Alumni at he magnificent CJC pitch under cool and breezy weather.

ARFC was supported by Lingzhi (Ron’s lovely and capable wife). 

In particular, Sebastian’s gorgeous and smart wife Caren also made her first support-support appearance since god-knows-when, together with Kaizaree Jade-Eden Tan.

ARFC started with this line-up:

Keeper - Commanding Ismail

Right-back - Dependable Jinzhong

Sweeper - Astute-reading sweeper Elvis

Stopper - Towering Toh

Left-back - Combative Ron

Left-mid - Talisman Derrick

Centre-mid - Dynamic Soon

Centre-mid - Influential Sebastian (captain)

Right-mid - Marauding Guoxiong

Striker - ARFC Scoring Legend Haron  

Striker - Speedy Hee

Subs:

Impeccable How Meng

Skilful Weilit

Unpredictable Blackburn

Powerful Alvin (only arrived in 2^nd half)

Absent:

Unbeatable Darren 

Nippy Kenny

Steely Tze Ern

Sublime Khim  

Wonder Wayne

Hard-man Tjioe

Immaculate Indra

Booming Boon

ARFC was in total control throughout the first half.  Particularly, Toh came close on 2 occasions with his headers all from Sebastian’s corner kick.

After Guoxiong was fouled on the right, Sebastian floated in a free-kick which was met by Toh again but the opponents eventually managed to scrambled the ball away.

ARFC nearly took the lead. Chasing after long ball, Hee showed why he is nick-named Speedy when he won the duel against their sweeper despite being at least 20 metres behind.  Hee was cruelly brought down which should have earned their sweeper a red card as he was the last opponent. Derrick then showed his quick-thinking by playing a quick ball to Haron who drew their defender out before returning the ball to Derrick. With only the keeper to beat, however, Derrick’s somewhat weak shot was parried away by their keeper. Unlucky!

It was really a surprise when the half ended 0-0 as ARFC totally dominated proceedings.

Bizarrely, ARFC then fell behind from a counter-attack. 0-1

7 mins later, ARFC equalized after some passing down the right. The ball was passed from How Meng to Sebastian to Soon who then pushed the ball down the right for the over-lapping Jinzhong.  Almost at the right touch-line, Jinzhong swung over a delicious-looking hanging ball that was missed by their keeper. Alvin, who was impressive throughout, was the beneficiary as he nodded into the empty net for his 243^rd ARFC goal and his 3^rd goal in as many matches. 1-1

Alvin’s goal was also ARFC’s 1700^th goal since its beginning in Jun 1991.

ARFC’s joy was short-lived though as it conceded another counter-attack goal. 1-2

At this point, ARFC switched to a 3-man defence with Blackburn pushing up to support both Alvin and Derrick. 

The move almost paid dividends as Blackburn shot into row Z.

Minutes later, Alvin’s good work down the left flank was not rewarded. After wriggling his way down the left flank, Alvin laid a perfect ball to Blackburn who inexplicably drilled his left-foot shot wide!

Soon was next to try a long-range shot which was easily picked up by their keeper.

ARFC then conceded another goal. 1-3

ARFC pulled another goal back when Weilit exchanged a neat one-two with Alvin before firing the ball in the near post past their keeper. 2-3 and this was Weilit’s 9^th ARFC goal.

Weilit is now level in the ARFC scoring chart with Ron and Tze Ern , as well as Yoong (ex-player)

Voting results:

Sebastian – 7

Jinzhong – 7

Ron – 7

How Meng – 4

Hee – 4

Soon – 3

Alvin – 3

Weilit – 3

Haron – 2

Blackburn – 1

Toh – 1