ARFC off to a good start in tournament with 5-3 victory

Playing its first tournament match, ARFC banished its pre-season blues and finally secured its first victory in 2016 with a convincing 5-3 triumph over E’Valor.

ARFC welcomed back Darren after his 2016 hiatus.

ARFC started with this 4-4-2 line-up: 

Jersey no.	Name	Position
45	Commanding Ismail	Goalkeeper
31	Vintage Chua	Right-back
14	Combative Ron	Sweeper
15	Towering Toh (captain)	Stopper
6	Unbeatable Darren	Left-back
16	Marauding Guoxiong	Right-mid
10	Sublime Khim	Centre-mid
4	Dynamic Soon	Centre-mid
2	Unpredictable Blackburn	Left-mid
66	Wonder Wayne	Striker
11	Speedy Hee	Striker
Subs:
8	Talented Chun Haw
9	ARFC Scoring Legend Haron
20	Composed Eng Lai
21	Rampaging Raymond
33	Talisman Derrick
Absent:
3	Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
5	Impeccable How Meng
7	Influential Sebastian
17	Nippy Kenny
18	Determined Huiming
19	Skillful Weilit
28	Hard-man Tjioe
77	Dependable Jinzhong
78	Steely Tze Ern
99	Powerful Alvin

ARFC did not take long to stamp its authority in the match. Blackburn’s diagonal long ball was perfectly hit right into the heart of their defence. Soon managed to shield the ball from their on-rushing GK and laid it nicely on the platter for Wayne. Wayne needed no second invitation and duly swept the ball into the empty net for his 15^th ARFC goal.  1-0

ARFC doubled its lead courtesy of the triple-substitution act.  From the left, Raymond passed to Haron who dummied for Chun Haw who was running in from deep.  With a deft touch from his out-stretched leg, Chun Haw nipped the ball away from their central defender and dribbled into the 6-yard box.  With only their GK to beat, Chun Haw simply slammed the ball past their GK. 2-0 and this was Chun Haw’s 37^th ARFC goal.

Just 77 seconds into the re-start, Chun Haw found Hee with a delicate chip down the left. In his speedy move, Hee did not break his stride and unselfishly squared to Wayne. Wayne connected with the softest of a touch which saw the ball trickled past the line for his 16^th ARFC goal.  3-0

8 minutes later, Blackburn tried his luck from distance with a fierce volley. Their GK was caught off-guard and could not react to Blackburn’s stinging volley which almost tore the net. 4-0 and this was Blackburn’s 149^th ARFC goal. 

In the 69^th min, Blackburn took the free-kick just at the edge of the box in the centre area. Their GK could only parry his fierce shot and Haron, who cleverly stayed on-side, came in and steered the ball past their GK. Wonderful anticipation! 5-0 and this was Haron’s 229^th ARFC goal.

ARFC then slowed down and conceded 3 goals to win 5-3.

Voting results:

Chua – 9

Wayne – 8

Raymond – 7

Chun Haw – 6

Khim – 4

Darren – 4

Ron – 3

Blackburn – 2

Ismail – 2

Guoxiong – 1

Soon – 1

Haron – 1