ARFC lost 1-5 to Tres Dos

Facing Tres Dos for the first time in the league, ARFC succumbed to a 1-5 defeat.

About 15 minutes prior to the match, ARFC still only had 10 warriors confirmed coming for the match. Thankfully, Huiming, Sebastian, Kenny and Darren turned up at the 11^th hour and Eng Lai also activated 4 guest players.

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

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

Despite a wide gap in the average ages between the 2 teams (ARFC is in 40s while opponents is early 20s), ARFC was shoulder to shoulder with them in the opening 20 mins.

In fact, ARFC could have scored first but their GK punched the ball away from a precise corner by Sebastian that was destined for Toh’s forehead.

ARFC then conceded an unlucky goal. 0-1

From yet another Sebastian’s laser-sharp corner aimed at Toh’s had, their GK again rushed out from his line and clawed the ball away. The opponents then countered attacked and scored another goal. 0-2

Kenny then lined up to fire a long-range free-kick just over.

In the 2^nd half, ARFC conceded another 3 goals to trail 0-5, a very rare occurrence.

Ismail then pulled off a world-class save.

ARFC nearly pulled a goal back when Toh’s spetacular bicycle-kick just outside the 6-yard box was brilliantly saved by their GK.

ARFC then pulled a goal back after guest player Larry superbly placed the ball to the top right-hand corner after great link-up play with his brother Lucas. 1-5

Voting results:

Soon – 11

Darren – 10

Toh – 6

Kenny – 5

Ron – 5

Guoxiong – 2

Alvin – 2

Ismail – 1

Darren saves the day in shock 1-1 draw with Dark Horse

In probably its most disjointed performance to date, ARFC was indebted to Darren’s headed goal as it somehow drew 1-1 with Dark Horse.

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

Jersey no.	Name	Position
33	Talisman Derrick	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
4	Dynamic Soon	Centre-mid
7	Influential Sebastian	Centre-mid
17	Nippy Kenny	Left-mid
99	Powerful Alvin	Striker
66	Wonder Wayne	Striker
Subs:
2	Unpredictable Blackburn
8	Talented Chun Haw
11	Speedy Hee
18	Determined Huiming
19	Skillful Weilit
20	Composed Eng Lai
78	Steely Tze Ern
Absent:
3	Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
5	Impeccable How Meng
9	ARFC Scoring Legend Haron
10	Sublime Khim
21	Rampaging Raymond
28	Hard-man Tjioe
45	Commanding Ismail
77	Dependable Jinzhong

ARFC was quicker off the blocks and created several golden chances.

Guoxiong and Chua combined brilliantly down the right to release Alvin down the right touch-line. Alas, Alvin’s tantalising cross foud no one.

Sebastian, who returned to the first team line-up after a long absence, made his first telling contributio when he threaded in a trade-mark ball down the right to Guoxiong.  However, his superb cross was not picked up by anyone.

Kenny then put Alvin through and with just their GK to beat, Alvin made thw rong decision to casually lift the ball ove their GK when a simple shot would suffice.  As a result, the soft bouncing ball was cleared away by their recovering defender.

Sebastian’s trade-mark corner was then headed just wide by Toh.

Moments later, Toh again glanced his header wide of the goal from Alvin;s corner.

Just before half-time, Derrick came to ARFC’s rescue when he denied their striker from scoring from an one-on-one situation.

ARFC apparently did not heed the warning and soon conceded a goal just after half-time. 0-1

ARFC woke up and launched waves after waves of attacks but just could not get the equalising goal.

With the clock ticking down, ARFC finally grabbed the equaliser.

From Tze Ern’s world-class corner, Darren rose like a salmon and headed home his 6^th ARFC goal. 1-1

With the goal, Darren has moved to level terms with Jinzhong on 6 goals in ARFC’s scoring chart.

Voting results:

Darren – 11

Tze Ern – 8

Ron – 7

Soon – 6

Chua – 4

Alvin – 3

Chun Haw – 3

Kenny – 2

Toh – 2

Hee – 2