Kenny's David Beckham-like goal in creditable 1-1 draw in league opener

Kicking off its league tournament against last year’s League Champion Tres Dos, ARFC showed that its heavy loss to the same opponents was really a fluke when it took the lead but had to settle for a 1-1 draw.

ARFC started with this line-up:

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

ARFC started the match at a frantic pace which shocked the much younger Tres Dos. However, Tres Dos soon took control and took several shots at our goal but none was able to beat Derrick’s safe hands.

ARFC took the lead in the 17^th min with a David Beckham-like wonder goal in season 1997-98.  From our goal-kick, their midfielder miscontrolled his header and the ball fell nicely to Kenny who was just slightly inside his own half.  With a great first touch that killed the ball completely, Kenny spotted their GK off his line and unleashed a thunderbolt that sailed all the way over their GK.  Fantastic world-class goal. 1-0 and this was Kenny’s 73d ARFC goal and also his 1^st ARFC goal in 2017.

In the 27^th min, ARFC nearly doubled its lead through a swift counter-attack.  From defending a corner, the ball landed at the feet of Haron who was at the edge of his own box.  Haron then sprayed a pass to Alvin at the centre mid area and the latter trapped nicely before passing the ball to Weilit down the left.  Weilit then returned a brilliant through ball to Alvin who charged down at goal with much power and pace.  Unfortunately, Alvin’s powerful shot was somehow tipped over by the despairing arms of their GK.

Tres Dos then continued attacking but was denied time and again by Derrick.

Weilit and Kenny also squandered 2 golden chances but ARFC took the 1-goal lead into the break.

In the 47^th min, Alvin threaded the ball to Chun Haw who controlled the ball well before back-heeling to the onrushing Soon. Soon timed his run to perfection and eluded all defenders. Unluckily, his well-placed shot was again turned round the post by their brilliant GK.

Tres Dos then equalized with a long shot. 1-1

Both teams then continued to tear at each other’s vital points but were unable to grab a winning goal.

Voting results:

Kenny – 16

Derrick – 11

Ron – 8

Guoxiong – 4

Chun Haw – 4

Eng Lai – 2

Toh – 2

Soon – 2

Alvin – 1

Tze Ern – 1