Sebastian's world-class curler set ARFC on its way to victory

Playing a friendly one day before Labour Day, ARFC laboured to a 2-1 victory over Cool Joes at CJC pitch.

ARFC started with this line-up:

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

 In the 7^th min, Guoxiong powered down the right flank with a superb over-lapping run ala Dani Alves. However, his cross was just a little too high for Alvin who headed over.

Chun Haw then found Sebastian lurking at the right flank.  After beating their left-back, Sebastian heard a call from Weilit and Haron but his cut-back was cleared off by their alert defender.

Raymond, who returned to ARFC after several matches away due to fatherly duty, then almost grabbed a breakthrough in the 37^th min.  Blackburn’s beautiful corner eluded everyone and Raymond leaped unchallenged to power a downward header that bounced onto the ground and over the bar. Unlucky!

In the 2^nd half, ARFC then conceded a breakaway goal. 0-1.

Haron then released a superb through ball that completely tore their defence apart.  With only their GK to beat, Kenny hesitated too long and placed his low shot wide of the post. Incredible miss which is very rare for a player of Kenny’s calibre.

Chun Haw was then brutally chopped down about 30 metres from goal.  Sebastian stepped down and curled a world-class right side-footer over their wall that had their GK desperately rushing to keep out but to no avail. 1-1 and this was Sebastian’s 103^rd ARFC goal, moving him ahead of Derrick’s 102 goals.

With 7 mins to go, ARFC finally got their goal they fully deserved. Chun Haw was again the architect when he pressured their GK following a back pass. Their GK cleared the ball but Chun Haw’s partial block saw the ball reached the feet of Kenny at the left flank.  Taking his time and looking up, Kenny heard Haron’s shout as he was alone in the box.  With a measured cross ala David Beckham, Kenny’s precise ball found Haron’s forehead and the latter kept his composure before glancing the ball home for his 243^rd ARFC goal. 2-1

Voting results:

Sebastian – 9

Chun Haw – 9

Kenny – 9

Haron – 8

Guoxiong – 3

Eng Lai – 2

Soon – 2

ARFC in bizarre 1-2 loss

Playing on an extremely muddy pitch, ARFC could not get its passing game going and suffered its first league defeat of the season after going down to an totally undeserving 1-2 loss to Rustystarz Unio.

ARFC started with this 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
17	Nippy Kenny	Centre-mid
78	Steely Tze Ern	Centre-mid
19	Skillful Weilit	Left-mid
11	Speedy Hee	Striker
9	ARFC Scoring Legend Haron	Striker
Subs:
2	Unpredictable Blackburn
4	Dynamic Soon
7	Influential Sebastian
20	Composed Eng Lai
xx	Kassim
Absent:
3	Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
5	Impeccable How Meng
8	Talented Chun Haw
10	Sublime Khim
18	Determined Huiming
28	Hard-man Tjioe
21	Rampaging Raymond
45	Commanding Ismail
66	Wonder Wayne
77	Dependable Jinzhong
99	Powerful Alvin

ARFC seemed to be affected by the poor muddy pitch the most and conceded 2 goals within 10 mins.  0-2.

ARFC then stepped up a gear and totally controlled the first half with Kenny firing at least 5 shots at goals.

Sebastian then came in and nearly created a goal after dribbling his way down the right flank. However, his cross to the far post was not met by anyone.

Guoxiong was next but his pass from right was again not picked up by anyone.

ARFC then pulled a goal back when Kenny finally found his bearing with a long-range curler that almost burst the met. 1-2 and this was Kenny’s 76^th ARFC goal.

ARFC then totally dominated the 2^nd half with no less than 10 shots at goal.  Particularly, Toh headed just wide from Sebastian’s corner.

Sebastian almost grabbed an equalizer in the 77^th min.   From 30 metres out, his exquisite free-kick lookd to be headed for the top corner but their GK flung himself at full-length to tip the ball over the bar.

With 7 mins to go, ARFC should have been awarded a penalty when Haron was belatedly chopped down from behind.  However, the inept referee was blind.

It was really a strange and totally undeserving loss for ARFC as besides the first 2 goals conceded, ARFC totally controlled the match with almost 80% possession and about 20 shots at goal.  In the 2^nd half, the opponents did not even have a shot at goal.

Voting results:

Soon – 11

Kenny – 8

Eng Lai – 7

Ron – 6

Darren – 4

Weilit – 4

Toh – 2

Guoxiong – 2

Chua – 1