Derrick and Chun Haw dazzled in 1-0 win over Falcon

Resuming its league campaign, ARFC displayed superb teamwork, discipline and focus to edge out Falcon 1-0 courtesy of a world-class free-kick from the inspirational Chun Haw at Yio Chu Kang SS.

The 1-0 victory was also its first clean sheet since 03 Jul 2016 when it won 4-0 against Pionneer at the same venue!

ARFC welcomed Elvis from his secret training in Hanoi but he has to settle for a place on the bench.

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

The match was delayed for 40 minutes as the referee was late.  However, ARFC did not let this delay affect its morale and was dominating the match in the opening 20 mins.

In the 7^th min, a series of passes between Soon and Blackburn put Chun Haw through.   With Guoxiong free on his right, Chun Haw let fly a fierce left-foot shot that was just wide.

Chun Haw then released Wayne with a clever pass.  However, Wayne’s clever movement to his left was not matched by his finishing as he sent the ball to row Z.

Derrick then showed that he is a fast-improving GK when he stretched out his left hand to keep out their venomous shot.

Soon, who was still carrying a niggling injury, then intercepted a ball in his own half and galloped forward.  After passing the ball to Wayne, who again cleverly veered to his left, Soon continued his run into the box.  Wayne reverse pass found Soon in the clear but he ballooned the ball after a strong pressure from their defender.

In the 20^th min, ARFC produced the move of the match. From his right-back position, Chua passed to Guoxiong and continued his over-lapping run.  Guoxiong laid the ball to Chun Haw whose brilliant through run saw Chua breaking their off-side trap.  With their GK charging out, Chua somehow reached the ball first and passed to Wayne who was totally unmarked just outside the 6-yard box.  Wayne looked to have scored until their sliding defender blocked the goal-bound ball with his hands! Incredulously, the referee did not see and merely awarded a corner.

From the ensuing corner from Blackburn, Toh headed over.

Derrick then produced a top-draw one-on-one save to enhance his ever-growing reputation as a GK.

Wayne’s bad luck in front of goal continued. Kiat received a great ball from Chun Haw down the left and squared the ball across to the unmarked Wayne. To the dismay of all supporters, Wayne miskicked and screwed his shot wide!

In the 30^th min, Sebastian’s free-kick was struck straight into their GK’s arms.

In the 37^th min, ARFC finally took the lead after relentless pressure.  Chun Haw showed Sebastian how it is done when he expertly curled the ball to the far corner that had their GK totally rooted on the spot.  1-0 and this was Chun Haw’s 55^th ARFC goal.

In the 2^nd half, ARFC did not carve out many chances and had to soak up their pressure.  Falcon also started playing dirty and conjured several under-the-belt moves.

ARFC was then indebted to Derrick who stuck out his left hand to push a cannon-ball shot from their striker to the post. Simply world-class.

ARFC then held out for a totally well-deserving 1-0 win.

Voting results:

Chun Haw – 12

Derrick – 11

Ron – 6

Darren – 4

Guoxiong – 3

Wayne – 2

Soon – 2

Chua – 2