Playing its 9th veteran match, ARFC
Veteran Team let slipped a 2-goal lead twice to draw 4-4 with Golden Eagles
which fielded a few under 40 players.
ARFC Veteran Team was supported by Lingzhi
(Ron’s wife), and Dylan and Tiara (Elvis cute children).
ARFC Veterans started with this line-up:
GK – Derrick
RB – Huiming
Sweeper – Eng Lai
Stopper – Toh
LB – Qingxing
RM – Raymond
CM – Ron
CM – Sebastian (captain)
LM – Tong
SC – Blackburn
SC – Haron
Subs:
Elvis
Tze Ern
Chua
ARFC Veterans got off to a great start just
77 seconds on the clock.
Blackburn’s vicious corner from the right flew over everybody in the
crowded penalty box and to the far left.
Lurking on the left side, Ron let fly a thunderous volley that almost
burst the net. Measuring at 777 km/hr, no GK in the world could ever ever save
it. 1-0 and this was Ron’s 14th ARFC goal.
Ron’s goal also saw him moving on level terms
with Elvis and Weilit on 14 goals in the ARFC all-time scoring charts.
Ron’s goal also saw Lingzhi’s jaws dropped to
the ground as she had never seen Ron scored with such a powerful volley before.
77 seconds later, ARFC doubled its lead. From the right, Raymond passed the ball
to Sebastian and continued his run. Sebastian passed to Blackburn who then
flicked the ball into the path of Raymond in the box. Raymond then duly finished the flowing move by dispatching a
grounder past their bewildered GK for his 12th ARFC goal. 2-0
ARFC Veterans then continued to dominate
proceedings but could not add to the scoreline with Raymond firing just over
the bar and Haron also came close.
From Sebastian’s freekick, Toh just headed
over.
Suddenly, the opponents pulled a goal back.
1-2
ARFC then made a string of substitutions with
Elvis, Chua and Tze Ern coming on for Huiming, Eng Lai and the tiring Ron
respectively.
With 77 seconds to go before half-time, ARFC
Veterans conceded another goal. 2-2
In the 2nd half, ARFC Veterans started
in similar fashion to the first half with total pressing epitomised by both
Raymond and Tze Ern. Huiming also made several forays upfront with Chua making
some vital interceptions. Toh also
started winning several aerial challenges while Elvis led the line well.
Qingxing also provided rock-solid clearances at left-back.
In the 50th min, ARFC Veterans took
the lead again. After Haron was fouled about 30 metres from goal, Sebastian
stepped up to take the free-kick.
Despite the presence of a 7-man wall, Sebastian curled a brilliant
wicked ball into the near-post side of their GK who quickly scrambled across
goal but simply could not keep out the ball. 3-2 and this was Sebastian’s 106th ARFC goal,
putting him the same goals as Derrick.
ARFC Veterans looked to have put the result
to bed just 5 mins later. From a
quick counter-attack, Haron made a superb diagonal run to the left to receive a
ball from Tze Ern. With a few
step-overs, Haron squared the ball across which saw their GK spilled the
ball. Raymond dashed in quickly
and bundled the ball home for his 13th ARFC goal. 4-2.
Raymond’s goal saw him moving alongside
Darren at 14 ARFC goals.
Haron then had a great chance to score when
he was free in the box. However,
his selflessness saw him passed to Tze Ern who ran in from deep. The referee,
who otherwise had an impeccable match, wrongly ruled Tze Ern offside!
Strangely enough, ARFC conceded 2 goals in
quick succession to draw 4-4 which was really an unfair scoreline to ARFC
Veterans.
Eng Lai and Tong did well with their calming
presence while Derrick impressed with his huge long goal-kicks. Besides his superb goal, Ron also
marked their ex-Thai league playmaker very well till he was exhausted, while
Tze Ern and Raymond gave the opponents no breathing space at all with their
constant harassing. Sebastian gave
a master class showing as centre midfielder with his control of the match and
was rewarded with a world-class free-kick goal.
Up front, Haron led the line very well and lasted the
whole match while Blackburn impressed in spurts.
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