ARFC Veterans suffered undeserving 3-4 loss in its 12th match

Playing its 12^th veteran match, ARFC Veterans fell to a suprising and undeserving 3-4 defeat to the Green Team at the magnificent pitch at The Arena.

ARFC Veterans was supported Yanxiu (wife of birthday boy Huiming), Rui Hen and his younger brother (Guigui’s 2 sons) as well as Lingzhi, Rio and Avril (Ron’s family).

Most significantly, Hee returned to Singapore and made his ARFC Veterans debut,

ARFC Veterans started with this line-up:

GK – Derrick

RB – Chua

Sweeper – Eng Lai

Stopper – Huiming

LB – David

RM – Kiat

CM – Ron

CM – Sebastian (captain)

LM – Darren

SC – Alvin

SC – Hee

Subs:

Blackburn

Toh

Tjioe

Haron

Guigui

ARFC Veterans almost had a dream start just 2 mins into the match.  Kiat broke down the right and crossed into the box.  Probably threatened by the presence of Alvin and Hee in the box, their sweeper made a mess of a clearance and diverted the ball back to Hee who as just 77 mm from the goal line.  After gleefully sliding the ball home, the inept referee ruled that Hee was off-side!!  This was such a poor decision as the last touch of the ball had came from their defender.  Unlucky Hee who could have capped his debut with a goal.

ARFC Veterans then conceded a goal from a free-kick. 0-1

Blackburn, Haron and Toh then came on for Alvin, Hee and Eng Lai respectively.  Moments later, Ron asked to be substituted due to tiredness and was replaced by Tjioe.

Blackburn made an immediate impact when his wicked corner from the right caused mayhem in their box.  From the ensuing melee, Toh, Haron and Tjioe all attempted to kick the ball into the net and in the end, it was Tjioe who had the last touch when he prodded home his 64^th ARFC goal. 1-1

ARFC was then hit with a counter-attack and conceded another soft goal. 1-2

Guigui then replaced Kiat on the right while Ron came back in for Sebastian.

Guigui then had 3 attempts from right wing but could not find his teammates with his crosses.

David also made a few dribbles and forays upfront, while Darren continued his flying ability down the left wing.

In the 2^nd half, David gamely took over the GK duty from Derrick who took up his usual right wing position.

Alvin was then fouled and Sebastian’s free-kick just curled slightly wide of the far post.

After sustained pressure from ARFC Veterans, epitomised by some neat passing from the team, ARFC finally grabbed its 2^nd equaliser.

Chua, who has been impressive all day, anticipated well and won a ball. He then moved forward and passed to Haron who quickly laid the ball into the path of Alvin. Despite being closely marked by their defender, Alvin showed quick feet and thinking when he drilled the ball low into the net.  2-2 and this was Alvin’s 306^th ARFC goal and first-ever goal for ARFC Veterans.

ARFC then produced a series of intricate passing between Sebastian, Ron, Derrick, Darren, Haron and Alvin but could not find any headway.

Sebastian then released Alvin into the box but he could not get a clean shot.

Darren then put Alvin through and the latter galloped down the left byline before hitting a venomous shot that their GK just somehow managed to palm the ball way for a corner.

Derrick, Haron and Alvin were then brought down in successive occasions but the lousy referee simply waved ARFC Veterans’ penalty appeals away when he was at least 37 metres away.

ARFC then conceded another free-kick. 2-3

After yet another intense pressure, ARFC Veterans equalised for the 3^rd time in the match.  Alvin glided down the left wing and passed to Haron.  With quick thinking, Haron instinctively pushed the ball into Derrick who had arrived at the near post in the 6-yard area.  Derrick was then upended clumsily by their covering defender and this time, the lousy referee finally made the right decision and awarded a penalty to ARFC Veterans.

Alvin stepped up and drilled a low ball to their GK’s right who despite guessing the right away, could not keep out the penalty.  3-3 and this was Alvin’s 307^th ARFC goal.

ARFC Veterans continued its relentless pressing with Sebastian releasing perfectly-weighted balls into the paths of both Hee (left) and Derrick (right) on a couple of occasions but both overran the ball.

With mins to go, ARFC Veterans was hit with yet another counter-attack and conceded its 4^th goal in the match to lose 3-4.

This was a match where ARFC Veterans totally did not deserve to lose, especially since ARFC Veterans had so many chances and the opponents probably had only 4-5 chances in the match.

  

Park Ji SOON's lung-busting display could not secure win

Powered by the industrious Park Ji SOON who covered every blade of the grass at Naval Base SS, ARFC was really unlucky to be held to a 2-2 draw by Chill Pill.

ARFC was supported by Lingzhi and Rio (Ron’s wife and son respectively), Tiara (Elvis’ daughter) and future Chelsea GK (Derrick’s nephew)

Kudos to Sebastian as he turned up at the 11^th hour despite playing in a gruelling futsal tournament in the morning representing SHHK.

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

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

After some tentative play, ARFC took the lead in the 7^th min.  From the right, Eng Lai floated in a high ball into the box for Haron.  Haron leaped but was pushed to the ground by the tall defender, giving the referee the easiest decision to award a penalty.  Elvis stepped up and side-footed a high diagonal ball across their GK, who guessed the right way but could only see the ball hit the top left-hand corner.  1-0 and this was Elvis’ 15^th ARFC goal, putting him on level terms as Tze Ern.

ARFC’s lead, however, lasted just 3 minutes when the opponents scored from a corner. 1-1

Wayne and Jinzhong then replaced Haron and Jinzhong in the 20^th min mark.  Ron also came on for Toh mins later.

ARFC continued to press with Rashid at the heart of ARFC’s attack.

Wayne was then put through on 2 occasions but he failed to find the target.

Alvin then asked to be replaced after his heart pound very fast and Haron came on for him.

Sebastian then came on for Blackburn.

The opponents then scored with another corner. 1-2

In the 2^nd half, ARFC did not allow its heads to drop and completely dominating the half.  However, ARFC was let down somewhat by Wayne’s hesitant finishing.

Wayne did put the net in the net with a sweetly-struck left-foot shot on the turn but the referee wrongly ruled that Wayne was off-side.

ARFC finally equalised in the 57^th min.  A series of intricate simple wall-passes between Sebastian, Haron and Rashid saw the latter gliding down the left wing.  Looking up, Rashid squared across goal for the unmarked Wayne.  Though Wayne’s first touch was heavy, he recovered and thundered in a left-foot shot that almost tore the net apart!  2-2 and this was Wayne’s 36^th ARFC goal.

ARFC was then indebted to Derrick after ARFC was nearly caught out by their counter-attack from ARFC’s corner.  Luckily, Derrick sprinted 37 metres from his goal to thump the ball away.

ARFC could have scored a winning goal if not for a travesty and totally-selfish act from Blackburn.

From yet another long throw-in from Darren, Toh headed the ball backwards which eluded their GK and defenders.  The ball was falling down nicely for Sebastian who was unmarked just outside the 6-yard box area and was ready to just place the ball into the unguarded net.  Before Sebastian could oull the trigger, Blackburn came from nowhere and took a wild swing (like a madman) at the ball which flew to Haron at the far post.  Haron then turned the ball into the net but was wrongly called for offside.

Sebastian then flew into a rage as he could not understand why Blackburn would want to engage in such selfish act and did not place the team’s interests first.

Wayne could have scored the winner but his instinctive shot from Rashid’s brilliant pass was blocked by their GK.

Voting results:

Soon – 12

Darren – 10

Rashid – 8

Elvis – 8

Guoxiong – 2

Derrick – 2

Ron – 1

Sebastian – 1

Alvin – 1

ARFC faltered at quarter-final of charity tournament

On 05 Aug 2018, ARFC's warriors Haron, Alvin, Derrick, Elvis, Rashid and Toh represented ARFC in the charity penalty shoot-out tournament held at the Woodlands Secondary School pitch. All the proceeds were donated to the charity.

Group Stage:

First match:  ARFC won 4-0 (Haron, Toh, Elvis and Derrick); Derrick saved 4 penalties

Second match:  ARFC won 3-2 (Haron, Elvis and Alvin); Derrick saved 3 penalties

Third match:ARFC lost 2-3 (Toh and Elvis); Derrick saved 2 penalties

Fourth match: ARFC won 3-2 (Toh, Elvis and Rashid); Derrick saved 2 penalties

Fifth match: ARFC drew 4-4 (Toh, Elvis, Alvin and Rashid); Derrick saved 1 penalty

ARFC finished 2nd in the group and qualified for the quarter-finals.

QF:  ARFC lost 3-4 (Elvis, Alvin and Rashid); Surprisingly, Derrick did not manage to save any penalty.

Thanks so much to the 6 ARFC warriors and though ARFC did not win, at least ARFC had done a charitable act.

Cheers!!!