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