Chua's 7-star performance key to ARFC's 4-0 win

Supported by Tiara and Dylan (Elvis’ princess and prince), ARFC met the same opponents (V2) for the 2^nd successive match but this time round, the presence of both Darren and Chua made huge differences as V2 was comprehensively dismissed 4-0.

Special mention to Haron who gamely played as GK throughout the match.  He also kept a clean sheet!

ARFC started with only 10 warriors:  

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

With just 10 warriors, ARFC had to pace itself during the opening exchanges.  The opponents were also very eager to avenge it’s defeat last week and was charging at us furiously and ferociously.  Thankfully, Elvis and Toh led the defence well, with both Soon and Sebastian providing good shield in front of them.

ARFC took the lead in the 10^th min.  Darren’s long throw from the left flank bounced over Blackburn and their defenders in the box.  Alvin was the biggest beneficiary when he duly nodded the ball high t the far right corner.  1-0 and this was Alvin’s 310^th ARFC goal.

Rashid then came on after his arrival, with Chua joining him.  Ron then replaced YY as well.

From a quick attack down the left, Soon hit the post with his shot. Unlucky!

Sebastian then played a high ball to Alvin who made a perfect knock-down for Rashid to unleash a fierce volley that was just 77 mm over the bar.

ARFC doubled its lead in the 20^th min.  After some gen-genpressing from both Sebastian and Soon at their right-back area, their right back’s clearance could only reached Rashid who was at least 37 metres away from goal and slightly to the right.  Without hesitation and showing world-class vision, Rashid used his right foot instead of his preferred left foot and swung over to Blackburn who was standing just outside the penalty box.  Without letting the ball drop to the ground, Blackburn let fly a stupendous left foot volley ala Robin van Persie/James Rodriguez that saw the ball hit the top right hand corner that gave their flying GK no chance at all. 2-0 and this was Blackburn’s 163^rd ARFC goal.

ARFC tripled its lead in the 30^th min.  Haron hit a long drop-kick right to the centre circle area.  Showing out-of-the-world reading of the game, Sebastian then started his run from deep, in anticipation that Alvin would win the aerial duel for a flick-on.  True enough, Alvin did exactly just that and Sebastian ran in from deep.  Before their GK could charge out and with a defender closing in very fast, Sebastian lobbed over their GK for his 108^th ARFC goal. 3-0.

With this goal, Sebastian moved up to 4^th position in ARFC’s all-time top scorers list.

His reward for scoring?  Immediately replaced by Eng Lai.

In the 2^nd half, YY missed 2 chances in quick succession.  From a Sebastian’s free-kick, Darren challenged for the ball with their GK who only managed to punch the ball to YY who was in the box. However, YY could not get a clean shot at goal.

Minutes later, YY missed an even better chance when he could only produced a weak grounder with just the GK to beat.

Haron then produced a couple of get-down saves to preserve ARFC’s lead.

After withstanding some intense pressure by the opponents, ARFC grabbed a quick break-away goal.

The opponents tried to pass the ball down the right channel but was intercepted by Sebastian who was standing at the left-back position.  Sebastian then passed the ball to Darren who embarked on an Andrew Robertson-like overlapping run.  He passed the ball to Alvin who had pulled away to the left flank.  Alvin received the ball, held up a little before executing a perfectly-weighted grounder down the left flank. Continuing his run, Darren brought the ball inwards and despite with a narrow angle, he drilled the ball past their GK in a goal that was strikingly similar to Alan Kennedy’s European Cup final winning goal for Liverpool against Real Madrid in 1981. [If you all don’t believe me, go google to find out.]

4-0 and this was Darren’s 15^th ARFC goal, moving him on level terms with Elvis.

This 4-0 win was also ARFC’ 10^th victory in 21 matches in 2018 thus far.

The key difference between this and last week?  The presence of Chua who totally kept the ang moh left winger in his pocket.  If you all remembered, their ang moh left winger created lots of problems for us last week.

Voting results:

Darren – 10

Soon – 7

Chua – 7

Haron – 5

Toh – 3

Ron – 2

Elvis – 2