Playing its 24th Veterans match on
a night match at St. Wilfrid’s pitch, ARFC Veterans dished out a scintillating
display to defeat DC FC 4-1.
Due to poor responses, ARFC Veterans had to
call up Rashid, Guoxiong and Malcolm as guest players to bolster the numbers.
ARFC Veterans was watched Germaine and
Gerrard (Alvin’s kids) and Tiara/Dylan (Elvis’ children).
ARFC Veterans started with this 4-4-2 line-up:
GK – Sunny
RB – Eng Lai
Sweeper – Elvis
Stopper – Toh
LB – Darren
RM – Guoxiong
CM – Sebastian
CM – Soon
LM – Rashid
SC – Haron
SC – Alvin
Subs:
Daniel Fonseca
Tze Ern (late)
Chua (late)
Malcolm (late)
ARFC Veterans started very aggressively and
within 7 seconds of the kick-off, their defender made a bad pass which was
intercepted by Alvin. However,
Alvin shot wide with only their GK to beat.
2 mins later, Haron was next to miss a golden
chance after he combined with Alvin to force a mistake from their defender.
3 mins later, from a through pass by Soon,
Alvin sprinted clear of their defence but could only shoot straight at their
GK.
Sebastian then picked up a ball from outside
the box and rifled in a shot that was headed upwards by their defender. With the ball high up in the air,
Sebastian followed through, waited for the ball to drop and despite 3 defenders
closing in, he volleyed in a first-timer which was just 0.77 mm over the bar!
After more relentless pressing coupled with
so many smooth and quick passes ala Liverpool, ARFC Veterans finally took the
lead in the 10th min. Sebastian brought the ball into the penalty
box but his pass was blocked by their 1.82 metre-tall defender. Sebastian did not give up and read that
defender’s move perfectly by intercepting his clearance near the right
touch-line. Hearing Haron’s call,
Sebastian squared a low ball across the 6-yard box and Toh fully utilised his
bulky body to shield off their sweeper who had wanted to clear the ball which
then moved to Haron. Naturally,
Haron did not disappoint as he side-footed the ball home with his
left-foot. 1-0 and this was
Haron’s 270th ARFC goal.
ARFC Veterans continued to carve out chances
after chances but had to be indebted to Toh in the 21st min.
From a rare attack by the opponents, their
quick striker somehow managed to evade the challenges of both Elvis and Eng Lai
and bore down on goal. Despite
being at least 15 metres behind the striker, Toh turned back the years with a
stunning world-class block as he chased after their striker. Just as the striker was about to pull
the trigger just outside the 6-yard box, Toh caught up with him and made an
out-of-this-world block to concede a corner. Simply brilliant that left every one stunned and jaws
dropping to the ground.
ARFC Veterans then double its lead 1 min
later. From the left, Alvin moved
inwards and passed to Sebastian who was standing at the top of the penalty box.
Reading Alvin’s move perfectly, Sebastian executed a Firminho-like no-look
reverse pass to caught their entire defence off-guard. Alvin ran in from deep,
trapped the ball down superbly before poking the ball past their GK in one
smooth move for his 318th ARFC goal. 2-0
Tze Ern, Daniel Fonseca, Chua and Malcolm
then came on for Guoxiong, Alvin, Toh and Rashid respectively. Eng Lai moved to stopper to accommodate
Chua at right-back while Darren moved up to left mid leaving the left back
position to Malcolm. Tze Ern took over Guoxiong at right mid with Daniel
Fonseca replacing Alvin upfront.
3 mins after the substitutions, Haron somehow
contrived to miss from an open goal. From the right, Chua passed the ball to
Tze Ern and Chua continued his over-lapping run. Tze Ern then passed to Sebastian who read Chua’s run
perfectly and threaded a low ball into this path. Chua broke clear and with just their GK to beat, Chua showed
his selflessness when he squared to the unmarked Haron. With their GK already out and in la-la
land, Haron miskicked a bit and sliced the ball 0.9 mm agonisingly wide of the
right post! Unlucky!
ARFC Veterans then conceded an unfortunate penalty through
handball which they scored. 2-1
This was the line-up for the 2nd
half:
GK – Sunny
RB – Chua
Sweeper – Elvis
Stopper – Toh
LB – Malcolm
RM – Guoxiong
CM – Rashid
CM – Tze Ern
LM – Darren
SC – Haron
SC – Alvin
Subs:
Daniel Fonseca
Sebastian
Eng Lai
Soon
7 mins after the re-start, ARFC Veterans
extended its lead with a sweeping move which saw the ball switched from the
right all the way to the left.
Darren then passed to Alvin who looked up before curling a high ball
over their GK and dipped ust below the cross-bar. 3-1 and this was Alvin’s 319th ARFC goal.
In
the 70th min, Sebastian whipped in a free-kick from the right
touch-line but Toh’s powerful header was just 0.15 cm over the crossbar, with
Darren just right behind him.
ARFC
Veterans then put the result to bed in the 77th min. Alvin’s corner was put to the most
dangerous zone (between the 6-yard and penalty spot) and both Toh and Darren
jumped for the ball. This time round, Darren reached the ball ahead of Toh
and their GK and glanced the ball home ala Sami Hyypia. 4-1 and this was Darren’s 25th
ARFC goal.
Out of the 25 goals, Darren scored 13
for the ARFC “Open” team and 12 for ARFC Veterans Team.
His 25 goals also out him on level terms
with Kiat Gulam in the ARFC’s All-Time Top Scorers’ List.
As GK, Sunny was largely untroubled and
he came up with a few assured catch of the ball.
Eng Lai was sturdy at both right-back
and stopper, and had also closed down the opponents on a few occasions high up
the pitch.
Elvis was again at his imperious best as
sweeper and even made a few dribbles on his own. At one point, Elvis even dashed up all the way as a striker
in their box but the ball did not come to him.
Toh’s stunning recovery block alone
would make everyone, including PRCs, salivate. Simply world-class!
Darren only started as left-back due to
insufficient defenders at the start.
When moved up as left-mid, he was again unplayable. Capped off a good
night with a brilliant header.
Guoxiong was simply fortress at right
mid. Marvellous player.
Soon’s energy and closing down was
simply too much for the opponents to bear. Wonderful team player.
Sebastian’s 2 assists for the match
paved the way for the victory.
Particularly, his Firminho-like assist for Alvin was top class.
Rashid’s touches and passing had every
one purring.
Haron – Very good closing down of their
defence through his fantastic positioning. Good Ian Rush-type of goal.
Alvin – Been playing like a Hulk in
recent months with his aggressive yet purposeful runs. The 2 goals were his just rewards.
Tze Ern – His pace and power were clearly
superior. A good tidy player.
Chua – No one can believe that he is
already 55 years old. Played like
a 25 year-old. Showed his
selflessness with his pass to Haron when he could easily chip the ball over
their advancing GK.
Daniel Fonseca – Came up with a few neat
touches to team-mates.
Malcolm – A dependable defender with
simple play.
No comments:
Post a Comment