Darren starred in dominating 3-0 win to maintain ARFC Veterans' unbeaten run in 2019

Playing its 23^rd Veterans match on a rare Saturday 5 pm match at the far-flung Juying SS, with the surrounding terrain resembling JB, ARFC Veterans maintained its 100% record in 2019 with a dominating 3-0 victory over an Indian team.

ARFC Veterans was watched by Lingzhi (Ron’s beau), Jerald and Nicole (Toh’s kids) and Tiara/Dylan (Elvis’ children).

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

GK – Sunny (Guest GK)

RB – Huiming

Sweeper – Elvis

Stopper – Toh

LB – Chua

RM – Eng Lai

CM – Sebastian

CM – Soon

LM - Darren

SC – Haron

SC – Daniel Fonseca

Subs:

Ron (late)

Hee (late)

ARFC Veterans started brightly and Haron was especially lively when he fired successive shots at goal.  Particularly, his sharp volley from 39 metres nearly found the net but was just 0.99 cm over the cross-bar.

ARFC Veterans took the lead in the 16^th min through a fortuitous manner.  From a aerial ball about 30 metres from goal, Darren challenged for the ball and though he won the header, the opponent charged in late and resulted in a clash of head. 

The ball then bounced towards their goal and while Darren was scrubbing and massaging his head, the ball somehow bounced over their GK and into goal!  1-0 and this was Darren’s 23^rd ARFC goal, putting him on level terms with David.

While Darren’s first goal was somewhat a fluke, his second goal was certainly crafted with well-drilled passing and movement.  From his left mid position, Darren passed to Soon who held up the ball well.  Darren continued his run down the left as Soon passed the ball to Sebastian who was just inside his own half.  Reading Darren’s run perfectly, Sebastian pinged a high diagonal ball down the channel which saw Darren speeding past their right back before lofting the ball over their GK for his 24^th ARFC goal. 2-0.

With this goal, Darren is now just one goal behind Kiat’s 25 ARFC goals.

Hee and Ron then came on for Daniel Fonseca and Toh respectively.

ARFC Veterans then put the result to bed with its 3^rd goal in the 30^th min.  Winning a throw in down the left, Darren had the quick sense of mind to take a quick throw-in while Haron quickly took up position in the box.  Their defender seemed to be unaware that throw-in will never be off-side and appealed for off-side.  Haron ignored such ignorance and duly lobbed over their GK for his 268^th ARFC goal.  3-0

Eng Lai then took a fierce shot from about 27 metres on the right but their GK saved his shot.

With 7 mins to go in the first half, Darren nearly sealed his first-ever hat-trick for ARFC when he broke clear on the left before letting fly a left-foot rocket that was just 0.6 cm over the cross-bar!

In the 2^nd half, ARFC Veterans pulled back a little as the opponents seemed hell bent to kick ARFC Veterans at every opportunity with their very late tackles from behind.  Unfortunately, the referee took a blind eye to all those late and dirty fouls which only seemed to encourage the opponents further. 

Particularly, Haron, Hee, Sebastian and Eng Lai were all victims of their under-the-belt tackles.

ARFC Veterans then missed a series of chances despite very good and patient passing and movements that carved opened their defence on many occasions.

With this win, ARFC Veterans maintained its 100% record in 2019 – 8 wins out of 8 matches.

This was a match where ARFC Veterans dished out a very disciplined, patient and smooth performance. ARFC Veterans kept their tempers in check despite on the receiving end of those tackles.  

As our GK, Sunny was really dependable and he received the best compliment from the opponents during the match when one opponent shouted to his own team-mates “Don’t try such shots. Their GK very good. Cannot beat him one.”

The opponents also only had about 2 shots at our goal and the credit must really go to the defence, led superbly by Elvis, for shutting them out.  Toh was imperial in the air, while Chua, Huiming and Ron gave their wingers no room to move too.

In the midfield, Darren was a monster with his incisive runs down the left flank, while Eng Lai put in a very good display with his attacking and defending support.

As always, Soon covered every blade of the grass on the pitch by harassing at will, while Sebastian orchestrated play with very clever switching of balls and controlling the pace and rhythm of the match.

Upfront, Haron was very clever with his closing down of defenders and his movement was top-class.  Hee troubled their defence no end and won several fouls, and was really unlucky not to score.  Daniel Fonseca, despite pulling his calf slightly due to insufficient warm-up, came up with some very nice touches and one-two with the midfielders.