Hee and Soon led the way in ARFC Veterans' 7-4 win

Playing its 25^th Veterans match against Pioneer Ayer Rajah at Mayflower SS, ARFC Veterans totally destroyed the opponents 7-4 after a high-energy relentless pressing and finishing by the Veterans.

ARFC Veterans was watched Tiara/Dylan (Elvis’ children).

ARFC Veterans started with this 4-5-1 line-up:

GK – Haron

RB – Huiming

Sweeper – Elvis

Stopper – Toh

LB – Tong

RM – Raymond

CM – Sebastian (Captain)

CM – Soon

CM – Rashid

LM – Tze Ern

SC – Hee

Subs:

Chua (late)

Darren (late)

ARFC Veterans started brightly and Raymond almost scored within 20 seconds when he intercepted a pass from their sweeper to left-back, powered inwards but dragged his shot wide.

2 mins later, Raymond again surged in but his finishing was wayward.

ARFC Veterans continued to squander a couple of chances and was duly punished when the opponents scored with his first attack of the match.  0-1

ARFC Veterans did not panic at all but every Veterans upped their energy level.

ARFC Veterans equalised soon after.  Sebastian hit a long ball down the left for Tze Ern to chase down the left flank.  Looking up, Tze Ern sent a high hanging ball to the far post where Soon swooped in from the blind side to leap and nod the ball home.  1-1 and this was Soon’s 90^th ARFC goal.

2 mins later, Tze Ern again latched on to Rashid’s perfect lobbed ball down the left flank.  While at the left by-line and everyone was expecting Tze Ern to cross the ball, Tze Ern had other ideas when he hooked the ball expertly over their GK who was trying to dash out.  The ball bounced once before landing nicely into the net.  2-1 and this was Tze Ern’s 17^th ARFC goal.

7 mins later, ARFC Veterans scored its 3^rd goal of the match after some very good work from Soon.  After robbing their defender down the right side, Soon drew their GK out, eluded him before squaring the ball to Hee who had the simplest of tasks to roll the ball into the empty net.  3-1 and this was Hee’s 116^th ARFC goal.

The opponents then pulled a goal back. 3-2

Chua and Darren then replaced Toh and Tong respectively, with Huiming moving to stopper while Tze Ern dropped to left back to accommodate Darren at left mid.

During half-time, Soon had wanted to go for his spa appointment but was persuaded to stay on.

Soon’s decision soon reaped dividends just 77 seconds from the re-start.  Not for the first time in the match, Rashid pinged a long diagonal ball to the right flank for Raymond to break in from deep.  Raymond reached the ball, took a touch inwards and though their GK dashed out to try to block the ball, Raymond managed to nip the ball away and passed to Soon who had ran into the box.  Naturally, Soon side-footed the ball high into the net for his 91^st ARFC goal. 4-2

In the 57^th min, ARFC Veterans was again indebted to Raymond who again wriggled his way down the right flank, went past their GK before passing to Hee who was right in front of the empty net.  Just as Hee was about to pull the trigger, he was shoved to the ground from behind, giving the referee no choice but to point to the spot.

At this juncture, Sebastian immediately turned and asked Chua to take the penalty but Chua rejected and ran away towards our goal.  Soon was then asked to take the penalty to complete his hat-trick but he also rejected.

Sebastian then stepped up and the outcome was the same as all his previous penalty kicks – drilled low and hard to the bottom left hand corner.  5-2 and this was Sebastian’s 116^th ARFC goal.

Sebastian then asked to be replaced as this was his 2^nd match in 3 days, after having played almost the full match on Friday evening for another team.

Raymond was then put through on goal by Hee but despite facing their GK one-on-one, Raymond’s meek placed shot was blocked by their GK’s outstretched left leg.

However, Raymond atoned his miss just 7 mins later.  Hee won the ball in midfield and passed to Raymond. This time round, Raymond was sharp as he simply sliced the ball past their GK for his 22^nd ARFC goal. 6-2.

ARFC Veterans then scored the goal of the match with very good passing and movement. Receiving the ball from Soon, Rashid held up the ball and after hearing Darren’s call and seeing his overlapping run from left-back, Rashid nonchalantly hit a well-weighted ball down the left flank.  Darren then crossed in which saw Hee killing the ball brilliantly with a good take-down.  Hee then laid the ball to Raymond who then swivelled and drilled home a grounder past their despairing GK.  7-2 and this was Raymond’s 23^rd ARFC goal.

With this goal, Raymond is now on level terms with David, another ARFC legend, on 23 goals.

The opponents then pulled a goal back. 7-3.

With mins to go, the referee made a kelong decision when he unfairly penalised Elvis for a foul in the box which was totally a wrong call.  They scored from the penalty to narrow the score to 7-4.

With this win, ARFC Veterans has now won 10 matches out of 10 matches played in 2019.

This was a match where every Veterans played extremely well.  The pressing was really superb and the opponents hardly had a chance to breathe at all.

Haron – Gamely volunteered to be GK and came up with several crucial interceptions from their striker.

Huiming – Usual dependable player.  Strangely enough, turned down the chance to come on in the 2^nd half as he said that he enjoyed watching our fantastic performance from outside.

Elvis – Franco Baresi-like performance.  Enough said!

Toh – Solid rock-like display with a few blocks off their best player.

Tong – Started as left-back and played as centre mid in 2^nd half.  Did not let the team down at all.  Good utility player!

Chua – Wasted a golden chance when he overlapped all the way to receive a through ball but chose to pass instead.  His speed and stamina were unheard of for someone his age.

Tze Ern – Played a great match with an assist and superb goal!

Darren – Once again, Andrew Robertson-like display!

Raymond – A real monster at right mid.  Lost count of the number of runs down the right during the match.

Rashid – Classy player with many classy balls down both flanks.

Soon – I think I run out of superlatives to describe him already.  Opponents just simply could not cope with his harassing.

Sebastian – Cleverly clean up loose space and control rhythm of play.  Penalty king.

Hee – This must be one of his best matches thus far.  As the only striker for this match, Hee led the line very very well. His closing down of their defenders, both by player and space, was really top-class today.  Very intelligent movement.