ARFC Veterans back after 2 years, 3 months and 9 days in undeserving 1-6 loss

  

 

After a hiatus of 2 years, 3 months and 9 days, no thanks to the covid19 pandemic, ARFC Veterans Team finally played its 28^th match on 1 Apr 2022 (Friday) at the lush and well-rested Padang pitch, taking on the SRC 40s team at 5.30 pm.

 

Due to the timing of the weekday match, ARFC Veterans has no choice but to call up 2 guest players in the form of Malek (Haron’s friend) and Malcolm (Sebastian’s friend).

 

As Sebastian was stuck at work till about 5.45 pm, ARFC Veterans was led by Haron at kick-off.

 

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

 

GK – Sunny

RB – Guoxiong

Sweeper – Elvis

Stopper – Toh

LB – Darren

RM – Derrick

CM – Tjioe

CM – Kenny

LM – Tze Ern

SC – Haron

SC – Malek

 

Subs:

 

Rashid

Sebastian

Malcolm

 

 

Surprisingly, ARFC fielded at least 4-5 players who looked to be in their late 20s or early 30s.   Despite so, ARFC Veterans managed to hold its own, albeit with some rusty moves which were perfectly understandable, and managed to create some half-chances.

 

Off a counter-attack, ARFC Veterans found itself down at 0-1.

 

Malcolm then came on for Malek, in a guest-for-guest player substitution.

 

Taking over Derrick, Rashid then made his first appearance in more than 3 years after injuring his knee badly during a tournament final.   Minutes later, Haron made way for Sebastian.

 

ARFC Veterans nearly equalised in the 27^th min.  Guoxiong made a lung-busting overlapping run down the right flank to pick up a loose ball.  Hearing Sebastian’s call for the call, Guoxiong laid the ball to him outside the box.  Sebastian ran in from deep an hit a fierce side-footer which their GK kept the ball out with a flying save.  Unlucky!

 

Kenny was also unlucky with several half-chances.

 

Strangely enough, ARFC Veterans then gifted 2 easy goals to the SRC team to trail 0-3 at half-time.

 

In the 2^nd half, ARFC Veterans controlled the proceedings from the re-start.  Within 5 mins, ARFC Veterans pulled a goal back after a very clever move.  Playing as a left winger, Derrick showcased his usual trickery by dribbling inwards into the left of the penalty box. Their right back had trouble keeping up and clumsily upended Derrick almost at the left touch-line, giving the referee the easiest of decisions to award a penalty. 

 

Sebastian stepped up and in his usual style all these years, drilled a low diagonal ball down to the GK’s right for his 119^th ARFC goal, including 9 goals for ARFC Veterans matches. 1-3

 

By now, ARFC Veterans was firing at all cylinders but luck eluded the team.

 

First, Haron demonstrated his class by bringing down a highball with his chest.  Spotting Kenny’s run into the box, Haron played in Kenny ala Peter Beardsley but alas, the grass pitch slowed the ball down (or rather, Kenny was too fast!).  With the ball slightly behind him, Kenny turned but skewed his hurried shot wide. 

 

Rashid then showed that he has not lost his vision and touch when he pinged in a precise looping ball from left to the far end of the 6-yard box.  The ball sailed over their defender but Kenny’s lofted shot was just 0.17 mm over the bar.

 

Tjioe was next to be the unfortunate one.  From Sebastian’s corner on the left, the ball was only half-cleared and headed away by their defender. The ball dropped just outside the penalty box and was picked up by Tjioe.  Instinctively, Tjioe hit a fantastic half volley which looked a certain goal till the cross bar deny him a goal.  Real bad luck but what a hit.

 

Sebastian then dribbled inwards and put Malek clean through in the box.  However, Malek took the wrong option when he pulled the ball further away from goal and screwed his shot wide.

 

After a foul on Tze Ern on the left, Sebastian’s wicked curling free-kick was again kept out by their flying GK for a corner.

 

ARFC Veterans then conceded another 3 goals to lose 1-6 in the end.

 

The defeat was ARFC Veterans’ 4^th defeat in 28 Veterans matches.

 

Despite the loss, ARFC Veterans played well despite having 2 guest players and that many players had not played a proper 11-a-side matches for at least 2 years.  Also, Rashid was still only about 40% at his peak after his long lay-off.

 

The chances created were great and ARFC Veterans was really unlucky not to score more than 1 goal.  The efforts put in by the team were commendable and the 1-6 loss was totally undeserving at all.

 

All in all, a 7/10 performance from ARFC Veterans!