Monday, April 11, 2022

How Meng's colossal display powered ARFC's 10-3 win over Kowloon Club

  

Playing a 11 am match (I could not even remember the last time we last played at such timing) at the magnificent artificial pitch at Boon Lay SS, ARFC routed The Kowloon team 10-3 courtesy of a Man-of-the-Match display from How Meng.

 

Due to the timing and also Puasa month, ARFC had to call up several guest players and started with this 4-4-2 line-up:

 

Jersey No.:

Name

Position

xx

Andrew

Goalkeeper

16

Marauding Guoxiong

Right back

5

Impeccable How Meng

Sweeper

6

Unbeatable Darren

Stopper

xx

Pardiphan

Left back

xx

Cloud

Right mid

7

Influential Sebastian (captain)

Centre Mid

8

Talented Chun Haw

Centre Mid

19

Skillful Weilit

Left Mid

66

Wonder Wayne

Striker

xx

Shamizie

Striker

Substitutes:

13

Energetic Kerwin

 

99

Powerful Alvin

 

xx

Xavier

 

Missing In Action:

1

Flying Fremont

 

2

Unpredictable Blackburn

 

3

Astute-reading sweeper Elvis

 

4

Dynamic Soon

 

8

Precocious Javier

 

9

ARFC Scoring Legend Haron

 

10

Sublime Khim

 

11

Speedy Hee

 

12

Remarkable Rashid

 

14

Combative Ron

 

15

Towering Toh

 

17

Nippy Kenny

 

18

Determined Huiming

 

20

Composed Eng Lai

 

21

Rampaging Raymond

 

28

Hard-man Tjioe

 

31

Vintage Chua

 

33

Talisman Derrick

 

77

Dependable Jinzhong

 

78

Steely Tze Ern

 

 

 

Alvin made a last-min surprise appearance to huge cheers from the fans.

 

ARFC promptly went down in the 5th min after it was caught out by a quick counter-attack.  0-1

 

ARFC then stepped up a gear and nearly equalised 3 mins later.  Sebastian’s free-kick from the left was nearly flicked home by the highly-impressive Cloud but he could not get a clean connection. 

 

ARFC equalised with its next attack.  Pardiphan, who played like Andrew Robertson, swung in a long cross to the far post.  Wayne did well to attract their tall defender to him and Cloud dashed in from deep to thump home a powerful header for his first goal for ARFC. 1-1

 

Darren then kept their young, tall and mobile striker in check with some experienced and determined defending that gave him no room to move at all.

 

ARFC then took the lead in a very fortuitous manner.  Again, Pardiphan whipped in a cross, albeit a bit mishit, which went to their GK.  Almost all ARFC warriors were heading back to take up positions but surprisingly, their GK spilled the ball despite no ARFC warriors near him.  The ball then slowly trickled over the line at 0.77 mm/per hour.  2-1 and this was the 38th own goal conceded by ARFC’s opponents.

 

ARFC then piled on the pressure and extended its lead.  Xavier, who came on for Wayne after the latter asked to be substituted, harassed their defenders in the box into a hasty clearance.  Cloud picked up the loose ball and laid to Chun Haw who was standing just outside the box.  Needing no second invitation, Chun Haw leashed home a low shot to beat their despairing GK for his 95th ARFC goal.  3-1

 

Kerwin, who was slightly late for the match, then tested their GK with his Ronald Koeman-like free-kick but his fiercely-struck shot was palmed over by their GK for a corner. 

 

Alvin then came on and immediately made his powerful presence felt.  Cloud had their left back in knots with his close control and dribbles down the right flank, before sending a precise ball into the 6-yard box area.  Alvin powered in, leaped and nodded the ball in for his 336th ARFC goal. 4-1

 

With almost the last kick of the half, Shamizie latched on a loose ball outside the box, took a great first touch before drilling in a powerful shot to leave their GK rooted to the spot. 5-1 at half-time.

 

ARFC extended its lead within 2 mins after the re-start.  How Meng’s long clearance saw Wayne challenging their sweeper for the bouncing ball. While their sweeper was dealing with Wayne, Alvin sensed an opening.  He sprinted in from left, swooped in and then lifted the ball expertly over their GK.  6-1 and this was Alvin’s 337th ARFC goal.

 

Pardiphan then brought the ball all the way from his left back position, exchanged passes with Weilit, drove inwards to the left and then rifled a high ball to the roof of the next, beating their GK at his near post.  7-1.

 

Weilit did well by drawing many fouls as the opponents struggled to live up with his close control and dribbling.

 

Chun Haw then scored his 2nd goal of the match when he expertly dispatched the ball from outside the box, after some clever work between Sebastian, Cloud and Guoxiong. 8-1 and this was Chun Haw’s 96th ARFC goal.

 

ARFC then conceded a penalty.  Andrew stood tall and dived to his right to save the spot kick which the taker looked to despatch the rebound into the net.  Andrew had other ideas though as he quickly got up sharply to block the rebound and conceded a corner.  World-class goal-keeping there!

 

The opponents then pulled a goal back 2 mins later. 8-2.

 

Andrew then came up with another superb one-on-one save.

 

2 mins later, Alvin nearly grabbed his hat-trick.  Sebastian hit a laser-sharp corner into the 6-yard area over their GK.  However, Alvin seemed to have leaped just a little bit too fast and headed the ball just 0.99 mm over the bar.

 

How Meng then forayed up before pouncing on a pass from Chun Haw and smacked in a thunderball for his 17th ARFC goal.  9-2

 

With this goal, How Meng has edged one goal head of Tze Ern, Ron and Weilit who are all on 17 ARFC goals.

 

How Meng then followed up with a brilliant recovery block right in front of the goalmouth to deny them a certain goal.

 

Guoxiong then turned back the clock with a Rob Jones-like overlapping on the right flank. He appeared to have lost out in a duel with the opponents but his never-say-die attitude saw him winning the ball back at the right area.  Looking up, he spotted Wayne in the box and duly sent in a precise cross.  Wayne took 1 step forward before stooping low to glance home a beautiful header past their bewildered GK for his 54th ARFC goal.   10-2 and this was Wayne’s second goal in as many matches in 2022.

 

This goal also took Wayne past Jeffrey Neo’s 53 ARFC goals.

 

ARFC then conceded another goal with virtually the last kick of the match to win 10-3.

 

The last time that ARF reached double-digit score was actually back on 25 July 2015 when it beat Eng Lai’s team 10-0 at the HYFA pitch.

 

Since ARFC was formed in Jun 1991, ARFC had attained double-digit in a match on 16 occasions (including this match).  The details are as follows: 

 

S/N

Date

Venue

Opponents

Score-line

1

8 Jun 1991

Northland PS

Peng

11-3

2

5-Jul-92

Yishun Town SS

Yishun Crystal

14-2

3

20-Mar-94

Blk 367 Yishun Ring Road

Unknowns

11-1

4

17-Apr-94

Northview SS

Unknowns

11-0

5

22-May-94

Northview SS

Electrical Dept (Ngee Ann Poly)

10-1

6

31-Mar-02

Braddell-Westlake SS

Boon's team

11-2

7

18-Jan-09

Yio Chu Kang SS

FC Corpus Christi

14-0

8

29-Nov-09

Bowen SS

Nitroz

14-0

9

11-Apr-10

Bedok South SS

Eng Lai's team

12-0

10

25-Jul-10

Tampines SAFRA

ST Auto

10-3

11

21-Aug-11

Ping Yi SS

Qiuntero Utd

13-2

12

4-Sep-11

Ping Yi SS

Unknowns

12-3

13

2-Mar-14

Mayflower SS

CBCV

10-0

14

25-May-14

1st Toa Payoh SS

Green Hornets

12-1

15

25-Jul-15

HYFA

Eng Lai's team

10-0

16

10-Apr-22

Boon Lay SS

Kowloon Club

10-3

 

 

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