Alvin's 350th ARFC goal in 2-2 draw

 

 

 

In a match against FC Feduk at Our Tampines Hub (OTH) on 17 Jul at 3 pm, ARFC twice threw away its lead and was forced to settle for a 2-2 draw.

 

As Derrick pulled out at the 11^th hour due to diarrhoea, ARFC had to call up Zhi Chong as its guest keeper.

 

As Sebastian was still troubled by hamstring and groin concerns, Haron captained and led the team out from the tunnel

 

ARFC took to the pitch with this 4-4-2 line-up:

 

Jersey No.:	Name	Position
xx	Zhi Chong	Goalkeeper
20	Composed Eng Lai	Right back
3	Astute-reading sweeper Elvis	Sweeper
15	Towering Toh	Stopper
6	Unbeatable Darren	Left back
16	Marauding Guoxiong	Right mid
23	Talented Chun Haw	Centre Mid
4	Dynamic Soon	Centre Mid
31	Wonder Wayne	Left Mid
99	Powerful Alvin	Striker
9	ARFC Scoring Legend Haron (captain)	Striker
Substitutes:
5	Energetic Kerwin
7	Influential Sebastian (captain)
10	Sublime Khim
19	Skillful Wei Lit
Missing In Action:
2	Remarkable Rashid
8	Precocious Javier
11	Speedy Hee
13	Talisman Derrick
14	Combative Ron
17	Nippy Kenny
18	Determined Huiming
26	Rampaging Raymond
27	Left-foot wizard Kejendran (KJ)
28	Hard-man Tjioe
29	Flying Fremont
66	Vintage Chua
77	Dependable Jinzhong
78	Steely Tze Ern
98	Impeccable How Meng

 

 

The opponents capitalised on ARFC’s slow start and nearly scored within the first 5 minutes. Thankfully, Zhi Chong came to the rescue with 2 superb saves.

 

ARFC soon woke up its ideas and gradually took over control with some slick passing and movement.

 

In the 17^th min, ARFC opened the scoring through a simple one-two move.  Alvin, who has been in phenomenal red-hot form recently with his goals, played a simple one-two with Khim who flicked the ball inwards for Alvin to latch on. Alvin eluded their defence and fired past their GK for his 350^th ARFC goal. 1-0 and what a move!

 

In an almost similar move 5 mins later, Chun Haw exchanged passes with Khim on the left, and followed by another similar one-two with Haron.  Chun Haw then dribbled inwards and faced with their GK to beat, his sliced placing shot was deflected by their GK for a corner.  Unlucky but superb movements!

 

Sebastian then received a pass from Khim at the top of the box, and then deceived their defence by threading a no-look pass to Alvin in the box. However, their GK was quick off his line to gather the ball before Alvin could pull the trigger.

 

Darren then combined with Khim, before putting Chun Haw clear down the left.  Chun Haw’s inviting cross was met by Wayne who managed to just head slightly wide of the goal.

 

Darren then rescued ARFC after ARFC was caught napping by the opponents’ quick counter-attack. Their striker looked to equalise until Darren came from nowhere to make a world-class recovery block!

 

With almost the last kick of the half, Soon laid the ball to Haron who was at the D of the penalty box. However, Haron just lofted the ball about 0.9 mm over the bar!

 

The first half ended 1-0.

 

ARFC was severely weakened after Soon left for a dinner at half-time.

 

ARFC then conceded a goal. 1-1

 

ARFC kept on pressing and was unlucky on several occasions.

 

Particularly, their GK produced an out-of-this-world save to deny Haron in the 67^th min.

 

Chun Haw, Darren, Alvin and Khim combined down the left that saw Khim receiving the ball at left flank area. Looking up, Khim saw Haron swooping in from the right, and duly delivered a perfect cross into the box that eluded their defence.  When Haron moved in to meet the cross just outside the 6-yard box area, and even before he met the ball, every ARFC warriors were already screaming for goal.  Haron met the ball with an emphatic thumping header but only god knows how their GK managed to palm the ball out for a corner!!

 

Guoxiong then made a brilliant recovery tackle to prevent their striker from scoring. Great defender!

 

 

ARFC finally regained its lead in the 77^th min.  First, Guoxiong passed to Wei Lit on the right and the latter then passed to Chun Haw.  Chun Haw then made wall-passes with Wei Lit before sprinting clear down the right touch-line.  Seeing Haron free in the box, Chun Haw fizzed in a low cross which Haron connected perfectly and powerfully that their GK could not keep out the ball though he got his palms to it.  2-1 and this was Haron’s 276^th ARFC goal.

 

Unfortunately, ARFC conceded another goal almost at the end to draw 2-2.

 

 

List of ARFC scorers with 23 goals and above:

 

 

1	Alvin	350 goals
2	Haron	276
3	Blackburn	164
4	Sebastian	125
5	Hee	117
6	Derrick	114
7	Toh	103
8	Chun Haw	101
9	Soon	94
10	Kenny	86
11	Robin	69
12	Tjioe	67
13	Khim	62
14	Wayne	55
15	Jeffrey	53
16	Guoxiong	37
17	Tong	27
18	Darren	26
19	Kiat	25
20	Raymond	25
21	David	23