Playing its 5th Veterans match in 2022 and 32nd Veterans match overall, ARFC Veterans put up a dominating performance to ease past DC FC 3-0 at Pasir Ris Crest SS on 4 Sep 2022 (Sunday) at 3 pm.
ARFC Veterans was hit with the 11th withdrawal of Elvis due to swollen toe.
ARFC Veterans was watched by Kai (Kenny’s son) and Rafael (Derrick’s son).
ARFC Veterans started with this 4-4-2 line-up:
GK – Derrick
RB – Raymond
Sweeper – Eng Lai
Stopper – Tjioe
LB – Darren
RM – Guoxiong
CM – Soon
CM – Sebastian (captain)
LM – Khim
SC – Kenny
SC – Haron
Subs:
Toh
Chua
ARFC Veterans took the lead in the 3rd min after Khim’s corner was only half-cleared in the box. With the ball still bouncing in the box, Darren managed to bring the ball down just slightly ahead of their right back. Darren made a sharp turn and was upended by their right back’s late challenge, giving the referee no choice but to award a penalty.
The opponents then tried to provide disruption by switching their GK before the spot-kick. No matter though, as Sebastian blanked out all distractions to convert the penalty kick with his usual penalty routine to the bottom left corner, albeit the ball went in off the left post, to leave their “new” GK rooted to the spot.
1-0 and this was Sebastian’s 126th ARFC goals, with 11 of those coming from ARFC Veterans matches.
Haron, who was excellent throughout, was then unlucky with a few good shots.
Kenny, playing in front of his son Kai, then fired into row Z from outside the box.
In the 17th min, ARFC Veterans doubled its lead with a very swift team move from defence.
From their corner, Derrick quickly threw the ball out to Darren at left back, ala Alisson’s usual routine to Robertson. Darren quickly pushed forward and hit a high diagonal ball to Raymond on the opposite wing. Raymond killed the ball with an elegant first touch before finding Kenny in the box. Not wanting to disappoint Kai, Kenny took a clean first touch and in a swift move, dispatched a stiff grounder to the far bottom corner that left their GK no chance at all.
2-0 and this was Kenny’s 3rd goal for ARFC Veterans, giving him a total of 87 ARFC goals.
ARFC Veterans then lost Guoxiong when he pulled up with a strained calf, after stretching for a poor high ball from Sebastian. Chua took over his place.
Raymond then made a strong foray into the box but was eventually crowded out by at least 4 opponents in the box and could not get his shot in.
Eng Lai then came to the rescue when the opponents caught ARFC Veterans out with a quick counter-attack and faced our goal with only Eng Lai defending against 2 opponents. Showing great VVD-like of anticipation, Eng Lai stuck a foot out to deny them and cleared the ball away.
In the 2nd half, Derrick played as striker with Raymond gamely taking over the GK position. Toh also came on for Tjioe after only arriving during the half time break.
Oddly enough, ARFC Veterans did not display its fluency and movements in the 2nd half which was epitomised by ARFC Veterans’ first attack in the 2nd half.
Within 77 seconds from the re-start, Chua embarked on a lung-busting overlapping run down the right flank and found Derrick free in the box. Derrick did well to trap the ball nicely but incredulously, and even though there was no pressure from any opponents, he somehow tripped over the ball and fell to the ground. Thankfully, Rafael was seated at the opposite end and did not see the comical move.
Our complacency continued and allowed the opponents back to the match. However, Raymond was imperious at goal with his superb anticipation and came out to collect their through balls on several occasions.
Derrick then showed great trickery when he twisted and turned his way down the left byeline and found Sebastian who arrived from deep. However, Sebastian’s placed shot was blocked by their defender.
Tjioe then replaced Eng Lai as stopper, and immediately chalked up an assist.
Defending an attack, Tjioe lumped a high ball upfield which saw the ball bouncing right near the 6-yard box area. Derrick then did Rafael proud when he read the ball perfectly and flicked a header past their despairing GK. 3-0 and what a brilliant goal!
With this goal, Derrick is now on 115 ARFC goals, with 7 goals coming from ARFC Veterans matches.
ARFC Veterans then held on for its 4th win in 5 matches in 2022.
Including this match, these were all the details for ARFC Veterans’ 30 matches since it was formed in 2017:
2017 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 21 | 7 |
2018 | 11 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 29 | 21 |
2019 | 12 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 43 | 16 |
2020 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2022 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 10 |
Total | 32 | 26 | 2 | 4 | 109 | 54 |
These are the top 5 scorers for ARFC Veterans’ 32 matches:
1. Raymond – 18 goals
2. Haron – 15 goals
3. Darren – 11 goals
4. Soon – 11 goals
5. Sebastian – 11 goals
What was very nice to see from this match was that ARFC Veterans was neat in the passing and movements. Particularly, the team was able to play the ball out from defence even when under pressure. The switching of balls on many occasions was simply delightful to watch.
· Derrick – Assured display as GK in first half and came up with a superb headed goal.
· Raymond – Excellent display as right back, right mid and then GK (in 2nd half). Chalked up an assist. Super energy.
· Eng Lai – Helped keep a clean sheet with that world-class interception from their counter attack.
· Tjioe – Joint Man-of-the-Match with Haron. Commanding display as in defence and later in centre mid.
· Darren – Won a penalty with quick footwork. Totally dominating at left back.
· Guoxiong – Suffered an unfortunate calf injury in first half. Speedy recovery to him!
· Soon – Typical display. Non-stop pressing.
· Sebastian – Converted his usual penalty routine. Simple passes and switches that kept the team going but could have done more.
· Khim – Clean touches and passes. Worked himself out and asked to be replaced with about 15 mins to go.
· Kenny – Superb first half as striker but seemed to fizzle out a bit in the second half. Well-taken goal.
· Haron – Joint Man-of-the-Match with Tjioe. The technique and ability to find space and play wall-passes with team-mates were almost Firmino-like.
· Toh – Commanding aerial display ala Sami Hyypia.
· Chua – Steady performance and nearly chalked up an assist in the 2nd half.
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