Wei Lit im impressive form in ARFC Open team's season opening 3-1 win

 Kicking off its 2023 playing calendar, ARFC dished out a controlled performance by dismissing the tough challenge of Sunday Marine 3-1 on 15 Jan 2023 at 3 pm at Yio Chu Kang SS.

 

Prior to kick-off, ARFC was hit by the bad news as Derrick could not recover from his gout problem.  Thankfully, Sunny responded to the early Sunday morning SOS to be our GK.

 

ARFC took to the pitch with this 4-5-1 line-up:

 

Jersey No.:	Name	Position
xx	Sunny (guest GK)	Goalkeeper
20	Composed Eng Lai	Right back
3	Astute-reading sweeper Elvis	Sweeper
xx	Tony (guest player)	Stopper
6	Unbeatable Darren	Left back
16	Marauding Guoxiong	Right mid
4	Dynamic Soon	Centre Mid
7	Influential Sebastian (captain)	Centre Mid
23	Talented Chun Haw	Centre Mid
xx	Yao Yang (guest player)	Left Mid
31	Wonder Wayne	Striker
Substitutes:
15	Towering Toh (late)
19	Skillful Wei Lit (late)
xx	Syed (guest player)
Missing In Action:
2	Remarkable Rashid
5	Energetic Kerwin
8	Precocious Javier
9	ARFC Scoring Legend Haron
10	Sublime Khim
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
99	Powerful Alvin

 

 

 

ARFC started somewhat gingerly and allowed the opponents to threaten our goal on several occasions.  However, Elvis and his defence stood tall and kept them at bay, with Soon providing much covering and closing down of the opponents.

 

In the 17^th min, ARFC nearly took the lead.  Eng Lai played the ball out from his right back position to the area near centre circle.   Sebastian went for the ball together with the opponents.  Upon hearing a call from behind, Sebastian deliberately dummied the ball, completely dumb-founded the opponent who challenged into thin air.

 

The ball rolled through and Soon brought the ball all the way in.  With their GK charging out, Soon tried to lift the ball over him but it went just slightly wide of goal.  Unlucky Soon.

 

7 mins later, ARFC took the lead thanks in large part to Wayne.  A loose ball was played to their left back but before he could clear, Wayne charged in to pressure him which led to a throw-in to ARFC.  Guoxiong then received a quick throw-in from Wayne before sending in a delicious over the top ball to Chun Haw on the left. 

 

Chun Haw then showed Soon how it was done when he nonchalantly chipped the ball over their advancing GK for his 106^th ARFC goal.  Brilliant team goal!

 

7 mins later, ARFC doubled its lead with yet another fantastic team goal.

 

ARFC first won a corner but the opponents cleared the ball away.  Sebastian’s decision to ask Toh to stay up reaped dividends after Darren retrieved the cleared ball.  He passed to Wei Lit who then paid the ball to the impressive Yao Yang.  Wit a quick look, Yao Yang fizzed a cross-field ball all the way to Guoxiong at the right wing.  Killing the ball with a great first touch, Guoxiong whipped in a tantalising cross that saw Wayne trying to head the ball in but missed.  No matter, as Toh poppd up at the far post to sweep the ball home with his left foot for a 2-0 lead.

 

This was Toh’s 104^th ARFC goals and it was really a rare feat for him to score with his foot, let alone with his left foot. 

 

Toh’s last goal for the ARFC Open team was back on 29 Dec 2019 when he netted in a 4-1 win over Pumpsters FC at Anderson SS.

 

In the second half, ARFC conjured a few chances but could not add to its lead.

 

The opponents then pulled a goal back in the 77^th min. 2-1 now.

 

Wei Lit then saved the day when his trickery down the left touch-line had their defenders in a knot and conceded a corner. 

 

From the corner, Sebastian swung the ball into the danger area (right at the top of the 6-yard box area) that saw Toh, Chun Haw and Wayne all challenging for the ball.  This caused mayhem as the ball hit the back of their defender and flw past their GK for an own goal under tremendous pressure from the trio.  3-1 and this was the 39^th own goal conceded to ARFC.

Man of the Match is Wei Lit, though Soon, Elvis and Guoxiong did really well too.