Playing its 2nd Veterans match in 2023, and playing its 35th Veterans match overall, ARFC Veterans made light work of the Republic Polytechnic staff team with a well-earned 4-1 victory at the magnificent pitch at Republic Polytechnic on 28 Aug 2023 at 7 pm.
Both teams agreed to play at 3 30-min periods for the match.
ARFC Veterans was supported by:
· Lingzhi – Ron’s beau
· Akid and Daiyan - Rashid’s sons
ARFC welcomed back old guards Kiat and Daniel after their long hiatus, and also Rashid from his horrendous knee injury suffered a few years ago.
Credit to Darren, Haron and Tze Ern for volunteering to be GK for the 1st, 2nd an 3rd period respectively.
Kudos to Eng Lai too who turned up after running 6 km just hours earlier in the day.
Special mention to Tjioe as well who came to play on his actual birthday and turned down birthday celebrations planned by his wife.
ARFC Veterans started with this 4-4-2 line-up:
GK – Darren
RB – Guoxiong
Sweeper – Elvis
Stopper – Toh
LB – Chua
RM – Soon
CM – Rashid
CM – Sebastian (captain)
LM – Tze Ern
SC – Alvin
SC – Haron
Subs:
Ron
Eng Lai
Daniel
Kiat
Tjioe
ARFC Veterans was at the front foot fright from get go and Haron and Alvin combined with wall-passes that created mayhem in their penalty box. Alas, the ball was eventually scrambled away by the opponents.
From a left corner, Sebastian’s delivery was right into the 6-yard area but unfortunately, no ARFC warriors connected.
ARFC Veterans opened the scoring with Tze Ern the main architect. He brought the ball down the left flank and exchanged wall passes with Alvin. Alvin’s initial shot was saved by their GK but thankfully, the rebound fell kindly back to Alvin who paused before calmly placing the ball to the far corner.
1-0 and this was Alvin’s 355th ARFC goal, with 9 of those from Veterans’ matches.
7 mins later, Soon had a great opportunity to double the lead. After bursting through on goal from a ball by Haron, and with their GK at his mercy with no defenders closing in, Soon hurried his shot straight at their GK. Unlucky but what a lung-bursting run into the box.
Toh was next to miss a glorious opportunity after he glanced agonisingly wide from Sebastian’s corner on the right.
The 1st period ended 1-0.
In the 2nd period, ARFC Veterans made a series of changes and was indebted to Haron who made 2 stunning saves.
Upfront, Kiat fired 2 missiles from distance and was really unlucky not to score.
However, it is fair to say that the opponents had the upper hands in the 2nd period.
The 2nd period remained 1-0.
In the 3rd period, ARFC Veterans finally extended its lead 4 minutes after the re-start. Chua did well to stop a ball and passed to Guoxiong. Bringing the ball 3 metres ahead, Guoxiong looked up and hit an outrageous over-the-top ball ala Trent Alexander Arnold into the area just outside their penalty box. Haron did very well as his cunning run to his right pulled an opponent away. Concurrently, Alvin dashed in from the left and with their other defender confused, Alvin simply waited for the ball to bounce once before unleashing a outside right foot belter volley over their despairing GK. This is a goal that bear some resemblance to Torres’ goal against Sunderland back then.
2-0 and this was Alvin’s 356th ARFC goal, with 10 goals from Veterans’ matches.
Almost immediately, the opponents pulled a goal back. 2-1 now.
Elvis then showed all what he is made of when he faced their striker one-on-one. Their striker tried his best to twist and turn Elvis but Elvis simply stood his ground and focused on the ball. When their striker finally tried to dribble past Elvis’ inside, Elvis simply stuck out a leg to block the ball, followed by dribbling the ball away from their striker. What a stunning defensive move that even Paolo Maldini would be very proud of.
Rashid then took the sails out of the opponents’ wind when his corner led to ARFC Veterans’ 3rd goal in the match. From the left, he swung in a left-foot beauty to the near post which saw Soon popping up and planted home a brilliant header!
3-1 and this was Soon’s 97th ARFC goal which included 12 goals from Veterans’ matches.
At this juncture, Sebastian gave a debut to Rashid’s 15 year-old son, Akid.
Inspired by the presence of his son, Rashid chalked up another assist. Again, his corner from the left sailed over every one and headed to the far post. Toh powered in before stooping low at the far post to thump home header which saw both him and the ball in the net!
4-1 and Toh has now scored 108 goals, including 4 goals from Veterans’ matches.
Haron almost put the icing on the cake after he wriggled his way through the left byline. Haron then tried to do a typical Mo Salah move with a curling shot to the right far post but their GK somehow just got a very faint touch to the ball to keep it out. Unlucky Haron!
In the dying moments, Tze Ern produced a stunning right hand save to deny a certain goal from the opponents.
All in all, it was a good controlled performance from ARFC Veterans and the Man-of-the-Match is jointly given to both Tjioe and Soon.
These are the top 5 scorers only for ARFC Veterans’ 35 matches:
1. Raymond – 18 goals
2. Haron – 15 goals
3. Darren – 13 goals
4. Sebastian – 12 goals
5. Soon – 12 goals
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