How Meng nets debut ARFC goal

In a friendly match played under very cool weather despite a one pm kick-off time, ARFC recovered from last Sunday’s spanking by defeating TGIK 5-3.

The score-line seemed to point to a closely-fought match but in reality, ARFC could easily have scored at least 10 goals in the match. Just a rough estimation, ARFC peppered at least 20 shots at their goal. Kenny alone accounted for 5 to 6 shots, I think.

ARFC was once again supported by Melissa (Hee’s super-beautiful muse) and Tze Ern’s son who is aiming to take over his father soon.  

ARFC started with this line-up:

Keeper           -           Impeccable How Meng

Right-back     -           Dependable Jinzhong (captain)

Sweeper         -           Astute-reading sweeper Elvis

Stopper          -           Towering Toh

Left-back       -           Unbeatable Darren

Left-mid         -           Skillful Weilit

Centre-mid    -           Unpredictable Blackburn

Centre-mid    -           Dynamic Soon

Right-mid      -           Steely Tze Ern  

Striker                        -           ARFC Scoring Legend Haron

Striker                        -           Powerful Alvin (captain)

  

Subs:

Resolute Jasper

Influential Sebastian

Combative Ron

Wonder Wayne

Nippy Kenny

Speedy Hee (late)

Talisman Derrick (late)

Absent:

Talented Chun Haw

Marauding Guoxiong  

Sublime Khim

Composed Jackson

Hard-man Tjioe

Booming Boon

Jiawei

ARFC was sloppy in its play and was nearly punished after 2 of their inviting crosses were just missed out by their out-stretching strikers.

ARFc was then indebted to How Meng who pulled off a fantastic one-on-one save to deny their striker who was somehow left free to take a vicious shot.

A slew of substitutions then galvanised ARFC and it did not take long for ARFC to grab the opening goal.

Sebastian’s floating corner from the left eluded their keeper who charged out but grabbed thin air. Wayne read the ball perfectly and he charged in to the back post to powerfully glance the ball home for his 9^th ARFC goal. 1-0 and Wayne’s goal allowed him to level with Ron and Yoong (ex-player).

Toh was then denied by Soon moments later. Sebastian’s corner from the right was connected powerfully by Toh but the ball was stopped by Soon who was standing just in front of the goal. Unlucky!

Wayne then swept the ball across goal but Haron narrowly failed to reach the ball.

ARFC doubled its lead with Wayne the architect. His left-wing cross-field ball was chested down beautifully by Derrick. Before the ball touched the ground, Derrick sliced in a outside right-footer half-volley into the net, leaving their keeper dazed and rooted to the spot! 2-0 and this was Derrick’s 69^th (his favourite position) ARFC goal –equaling Robin’s previous ARFC record.

After scoring, all ARFC warriors chanted “tkb! tkb!tkb!” and within 7 mins, about 17,777 tkbs turned up at the field as they thought they were wanted by ARFC warriors. 

In the second half, ARFC continued its dominance and Ron came close with a powerful rising shot that simply rose too high.

ARFC then conceded a penalty. 2-1

ARFC won its own penalty after their defender was harshly adjudged to have pushed Hee in the box. A slight touch and tug maybe, but certainly not a penalty.

Regardless, How Meng was cajoled by Sebastian to take the penalty and he duly drove the ball right through their keeper for his debut ARFC goal. 3-1

ARFC then conceded another goal. 3-2

Alvin then struck the cross-bar from Sebastian’s corner on the right.

Toh was next to try his luck but his shot was wide.

ARFC regained its 2-goal cushion after a quick-thinking by Derrick. ARFC won a free-kick just outside the box and while they were busy forming the wall, Derrick toe-poked the ball through to Alvin who, from just outside the 6-yard box, placed the ball past their keeper for his 212^th ARFC goal. 4-2

Alvin’s reward for scoring? To be replaced by Haron.

The opponents then scored another break-away goal. 4-3

ARFC was then denied a stone-walled penalty when Haron latched onto a ball, skipped past their defender and was clumsily upended. However, the referee simply waved away ARFC’s violent protests.

ARFC then chalked up its 5^th goal in the match with virtually and literally the last kick of the match. Blackburn belied his advancing years by chasing after a long loose ball right till the touchline near the right. He looked up and pulled the ball back for the on-rushing Haron whose first-touch fooled their covering defender into committing to a sliding block. With ample time, Haron nonchalantly chipped the ball over their keeper from about 7.7 yards for his 199^th ARFC goal. 5-3.

Immediately after the ball hit the net, the referee blew for the full-time whistle.

These are the voting results:

Derrick – 23 pts

Sebastian – 21 pts

Wayne – 16 pts

How Meng – 13 pts

Ron – 10 pts

Tze Ern – 9 pts

Haron – 7 pts

Darren – 5 pts

Elvis – 3 pts

Alvin – 1 pt

Congratulations to Derrick and Sebastian for winning $10 and $5 respectively.

ARFC slumped to a crushing 1-7 defeat

On a Deepavali weekend match, ARFC was really generous in giving away 3 “gift-goals” in the first half to a Indian team and eventually was whipped 1-7 by them.

In all honesty, however, our opponents were really a class above ARFC and I would even venture to say that they are even better than Team BI. If not for How Meng’s heroics in goal, ARFC would have suffered a record defeat already.

ARFC was once again supported by Melissa (Hee’s super-beautiful muse) and Winnie (Chun Haw’s super-cute girlfriend).  

ARFC started with this line-up:

Keeper - Impeccable How Meng

Right-back - Resolute Jasper

Sweeper - Unbeatable Darren

Stopper - Towering Toh

Left-back - Marauding Guoxiong  

Left-mid - Skillful Weilit

Centre-mid - Talented Chun Haw

Centre-mid - Dynamic Soon

Right-mid - Talisman Derrick

Striker - Unpredictable Blackburn

Striker - Powerful Alvin (captain)

  

Subs:

Dependable Jinzhong

Speedy Hee (late)

Influential Sebastian (late)

Steely Tze Ern (late)

Absent:

ARFC Scoring Legend Haron

Astute-reading sweeper Elvis

Combative Ron

Wonder Wayne

Nippy Kenny

Sublime Khim

Composed Jackson

Hard-man Tjioe

Booming Boon

Jiawei

From their first meaningful attack, ARFC conceded a goal. 0-1

ARFC then conceded another goal after a goal-mouth melee. 0-2

ARFC then fell behind from their long-rang shot. 0-3.

ARFC then showed amateurish defending from a free-kick to go down 0-4.

ARFC had a couple of half-chances but all came to nought.

In the 2^nd half, ARFC put up a better display thanks in a large part to Darren being shifted to left-back. With him there, their right-winger could not even get past him at all. Totally no chance!

ARFC nevertheless still conceded another 2 goals. 0-6

Alvin had a golden chance when he was put clean through by Blackburn but his first touch was very heavy and the chance was gone.

ARFC finally pulled a goal back after another impressive assist from Hee whose cross was headed in by Chun Haw for his 23^rd ARFC goal.1-6

Chun Haw’s goal also put him on level terms with the first-generation ARFC scoring legend, David.

Chun Haw could have made it a brace but his snatch shot was hurried.

Derrick was next presented with a golden opportunity from Soon’s artistry and industry but his hesitation resulted in his shot being blocked superbly by their defender.

ARFC then conceded another goal to go down 1-7.

There is no voting for this colossal loss but my personal Man-of-the-Match goes to How Meng.

Soon reached land-mark 50th ARFC goal in 6-2 win

After taking a one-week break due to last week’s cancelled match because of heavy down-pour, ARFC did not allow the enforced break to disrupt its winning momentum after chalking up an easy 6-2 victory against FPUB at the Anderson secondary school artificial pitch.

ARFC’s demolishing victory was witnessed by Melissa (Hee’s super-beautiful muse) and Winnie (Chun Haw’s super-cute girlfriend).  

Credit goes to Toh for turning up despite announcing earlier that he could not make it. How Meng also played despite nursing a fever.

ARFC also welcomed back Elvis after his 2-week trial with Nguyen Viet Cong FC in Vietnam. However, he turned down their offer of 7000 dongs per month as he still prefers to play for ARFC.

The opponents only had 8 players as their 5 other players were late and hence Jasper, Weilit and Jackson were loaned to them for the first 20 minutes.

ARFC started with this line-up:

Keeper - Impeccable How Meng

Right-back - Dependable Jinzhong

Sweeper - Astute-reading sweeper Elvis

Stopper - Towering Toh

Left-back - Unpredictable Blackburn

Left-mid - Speedy Hee

Centre-mid - Talented Chun Haw (captain)

Centre-mid - Dynamic Soon

Right-mid - Talisman Derrick

Striker - ARFC Scoring Legend Haron

Striker - Powerful Alvin

  

Subs:

Combative Ron

Wonder Wayne

Influential Sebastian

Resolute Jasper

Composed Jackson

Skillful Weilit

Absent:

Steely Tze Ern

Nippy Kenny

Unbeatable Darren

Marauding Guoxiong  

Sublime Khim

Hard-man Tjioe

Booming Boon

Jiawei

It was clear from the start that ARFC would emerge victors in the match as the opponents, though some of them were very skillful, lacked the match experience. Furthermore, our midfielders and strikers harassed them no end with Chun Haw at the heart of things.

ARFC created several chances in the opening 10 mins but were unable to fashion an opening.

ARFC then had Jinzhong to thank after he made a superb last-min tackle to nick the ball away after their striker appeared ready to pull the trigger just outside the 6-yard box. Wonderful defending.

ARFC finally opened the scoring and what a goal it was. Jinzhong won a header at right-back position and the ball landed at the feet of Derrick at right-mid. Derrick chipped in a high dangling ball and Alvin, who acquired superb fitness recently, leapt and headed the ball back across goal just outside the penalty box. Haron read Alvin’s move really well and without breaking his stride, executed a jumping volley with his outside right-foot to put the ball beyond the diving keeper for his 197^th ARFC goal.    1-0

The goal was also very similar to Fandi Ahmad’s 1990 goal against Johor when he was playing for Federal Territory (former name for Kuala Lumpur FC).

Sebastian, Ron and Wayne then came on for Soon, Blackburn and Haron respectively.

ARFC soon doubled its lead. Alvin wriggled and powered his way down the left flank and swept the ball across goal. Toh and their keeper both went for the ball and the ball then spilled out. Their defender then inexplicably kicked at his own keeper and in a flash, Derrick dashed in from the blind-side on the right and rifled the ball high into the roof for his 68^th ARFC goal. 2-0

In the second half, ARFC then conceded a goal. 2-1

ARFC then restored its 2-goal cushion with a bizarre goal from Hee. Hee won the ball after yet another of his trade-mark harassment and played the ball down the right channel to Derrick. Hee continued his run into the 6-yard area and met Derrick’s cross with his stomach and wrong-footed their keeper! 3-1 and this was Hee’s 93^rd ARFC goal.

Score with header is heading, score with back-heel is back-heeling, score with stomach is stomaching? Obviously the opponents could not stomach, pun intended, this type of goal and became demoralized.

Within 77 seconds, Haron notched his second goal in the match. Again, Alvin was the chief architect after he repeated his act of wriggling and powering down the left flank. Alvin cut the ball down to his right foot and whipped the ball into the 6-yard danger zone. Haron appeared to have not connected the ball cleanly but somehow the ball still trickled slowly into the bottom right corner of the goal for his 198^th ARFC goal. 4-1

ARFC put the result beyond reasonable doubt after Jinzhong’s superb free-kick from the right was chested down by the bulging chest of Alvin. The ball dropped nicely in front of him and after seeing that their keeper had hesitated, Alvin nonchalantly lobbed the ball over his head for his 211^th ARFC goal. 5-1

ARFC then conceded another goal. 5-2

ARFC was not done. Chun Haw’s mazy dribble caused mayhem outside the opponents’ penalty box and with the opponents still in a daze, Soon propped up and swung a curling right-foot shot to leave their stranded to the spot. 6-2 and this was Soon’s 50^th ARFC goal.

Voting results:

Haron – 21 pts;

Alvin & Derrick – 16 pts each;

Chun Haw – 12 pts;

Elvis – 7 pts;

How Meng & Jinzhong – 6 pts each;

Soon, Ron & Sebastian – 5 pts each;

Toh – 3 pts;

Congratulations to Haron for winning $10, and Alvin and Derrick for sharing the $5.

Selamat Hari Raya Haji greetings to Haron and family

Dear Haron, Su, Afiqah and Ariq,

On behalf of ARFC, here's wishing you a super-duper Selamat Hari Raya Haji......

Have a good one!

Chun Haw's monster display key to ARFC's victory

Kicking off at 1 pm friendly match at the Anderson secondary school artificial pitch, ARFC made it 3 wins out of its last 3 matches by overcoming the stubborn challenge of Marsiling Bro 4-2 due largely to an inspiring performance from Chun Haw.

ARFC’s dominating victory was witnessed by Melissa (Hee’s super-beautiful muse) and Winnie (Chun Haw’s super-cute girlfriend).  

Booming Boon also turned up to watch for 17 mins before rushing off to ink a $27.77 million Sentosa Cove deal.

ARFC started with this line-up:

Keeper - Impeccable How Meng

Right-back - Resolute Jasper

Sweeper - Unpredictable Blackburn (captain)

Stopper - Towering Toh

Left-back - Unbeatable Darren

Left-mid - Speedy Hee

Centre-mid - Talented Chun Haw

Centre-mid - Influential Sebastian 

Right-mid - Talisman Derrick

Striker - Nippy Kenny

Striker - Powerful Alvin

  

Subs:

Wonder Wayne

Skillful Weilit

Dynamic Soon

Dependable Jinzhong

Steely Tze Ern

Absent:

Astute-reading sweeper Elvis

ARFC Scoring Legend Haron

Composed Jackson

Combative Ron

Marauding Guoxiong  

Sublime Khim

Hard-man Tjioe

Booming Boon

Jiawei

The match was even-stevens in the first 10 mins.

ARFC drew first blood after a relentless and breathless closing down of opponenst by Derrick, Alvin, Hee and Kenny resulted in their defender mis-hitting a back-pass that totally eluded their keeper and rolled nicely into the net. 1-0 and this was the 32^nd own-goal conceded by ARFC’s opponents.

The opponents then equalised after the poor referee failed to spot a clear off-side. 1-1

ARFC then created a few chances but was unable to make the break-through. Particularly, Sebastian’s and Alvin’s corners were menacing but still resulted in no goal.

In this first half, Chun Haw played like a monster and gobbled up ALL the high balls all over the pitch. Superb player!

How Meng also came up with 2 to 3 clean catches from their long shots. Wonderful keeper!

ARFC regained its lead just 7 mins into the 2^nd half. Darren’s long-throw from the left caused panic and confusion in their box. Soon came in from blind side from the right and looked to score but his first-touch was poor. Thankfully, the ball fell kindly to Chun Haw who was standing just outside the 6-yard box. Continuing his blazing form, Chun Haw swiveled sharply and lashed the ball high into the roof of the net for his 22^nd ARFC goal. 2-1

Chun Haw celebrated his goal by running towards Winnie and shouted “I Love You Deep Deep!!”

However, the opponents equalised again. 2-2

ARFC then threatened with so many precise corners from Sebastian but Toh, Wayne and Alvin just failed to get clean connections.

From yet another Sebastian’s laser-like corner, Derrick headed against the cross-bar. Unlucky!

ARFC finally took the lead again. From a half-cleared corner, Soon won the ball and spread the ball out to Sebastian who was lurking on the right wing. Looking up, Sebastian arrowed in a high ball that sailed over their keeper to the left side. Alvin read the ball perfectly and he came flying in with a world-class diving header to propel the ball into the net for his 210^th ARFC goal. 3-2 and the goal looked like a typical EPL goal.

ARFC then put the result to bed after a series of sweet ball passes from Hee and Alvin. From the middle of the pitch, Hee passed to Alvin who then returned the ball. Hee then passed to Alvin again who again returned the ball. Hee then broke into the left flank and swept in a low ball across goal. Kenny showed wonderful composure by placing the ball low and hard past their bewildered keeper. 4-2 and this was Kenny’s 24^th ARFC goal, moving him up on level terms with ex-ARFC warrior Tong.

These are the voting results:

Chun Haw – 25 pts;

Hee – 16 pts;

Alvin – 12 pts;

Darren – 11 pts;

Sebastian & How Meng – 10 pts each;

Derrick – 6 pts;

Kenny – 2 pts;

Soon, Jinzhong, Toh & Jasper – 1 pt each.

Congratulations to Chun Haw and Hee for winning $10 and $5 respectively.

Hee & Alvin starred in land-slide 7-1 victory

In a friendly match at the Coral secondary school artificial pitch, ARFC was once again let down by the organizer as no referee turned up for the match!

Nevertheless, the match proceeded as usual with great sportsmanship from both teams. ARFC eventually proved too strong for the Myanmarese opponents and whipped them 7-1.

ARFC’s dominating victory was witnessed by Lingzhi (Ron’s lovely wife), Melissa (Hee’s beautiful muse) and Winnie (Chun Haw’s cute girlfriend).

ARFC started with this line-up:

Keeper           -           Impeccable How Meng

Right-back     -           Resolute Jasper

Sweeper         -           Composed Jackson 

Stopper          -           Combative Ron

Left-back       -           Wonder Wayne

Left-mid         -           Skillful Weilit

Centre-mid    -           Talented Chun Haw

Centre-mid    -           Unpredictable Blackburn (captain)

Right-mid      -           Nippy Kenny  

Striker                        -           Speedy Hee

Striker                        -           Towering Toh

             

Subs:

Unbeatable Darren

Influential Sebastian 

Powerful Alvin

Astute-reading sweeper Elvis

Talisman Derrick

ARFC Scoring Legend Haron

Absent:

Marauding Guoxiong  

Dynamic Soon

Dependable Jinzhong

Steely Tze Ern

Sublime Khim

Hard-man Tjioe

Booming Boon

Jiawei

The 77,777 fans witnessed for the very first time that ARFC’s young guns, How Meng, Jasper, Weilit, Jackson and Chun Haw, all started the match together. This provided a glimpse of the future main-stays of ARFC and hopefully they can deliver.

It did not take long for ARFC to open the floodgates. From Blackburn’s precise corner, Toh leaped highest to simply head the ball powerfully into the net for his 66^th ARFC goal. 1-0.

With this goal, Toh moved to level terms with Derrick.

ARFC then made 6 substitutions with Elvis for Ron, Sebastian for Blackburn, Derrick for Kenny, Haron for Toh, Alvin for Hee and Darren for Wayne.

The opponents then equalized after a really bona fide mistake from ARFC’s defence! Elvis pushed up his defence and shouted “Ref!” with his left hand up in an attempt to play off-side.  Since there was no referee, all other ARFC defenders actually stood still and when all realized, it was a bit too late and the opponent, though clearly off-side, scored. A bit comical but I guessed habits are hard to break! Haha

ARFC restored the lead just 77 seconds later. From Alvin’s corner from the left, Derrick was unchallenged as he moved into space and simply nodded the ball into the net for his 67^th ARFC goal. 2-1.

Derrick’s goal moved him ahead of Toh.

Alvin again turned provider when he released a world-class through ball to Haron. Haron took a clever first touch to kill the ball and before their keeper can react, he placed the ball nice and cosy into the bottom far corner for his 196^th ARFC goal. World-class touch and goal. 3-1

By now, Alvin was firing at all cylinders. Minutes later, he held up the ball really well ala Drogba at the left wing and hearing Blackburn’s call, he laid a nice rolling ground ball to him who needed no second invitation to fire home his 132^nd ARFC goal. 4-1

ARFC was not done. From a quick break-away, Sebastian sliced a nice curling waist-height ball to Alvin who took a brilliant touch, brought the ball goalwards and almost burst the net with a thumping outside right foot shot for his 209^th ARFC goal. 5-1.

After almost eternity, the match break for half-time.

In the 2^nd half, ARFC continued its dominance but was unable to add to the tally till the 77^th min. The ball was switched from right to left in a flowing move and reached Hee’s feet.  Hee bidded his time, shouted for Melissa to see and after Melissa looked up, Hee whipped in a low curling shot to beat their keeper at his near post. Great shot and this was Hee’s 92^nd ARFC goal. 6-1

With 77 seconds to go, ARFC scored its 7^th goal of the match. Wgile at the left touch-line and faced with 3 opponents, Wayne played the ball backwards to Blackburn who was 47 metres away from goal at the left side. Blackburn continued his “red hot chilli peppers” form when he chipped an audacious ball which sailed over their keeper and nestled nicely at the top right hand corner for his 133^rd ARFC goal. 7-1

No voting was implemented since there was no referee but Alvin and Hee are my joint Men-of-the-Match. Alvin for his assists and Hee for his relentless pressing both at defence and attack.