Ismail shines in 1-4 defeat

After the euphoria of last week’s crushing 9-0 win, ARFC was quickly brought down to earth after a 1-4 defeat against the formidable Redline. 

ARFC started with this line-up: 

Jersey no.	Name	Position
45	Commanding Ismail	Goalkeeper
31	Vintage Chua	Right-back
20	Composed Eng Lai	Sweeper
15	Towering Toh (captain)	Stopper
6	Unbeatable Darren	Left-back
16	Marauding Guoxiong	Right-mid
4	Dynamic Soon	Centre-mid
21	Rampaging Raymond	Centre-mid
11	Speedy Hee	Left-mid
2	Unpredictable Blackburn	Striker
9	ARFC Scoring Legend Haron	Striker
Subs:
10	Sublime Khim
66	Wonder Wayne
77	Dependable Jinzhong
78	Steely Tze Ern
Absent:
3	Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
5	Impeccable How Meng
7	Influential Sebastian
8	Talented Chun Haw
14	Combative Ron
17	Nippy Kenny
18	Determined Huiming
19	Skillful Weilit
28	Hard-man Tjioe
33	Talisman Derrick
99	Powerful Alvin

 

It was clear that the opponents were a class above ARFC who was not helped by the absence of several key and fast warriors. 

Courtesy of ARFC’s famed strong defence, ARFC managed to keep them at bay until 33^rd minutes when they conceded a goal. 0-1

ARFC nearly equalised after the super-impressive Tze Ern took aim wit a speculative shot from 37 metres. The ball almost trickled past their GK’s legs but he managed to retrieve on time. 

In the 2^nd half, the opponents scored 3 more goals to lead 4-0.

ARFC managed to salvage some pride thanks to Tze Ern who was an energy bunny the whole night. Chasing down a loose ball, Tze Ern whipped in a delicious-looking ball which saw Raymond ran in from the blind side and smashed the ball past their GK. 1-4 and this was Raymond’s 6^th ARFC goal which put him on level terms with Jinzhong.

Ismail then kept the score down with a string of great saves. On his current form, he is definitely better than Hassan Sunny.

Voting results:

Raymond – 11

Soon – 10

Darren – 7

Tze Ern – 7

Ismail – 4

Chua – 4

Toh – 2

Darren's rare brace capped off land-slide 9-0 win over Dark Horse

Courtesy of Alvin’s 4 goals, ARFC chalked up its biggest win in the tournament with a thumping 9-0 victory over Dark Horse.

ARFC started with this line-up:

Jersey no.	Name	Position
45	Commanding Ismail	Goalkeeper
31	Vintage Chua	Right-back
28	Hard-man Tjioe	Sweeper
15	Towering Toh (captain)	Stopper
6	Unbeatable Darren	Left-back
16	Marauding Guoxiong	Right-mid
4	Dynamic Soon	Centre-mid
8	Talented Chun Haw	Centre-mid
11	Speedy Hee	Left-mid
2	Unpredictable Blackburn	Striker
17	Nippy Kenny	Striker
Subs:
3	Astute-reading sweeper Elvis
14	Combative Ron
99	Powerful Alvin
Absent:
5	Impeccable How Meng
7	Influential Sebastian
9	ARFC Scoring Legend Haron
10	Sublime Khim
18	Determined Huiming
19	Skillful Weilit
20	Composed Eng Lai
21	Rampaging Raymond
33	Talisman Derrick
66	Wonder Wayne
77	Dependable Jinzhong
78	Steely Tze Ern

In the 15^th min, Chun Haw kept up his recent impressive performance when he took a stinging shot about 27 metres from goal. The ball took a huge deflection and looped over their GK for his 39^th ARFC goal. 1-0

In the 35^th min, Alvin, who managed to obtain permission from his wife to play, received a ball from the similarly-impressive Guoxiong outside the penalty box. Spotting their GK off his line, Alvin nonchalantly chipped over their GK to the top left corner for a sublime goal. 2-0 and this was Alvin’s 276^th ARFC goal.

In the 45^th min, ARFC notched its third goal in the match courtesy of yet another Guoxiong-Alvin axis. A cross from Guoxiong saw Alvin got to the ball first in the middle of the box. With a great first touch that took him away from their covering defender, Alvin placed the ball to the bottom left corner for his 277^th ARFC goal. 3-0

10 mins later, ARFC put the result beyond any reasonable doubt. Chua kicked the ball high up to their defence and was missed by their sweeper. Alvin swooped in and rounded their GK before being upended by their covering defender. Alvin dusted himself off the ground to send their GK the wrong way for his 278^th ARFC goal and 26^th ARFC hat-trick. 4-0

5 mins later, Alvin scored his 4^th goal in the match. Blackburn’s corner from the left was hit to the far post where Alvin ran in from deep and thumped home a rare header. 5-0 and this was Alvin’s 86 goals from 26 hat-tricks for ARFC.

5 mins later, Kenny got on the scoring act. Timed his run to perfectly, Kenny latched on to a world-class through ball from Chun Haw and duly put the ball through their GK’s legs. 6-0 and this was Kenny’s 68^th ARFC goal.

In the 70^th min, Chun Haw grabbed his brace with yet another long-range scorcher which easily beat their off-positioned GK for his 40^th ARFC goal. 7-0

Just as ARFC looked to be satisfied with this 7-goal margin, Darren had other ideas and popped up with a rare precious double. 

In the 77^th min, Blackburn’s corner was met by Toh whose bullet header was somehow blocked by their GK. As the header was too powerful, their GK could not spilled it and there was Darren to prod the ball home for his 4^th ARFC goal. 8-0

With the clock ticking down, Darren scored his second of the match courtesy of some industrious work from Kenny. Chasing down a ball that was destined to be going out, Kenny managed to retrieve and whipped the ball in. Of all people, Darren was there to control the ball with a great first touch near the penalty spot, and then expertly placed the ball home for his 5^th ARFC goal. 9-0

Darren’s 5^th ARFC goal also moved him on level terms with Raymond.

Voting results:

 

Alvin – 12

Chua – 7

Darren – 6

Soon – 5

Tjioe – 5

Guoxiong – 3

Chun Haw – 2

Blackburn – 1