Tong gave himself a belated birthday present with a goal in 2-1 victory

Playing its 22^nd Veterans match on 11 Aug 2019 at 5 pm at the St. Patrick’s School pitch, ARFC Veterans edged out The Weekenders 2-1 courtesy of a late penalty from Sebastian.

ARFC Veterans was watched by Lingzhi (Ron’s beau), Yanxiu (Huiming’s wife), Tiara/Dylan (Elvis’ children), Reyes and Rodelle (Darren’s kids).

ARFC Veterans started with this 4-4-2 line-up:

GK – Sunny (Guest GK)

RB – Huiming

Sweeper – Ron

Stopper – Eng Lai

LB – David

RM – Tong

CM – Sebastian

CM – Soon

LM - Darren

SC – Haron

SC – Derrick

Subs:

Chua

Daniel Fonseca

Toh

Elvis

Tze Ern

Strangely enough, ARFC Veterans struggled in the opening exchanges and could not get its rhythm at all. Passes went astray and opponents pegged us back.

From the 10^th min onwards, ARFC Veterans began to get a hold of the match which was epitomised by a 37-metre foray from David who brought the ball upfield from his left-back position before slicing a sweet through ball to Haron just outside the box.  Haron turned and struck a shot at goal but he was incorrectly ruled offside.

7 mins later, Derrick made a diagonal run down the right flank to receive the ball from Tong.  From the right byeline, Derrick sidefooted a lofted ball right to the most dangerous spot (between the 6-yard box and penalty spot).  Haron timed his run perfectly from blind side and met the ball emphatically and powerfully with his forehead.  Every ARFC Veterans was already shouting for goal when their GK miraculously produced a stunning block!

Daniel Fonseca, Chua, Tze Ern, Elvis and Toh then replaced Haron, Huiming, Tong, Ron and Eng Lai at the 20^th min mark.

Chances were at a premium in the first half which ended goalless.

In the 2^nd half, ARFC Veterans started strongly and began to carve out chances.

7 mins after the restart, Toh was dragged down by their defender in the box before he could meet Sebastian’s free-kick.  However, the inept referee, who had a really poor match with his basketball-like refereeing (blew a foul for each and every contact), somehow failed to spot the clear foul.

ARFC Veterans was then indebted to Huiming who produced a stunning block to deny their striker who was going to pull the trigger.  Wonderful old horse!

ARFC Veterans finally drew the first blood in the 55^th min.  From a free-kick on the left, Sebastian curled in a dangerous-looking ball right into the crowded penalty box.  Both Toh and Darren exerted pressure on the opponents by going for the ball.  The ball was only half clear and bounced to Tong who was just 1 metre away.  Instinctively, Tong reacted quickest when he planted a looping header over all the players and the ball nestled nicely at the far post.  1-0 and Tong gave himself a belated birthday present with his 27^th ARFC goal.

Tong’s last goal for the team was on 21 Apr 2018 when he netted in a 4-3 win.

However, ARFC Veterans conceded the equaliser almost immediately. 1-1

ARFC Veterans continued to press hard and was really unlucky on 2 occasions.

First, Sebastian’s long-range free-kick from 47 metres looked to be swirling away from their GK when the ball dipped neat the goalpost but somehow, their GK stuck out a strong hand to palm the ball away for a corner.

Next, From Tze Ern’s wonderful free-kick, Derrick twisted his neck to glance a superb header to the bottom right corner. Everybody was already shouting “GOAL” when their GK denied ARFC Veterans again with a similar save as before to concede a corner.

With 10 mins to go, ARFC Veterans finally regained the lead thanks in large part to Derrick’s cunningness.

Derrick held the ball up brilliantly at the left touchline area in the box.  Sensing that their defender was closing in on him, Derrick waited for him to come near before turning away from him.  Their defender then touched Derrick who fell immediately and the referee atoned for his error by blowing for a penalty.

Sebastian stepped up and placed his usual penalty kick routine to the same spot – bottom left corner.  2-1 and this was Sebastian’s 114^th ARFC goal.

ARFC Veterans then held on for a hard-fought but well-deserved victory.

With this win, ARFC Veterans maintained its 100% record in 2019 – 7 wins out of 7 matches.

Soon's wonder goal in 2-1 win

Coming up against a determined and hardworking Trinity, ARFC showed immerse tactical discipline and great teamwork to prevail 2-1 on 3 Aug 2019 at 3 pm at Pasir Ris Crest SS.

ARFC was supported by Clara (Guoxiong’s precious), Dylan (Elvis’ prince), Germaine (Alvin’s princess) and Lingzhi (Ron’s beau).

Ron’s son Rio and his friend also played their first match for ARFC.

ARFC started with this 4-4-2 line-up:

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

ARFC was pegged back by the younger opponents, anchored by their nippy central midfielder, in the opening exchanges.  However, ARFC held firm and began to hit back with several good passes and chances, with Guoxiong particularly menacing down the right midfield with several good crosses into the box.

Upfront Kenny and Wayne worked tirelessly to close down the opponents.

ARFC then introduced Chun Haw in place of Chua with Guoxiong moving down to right back.  Ron then came on for Sebastian who suffered a slight injury on his foot.

Rashid and Chun Haw then began hitting long diagonal balls from their area to the opposite side.  From one such ball from Rashid, Wayne nearly scored after his touch took him past their GK.  However, Wayne could only kick thin air and the chance was lost.

The opponents then scored from a perfectly-struck freekick to lead 1-0.

Alvin then replaced Kenny while Hee then took over Tjioe.

Hee then almost scored after Rashid’s perfectly lofted cross from left flew over their entire defence to Hee who dashed in from the blind side on the right.  Alas, Hee could not get a clean header and the ball skimmed off his head and went wide.

In the 2^nd half, ARFC continued chasing an equaliser and Kenny went agonisingly close when he reached the ball ahead of their on-rushing GK on the left flank. However, Kenny’s swift ball to the centre was not met by anyone.

2 mins later, Rashid lofted a sweet ball over the top to Sebastian who ran in from left.  However, Sebastian’s attempt to lift the ball over their GK failed as the ball was not well connected.

ARFC’s equaliser finally arrived in th3 53^rd min.  From a long punt down the pitch, Chun Haw did not give up and chased after the ball.  He then reached the ball just ahead of their left-back, nicked the ball away and was clumsily upended by their left-back.

Alvin stepped up to despatch a coolly-taken penalty across their GK. 1-1 and this was Alvin’s 315^th ARFC goal.

ARFC was then indebted to Sunny who produced several great saves.

ARFC finally grabbed the lead in the 77^th min.  Sunny’s long drop kick appeared to be too far for all ARFC warriors.  Of course, Soon had other ideas as he turned on his turbo speed to glide past their left-back before lifting the ball over their GK who had dashed out unnecessarily for his 85^th ARFC goal. 2-1

ARFC then displayed great tactical awareness and discipline to repel their several attacks with Chua excelling with several interceptions.  Even Alvin also came back to his own penalty box to head away some danger balls.

With mins to go, Sunny came up with a top-draw super full-length diving save to keep out their free-kick to preserve ARFC’s hard-fought but well-deserved 2-1 victory.

Voting results:

Guoxiong – 8

Kenny – 8

Chua – 8

Soon – 8

Ron – 4

Rashid – 2

Chun Haw – 1

ARFC chalked up 10th victory in 2019 in hard-earned 3-2 win

For only the first time in its illustrious history since ARFC was formed in Jun 1991, ARFC had to call up 5 guest players to make up 11 players for a match against the OVA Under-40 team on 28 Jul 2019 at Victoria School.

ARFC started with this 4-4-2 line-up:

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

In the 6^th min, our midfielders pressed the opponents into losing the ball. Guan then received a great defence-splitting pass from Soon and scored his debut goal for ARFC. 1-0

The opponents equalised 4 mins later.  1-1

In the 16^th min, ARFC’s high-press up the pitch yielded dividends again when Leon reacted quickest to a loose ball and thumped home his debut ARFC goal. 2-1

In the 26^th min, ARFC’s gen-gen pressing reaped handsome rewards again when Leon and Dasmond played ping-pong with each other before the latter shot home. 3-1

In the 2^nd half, ARFC deployed soak-and-strike tactics due to no subs available whereas the opponents changed almost its entire line-up.

10 mins before the end, the opponents a goal back. 3-2

ARFC then held on for a hard-earned victory.