Match #27 (29 June 08): 7-2 walk all over OVA

match report contrbuted by mike

It was sort of a homecoming and reunion for some Marine Sunday players as they took to the pitch at VS to play against OVA. Ex teammates like Ivan Loo, Wan, Teck Chua, Ben Foo, Kok Wah, Wilfred, Ken Loy and Kok Kuen were among our opponents, and at the end of the day, both sides had an enjoyable game of football.

OVA started stronger, using their vast experience and excellent passing to create some scoring chances. Marine Sunday held on (HLeong and Seah were magnificent) and capitalized on their mistakes to lead 2-1 at half time. In the second half, Marine Sunday had more attacking chances, but credit to OVA who fought strongly and never gave up.

Here are the goals…

MS 1-0 up (Wah): Despite OVA dominating the early exchanges, it was MS who had the early break through. Possession won at the middle of the pitch was followed by a quick pass to Chiang on the left, who produced a good cross into the box for T Wah to somehow lobbed a high ball over the keeper into the goal.

MS 2-0 up (Chye): Their defenders lost the ball in their own box for T Chye to unleash a fierce left foot shot that the keeper had no chance.

OVA 2-1: Marine Sunday lost the ball in midfield and golden oldie T Chua dribbled into the box, cut in and laid the ball for another player to shoot low under Seah’s diving body.

HT 2-1

MS 3-1 (Wah): Mike collected a pass from defence and hit a long pass to the left for T Wah to run onto. Keeper Wan came out too soon and T Wah was able to place a quick low shot into the unguarded goal.

MS 4-1 (Chiang): Some good work by Simon in midfield allowed a shot that rebounded off the crossbar and fell nicely for S Chiang to head into an empty net for his well deserved goal.

MS 5-1 (Wah, hattrick): Y Chua released T Wah to break the offside trap and he coolly rounded the keeper to slot in his hattrick goal from the right.

MS 6-1 (Leng): Leng was set free on the left side of the box and a good left foot shot beat the keeper at the near posts.

OVA 6-2: A cleverly taken freekick on the left that floated just beyond Seah’s reach and ended up inside the far posts.

MS 7-2: (Leng): Mike tried in vain to cross from the byline after a run down the left flank and ball went out for a goal kick. Keeper somehow managed to pass to C Leng instead. He did a quick turn and his left foot shot went just inside the far posts.

So, in the end, Marine Sunday finally broke the winless streak at this VS ground.

Match #26 (21 June 08): 1-2 set back against Stewart Engineering

It was another match not too different from the set back against EastWest two weeks ago at the same venue. again, could we have won? in the first 10 minutes, we were all over them, passing with confidence and moving around very well. in short, we were more mobile as a team. then their intents were clear, a fast counter attacking move gave away to what was their comfortable mode of play. they needed mistakes on our part to give them the space to do their thing. we're a different breed with our short slick passes and interchanging movements. we carved out a few chances that could have sealed the match in the first half and changed the complexion of the match. the misses were forgiveable. first the quickthinking wah passed a free kick to st as everyone else was trying to organise in the box. st instinctively stabbed the ball towards the messy goal mouth only for a defender to clumsily deflect it goalwards. the keeper managed to paw at it at the goalline. then gan saw a through ball coming from his right. his dummy and turn was top class and had everyone holding their breath for the eventual kill, just like last week. but it was not to be as the shot went fractionally off the far post. Stewart Engineering (SE) lived to capitalise on a moment of our defensive disarray.

our attack was broken down and SE played a tentative ball wide right. chiang saw an opportunity to intercept and went at it. SE's player was just as tough and strong. He beat chiang to the ball and marauded down the flank. our defence and covering midfield had to be mindful of the threat coming from down the middle. this gave him time to place a pass into the box for their striker. chye came bravely off his line and dived at the feet on the striker, who persisted well and nudged the ball off chye's hand (which had lacked match practice). Fortunately for SE, their striker managed to steer the ball into goal, albeit with a hint of miskick.

we continued our attacking forays with confidence and it paid off. a steady move between middle and right saw us passing the ball back to chiang who chipped in an early cross into the box. leng was at the right place, right time and with the right control, tamed the bouncing ball in-between his tummy and groin. outch! it was not for leng but for SE. leng swivelled and let fly a venomous half volley that skidded surely into the far corner!

but our good work was to be undone again as another counter attack from SE punished us. we did not clear the ball in our danger area properly and it fell to SE's striker. His first attempt was block and hleong seems to have him covered, closing on him. instead, the striker's awkward turn and shot screwed the ball totally off the expected angle. It bypassed hleong and chye into the far corner. three unbelievable phenomena caused the striker to tumble over in delight.

first half ended 1-2. the second half had us changing keeper to gan as planned. kh flew in as well and we wished for a flying restart. it was not meant to be. despite us chasing the game and at times, leaving our defence exposed, both sides did not possess enough of an imposing threat in their respective final thirds to finish off the moves. off a freekick, chye ran into the box and when we thought he had gotten into a position which in the past he would have made the most of, an uncharacteristic fumbling for control simply meant that he would need to and surely can rediscover the familiar touch of the past. then good interchange of passes between chye, kh, and yc helped to conjure an opening but the final shot went wide. for an entertainining memory of the game, we had a vintage goal correctly disallowed. a free kick was floated in and three connected headers eventually resulted in chye nodding it into goal. but he was already offside. in the end, their stubborn defence held out.

this is one of those matches we stretched ourselves in every possible way.

Match #25 (15 June 08): Clinical 2-0 slash and dash of Gombak Rangers

match report contributed by kh

Based on the 2-0 win over Gombak Rangers on 15 June, when we had just 11 players, empirical evidence indicated that KH was not the jinx of Marine Sunday after all. That kink in the armour seems to surface whenever we have more than enough players, and that is when the number of substitutions causes us to lose the shape as the play progresses.

In yesterday’s match, we played more compactly, sensibly and cohesively, mindful of the fact that we had no luxury of extra legs on the sideline. What made yesterday’s result even sweeter was that we started the match with 10 men (our venerable Ng must have been held up by his nocturnal escape the night before) and played the last 30 minutes of the match with the same number, when the (nowadays) injury-prone KH could not carry on with his strained back and had to retire 15 minutes into the 2nd half. By then, Marine Sunday were good and deservedly 2-0 up, with KH providing assists in both goals.

Despite the numerical disadvantage, we stayed resilient against the incessant onslaught from GR, frustrating their attacks with our outstanding safe pair of hands in Seah, the superb resolute defending led by Chor Guan and Hock Leong, and intelligent pace of play dictated by Simon and Teck Chye in the middle of the park. In the midst of adversity, we launched counter-attacks to perfection and found space to breach their defence and we could have notched up another couple of goals. Whilst GR lacked a razor-sharp front man to convert those chances they carved up, their custodian kept the score line to a respectable level with a series of top-notch saves and quick off-the-line clearances.

The match started with both sides adopting a cautious approach and both defences breaking up each other’s offensive moves with relative ease. The dull affair was abruptly punctured by a somewhat fortuitous decision by the tentative referee, who firstly and correctly did not deem Teck Chye offside but secondly failed to spot a handball by the latter as he trapped a through ball from Kian Hwa. As the entire GR defence stood furious, Teck Chye minded his own business and beat the stranded GR custodian on the 2nd attempt, after the keeper had parried former’s initial shot back to him. The infuriated GR surrounded the man in black as Marine Sunday celebrated the fortunate breakthrough.

GR keeper then produced a top-class tip-over to deny Gan’s stinging shot after the latter was put through by Teck Chye. Mike then produced a superb solo effort, beating a couple of defenders on the flank to get into box, only for his final square pass to be intercepted by a defender’s stretched leg to deny the ball reaching Gan. The 1st half finished 1-0.

As the match resumed, GR hardly got into the thick of action and conceded the 2nd goal. An intelligent move involving KH, with his movement visibly restricted by his strained back, and Teck Chye, with his fluidity throughout the match, set the former free on the right. KH’s immediate cross was met by Gan who finished off with much aplomb; a power-packed first-timer that left the GR keeper rooted. If our first goal was contentious, the 2nd goal stamped class in both the movement and conversion.

Much to GR’s credit, they continued to play patient football and slowly assumed possession of the play. As Marine Sunday looked sharp in the offensive, the defensive line was just as alert to close down the space. Seah showed what a top-class keeper he is when he tipped a long-range goal bound effort over the bar for a corner. The GR players were about to raise their hands in jubilation, anticipating a certain goal, but with Seah’s acrobatic save, they could only watch in dismay.

With his teammates trying to restrain KH and not to aggravate his injury, he could not resist the smell of blood like a bloodhound on the loose and continued to get into space time after time. He and Teck Chye combined again with devastating effect as the latter threaded another defence-splitting through pass to pick out the former, who rounded the keeper but his long overdue goal was denied by a last-ditch clearance on the line as the defenders recovered in time to prevent further damage. That signaled the last meaningful contribution by KH as he had to leave the pitch shortly after.

With 1 man down, we sat back to absorb the play. Counter-attack became our focus and we could have gotten more, if not because of their Petr Cech. As GR were found wanting upfront with all those opportunities squandered away, they were at least thankful to their keeper. He denied both Teck Chye’s and See Chiang’s efforts with flying saves, then showed great positional sense to prevent Simon from capitalizing on another one-on-one opportunity.

The entertaining match ended with a 2-0 win for Marine Sunday.

Match #24 (7 June 08): Undeserved Loss 1-3 to EastWest?

match report contributed by kh

Did Switzerland deserve to lose to Czech Republic in the opening match of Euro 2008? No, they did not. Similarly, Marine Sunday did not, by any far fetched imagination, deserve to be at the wrong end of the 3-1 score line on the same day of Euro 2008’s opening match.

We had a post-match technical analysis and the stars above narrowed down to 3 factors. First, we welcomed YC back after his lengthy period on the sideline due to an ankle injury. He rewarded our warm gesture with the miss of the match! After some fine work on the right flank by Teck Wah, he picked out YC in the box and squared a grounder across the box, only for YC to scoop the ball over the ball and with only the keeper at his mercy! Then again, Kanu did miss one and worse, Kanu was less than a yard from the open goal mouth! YC, being partially Swiss given his Credit Suisse credentials, perhaps provided the bad omen for Switzerland’s loss.

Second, we were betting on Gan to carry on his hat-trick form but he returned with a hat-trick of misses. Firstly, he latched onto a high through ball when East-West was yelling for offside. Gan attempted to head the ball over the onrushing keeper but the ball trickled just wide off the left upright. Then it was the right post next. Gan weaved through the defence, muscled his way past a defender and shrugged off his challenge. His side-footer beat the keeper but the ball sailed past the right upright, just agonizingly a couple of inches wide! His final miss came in the 2nd half when he took a snap shot in the box that deflected off a defender and came off the post again. Talk about rotten luck! His fortune couldn’t be more contrasting compared to last match!

Third, simply put, it was Kian Hwa. He seems to be the curse of the team. Whenever he turns up, Marine Sunday lose.

Our technical guru, Hock Leong, summed up simply – You don’t convert the chances, you can’t win the match. So simple, yet so effective. So, let’s count the number of chances that went begging. Besides Gan’s and YC’s misses, Mark hit the horizontal when he was picked out by KH. Teck Chye had 1 certain goal cleared on the line and 2 other half chances that he would have converted them with ease in his slimmer days. We could have slaughtered them but yet we let in 3 soft goals. We had the lion share of the possession in the first half and created those gilt-edged chances. Yet the half finished at 0-0.

Then, against the run of play in the 2nd half, their burly striker shrugged off the attention of Weng Kwan and unleashed a speculative long range missile from just after the half-line. The flight of the ball caught Seah by surprise and he could only watch helplessly as the ball sailed like an arrow over him into goal. 0-1. We equalized through a brilliant corner. Teck Wah picked out Mark outside the penalty box and the latter’s first-timer connected the ball with precision and power and it was East-West’s keeper’s turn to watch helplessly as the ball whizzed past him. 1-1
As we were pressing forward, we left gaps behind and were duly punished for that. A quick breakaway enabled their burly striker to surge forward with ease. Ng and Mark chased back gallantly and they appeared to win the ball back cleanly, only to be bemused by referee’s dubious call for an infringement just outside the box. From the resultant free kick, it was dispatched off with Beckham’s swerve and Seah dived in vain to his right. 1-2!

With nothing to lose, we poured forward and left more gaps behind and another counter-attack, and again their burly striker finished the job. He looked marginally offside to latch onto the through ball and despite Chung Wen’s close attention, he buried the ball at the far right post beyond the reach of Seah, who had come off the line to narrow the angle.

In between those 3 goals, we could only tabulate our misses as our consolation.

Match #23 (1 June 08): 8-1 stroll over Bedok Boys

match report contributed by gan

An unexpected sunny Sunday afternoon despite rainy weather for the past few days. Pitch is in excellent condition, well-trimmed but slightly short. It suited MS passing style perfectly. An inspirational win over the Galacticos last weekend had impelled the players to keep the winning momentum going and maintain the effective simple passing game. Opposition, called Bedok Boys turn out to be a bunch of youngsters; consist of a mixes of Chinese and Malays of NS age. They looked impressive & energetic in the pre-match warm-up. The MS players, not affected by the opponents at all, are quietly concentrating on their own pre-match ritual while waiting for the kick-off whistle.

MS have exactly 11 players to begin the match with before See Chiang turns up slightly later. Opponents started the match impressively with a string of good passes and created some good chances but find it impossible to break down the MS watertight defence. The MS players settled down, playing assuredly and begin to take over the game. Chor Guan marshalled the defence well and maintained the discipline not to concede any unnecessary corners or penalties. Keeper Seah is commanding as ever in the six yard box, plucking all the crosses and shots thrown at him. Both ST and Chye dominated the center, winning most of the midfield battles and created many effective moves. There was also good link-up play and overlap runs between the full backs and the wingers. The strikers worked hard and chased after every opportunity and make life difficult for the opposition defence. The players look determined to teach these youngsters some footballing lessons. In the end, MS efforts paid off, relying on their vast experience and excellent teamwork to craft out an outstanding 8-1 victory with only 12 players.

Here are the goals…

MS 1-0 up (Chor Guan),
Despite BB dominating the early exchanges, it was MS who had the early break through. Possession won at the middle of the pitch was followed by a quick pass to the winger on the right, Chor Guan make an overlapping run, a first time lob pass put him through. Quick thinking Chor Guan produces an outstanding lob over the onrushing keeper for the opening goal.

MS 2-0 up (Wah)
Some neat link-up plays on the left flank follow by a hopeful cross into the penalty box. The cross misses everyone except Wah, who trapped down the ball confidently before unleashing a fierce shot toward goal. It ball came down off the crossbar and rebounded off the grounded keeper into goal. Wah deservingly claimed the goal.
HT 2-0

2nd Half begin with MS kicking-off.

MS 3-0 (Wah)
MS continue where they left off in the first half. Chye took on a couple of defenders down the left flank with his nifty footwork before he released a diagonal pass towards Gan. Gan noticed Wah running in from the blind side and dummied the ball to put him through. Wah makes no mistake in slotting home his 2nd goal of the game. The floodgate was opened….


MS 4-0 (Wah, hattrick)
Ng punted a long ball towards Gan upfront. Gan managed to hold off the defender and trapped the ball. Using his body strength, he managed to turn the defender and delivered an inch perfect cross into the penalty box. The ball sailed past the last-man and fell nicely into the path of Mike. Despite BB's keeper managing to save Mike's effort, Wah was there to pounce on the rebound to complete his hattrick.

MS 5-0 (Gan),
The young guns seem a little demoralized and felt helpless against the mighty old warriors. By now, MS have clearly sealed the game but it seem that the MS players are not willingly to let off this bunch of youngsters easily. The situation got worse for the opposition as MS forced a corner. From Wah's delivery, Gan managed to outjump everyone in the box to open his account for the day.

MS 6-0 (Gan)
Chye intercepted a poor clearance by the keeper and produced a defence-splitting pass towards Gan, who managed to outrun two younger defenders, held his nerve and finished off clinically for his 2nd goal.

MS 6-1 (Lapse of concentration)
A rare fight back from the young gunners. They seem unwilling to lose their grip without a tussle. We lost the ball unnecessarily in midfield with a stray pass. BB intercepted and went down their right flank. A cross was put into the MS penalty box which the defence somehow hesitated to clear. The young & fleetfooted striker managed to nick the ball his way and finished off for a consolation goal.

MS 7-1 (Gan, hattrick)
Not affected by the soft goal, MS continued to torment the BB's defence and bombarded their goal. Gan got his hatirck. Mike managed to produce a superb cross into the penalty box after outwitting two defenders on the left. Gan was first to react to the cross and flicked the ball over the onrushing keeper.

MS 8-1 (Chor Guan),
Chor Guan rounded off the day with a fine individual effort. A midfield tussle saw MS retained possession. As BB defence line was high up and in 6s and 7s, the ever-threatening Guan took possession of the ball and surged towards goal from halfway line. In a one on one with the keeper, Gan drew him left before slotting it the other way for a clinical finished.