Match #31 (27 July 08): 5-2 lessons for budding Cornerstones

report contributed by kh

Chor Guan must have befriended Lady Luck the night before the match. In fact, we suspected that he might have been in a compromising position when dealing with her. Now, those whip marks on his back and those handcuff bruises on his wrists made sense. Otherwise, how else would you explain his hat-trick? He is not exactly a prolific marksman, neither does his scoring prowess strike fear in any opponents. We know that durians are cheap in the current durian season, but even then, they do not drop in front of you, right? Chor Guan literally had durians delivered to his door step!

Cornerstone did not look like pushovers. They certainly had youth and vitality as their advantages over us! Perhaps, football neutrals, being sentimentalists at heart, favoured us for our experience and discipline. The outcome was experience triumphing over youth, teamwork outlasting individualism with a 5-2 score line in our favour.

We certainly found the hard pitch a bit too unkind to our creaking limbs and stiff back. Our movements were laden, though passing was as assured as we could. Cornerstone did not fare much better than us but they were full of running.

KH had a shot hitting the side netting, Chor Guan also came close to connect a cross from the right but nothing really looked too threatening. Things were rather even and possession was of parity until Lady Luck and Butter Fingers combined to gift us a goal. KH was impeded in his advancement and Chor Guan lifted the resultant free kick high towards Cornerstone’s custodian. Seriously, our elephant feet were rooted to the ground and were only ball-watching but to our surprise, and to Cornerstone’s horror, the keeper let the high ball slipped through his fumbling fingers when he was under no threat at all. It was the lousiest of ways to concede such a goal. We had nothing but thanked Chor Guan for bedding Lady Luck the night before.

Cornerstone equalized just before the break though moments of hesitation among the rear rank of Marine Sunday. They won a free kick in a similar position to our earlier free kick. The ball into the 6-yards box resulted in serious miscommunication between the Tang brothers – Chye defending the ball and Wah in goal (well, it confirmed our suspicion that the 2 brothers don’t even talk to each other at home!). The ball rebounded off Chye’s head and high into the air. Cornerstone’s defender took advantage of the short and inexperienced KH defending him, and outjumped the latter to head the ball into goal. 1-1, and that stood at half-time.

Cornerstone resumed the match full-blooded, with the introduction of one fleet-footed Sundram lookalike player, who would later torment us (but to no avail). But it was Marine Sunday that seized the initiatives. Chye demonstrated that he could be the shit attracting the houseflies as he kept the ball well outside the box and attracted 4 defenders to wrestle the ball away from him. Just like the experienced lap dancer who teases, Chye weaved his way among the 4 defenders with his trickery before releasing the ball to Chor Guan waiting on the left flank. Chor Guan’s first-time cross had the ball high and close to the keeper. Well, they say lightning never strikes twice but it did. The keeper again was caught flapping in the air and let the ball slip through his buttery fingers to put us in the lead. 2 – 1. Much as we attributed the goal to luck, we still had to credit the goal to Mr Blessed, Chor Guan.

We were certainly uplifted by Gift No 2 and Simon upped his ante to control the midfield. With the hard ground restricting any decent ball control, first-time passes became the call of the day. One such pass from the middle of the pitch freed KH into space. KH raced clear ahead of the chasing pack before squaring a grounder to Chye waiting in the box. Chye controlled the ball superbly before unleashing a thunderbolt to crack the egg again. 3 – 1 and we were in control. Chye continued to flourish. Another trick out of his bag left the right fullback dead and his left-footed cross into the box picked out Chwee Leng at the far post. Chwee Leng connected well with a header but it went narrowly wide off the right upright.

We continued to capitalize on the tentative right back and another attack from the left flank paid off. See Chiang, taking over Teck Chye on the left, put in the only decent cross from his left leg and this time round, Gan showed Chwee Leng what a header should be and where the ball should land – into the net. 4 – 1.

Cornerstone had a glorious chance to narrow the deficit when their Sundram lookalike almost emulated the legendary Maradona in 1986 World Cup against England. He took the ball from midfield and with his speed, guile and skill, beat 4 of our players along the way. With the ball at his favoured and lethal left foot, and our goal at his mercy, he walloped a stiffer that the only justice should have been a goal. But Wah denied him the glory with a stupendous dive to his left to palm way the certain goal-bound effort.

Cornerstone held their heads in disbelief but we had no time for sympathy. Another first-time through ball from Simon sailed over the defence line. Gan broke the offside trap and did just enough to reach the ball first before the advancing keeper did. Gan toe-poked the ball past the keeper for Chor Guan to have the simplest of task to tap the ball into the open goal. By now, the lead looked unassailable at 5-1.

To Cornerstone’s credit, they continued to fight back and they did. With out spine tiring, they found space down the middle. They breached our defence line with ease and tucked the ball past Wah for their 2ng goal. Time was not on their side to catch up, and they could only watch in dismay to concede a defeat against the older folks. Final score: 5 – 2. And Chor Guan was grinning, for whatever reasons.

Match #30 (20 July 08): 4-2 back-to basics win over Blue Chinese Team

report contributed by mark

This was yet another young team that looked promising to take on MS on a bright sunny Sunday morning. Like MS, they too had a Ah Lau look-a-like who was there early doing his warm up flexing his 8 packs of muscle. A few of his teammates were down at the pitch warming up and whacking their powerful shots at goal. They certainly looked intimidating with some having tattoos on their bodies while our guys were busy putting on our shin pads and boots on......

A min before the kick off, Simon gave a 'clear the air' or should i say a pep talk to the team. It was clear that the team needed that to get our unity in place and our act together again after the previous match. So off the whistle went and the match was on! The talk by Simon seemed to work well as MS started the game brightly with plenty of passing and runnings .... Lakesh was clearly the man in the centre as he was stringing passes every where and soon the breakthrough came when Simon was first to react to a long clearance from Keeper Brandon. He produced an excellent first time pass which put Leng through down the right flank. Leng latch on to the ball, held off the oncoming defender and put in a beautiful cross which was met first time by Gan with a volley pass the on rushing goalie. 1-0! MS appeared to shrug off the lethargy of the previous match and they continued to play cohesively as an unit and Simon continued to motivate and gave directions constantly. The 2nd goal as expected did not take too long. A long cross from just before the halfway line found chye on the left of the field, suspiciously in an offside position. Referee allowed play to continue and so chye controlled the ball, rounded a defender and scored from outside of the box. .....Goal 2-0! It was a wake up call to the Blues and by now they knew they had to push their players forward before MS killed off the game. In the process, they became physical and abusive at times, especially with the introduction of a rather obnoxious number 21. Referee was in control of the game and had no hesitation in giving a verbal warning to him. The Blues fought gallantly and they began to have their share of possession. With some slick passing and quick counter moves, they soon found one such opportunity on the right. It was not clear whether it was a cross or a shot but the floater from their right winger was well executed and it gave Brandon no chance of reaching for the ball, which landed perfectly on the left of the side netting Goal! 2-1. Undoubtedly, the goal inspired the Blues significantly and for the remaining of the half, they looked the better side. Half time score : MS 2 Blue 1....

After finishing strongly in the 1st half, the Blues were expected to continue its dominance in the 2nd half. But surprisingly, they let MS take control at the start of the half allowing MS to get back into its passing game. Lakesh took the initiative by hitting a long shot across the goal mouth. It was with our slick passing and movements between players that brought about the 3rd goal. Lakesh had possession of the ball in the MS defensive third and was looking around for someone to relay the ball to. Teck Wah dropped into the hole in the middle of the pitch and Lakesh found him with a quick release. Wah then proceeded to bring the ball forward and seeing that Gan was ready for a pass, laid a diagonal pass for him to run pass the last man and head off with a one-on-one dash to the ball with the goalie. Gan was fastest to the ball and cleverly tapped the ball passed the goalie, albeit bringing the ball too wide for a clear shot at goal. At this point, Wah had continued his run into the box and called out for Gan, who did not disappoint with a pin-point cross which sailed over the head of the last man who had tracked back, and Wah had the simplest task of heading the ball into the empty net. Goal! 3-1! MS seemed to kill off the game effectively after the 3rd goal but there was still plenty of time left. We did what we should by not resting our laurel and continue our possession play, hoping to take advantage once the Blues gave away an opening and that opening came when a long ball from midfield found Teck Wah on the left flank. Gan went forward to support and received the ball. 2 defenders were quickly closing Gan down. Gan managed to skip past one tackle and use his speed to get pass another defender before blasting the ball into the top corner. Goal 4-1! The game was as good as over but credit to the Blues who did not give up completely. Off one rare attack and after some fine work from their right winger again, the ball was sent across to the centre outside the box. With MS caught napping, their oncoming midfielder took one hard shot outside the box and indeed it was a good shot that went straight in to the left side the goal. Goal 4-2! Amazingly, the Blues only seemed to play their free flowing soccer for the last 10 mins and they started pressing in search for the 3rd goal. Despite showing signs of tiredness, MS did enough to hold on to victory in the end with Ah Chye taking the last shot of the match!

Final score 4 -2!

Match #29 (12 July 08): 4-9 Struggle in Fight Against Youth

report contributed by guan

We have always encountered strong oppositions for night games…to make this game even more challenging, the opposing team was made of youngsters - to be more specific, the average age is probably half of that of Marine Sunday's. In addition, MJC has quite a large field which means more running…..Blessed with speed (due to youth) and good technical skills, the opposing team ran riot against the slower Marine Sunday team. Ng was the outstanding defender trying to bring down the opposition whenever possible….not to mention other players using every imaginable part of their bodies (including hands) to block, stop and prevent the opposition from running through. It was an open game, full of attacking play which led to a high scoring game - 13 goals in total!!! This is especially true in the second half which contributed 9 goals! Very entertaining!!! And the scorers for Marine Sunday were Teck Wah, Gan and Mike. As far as I remember, most the goals (including the ones we conceded) were the result of excellent through passes that beat the defences. One memorable move (which I tot should be the pass of the match) was a superb diagonal pass from Gan from the left wing which brilliantly found Teck Wah who then slotted the ball past the goalkeeper. A loss nevertheless for the ever “youthful” marine Sunday team which have to be applauded for the effort to make the match exciting even to the last minute. Well done for the effort!!!

Match #28 (05 July 08): 4-1 win over young Stallions

report contributed by leng

The oldies from MS started arriving from 2:35pm. We are expecting 15 players and KH is also back in the team after missing last week's game. To the superstitious members, it spelt trouble as the combinations of more players and the presence of KH usually resulted in a loss. The overcast sky is also a worry and some even thought that the game might be in danger of being called off...a good omen to protect our recent winning streak? It was not to be, the rain came and went and the game was on.

Our opponents, an all Indian team, looks young and fit and full of purpose. They came early and warmed up together. While warming up, Leng overheard an opponent player saying they had not won in 3 games. MS would make it 4 in a row for them, unfortunately. The game started and MS controlled the game with the usual passing and probing. Within the first few minutes, MS created a chance with a low cross coming from the left. Guan managed to control the ball and set himself up to place the ball to the far pole. Unfortunately, his shot went just wide. In our next attack, a high cross came in, under no pressure the goalkeeper chose to punch the ball away. At this juncture, KH shouted some instruction to Gan in Mandarin which not many people understood. Our first goal came soon. A long clearance was knocked onto Leng. Leng saw the run of Wah from the right and knock down the ball into his stride. Wah did not disappoint. He controlled the ball well and send in a low cross into the danger area, despite some very tight marking from the defender. MS have two players, st and Chiang, going for the kill. Chiang won the toss for the chance to score. He did with so with much gusto, whacking the ball with such power that our statistician measured it at 110 km/h speed when the ball hit the back of the net. 1-0 to MS.

At the quarter mark, MS make 6 quick substitutions. This may have created some discontinuity. The opponent managed to put in some nice passes and a shot from the right has Seah beaten but the crossbar saved us. In another instance, Chye playing the stopper role, uncharacteristically gave the ball away to the opponent in the middle of the park. The speedy forward then proceeded on goal, beat our last man and was one-on-one against Seah. Seah who has not been tested much, rushed off his line, spread himself and stop a certain goal from the resulting shot. A very good save from Seah. Our second goal was equally well created. Our passing and speed caught the opponent again. This time, st faked a cross before releasing a pass to Mike wide on the left. Mike took off down the flank and send in another wonderful cross into the danger area. This time it was Gan who was first to the ball and had the simple job to tap into an open goal. 2-0 to MS at half time.

The second half started with the Stallions putting in some decent players, noticeably their No. 18 who has some nice touches and speed. He would go on to combine well with the speedy No. 10 to create some trouble. The Stallions controlled the first 10 minutes or so in the second half. However, against the run of play, MS scored another goal out of nowhere. MS won a throw in in the opponent half. The ball was thrown to Gan. Gan chested the ball and changed the direction, turned quickly and unleashed an unstoppable shot over the goalkeeper dipping into the far post. Gan was so satisfied with the goal that he celebrated with a pump fist and a shout. 3-0 to MS. MS was trying to keep a clean sheet but the Stallions managed to score. A shot came in and Seah punched it out for a corner. The match ball was punched out of the field. The only replacement ball, the opponent's ball that was way too soft, was used as the replacement. Off the corner, the opponent managed to head into goal unchallenged, with the first use of the replacement ball. MS was to score again with the last touch of the ball. Off one corner, the ball somehow floated to Chiang. Chiang unleashed another first time shot. Leng was in the way blocking the view of the goalkeeper but jumped up to let the ball pass under his legs. The ball sailed into the back of the net for our 4th and final goal. This was also the last kick of the game as the referee blew for the final whistle. Final score 4-1 to MS.

Now, our hypothesis has to be tested again. We had more than 15 players and we had KH, yet we won quite comfortably against a young team. I was thinking the whole night and maybe I have a new hypothesis......Usually, KH would come in very early to warm up. But for this game, he came late and did not conduct his usual bare chested rounds. So maybe this is the cure to the curse....only time will tell. Till then, the Oldies but Goodies won the day.