Match #42 (11 Sep 08): Clash of the Water

report contributed by kh

With a name like Ocean 15, we could not be faulted for our initial apprehension. We thought we would be facing a bunch of footballers with some scheming tactics. Even their mastermind captain oozes the charm of George Clooney. But given their turnout, they should have just sticked to the original movie title, Ocean 11 or even, perhaps Only 11.
The match could have been billed as the clash of the water. C'mon, after all, it was Ocean v Marine. In the end, the results portrayed a journey down the water slide for O15, 7-1! That was after we were awakened by the splash of cold water by them for having conceded an early goal to them. It was not durian picking for Marine Sunday, more like oyster harvesting with such score line.

Before we could string 20 passes, we let their playmaker, No 5, have too much room to weave through us like a slippery eel. His low cross across the 6-yards box had Seah fully stretched to cover but our keeper only managed to divert the ball into the path of their awaiting striker. By then, the covering Weng Kwan was unfortunately caught flatfooted by the diversion and O15's striker put the ball past him for a shocking lead.

It was a rude awakening and Chor Guan chided at our impotency upfront and began to ski forward. Despite his archilles tendon injury, his swift movements equalized for us. Gan did not give up chasing after what looked like a lost cause. O15's last man seemingly had the ball covered but under pressure exerted by Gan, he could have cleared the ball away instead of waiting for his keeper to do so. The keeper's clearance was poor, and Chor Guan picked up the loose ball and shot past the stranded keeper. 1-1.

Even Chwee Leng had a resurgent of form, or shall we say, luck? We all know how hard it is to open up an oyster but in this case, the oyster literally opened itself in front of Chwee Leng for him to caress! An innocuous-looking hanging ball should be easy for the keeper to at least punch it away. Chwee Leng, sandwiched between the keeper and a defender, looked up trying to avoid the fist of the keeper but could not avoid the ball, resulting in the ball cannoning off his head into the open goal. Chwee Leng of course vehemently protested to this version of report and sought the Dubious Goal Committee for mediation. After viewing the replay, it was agreed to digitalize the action and showed that Chwee Leng outjumped the keeper and defender to head the ball into the net. 2–1. The dam began to creak.

Gan had 2 soft headers to account for but each posed no threat to O15 until Simon put things in perspective with one of his 101-ways to score a goal simply. Even then, his goal came with a fair measure of luck again. No, the oyster did not spread itself open but it was quite similar to fishing in the river and out of nowhere, a dumb fish just jumped out of the water onto the boat. Again, O15's custodian needs to master the art of punching the ball away. This time round, he did but he needs to punch the ball away out of danger, not across into the box and worse to an opponent player! This was what he did, punching the ball to Simon in the box. What did the keeper expect us to do? Returned the ball to him? Actually, Simon did. He passed the ball back to keeper but it was a tad too hard that the keeper could not reach it in time. 3–1! And the score stayed that way till half-time.

O15 resumed the 2nd half with the same slickness as they did in the early stages of 1st half. After shooting wide in an early foray into our box, they began to lose steam. Despite our possession, we could not extend our lead until the last 20 minutes of the match. Tiredness set in for O15 and floodgate opened. After seeing his earlier shot saved by the keeper, Teck Wah attempted the same wallop at goal. Again, O15 custodian was up to it and palmed the ball, only for Gan heading the rebound into the net. 4-1. With 1 player down due to injury, the numerical disadvantage further exacerbated the situation for O15. Gan pounced onto the tentative defending of their sweeper and managed to rob the ball away from him. With only the keeper at his disposal, Gan shot past the keeper with relative ease. 5-1. Gan then intercepted a ball that was bound for the safety hands of their keeper. Gan clawed the ball back to Yong Chua, less than 6-yards from goal, but the latter's left-footed shot skied the ball. But YC atoned for that embarrassing miss when he took it into his own hands to conjure up goal No 6 – produced, directed and acted by himself! He intercepted a poor goal-kick just outside the box, beat a defender and this time round, his left-footed attempt recorded a success! Third-time-lucky was the theme in our 7th goal. Whilst Teck Wah failed to convert with his earlier 2 attempts, his 3rd try paid off. Chwee Leng, yes, Chwee Leng indeed, accurately picked out Chor Guan with his throw-in and Guan's header landed at Teck Wah's feet, whose half volley finally got past the keeper.

We were hunting for more oysters but by now, even the crabs had gone into hiding in the seabed. The tides began to recede and it was wise that O15's vessels decided to dock at the port for overhaul.