Match #46 (9 Nov 08): Mother of All Comebacks!

an excellently written match report by KH - must read!

For whatever he had inflicted onto his people and the world order, which could not be condoned in the eyes of many, I must at least thank Saddam Hussein for coining the term Mother of All Wars. Since then "Mother of Whatever" has become to signify the ultimate, the pinnacle, the never-before, the greatest ever kind of thing. Lest I unknowingly caused grief to the those who suffered, I must reiterate that I am no fan of SH ("for I AM KH": ed).

Really, if anyone had witnessed any team fighting back from 5-1 down with less than 15 minutes left to snatch a draw, he would thank himself for having a strong heart and no asthma. Arsenal-Tottenham Hotspurs 4-4 thrilling draw and Marine Sunday's twice-from-2-goals-down unbelievable 3-3 draw last week against XSRCNFLTR paled in comparison to this match against Gombak Rangers, although many felt that last week's comeback was more satisfying than this latest comeback.

Without any disrespect to Gombak Rangers, we should not have put ourselves in such precarious position in the first place - an immobile frontline, an overrun midfield, a porous defence, and of course the usual few static players, all presented GR with a flattering 5-1 lead with less than 15 minutes to go. Even Rafa Benitez, with his now famous half-time dressing room pep talk in the 2005 Champions League Final against AC Milan, would have struggled to summon any positive words to urge us on. But huge credits to Hock Leong and Leo, they did. And I analysed post-match where they gathered that last ounce of mental strength and strong belief. I found out the possible reason. One is in insurance line, one is in MLM business and people in these 2 fields are huge (also read, blind) fans of Anthony Robbins - they believe they could walk on fire!

In about 10 crazy minutes, we left Gombak Rangers shell shocked as they left the pitch wondering what hit them. Call it football tsunami, we hit real hard, and the outcome was devastating, to state the least. Nobody should be denied of the immense satisfaction of snatching a result against all odds. Similarly, we should pull up our socks, tighten up and shape up ourselves. How we let them overrun us with such ease, to the extent that it was embarassing, needs to be addressed with immediate priority. GR was far inferior compared to XSRCNFLTR, but Marine Sunday on 9 Nov was 10 times worse than Marine Sunday on 1 Nov!

For the record, Chor Guan levelled the game at 1-1 after we conceded a sloppy opening goal. CG raced through to pick up Teck Chye's high through ball and lobbed over the keeper for the equaliser. Thereafter, more sloppiness ensued and fast forward, we were 5-1 down and all looked hopeless.

Hock Leong and Leo stepped up and uttered what could possibly become even more famous than Rafa Benitez's words. Leo's simple "C'mon, Marine Sunday, we can do it!", Hock Leong's war cry "Guys, just get 1 more goal!" did the tricks. After GR's keeper pulled a splendid top-drawer tip-over save to deny Teck Chye's point-blank header, his heroic counted for nothing as the resultant corner produced our goal No 2. Teck Chye couldn't connect with the corner but his brother did, with his trademark half volley.

So, 1 more goal, we did. But we are lousy mathematicians, I suppose. Either that, we are plain greedy. 1 became 4. We didn't know when to stop. And we reckoned losing 2-5 or 2-7 would have made no difference. We boldly played 3 at the back - Weng Kwan, Hock Leong and Ng, and pushed Chor Guan up to add more bite in attacks. And in the process, we wrote a new chapter of history for Marine Sunday.

Another corner from KH, another goal. GR's clearance looked destined for an own goal until their defender intervened on the line to head the ball out. As we were crying for a goal, as the ball had seemingly crossed the line, Chor Guan followed up with a thumping header to put away any doubt. 3-5!

Gan, we suspect he was a Military Policeman in his NS days as he could really stood still without moving much in the match, decided to desert his stiffness and produced a delicate chip from the left flank that exposed GR keeper's deficiency in dealing with high balls. Suddenly, a shocking result looked not too far away with 4-5!

Teck Chye was then put through, he rounded 2 defenders but his final shot was too straight at the keeper. KH then missed the Mother of All Sitters as his header in front of the gaping goal was, well, Mother of All Misses! This was after Leo put in some fine work on the left to whip in a measured left-footed cross.

Fittingly, for all his encouragement and earlier fine work on the flank, Leo deservedly gained the limelight as he beat the offside trap to receive Teck Chye's through ball. Seeing the keeping rushing out to narrow the angle, Leo lobbed the keeper and the ball took a bounce, then hit the underside of the horizontal before crossing over the line. Amazing 5-5 now.

And there was still enough time for more drama as GR mustered enough strenghth and sanity to launch one final attack. Brandon blocked the initial shot in the box but the follow-up to the loose ball was just 2 inches wide off the left upright. If that had gone in, it surely would have been such a dampener! But we left the fun at that, 5-5 draw!

For the record, this was not the first time we recovered from a huge deficit. Those among us who have played with Marine Sunday long enough, the last time we fought back from a forlorn lost cause to snatch a, coincidentally, 5-5 draw was on 2 May 2005 at St Wilfred. I suppose we are Veterans of All Comebacks!