Match #24 (27 May 09): Marine Sunday Emerged Triumph After Early Scare

Marine Sunday recovered from the initial horrendous opening period to turn the table around and plunder in the goals to notch a satisfying win over Riverlife Church. The 4 – 0 scoreline would not have remotely suggested that we had to withstand a torrid opening 25 minutes before we settled down, found our composure and set the rhythm. If RLC’s makeshift forwards had been a tad sharper, we would have found ourselves staring a 3-goals deficit instead of still maintaining a clean sheet. The depth of our squad eventually cut the winning edge over them with our number of substitutes enabling us to keep things fresh on the field. No doubt of the quality of RLC’s players but the non-availability of spare limbs on the sideline caused their downfall as they simply ran out of steam in the 2nd half.

For a variety of reasons, and most of them unknown to us, we came up 2nd best in every department and to every ball in the opening 25 minutes. Passes went astray or failed to find our players, gaps surfaced everywhere, RLC must have felt gross injustice that for all their rampaging domination and scoring opportunities in that period, they failed to score against us. It wasn’t until the 11th minute when Teck Wah carved out our first attempt at goal – his lob was denied by the last minute outstretched arm of RLC’s keeper. Introducing The Rock to replace Weng Kwan, who in turn took over the left fullback position from Chwee Leng, Mark to take over from the rusty Kok Hock and Weng Khong for the out-of-sort See Chiang, somehow produced a calming effect. Once Teck Chye opened the account with another one of his repertoire of audacious goals, there was no looking back for us. Against such well organised side, it required an effort of the highest quality to break them down and it came from the classy technique of Teck Chye, who after switching to the left flank, came to life. From 25 metres out, he produced a high lob that beat RLC’s flamboyant keeper convincingly for our opening goal. 1 – 0. And Teck Wah almost followed suit when he twice spotted their keeper way out of position but each of his two long-range efforts to catch the keeper cold failed to find the net. 1st half finished with us holding a slim 1 – 0 lead.

2nd half was a completely different landscape. We gained the upperhand, which the size of our squad played a good part. On the other hand, fatigue set in among the few key players of RLC and that led to shoddy defending at their back. The same players who ripped us apart in the 1st half retreated to the backline and uncharacteristically committed suicidal mistakes leading to our 3 goals in the 2nd half. Their left back attempted one trick too many but only ended up losing the ball to Teck Wah, who brought the ball close to the byeline before spotting RLC’s 2nd half keeper out of position. From outside the box, Teck Wah directed his shot targeting the near post. RLC’s keeper was late to cover the exposed angle and our 2nd goal was in no way inferior to our 1st goal! Gan then hit a low shot, from an indirect freekick, that came off the foot of the left upright. Kian Hwa’s misery at goal continued as his follow-up effort was first denied by the deflection off the foot of a RLC’s defender and then their keeper punched the deflected ball away to safety. Kian Hwa then twice went into good position in the box but his tentativeness allowed RLC’s defender to nullify the danger.

Whilst we continued surging forward to find the net, our defenders and midfielders maintained discipline to repel RLC’s forays into our half. Brandon showed his commanding self, Chor Guan and Hock Leong were authoritative in leading the defence. RLC’s wingers found our fullbacks – Chung Weng, Weng Kwan and Chwee Leng – a different story in the 2nd half. Our fullbacks offered not a single inch of space for them to threaten our goal. Nonchalant defending by RLC conceded 2 more goals. See Chiang slipped in a pass to Gan, who was allowed to turn his marker without much effort and hit a rather weak shot at goal, which caught RLC’s custodian by surprise. 3 – 0. Teck Chye wrapped up the match after he punished RLC’s failure to clear the ball in the box. His left-foot effort trickled into the lower left-hand corner of the goal. 4 – 0.

Marine Sunday went on a strolling pace to consume the remaining 10 minutes of the match. In the post-match exchange, RLC’s team manager remarked that we were the 1st team to beat them in 3 months. But we forgot to thank their forwards’ failure to find the net in the opening 25 minutes, otherwise, we would not have been able to secure our 1st clean sheet in more than 3 months.

Man of The Match: Teck Chye (5 votes)
Well, he deserved the plaudits. His 1st goal oozed so much class that it made anyone drool for more!
“Motm to teck chye. Was a bit misplaced and under utilized during the first 30 mins in right mid. But once to the left, created mayhem for opponents and was dominant in midfield. Most importantly, scored two important goals that silenced them and killed off any fight back.”
“My MOTM goes to Teck Chye for scoring the crucial 1st goal, which helped to stabilise our team thereafter and also the way he shouted at me for not passing the ball to him. Yes, I was upset but credit still goes to him for all his effort. The introduction of KH was effective as his off the ball runnings and harrassings on the defenders helped to break up their play. This allowed us to gain back our possession significantly. Our back four were superb tonite despite the initial pressures and their reliability earned us a clean sheet against a very experienced team.”
“MOTM: MOTM goes to Teck Chye. His spendid first half strike broke the deadlock and probably their heart as they were dominating the game till then. In the second half, he was running around harassing their defenders and it lead to one of the goals. “
“MOTM is Teck Chye for an audacious first goal : a lop over their keeper and an opportunistic 2nd goal, cashing in on bumbling defenders”
“My MOM to teck chye for his two well taken goals. His first stabilise the team and set the tone for the second half.”

Chung Wen and Mark tied at 3 votes each but Chung Wen will go 2nd for this match tally:
“Motm - Chung Wen - for doing a good job marking the 1st half striker playing on the left who is quite tough to mark. Chung Wen did not give him much space to even take a single shot.”
“My vote for MOTM is Chung Wen - no one gets past him twice.”
“Most of the time, it’s quite difficult to nominate the fullback because they are not in the glamorous positions. Ours don’t overap like the English counterparts, nothing fanciful. But for this match, I need to select Chung Wen for my vote, simply sticking to his job cleanly and giving no room away. Hard luck for opponent’s forwards to find CW in such uncompromising self.”

Mark put in another assuring performance to attract 3 nominations:
“Motm to mark for sticking to his task of protecting the back 4. Steady organisation & kept position well.”
“MOM is Mark- Covered lots of ground today for the team”
“It is almost a tie between Mark & Weng Kuan.... but my choice of MOTM goes to Mark who anchored the midfield very well when he came on & stabilised the game, eliminating the chaos that happened in the first 10mins of the game. From then on, we are game on. Impressive performance! Worthy to mention was Weng Kuan for his effective, hard & wall-like type of defensive play when playing on the right back. Not only that, he was energetic enough to charge up the right flank to add on fire-power to our offensive in the second half. Cool play, man!”

The remaining 4 votes went to Chor Guan (2), Chwee Leng and Teck Wah:
“MOTM goes to Chor Guan. Marshall the defend well and shutting out all the dangerous ball into the box. Credit to the whole defend who done extremely well to earn a clean sheet.”
“MOM for 27th May: Chor Guan. He has controlled the defense extremely well and we can see a lot of effort being displayed by the defense line. Chor Guan’s hard work is the only reason for Marine Sunday’s second clean sheet of the year.”
“motm: I would think most would go for Teck Chye for his two goals plus good work in midfield again but the defenders have to get the vote for repelling the first half onslaught and keeping the clean sheet. Chwee Leng gets my motm for numerous inteRLCeptions and good covering at left back. Not the fittest compared to the rest of the backline but definitely gave his all in this game.”
“MOM 27 May-Teck Wah - what a thunderbolt goal”