KH simply has to stop conducting the pre-match and half-time team talk. No, it’s not because of his outburst. Neither is it due to lack of motivational content, though intent is not questionable. It’s whatever he cautions, it happens! On 3 Sep at Safra Tampines, he urged the team to maintain focus and keep it tight at the back in the first 15 minutes of 2nd half, as this period has been our weakest part of the match. Then what happened? Within 3 minutes from restart, we conceded a goal due to sloppy defending. As for this match at Kovan, he warned the team to adapt to the natural pitch fast and beware of the bounce of the ball. His worst fear was confirmed in an even shorter time. Team BBG must have heard our fear and within 2 minutes, whilst we were still trying to come to term with the pitch and ball control, they swiftly moved down the right flank and scored from a cross, albeit with a helping hand from Brandon.
If KH should stop talking, The Rock should take over. Just before the kick-off, he lamented that some MoTM nominations were too cursory and apparently lacked sincerity. And what is the outcome of his grouses? Well, you will find out later.
Back to the match, Kovan pitch is the home ground of Team BBG. They are familiar with every blade of the grass and this familiarity did make a big difference. Having not played on natural pitch for a long while, we were clearly struggling in the opening 15 minutes of the match, with the first 2 minutes simply comical during which half the team was experiencing difficulty in controlling the ball, the other half had not even touched the ball and we let in the goal. Ng produced one of his, now trademark, wayward passes that gifted the ball back to Team BBG. They swiftly moved down the right flank and put in a cross that Brandon’s one-hand attempt to tip the ball away was too weak. The ball dropped into the net instead, much to the surprise of Team BBG as well.
Team BBG possessed 2 skilful midfielders who were the heartbeats of the team. Their No 17 is exceptionally gifted – tall and powerfully built, adept with both feet, packs a punch in his shot, reads the game intelligently and distributes the ball well. What irked us was that, given his build and talent, he fell to the ground too easily and at every opportunity, not unlike pussy willow.
Whilst we were not fluent in our movement and passing, we did carve out enough opportunities to reverse the early setback but our forwards were again a letdown. KH, after chastising Gan for his low conversion rate, fluffed 2 chances. The 1st one came from a good combination between Gan and Weng Khong at the byeline, then Weng Khong quickly laid the ball onto the path of KH but the latter’s right-foot shot went wide. KH then timed his run into the box to receive a pass from Simon and again, his shooting lacked purpose, this time too weak to trouble the keeper. Gan, revitalised and out to prove a point, was back to his lively self and created our best chance of the match. A pin-point cross from him on the right found See Chiang at the far post. See Chiang, totally unmarked, continued with his barren durian harvesting season as he headed the point-blank ball over the bar instead.
Team BBG exuded confidence in their play and they almost benefitted from a moment of hesitant clearance by Weng Kwan, who first allowed a high ball to bounce instead of killing it first time and then headed the ball back weakly to Brandon. Team BBG’s striker, being much faster, pounced onto the weak back pass and shot first-time. To his teammates’ dismay, the ball went wide and we were let off the hook. Though Weng Kwan appeared tentative at times, his spirit was in abundance as he gamely soldiered on in the thankless sweeper position throughout the match. Chung Wen and Leo, at times stretched by the pacy wingers, did well to contain the supply from the flanks. The Rock, as usual, provided the effective shield, just like the MediShield plans he is marketing.
Our equalising goal came from 2 unlikely sources. KH, who had not taken a freekick for ages, stepped up to attempt a direct freekick with his preferred left foot. The ball swerved but lacked punch. The 2nd unlikely source came from Team BBG’s keeper who clearly had the ball covered but his gloves were apparently laced with butter as he allowed the ball to slip off his fingers. We exchanged gifts and picked our durian, 1 – 1.
Team BBG restarted the 2nd half the same way they ended the 1st, dominating the match. The Rock had to throw his entire weight to stop No 17 in the box, who continued to call for referee’s attention at the slightest contact by our players. There were testy moments as we let our frustration got the better of us. A handful of half-chances beckoned but none posed a threat to Team BBG. To our surprise, given their fluency and mobility, Team BBG did not resort to short 1-2 passes, as expected, to breach our defence. Instead, they chose to pound at our goal with long shots. Brandon played a more assured game in this half as he dealt with the shots without much of a problem.
We almost snatched an unlikely win when the referee, after spotting the keeper handling the ball outside the box, awarded a freekick to us. KH stepped up, zeroed his left foot, chipped the ball over the wall and what looked like a certain goal didn’t materialise. The ball didn’t dip in time and agonisingly, it was just millimetres over the bar.
The whistle went and both sides settled for a goodwill 1 – 1, but certainly not drab, draw.
Man of The Match: The Rock (7 out of 15 votes)
His grouses were heard and the team responded with a flurry of nominations for him :) So, do we agree to have him conduct the team talk for us?
1. “MOTM - MOTM to HL the Rock. He sweep the floor so well that he can always control a broom after he hangs up his boots in another decade or so. Hardly let any high ball pass him, always challenging for the ball. Very consistent play throughout.”
2. “motm - Hock Leong. as usual solid as rock.”
3. “motm: hock leong. marshalled the defense well and won lots of headers. kept the scores level in a game we should have lost.”
4. “Motm 6 Sep: My vote for Hock Leong. He knows he can't outrun so he makes up with positioning and reading of the game. How many headers did he send back into midfield? Good stuff.”
5. “hock leong. very simple and effective way of play. high ball, he can jump higher than other players, grounded ball, his 2 powerful legs do the talking....”
6. “My MOTM is Hock Leong, for a solid performance in the stopper's role , He was mopping up everything that came aerially as well as covering the opposition strikers well to render them ineffective”
7. “MoTM = The Rock. Simply rock!” [The Rock, do you want to know who submitted this nomination?]
The equalising goal attracted 3 nominations to put him in 2nd position:
1. “MOTM - Hard one. We seem to have lost our confidence in stroking the ball around. We very contented to pump it up and chiong. Having said that I thought you tried hard to get the team to keep the shape and to also make room for passes. Unfortunately the passes were just going astray. So vote goes to you for tenacity and leadership on a day when we appeared to have forgotten our soccer boots (well, I forgot my shorts and socks too).”
2. “Motm to Kian Hwa, scored the solitary goal that helped us drew the game. The second free kick went agonizing close, thought we had the game. His running, tough tackles and harassment was a thorn to our opponents defence, gave them a torrid time.”
3. “MOTM goes to KH for his conversion of a freekick that got MS an important equalizer.”
Simon and Gan tied at 2 votes each but Simon’s work rate from box to box breaks the deadlock:
1. “Motm: Simon has done well enough to contain the opponents and also play well in distribute well to the strikers.”
2. “MOTM. = Simon. The engine of midfield. ...although the game end in a low scoring 1-1 draw, he outshine most of us with his tireless running, timely interception and quality passes that lead to many attacking opportunities..”
The remaining votes went to Gan and Chung Wen:
1. “Motm to Gan for vastly improving after the initial moments. Won the battles to the ball & help involve midfielders in the game.”
2. “MOTM for 6 Sept - Gan gets the vote, created some chaos for opponents backline. Made a great cross in first half but SC did not make clean contact.”
3. “MOM: Wen - despite being twice the winger's age, he kept in step with him and closed him down thru out his play time.”
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