March #52 (21 Nov 09): Rocking back to 4231 winning ways

match report by st

It's a ragged end to the season. Seems so hard to cobble up a team the last few matches. Today's no different. Called more than a dozen guests and finally 4 agreed to come. 2 turned up and thankfully, what gems they are! Alex plays for NUSS whilst Eddy, the oldest today, plays for our young rivals Galacticos. With their efforts, we prevailed against a strong team , Gavan, only just.

With the Rock back, we reverted to our recent trademark 4231. Both teams tried to probe for weaknesses with Gavan using their dribblers to attack the flanks. Our full backs, especiallly Eddy on the left dealt with the threats well. The emergency pairing of Ng & Rock at the centre of defence repelled anything thrown at them. Alex & Khong in defensive mid roles held the shape of the team. The Attacking 3 with Chye as lone attacker chased down any mistakes Gavan defenders made. Gan as stand-in keeper didn't have much to do at the initial stages.

Noting Gavan's hesistancy with high balls, Simon took a ball at the centre line & swung a long cross-field ball to pick out Chye's unmistakable shout. The tantalising ball had the Gavan keeper dashing out to execute an air kick, leaving Chye to run on and slot the ball into an empty goal. We settled down comfortably and soon our greater cutting edge in attack paid dividends. Gavan was finding it hard to contain Gan, who had been promoted upfront after Brandon came in, & paid dearly for bringing him down. From the freekick, older tang make way for younger bro to send in an unstoppable screamer to the top corner, a Wah's special! Straight off the restart, Gavan launched a quick attack and a long ball into the top of the box caused confusion as 2 of our guys went for it. The ball fell nicely for their danger man No.7 who shifted the ball to his right before unleashing a cracker that gave Brandon no chance. Game on and soon it was half time, MS leading precariously 2-1.

Within minutes of the second half, Gavan was levelled. From a counter attack, their newly introduced right mid punted a long high cross into the box. Our defence was caught ball-watching and No.7 nipped into the six yard box, & with plenty of time, expertly guided the ball into the corner with his head. 2-2 and the match was poised on knife edge, anyone could win it. Gavan had introduced a left mid Malay youngster, equipped with the usual plenty of trickery and dribbling ability to complement their upfront threats, particularly No.7 & 8. We snuffed them out as best we could as they began to dominate. Our breakthrough came with a well-worked goal. Gan and Wah combined to pick out the onrushing Mike, whose first touch was good and the looping finish impeccable. Then as Gavan made a hash of clearing a corner, Eddie capped a fine performance with an exquisite goal which he curled over the stranded keeper and a sea of defenders.

Gavan tried forcefully to come back but found their final approach play a tad short. We held on comfortably for a 4-2 win.

MOTM: eddy wins it with a superb all round display from the left! Tie-break for second place goes to mike for his goal & celebration that broke the camel's back, over another typically stylish performance by chye (despite the fast-gaining weight). Wah and Alex received compliments too for their contributions!

Eddy (4 votes):

MOTM @ Regent: Alex and Eddy were like fuel to the MS fire which has been as low as our injury ridden attendance this month. We all appreciate the efforts of all guests but Alex and Eddy were very influential to the gameplay. They set the game tempo and work rate of the team. Post injury Weng Khong saw in Alex what he used to be - that livewire in the midfield and dared himself step up his game to make crunching 50-50 challenges. Eddy? He is a super fit Chwee Leng if you allow me to put it that way - did not let anybody past him and adding composure in attack to the left flank. I had to flip a coin for Alex or Eddy. Eddy has my vote.

One of the finest display at full back I've seen the whole year and that's saying a lot as we hv very good full backs. Eddie played with fearless conviction & is always well-positioned within reaching distance of the midfielders to support play & pick up loose balls. No one got past him today & no one got near his exquisite curler goal.

MOTM- Eddy- quick to harass and tackle.reminds me of Ashley cole during Arsenal days.

MOTM goes to Eddy for his superb performance.

Mike (2 votes):

MOTM - He did not do much for the day but his main contribution killed off the opponent. His run down the left was timed so perfectly. The cross from the right dropped just in front of him. His first touch was superb on the run, his second was even better with an exquisite lob over the goalkeeper and dipped just under the crossbar into goal for a 3-2 lead. This probably deflated the opponent as they were controlling the second half up till then. His celebration was equally good. Mike is the guy for this game. Well done.

MOTM. vote to mike, defence so so, but he alway score goal when we need it...

Chye (2 votes):

MOTM was Teck Chye. Fantastic in attack in the first half and was good in defence in the second half.

motm:teck chye for good play in midifield and attack, plus one cool taken goal.

Wah:

MOTM goes to Teck Wah. Score a great free kick and support the midfield and attack well. Tearing down the opposition right flank at numerous occasions and produced many good crosses.

Alex:

Motm - I would like to vote for Alex, harrass the opponent well in midfield giving them a tough time. Fought for almost every ball. Maybe we should consider recruiting for MS since we got so many players going into semi-retirement.

Match #51 (08 Nov 09): No Rock, No Shape, Lost Again!

If Benitez is still complaining of his lengthening list of injured players, he should speak to me. Marine Sunday is simple injury-ravaged. In my years of being with the team, I had never been so hard pressed. Eventually, we could only come up with 8 players and out of 12 guest players invited, 4 agreed to lend their limbs to support our cause, though Austin brought his fellow country man without prior informing me, and that made 5 guest players. Except for Austin who played for us once last week, the rest were new to Marine Sunday and that was one of the reasons for the shambolic display in the 1^st half, not because of the quality of the guest players but we were adapting to each other. With a Spaniard in goal and a Nigerian leading the line upfront, we embraced diversity, didn’t we? The other reason being the sheer number of guest players prompted us to forsake the 4-2-3-1 line-up in favour of the conventional 4-4-2. On hindsight, we should not have as our midfield was simply overrun in the 1^st half. The absence of our regular defenders, especially our fullbacks, further worsened the situation and we capitulated to their flank assaults, similarly to last week’s encounter. The stand-in right fullbacks, Mike and Brandon, would rather forget the 1^st half outing, for sure. 

Last week, we were outplayed by Quality Veterans, this week we were soundly beaten by Quality Young Boys. And they are really boys, most of them just completed their A-level last year and are currently in national service. How about that, not even half of our age! They looked geeky and nerdy when they stepped onto the pitch and we thought we could offer them some experience or two. But we were kicked in our butts by them. They played simple passing football, always looking up for players to pass and putting the ball into space. They were confident but without being cocky. Our 1^st half was horrendous, the worst 45 minutes we have ever witnessed. They snatched a 3 – 0 lead by the 15^th minute and ended the half with a commanding 5 – 2 lead. We recovered to play much better in the 2^nd half and actually won this half, though it was not enough to reverse the deficit.

We played quite decent football in the opening 5 minutes but a Route One football opened the floodgate for QYB. A long punting ball from their keeper was back-headed by their striker, left totally unmarked in the final third, for his fellow strike partner who waltzed past our 2 flat-footed central defenders, Chor Guan and Jerome, playing together for the 1^st time, and lobbed the ball over our guest goalkeeper, Saul, whose split second of hesitation in coming off his line proved costly. 2 moments of ball-watching cost us further 2 goals. Sensing the lack of understanding in our defenders and the lack of swiftness in our feet, QYB played intelligent football by causing us confusion with their constant passing of the ball in between our defenders into space in the penalty box. 2 such attempts caught our defence line square and their forwards beat the offside line to tuck the ball past our keeper. Before the match could pass the quarter of an hour mark, we found ourselves 3 goals down. Each time, our left fullback, Chwee Leng, let out his outbursts at our other defending colleagues for not tracking their players in the box. And that prompted him to switch himself to the right back position to plug the gap. We reduced the deficit through an uncommon goal from the most unlikely source. Teck Chye rolled a short corner to Austin who then curled in a rather soft cross towards goal. Kian Hwa, standing in front of the keeper, missed connecting with the ball but surprisingly, he was the first to react to the rebound, off a clearance on the line, by out-jumping their defender and heading the ball past their stranded keeper. 3 – 1. We saw some light at the end of the tunnel but it was quickly diminished when Jerome, caught flat-footed by their striker’s sudden turn in the box, had to resort to manhandling this striker, stopping him in his track. The referee pointed to the spot and the subsequent conversion widened their lead to 4 – 1! The only piece of decent football in the half involved Kian Hwa and Chip, another of our guest players, on the left but Kian Hwa’s subsequent well-placed cross into the box was not given due justice as our Nigerian import was still strolling in from afar. But we capitalised on their weak spot, i.e. their keeper was a tad suspicious in dealing with crosses, again. Teck Chye floated in another corner for Chor Guan to head the ball emphatically past QYB’s keeper, who again looked like a forlorn pedestrian. 4 – 2! Any faint hope of further narrowing the deficit was once again dashed by the fluent football of QYB. Another diagonal pass into our penalty box once again caught our defenders flat and their striker had another easy time tucking the ball past our custodian. 5 – 2! Austin almost reduced the deficit again when he juggled the ball superbly past 2 defenders but facing the onrushing keeper, his final attempt was not strong enough and QYB’s defender rushed back in time to prevent the ball from trickling over the line. It looked like a high-scoring match at half-time.

Refused to be cowed, we stepped up game with a much better 2^nd half performance. A few players deserved commendation. Simon stepped in to partner Jerome in central defence, allowing the over-worked Chor Guan to take a breather. Chwee Leng insisted on plugging the gap in our right defence position and Chip gamely filled in the left back position, playing in that position for the 1^st time but he was not short of quality in it. Weng Khong, always 2^nd best in receiving passes in the 1^st half, switched to central midfield and imposed himself with a robust and physical display, often disrupting their advances with his gallant challenges. Chor Guan later came into the game to take over from our Nigerian import, who flattered to deceive, and he injected a new-found sense of urgency in our attacks. We imposed far much better in this half and those young boys were often put off by our challenges on the ball, forcing them to shoot from outside the box. Our game plan was to score an early goal and take it from there, and we did. Their defender handled the ball outside the box and Teck Chye spotted the keeper was out of position and picked his spot to bury the ball in the net from the resultant free-kick. 5 – 3 and game on! Chor Guan replaced Austin, who drifted out of the game, and almost immediately announced his presence with a bang. From defending a corner, his galloping run propelled him to receive a through pass from Kian Hwa on a breakaway, but his shot went wide. Kian Hwa then put in another decent cross from the left but KC, another Nigerian, scooped the ball over the bar from less than 6 yards out. He was presented with another opportunity in the box by Teck Chye but in trying to be flamboyant, he took one touch too many in the box instead of hitting the ball at goal. His additional touch allowed QYB’s defenders to close him down. Another well-worked move from the left to the middle set Weng Khong up to shoot from far but QYB’s keeper managed to get his hand to the ball to prevent it from going into the top right-hand corner of the goal.  Brandon, standing in between the posts in this half, was hardly threatened but in the dying moments before the final whistle, he was alert to dive to his left to deny QYB their 6^th goal.

If there was any consolation, well, we won the 2^nd half though the final score 5 – 3 spoke for itself.

Man of The Team: Chwee Leng (5 out of 8 votes)

His desire to get back at the match stood out. His fitness has improved a lot, nowadays he has enough energy to expend, F players and shout instructions on the pitch J. And he finished the match without being substituted. Black Dragon was our Man:

1. MOTM Chwee Leng - Played with great energy despite the heat and the non-stop running opponents.
2. motm - Chwee Leng easily stand out from the rest, in a game that most did not played well.  He was always shouting instruction to players, doing well in the right back position.   I almost think he needs an oxygen tank at the end of the game.
3.  IT was not easy to play with almost some many first-time guests today. we were disjointed and so it's hard to pick an outstanding player. no doubt most had to over-extend today, but motm goes to leng for making the right side safe in the second half, after astutely identifying the problem that plaque us in the first. 
4. I think Chwee Leng and Chor Guan badly wanted to make a difference in the game. I think they held up the Marine Sunday invitational team. My tip for Chwee Leng.
5. Chwee Leng for stepping up to be counted. A very accomplished display in the 2^nd half as right fullback.

Teck Chye, not surprisingly, was the only one who could take these young lads on. But, not surprisingly again, fitness hampered him:

“Motm was T Chye. He played well when most of us were off form that day.”

“Motm is teck chye- did a lot of work in the center.”

One solo vote placed him 3^rd:

“MOTM to kian hwa for his endless running, unselfish play, made several crosses.”

Match #50 (01 Nov 09): No Rock, No Shape, Finally Beaten!

After two months of wins and draws, we finally tasted defeat but against such quality opponent, we had no quarrel with the loss, what with a respectable score line of 2 – 3. But we knew that with our full squad, we could offer them a stiffer opposition. Opponent, hereafter referred to as Quality Veterans, have a few players who used to represent Singapore Chinese and everyone has the basic technique to pass the ball around on the big pitch confidently, hold the ball and get into space. ITE Balestier being their weekly haunt, they are comfortable with the big-sized pitch, switching play from flank to flank effortlessly.

We seized an early lead through Simon’s well-placed shot, after a fine pass from Chwee Leng. That was nothing but a false dawn as Quality Veterans turned on their style. Our side midfielders just could not deal with their flank play and they rained cross after cross into our penalty box and eventually they got their well-deserved equaliser. One of their smaller players got behind Melvin to head past Brandon. 1 – 1 and it stayed that way at the break.

They snatched the lead through another cross-and-header. Brandon’s slackness was punished when he went for a cross without much conviction, allowing QV’s striker to outjump him and head the ball into the net. 1 – 2. Our last-minute signing, a burly Nigerian, restored parity for us when he slot the ball under QV’s keeper’s body. 2 – 2. Just when we thought we could hold on to a respectable draw, QV won the match through another cross-and-header. This time round, their striker was again left unmarked in the box and he headed the ball powerfully into goal, giving Brandon no chance. 2 – 3 but a hard fought match, no doubt.

Man of The Match: Simon (7 out of 10 votes)

Only 2 players were nominated and they deservedly so. Simon came in with a convincing win:

1. “Simon. Worked his lungs out today. His position was tough in this big field but he made sure he was always 1 tip of the triangle pass we were trying to form the whole match. Classy touch for that 1st goal.”

2. “simon. support the defend well, give one good pass to yan song in last minute of the game, but save by their defender.”

3. “MOTM - Among us stand one who contributed the most, even though we lost our first game in the new formation. My vote goes to Simon, for his cool finish for the first goal and his overall play.”

4. “My pick - Simon. Played a key role in linking forward with midfield and made several clever passes and knock-ons. Our forward had to quickly learn our style of play and adapted largely because of Simon. Scored a clever goal and was instrumental in the second. Ran non-stop.”

5. “MOtm - Simon. score a good 1st goal and works his work rate is superb throughout the match.”

6. “Motm is simon. nice link up play and passes in the middle"

7. “Simon for a well-taken goal and working his socks off!”

Chor Guan was the other providing a solid display of grit and work rate:

1. “MOTM - Chor Guan - another energetic display at the backline on a heavy pitch”

2. “MOM is Chor Guan - He covered the defence well and was key to us holding the opposition back in the 2nd half. He cut off a lot of the opponent's off the ball running to receive the ball He also pushed himself to help the attack whenever he had the opportunity.”

3. “Motm to guan a battling performance in the heart of defence. wasn't easy as opponents played with composure around the danger areas but guan didn't let up.”