Monday, September 26, 2011

Match #38 (25 Sep 11): Held 2-2 again!

We can recycle following reasons as valid excuses as we age - young opponents, hot weather, we are mid-40s...But today we did not let our young opponent, Lime Green, overrun us. In fact, we had enough chances to bury them if we were a wee bit sharper and faster upfront. Lime Green took the lead and then fought hard to equalise. In between their goals, Simon and Mike reversed the deficit from the early goal conceded and put us at 2-1 up at the break. We knew we would be vulnerable in the 2nd half and true enough, we let them have too much space in front of our box and they found the equaliser from a well-taken goal outside the box.

We succumbed to the weather, no doubt, and the last minute pullouts of Weng Khong, Melvin and Yong Chua did not help the matter. Among the positive takeaways were See Chiang, making his comeback, having his runout for 2nd week in a row after a prolonged period of absence and even setting up Lime Green's first goal :), and Chwee Leng filling in admirably as a stopper for a good 45 minutes.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Match #37 (17 Sep 11): We Kicked Ourselves For Not Winning This Match!

Opponent AI1C (All Indians 1 Chinese) appeared to be a menacing bunch before the match when they challenged the referee for more time to get ready and we were bracing ourselves for some rough treatment, especially given our shortage in numbers and absence of a few regular players. But we put up an admirable performance and created a host of chances that we found it embarassing for not converting those into goals. They must have found us a bunch of AC1I (All Chinese 1 Indian, whom they didn't know is actually a Sikh) and mid-40s too hot to handle. Yet we found ourselves having to come back to equalise twice, courtesy of Gan's brace of goals. We let them off the hook, we knew it...and they sure knew it as well. 2-2 draw was the final score.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Match #36 (10 Sep 11): We Kept The Momentum Going

We notched up another convincing win over CJC Old Boys with a 4-0 margin. Goals from Weng Khong, Kian Hwa (direct from a corner-kick) and Teck Wah set the tone at the break. KH then got his brace and our 4th goal in the 2nd half from a well-worked passing move involving Yong Chua and Simon. Brandon's determination to keep a clean sheet was evident when going full-stretched to make 2 big saves as the match was coming to an end. Before that, our well-marshalled defence kept CJC Old Boys largely at bay.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Match #35 (4 Sep 11): Sweet Victory Over Venom

No doubt, Venom were without a few, all active Commandos, of their first team regulars for the match, but we shouldn't be denied of the credit for the convincing 4-1 win over them. And it could have been more!

The Tang brothers put us 2-0 up at the break, both capitalising on Venom's tentative defending. Our 2 goals in 2nd half came from simple work from both flanks. Weng Khong, on the right mid, won the ball deep in our half and sent the ball down the right highway to Teck Wah, who then wriggled across the pitch and set up Simon on a through-ball. Simon obliged by putting the ball past Venom's hapless keeper. Ng, in his favoured left fullback role, then intercepted Venom's play and sent KH clear on the left, whose only touch was to square the ball across into the box for Gan. Gan couldn't miss. In between our 2nd half goals, Venom had their consolation goal through a well-worked free-kick that caught us napping.

Our goals aside, it was encouraging to see Chor Guan, Kok Hock and Ng back into action after being out of sight, due to various reasons, for a while.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Match #33 (28 Aug 11): A Loss But Nothing To Be Ashamed Of!

Against Pseudo Katong FC (according to intelligence, their young players play for Katong FC in NFL and we recognised a couple of their senior players used to play in NFL as well), the 1-2 loss against them was nothing to be ashamed of. If we had converted any one of the three one-on-one chances in the 1st half, the outcome might have been different. The match was effectively settled at 1st half. We conceded a wildly spun goal and a fast breakaway goal. In between, KH scored through a well-worked move that started from the middle of the park to the right flank to a cross into the middle of the box.