Match #6 (28 Jan 2012): MS 5 - 3 UBS, Kept The Momentum Going!

I wouldn't dare to use the label "great team" on ourselves. But after last Saturday's gritty performance, I think we could indulge ourselves with this label for a fleeting moment. When all the regulars turn up and play in their usual positions, it's a good team but it's a business-as-usual team. The character of the team is tested when it is short of a few regular players, especially for key positions, and others have to give up their usual and preferred positions to fill these vacant positions. And the team go on to achieve result. Then this team is better than good, perhaps still far from great but certainly not mediocre. And we were precisely better than just business-as-usual last Saturday against UBS. Yes, we had the insider information (in me) to capitalise on their weakest link - their inexperienced goalkeeper - and richly benefited from it, but isn't football about tactics as well?

Among the positions, I always feel that the most difficult, and thankless, positions to play are the central defensive pair. We were short of our regular central defenders but Gan and Simon stepped up admirably to fill in these roles and galvanised a much-deserved 5-3 win over UBS. No doubt they had a nervous 1st half display but 2nd half performance was solid, ably supported by our rock-steady fullbacks in Ng, Leo and Chwee Leng.

UBS' blistering pace in the opening 15 minutes of the match really unsettled us - they closed down on us fast, passed the ball quickly, had pacy forwards. Not surprisingly, they opened the account on the 7th minute when our defence was carved wide open by their fabulous forward, aptly named Fab, to cut-back and wrong-footed Simon and Gan before planting a stiff grounder past the rooted Brandon. For all the upperhand they had on us, UBS failed to leverage on that and their momentum was somewhat affected by a series of substitutions so early in the match. We regained our footing and began to find inroads. Mike has the tendency to frustrate us as he failed to make any good use of the 2 through balls presented to him. But he also has the knack of producing the unexpected pleasant surprise to knock in goal for us when we think otherwise. A sweeping counter-attack had Teck Wah break free on the right and his low cross into the box, bouncing twice enroute, was miraculously converted by Mike, even with a defender breathing down his back! 1-1.

Sensing the vulnerability in their inexperienced keeper, we began to single him by placing crosses and dead balls close to him, and our subsequent 4 goals resulted in one way or another from his poor handling of high balls. He failed to deal with an in-swinging corner from the left and the ball sailed directly into goal, with Kian Hwa claiming credit to that. But UBS restored parity when a defensive blunder by Gan, an intended back-header meant for Brandon, gifted possession to their pacy winger who then relayed the ball to his forward to shoot past the out-of-position Brandon. 2-2 at the break.

With a stroke of luck, we had our 3rd goal. Teck Wah arched backward to his maximum to reach out to a cross. His resultant header lacked any power but somehow UBS' custodian failed to deal with the looping ball, and it dropped just below the bar. 3-2. UBS gallantly searched for their equalising goal and it came from a contentious call from the referee to judge that Leo handled the ball in the box. UBS' skilful import from India coolly converted the spot kick to put UBS back at 3-3.

We then won 2 free-kicks from almost identical positions just after the mid-line and we had Simon to launch his trademark long balls directly at the keeper. The keeper nervously tipped the 1st one over for a corner, which UBS failed to clear convincingly from the resultant corner and Weng Khong pounced on the confusion among the UBS defenders caused by the conflicting calls for handball (from us) and offside (from them) and walked the ball into the unguarded net. 4-3. Simon's 2nd free-kick again put their keeper under great stress. With added pressure from Teck Chye, the keeper failed to deal with the free-kick, it came off the upright and Teck Wah knocked in the rebound from a tight angle. 5-3!

Teck Chye wasted 2 golden opportunities to add to the scoresheet and then Teck Wah couldn't set up a perfect tap-in for Yong Chua in a glorious breakaway that had 3 MS players zooming in against UBS' solitary defender. UBS came close to scoring on several occasions too but Brandon strong right-foot blocked 3 certain goals and on other occasions, our defensive quartets held the line well and admirably snuffed out their attacks.

A gritty 5-3 win. A great one, perhaps.

Match #5 (22 Jan 2012): Sweet victory over Eusoffianos

We avenged our last disastrous encounter with Eusoffianos with a hard-fought 2-1 win. Eusoffianos must have wondered why Lady Luck didn't even cast a wink at them as their star player, Heng, who only came in the last quarter of the match, hit the goal frame 3 times as they went in search for the equalising goal. If that weren't agonising enough, their defender earlier presented us with our opening goal when he converted a cross from Kian Hwa into an own goal and that put us 1-0 up at half-time. Eusoffianos equalised early in the 2nd half. Their striker capitalised on a lapse in concentration in our defenders and sneaked in from the blind to put the ball past Brandon. Melvin and Yong Chua then rekindled their college partnership (on football pitch, that is) when Melvin floated the ball from a corner-kick and Yong Chua did his trademark header for our winning goal. We held on nervously to the slim lead and later heaved a sigh of relief at each of their effort hitting the goal frame. 2-1! Not a convincing win, a sweet one nonetheless.

Match #4 (14 Jan 2012): 2nd Leg - A Cracker 4-3 Win over SOFA!

The 2nd leg match proved to be an even more keenly contested affair, with heart-stopping moments right to the final whistle. We were under seige in the final 10 minutes but SOFA just missed that element of luck to at least secure a draw, which would have been no injustice to us as well. The final result was a great win for us, a testament to our great resolve.

SOFA fielded a stronger line-up than the 1st leg match, with the return of their regulars including their star midfielder after a lengthy lay-off through knee injury. Whereas, we were rather short in defence and once again, Gan gamely stepped in to fill the sweeper position and what a match he had. His authoritative marshalling of the line, including the timely interceptions, spot-on tackles, courageous defending, and especially his cool head in the final 10 minutes was one of the key factors, if not the factor, contributing to this win.

We had an early setback when the usually composed Rock allowed his recent lethargy to get the better of him and uncharacteristically messed up a routine clearance in the box and handled the ball instead. SOFA converted the spot-kick to put themselves 1 up. The Tang brothers reversed the scoreline with their respective first goal of the season and both found the net with a class of their own. Teck Wah found space on the left to receive a high pass from Kian Hwa and finished it off with a left-foot half-volley that gave SOFA's keeper no chance. Nobody could have hit the ball sweeter with such power and accuracy with the left foot than Teck Wah! He then set up the elder Tang, who waltzed his way into the box and sold the keeper a delightful dummy before planting the ball into the empty net. Such grace and class, who else but Teck Chye! 2-1 and we were in control. Simon then put us in a comfortable 3-1 lead with his specialty long-range free-kick that had the SOFA's keeper flapping. 3-1 at the break.

But SOFA reduced the deficit shortly after the break. A poor clearance gifted the possession to SOFA with the ball eventually finding their chief striker, Dinish, who enjoyed a huge dosage of luck when his miscued shot went into the lower right-hand corner of the goal. We restored the 2-goals cushion from a quick-thinking set play. Kian Hwa rolled a quick corner to Teck Wah, whose accurate cross found Mike rising unchallenged to head the ball in. 4-2. When it seemed comfortable, we somehow made life nervy for ourselves when SOFA's chief striker was again left unmarked to shoot past Brandon. 4-3 and we were living on the edge from then on. Mike could have settled the match for us but he wrestled the Miss of The Decade title from Teck Wah instead. KH brushed aside their burly right back to reach Brandon's long punt and then presented the silver on the platter for Mike to simple tap the ball in. He screwed the ball wide instead. The final 10 minutes were not for the faint-hearted as SOFA piled relentless pressure on us but we managed to hold out for this fantastic win. 4-3.

Match #3 (7 Jan 2012): 1st leg 1-1 draw with Sofa

Coincidentally, we played against SOFA, our opponent for 14 Jan, today and it ended on a cordial 1-1 draw. it was a fair result. We could have won the 1st half but they could have wrapped up the 2nd half. Just before the break, against the run of play, we let in a soft goal to allow them have a 1-0 lead at the break. But Lady Luck smiled on when Mike, clearly offside, equalised for us in 2nd half. So, fair and square, no complaints :)

Match #2 (31 Dec 2011): Against Kampung Semangat United, Our Spirit Was No Less

The trademark Marine Sunday spirit was demonstrated aplenty in our 2nd match of the season. 0-2 down, we fought on; 1-3 down, we pressed on; 2-4 down; we persevered; and we ended the match 4-4 against Kampung Semangat United. Simon, Gan and Yong Chua got onto the scoresheet again and Yong Chua forced an own goal from their defender. At times, we could have just simply played simple football and that could have won us the match. But to recover to draw parity, we have nothing to complain as well.

Match #1 (26 Dec 2011): Keenly-Contested Match, A Narrow Win. A Good Start, Nevertheless.

Against Kok Seng's Blues, who were so kind to accomodate us in our new kit that they turned up in red, we knew we were in for something. We thought we had an impressive turnout of 19 players, they had more than 20, including four 'foreign talents'. Despite their strong line-up in the 1H, we could have comfortably settled the match by half-time if we had converted those chances created. Instead, we had a narrow 2-1 lead. 1st goal resulted from a piece of individual brilliance on the right by Teck Chye, who twisted and turned (i should have simply used 'tormented') KS' Blues' last man before setting up Simon for our opening goal of the season. Nice defending work on the right from See Chiang, Woon and then Teck Wah led to Yong Chua to have his time to measure up a shot from outside the box that beat their keeper hands down. 2-0. We seemed to be cruising but one of their foreign talents produced a brilliant volley that had Gan, our stand-in keeper, surprisingly beaten. 2-1 at the break.

KS' Blues had the better of possession in 2H but in one of our few rare forays into the offensive third, Chor Guan produced a needle-eye through ball to set up Gan to toe poke the ball into the net. KS' Blues refused to be beaten and their playmaker, No 32 intercepted the pass between Yong Chua and Chor Guan and went on to shoot from distance. The ball took a wicked swerve and Brandon was left grasping for air. 3-2 but we held on somehat nervously to win the keenly contested tie.