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Somehow, whenever we play against a church team, we fare badly. Perhaps, we are being too harsh with ourselves by treating ourselves as sinners, thereby deferring to those holy souls. And we tend to fare credibly against young team but not so against a veteran team. So, Trinity, a church team comprising players of our age or slightly older, have those double factors over us, a kind of unexplainable aura over us that we were playing like lost sheep without the guiding shepherd and within the first 15 minutes, we conceded 2 soft goals.
That required a call for drastic action to address the non-existent play and a couple of substitutions were made at the 15th minute mark, which doesn't happen by KH's practice. But he just had to do it to plug the hole-y display by our players. We started to create chances. Woon and Teck Wah came closest but luck seemed to have deserted them on those occasions. 0-2 down at the break and the half-time pep talk focused on seizing the initiative in the 2nd half rather than brooding over the spilled milk in the 1st half.
We found that divine spirit in us when play resumed. Teck Wah beat the offside line to set up Weng Khong for a tap-in to reduce the deficit. From then on, we piled relentless pressure on Trinity's goal. Melvin found See Chiang on the right with a long ball and See Chiang's first-timer appeared to be a cross but it fooled everyone, including Trinity's holy angel in goal, as it sailed into goal. Parity restored with 15 minutes left and we opted to go for broke by opting to play 3 at the back with Simon anchoring the midfield and push both Weng Khong and Kama to support attacks. But it was Kok Hock who produced that moment of magic, to the dismay of Trinity. A delightful cut-back with his left foot to switch the ball to his right, he then let fly a curler to leave Trinity's custodian flat-footed. We reversed the deficit into a slender lead and held on to win this cracker! 3-2!
This weekend' match has sufficient twist and turns starting from the moment KH announced the line-up. Here's the drama as it happened!
16/1, 2259h: Line-up for 20 Jan - Yes = 13 = ng, leo, simon, chwee leng, teck wah (2H), mike, melvin, chor guan, gan, brandon, kama, rock, woon.
16/1, 2345h: Marathoner came to the rescue, added 2H to the strength. Now 12 plus 2 second halfers.
Matchday - 20 Jan 2013: A lovely cloudy cloudy day since yesterday ....
0601h: Manager dropped a bombshell - he wouldn't be coming, guys on their own. No Benitez today .... argh sorry, got mixed up, B is now miserable at C, I mean no Rodgers today.
0805h: On-fire Mike SMSed - pulled out due to illness. (Still owes the team half a carton of beer, or one dozen, or two six packs to be clear). Strength down to 11 plus 2 second halfers.
0824h: Leng texted that youngster Leng Jr might be coming. Strength update - 11.5 plus 2 second halfers.
1404h: Rock thought it was going to be a shagged game, assuming we were having 12 plus 2. He would be proven right in 7 minutes.
1411h: Leng confirmed Jr was coming! Heng ah!
1417h: Wah texted that lunch only started at 1400h, hoped to make second half as planned.
1435h: Khong helpfully commanded the Tangs to 'eat faster!'.
1440h: Oeste FC showed up, they had more than our complement at that time. All-Malay team, young and raring to go - eye of the tiger stuff. Plus a manager wearing red Liverpool jersey, prowling on the touch lines looking super intelligent. Jeez, didn't Liverpool just hammered Norwich 5-0 last night? Where's our Rodgers? Bad omen...
1458h: Stand-in captain for the day named the line-up. Unfamiliar midfield with Jr on the right and fixedly right-footed Woon on the left. An interesting, ambitious pairing of Gan and Guan up front. Gonna be a long day, nevertheless.
1459h: Back at the restaurant, Tang bros had consumed cold dish, shark fins, and a whole abalone each.
1500h: Ref blew the whistle for KO. Oeste started super confidently, knocking the ball around on the ground and mixing it up with some probing high balls to test our defence. No 17, tall big and strong was a constant menace with his physical prowess and stocky 19, no slouch either, was very mobile in linking defence and attack.
1518h: Goal! It was only a matter of time, No 19 fed No 17 a precise through-ball who outmuscled the challenge and strode forward to score confidently.
1525h: Goal! That same combination again sprung the defence and nailed it. It was looking a stroll in the park!
1537h: Goal! Pressure from attackers forced keeper to clear but it found No 11 way out who first-timed the return with his instep as if he had been doing it all his life. The Exocet stayed true to the intended trajectory and left the keeper on the deck as he fumbled trying to get back to his line. The shot was teasing to say the least (tease what is up to your imagination!).
1545h: Half time. MS players trudged back to the stands, hoping that reinforcements would arrive soon.
1547h: MS players remained positive through the team talk. Still looking towards the gate.
1552h: Bombshell #2 - Text received: "Guys we are still here. Doubt we will be going down. Sorry cant play. We just finished (the Orh Née)".
1553h: Ok then, we just had to continue concocting our brand of Durain pudding, having played so damn well to go three up. One more and we could consider this a Durain-picking match (by our long-adopted definition).
1555h: Some reshuffling to spread energy consumption. Leng swapped with Guan, Woon took a break, Alex returned to right mid. Second half kicked off.
1615h: Good disciplined football from MS, kept things simple and safe. Limited resources called for breakthrough solutions. Woon came back in to give Gan a tactical rest, paving the way for the first ever father-son strike force in the history of MS!
1625h: Alex fought and won the ball in the penalty area, lays off for Leng who smashed it low and hard! Goal! Alas that was all in my imagination :)
1640h: Game petered out to a goalless second half. Peep! Peep! Peep!
Post game thoughts: What might have been? First ever father-son combination goal? Another 6 goals scored if only....Perhaps, Orh Née will always triumph over Durain pudding!
We admire the humility of our opponent today. They are generally at least 10 years younger than us but they name themselves Old United. We decided to let them understand the meaning of old with OBE - not the Order of British Empire but Older But Exhilarating. By 75th minutes, we went 6-0 up and we thought we could do better than our opening match but the real meaning of old crept into us. The late morning heat and lack of standby limbs took a toll on us and allowed OU to come back strongly at us. They managed to salvage some pride with 2 late consolation goals. 6- 2 was the final score.
Mike opened the scoring with a cool and well-taken shot before providing an assist for Teck Wah to notch his opening goal of the season. Kok Hock floated in a delightful left-footed curler from a free-kick just on the edge of the penalty box for our 3rd goal. Mike's persistence forced a goalmouth melee and Gan pounced on the loose ball to establish a 4-0 lead at the break. Mike, in rich vein of form, latched onto Teck Wah's pass to beat the keeper at near post. Teck Wah was then on the receiving end of Gan's cross to put the issue beyond doubt with his 2nd and our 6th goal. We thought we were home and dry before the late onslaught from OU took away some shine of the win.
Still, a 6-2 scoreline against a bunch of not-so-old was impressive! :)
Against another team of young players, an organised one at that, at 3pm type of miserable heat, hit half a dozen, conceded nothing...couldn't ask for any better start to the new season. But wait, there is better news, our next carton of beer is sponsored, thanks to our No 15 who left his jersey behind :)
The match was barely 5-minutes old when Court FC's keeper was caught woefully napping. Mark, playing in unfamiliar right-back position, took what looked like a harmless shot from just outside the box but to the horror of Court FC players, their keeper remained solidly rooted to the ground without even battling his eyelids and Mark grabbed our opening goal of the season! The ploy of fielding our newly wed sweeper, Chor Guan, as a striker to let him continue enjoying his 'goal-scoring' exploits paid off handsomely. Leo brilliantly intercepted Court's play in our half and sent a high through ball for Chor Guan to lob over Court's keeper, who was at fault again for our 3rd goal. Under pressure from See Chiang, their right back sent a back pass to his keeper who only made a mess of his clearance and the ball went into his own goal instead. 3-0 at the break but we continued to be alert at resumption of play.
The same thing happened again in the 2nd half, which was only in its 3rd minutes when Weng Khong turned and shot at goal from outside the box. Again, the keeper allowed the ball to squirm through his palms for our 4th goal. Teck Wah then brilliantly set up Kama, who raced half the pitch to meet Teck Wah's cross-field pass and coolly slot the ball home for goal No 5. We were not done yet. Simon, for all his miscued shots in the 1st half, finally zeroed his right foot and despatched his trademark long range shot for half-a-dozen.
We couldn't ask for a better start. Happy New Year!
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