Match #19 (3 May 08): MS falls again to MOE

report contributed by kh

Marine Sunday is in a crisis! It’s one that the elders, seniors and founders of the team took seriously and decided to take drastic action to address it. Come to think of it, it was not by pure coincidence that The Straits Times featured a 6-pages Men & Sexuality article last Saturday, the same day we were overrun by a veteran team, was it? OK, we are referring to our Old Warhorse, the venerable Ng. He isn’t a spring chicken anymore. We doubt he needs the little blue pill as well. But looking at the way he hecked down the men in the box and consequently conceded 2 penalties, we reckon that he is in a dire need of “Reliever of His Internal Fire”! Has he stopped visiting Sichuan? We decided that enough was enough and denied him of the dubious honour of being the 1st player in the entire football history to ever give away 3 penalties in a match, and so we took him off.

Whilst we came up short in terms of possession but we were certainly not overrun as the 4-1 score line suggested. We were not slick in our passing and movements but we were more penetrating in the box. However, we were not clinical, and that was our killer! We were not sharp and brutal in converting those gilt-edged chances.

We conceded the 4 goals – first two due to hesitation and ball watching by our defence line and the last two by our Butcher Ng, although it was not entirely his fault. Position and coverage wise, he is top class. He is just too eager to stick out his leg to trip players, just as he is too eager to stick out his other leg to trap err….you know lah, no need to state too obvious, right?

We conceded a soft goal through nothing but hesitation and ball-watching in the box. A cross-field high ball into our box reached nobody but yet, we allowed their winger plenty of time to recover the loose ball. He had the world at his feet to pick out his mate unmarked in the box, who then tap in beyond Seah’s reach for the opening goal.

Our equalizing goal resulted from patient build-up, followed by a typical well-timed run into the box by KH to receive a defence-piercing pass by Simon, then a well-drilled square pass to the far post for a typical finishing by Teck Wah. The movement looked pleasing to the eyes. And we thought we had the game back when we finished the 1st half at one a piece.

3 glorious goal-scoring opportunities were created but we fluffed them. First, Teck Wah brought down a high ball with his exquisite first touch and turned his marker flat dead. He faced the keeper in the 6-yards box. Mind you, it was in the 6-yards box and you could imagine how close. But he blasted the ball over the bar.

Next Simon was left unmarked outside the box to receive the ball. With no one closing him down, he let fly with a right-footer that the keeper palmed it away. And he recovered in time to save KH’s follow-up with his feet.

Teck Chye then wriggled his way into the box, rounded the keeper but his shot was blocked by a defender. KH followed up with a stiff grounder that came off the keeper before another defender deflected Teck Wah’s weak left-footed attempted for a corner.

And we paid dearly for those misses as MOE Veterans buried 3 goals past us. A slick back-heel left our defenders flat-footed and their striker slammed the through ball past Seah. Next, the 2 penalties and each one was converted with superb confidence, leaving Seah no chance to pull off any heroics we had been accustomed to.

We could have done better, we knew that. Despite the mauling, we were overall quite positive in terms of team spirit and how we handled this outcome, compared to the other huge loss, 4-0, against the Holy Prayer United 2 weeks ago. Keep it up!