No doubt, Marine Sunday are not quite the same as before. After all, most of us have stepped into the 40s and that comes naturally with the inevitable decline in fitness and nimbleness of limbs. Surprisingly, SWAT were a few miles further than us off what we used to know them. Remember, at one stage, even our Mark was playing with them. The few familiar old faces are still around but their younger set of players was nowhere in sight. Call it a cheap shot on my part, but to a certain extent, it vindicates our rather stringent, albeit unwritten, policy of recruiting new players into our squad. We never place youth and vitality as our priorities in recruiting new players.
Our previous two encounters were in 2005, a hard-fought 3-3 draw on 30 Oct and before that, a closely-contested 1 – 3 loss on 9 Jul, with us conceding the 3rd goal in the dying moments after we had committed players to chase for the equalizer. It was not to be this time round. For a brief moment, we looked destined for another one-of-those-days feeling after SWAT had taken a surprise 1 – 0 lead despite our overall superior possession. Teck Wah, in the form of his life, augmented by 3 Old Amigos in the moulds of Kian Hwa, Yong Chua and Simon produced 6 goals of exquisite class to notch a convincing 6 – 1 win.
We were so determined in widening the lead not just with our attacking efforts, but our stable crew of Mr Dependables at the back defended our turf like an impenetrable fortress. Weng Kwan was constantly breathing down the neck of their striker-in-chief, hardly giving him any time or space to turn. Chung Wen, aided by his recent frequent therapy sessions in Geylang, was in his no-nonsense self and covered well to deny them a consolation 2nd goal with a goal-line clearance after Brandon superbly forced their striker wide to take a delayed shot at goal from a tight angle. Leo exuded class in halting their moves down the right flank, he made breaking-up-play like a child’s work. His coolness bore quite a resemblance of Paolo Maldini! Chwee Leng will in no time give our established full-backs a run for the money. Though tentative in the 1st half, he seemed to have undergone a thorough changeover in the 2nd half with a couple of crucial interferences to prevent SWAT from scoring. Once he recovered in time to put enough pressure on their striker to skive the shot less than 10 metres away from goal. Next, he sprinted back from the opponent half to his opposite flank to chase after a breakaway attack down their right flank, Chwee Leng did enough to force the final pass from this breakaway forward into nothing more than a misguided missile. On both occasions, Chwee Leng did not get to the ball but the willingness to fight for the cause on his part prevented any damage to us. Chor Guan sticked to his sweeper role with a disciplined display of timely interceptions and clearances. Nobody had any grouses when he was rewarded with 15 minutes of forays upfront for all his thankless job at the back. Once again, Brandon instilled confidence in us with another encouraging performance. Perhaps there weren’t many saves he was called upon but twice in the 2nd half, he came off his line quick enough to turn two 1-on-1 situations into futile forays for SWAT. He didn’t make any direct save on those 2 occasions but his imposing presence forced their forwards with no choice but to take the extra step to round him and on one of those, it allowed Chung Wen enough recovery time to clear a certain goal on the line. Their superlative performance diminished Kok Hock’s defensive contribution in the final 15 minutes of the match into mere academic mentioning.
Despite the landslide scoreline, SWAT were no pushovers. Against the run of play in the 1st half, they stole the lead. Our midfield gifted the possession to them and their forward drew Chor Guan near to him before laying the ball across to his right to his fellow forward. We called in vain for offside and SWAT punished us for our uncertainty in defending when the latter forward drilled the ball past Brandon for their opening goal. The goal punctured our belief momentarily but a quick double substitutions of Yong Chua and Simon for the first-time pairing of Weng Khong, in his ill-fitting boots, and Kok Hock put some familiarity in the command room. And the front duo of Hwa-Wah turned the deficit into a lead at half-time.
A typical hard running at the defender on the left by Kian Hwa forced a corner, which Kok Hock floated the ball into the box aiming for Yong Chua. SWAT’s keeper had the slightest of touch to the ball but it only diverted it to Teck Wah lurking at the far side of the 6-yards box. Teck Wah brought the ball nicely before unleashing a left-footed half-volley for our confidence –restoring equalizer. Gan came in for our left-flanker See Chiang, who felt the tightness on his hamstring, but Teck Wah voluntarily took over the left-midfield position. The move paid off handsomely as Gan later threaded a ball in between 2 defenders into the box. It was a deft pass, the movement of the ball fooled the defenders into thinking it would be safely dealt with by the keeper. Likewise, the keeper thought he had the ball covered but Kian Hwa’s pace startled him into inaction. The keeper was in two minds seeing the raging bull charging at the ball. Kian Hwa got ahead of the keeper by a step to squeeze the ball past him from the tightest of angle. The ball trickled to the far right-hand post and kissed it before coming to a stop just over the line. It was a morale-boosting goal to put us at 2 – 1 lead at half-time.
We expected SWAT to come back at us but we wrapped up the case with further 4 classy goals that had the neutrals on the gallery urging for more. Kian Hwa pulled the defender to the left create space for Gan to chip in a delicate ball onto the path of Simon coming in from the blind. Simon controlled the ball before deftly flicked it over the keeper to land the ball at the far right-hand corner for our 3rd goal. 3 – 1! There was still time for SWAT to recover and their illustriousness was not to be taken lightly but any remaining confidence was wiped out by the classiest of goal from Yong Chua. Picking a loose ball just over the mid-line, Yong Chua’s shot from distance landed perfectly over the keeper and into goal. Beckham had his glory with his strike against Wimbledon, Alonso’s wonder strikes from far against Newcastle and Preston North End stamped class. Whatever, we have our Yong Chua. 4 – 1. Not to be outdone by Yong Chua, Teck Wah played up to the gallery and brought the roof down with a goal that brought him the MoTM award! Gan’s cross from the left was a tad too heavy for Gan in the box but Weng Khong recovered the ball at the right to send a looping ball back into the penalty box. With his back facing the goal and a defender checking him, and sensing the spectators were gunning for something special, Teck Wah produced a spectacular mid-air overhead kick for our goal No 5. Even SWAT’s keeper was guilty of watching that goal instead of doing something to stop it! Teck Wah later conjured up our 6th goal with a measured pass onto the path of Simon, again coming in from deep. Simon waltzed past the hapless SWAT defence and placed the ball beyond the keeper into the net. 6 – 1, and that score line stayed till the final whistle.
The last 10 minutes produced further goal opportunities for both sides. SWAT had two 1-on-1 opportunities thwarted by Brandon with his superb positioning, with one of those aided by Chung Wen’s timely recovery on the line to clear a goal-bound effort. We could have added more. Kian Hwa was picked out superbly by another Teck Wah’s through pass but SWAT’s keeper interfered in time to boot the ball away. Then Kian Hwa’s left-footed freekick from the right required only the slightest of touch from anyone in the 6-yards box to convert it into a goal but the ball whisked past the left-post by a mere millimeter. Gan concocted his own scoring opportunity with a nutmeg that fooled 2 defenders. With only the keeper to beat, Gan dragged the ball to his left but the touch was a bit heavy and Gan painfully saw his effort going to waste.
MoTM: Teck Wah
A brace, white-hot scoring form and an out-of-the-world goal, any surprise that he garnered 11 out of 16 votes?
“MoM is teck wah. For good link up play and the magnificent overhead kick goal.”
“Teck Wah. Brilliant goals and made important passes too that lead to goals”
“My motm has to be teck wah for his 2 well taken opportunist goals and one assist.”
“Wah. What a goal! And many assists”
“MotM goes to teck wah. Good finishes, especially the reverse cycling kick and provided the through pass that created another of our goal.”
“Teck Wah for the spectacular goal and an assist for simon’s goal”
“Teck Wah for the equalizer bringing us back in the game, a couple of perceptive thru passes & oh what a glorious bicycle kick (right in their butt)!”
“MoM is teck wah. Wonderful overhead kick”
“Vote goes to teck wah for his second goal and his all round attacking play.”
“Mom to teck wah – 2 great goals, one or more assists”
“Cut the grandfather’s story short. MOM is Teck Wah for his spectacular goal.
The following 5 players mopped up the remaining 5 votes:
“With such an emphatic win, the scorers will no doubt grab the limelight. Those guys at the back kept it tight for us. Between Weng Kwan, Chung Wen and Leo…by the thinnest of margin, I settle for Weng Kwan. He gave no single inch of possession away!”
“Most will prob choose teck wah for that spectacular overhead kick. I’m going to vote for chung wen. He cleared a certain goal n deny the loud mouth opp[onent] of a consolation late in the game. Good defending overall as well. The team played superbly. Well done to all!”
“MOM - difficult to single out MOM this week as most got into the game well. Kok Hock tips my vote as he made himself available for a lot of the ball.”
“MoTM goes to simon for his outstanding play in midfield and scoring two good goals”
“MotM: Kian Hwa for lots of tireless running at the front and a well taken goal.”
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