We were up against various odds last Saturday. Firstly, it was a very warm and energy-sapping morning but this affected our opponent, Minnows, just as well. Secondly, Minnows’ players are only in their earlier twenties, so not a slightest doubt on their stamina. And finally, the mother of all odds, we played more than half the match with a man down after Weng Kwan decided to test our resolve with his marching order 10 minutes before half-time. Yet, we walked away with a narrow but hugely satisfying 2 – 1 win. One might have thought that we rode on our luck, given the narrow score line but considering that we hit the frame of the goal four times (mind you, three times in the 2nd half when we should have been defensive), the score line actually did not do us justice at all.
Not that Minnows were pushovers. They may not be as skilful as Young Boyz, but they were robust and quick in challenging us for every ball. In their No 8, they possess a quicksilver with quick feet to stretch our defence. No 8 eventually went on to cause our usually infallible Weng Kwan to intercept a breakaway through ball with a deliberate handball and earn himself a consequent marching order before the break. Sometimes, it is more difficult to play against a team with one man down, as we proved to be. Surprisingly, we had the majority of possession in the 2nd half and could have won more handsomely if the woodwork had not denied us on those occasions.
Once again, Yong Chua was deployed as one of our front men and again, he put in a sparkling performance not only with his brace of goals but admirably leading the front line as the sole striker in much of the 2nd half. And again, not surprisingly, he was overwhelmingly voted as the Man of The Match.
Whilst Yong Chua led the line upfront, Chor Guan and his crew of Hock Leong, Weng Kwan, Chung Wen, Ng & Leo at the back doused Minnows’ effervescence with non-stop cold water. Weng Kwan’s send-off, Hock Leong’s recurrence of hamstring injury and Chor Guan’s twisted ankle were no small price we paid to fend off the onslaught from a young team. Shielding the defence were Simon and Kok Hock controlling the middle of the park. Kok Hock was clearly regaining his finesse. The way he calmly spread the ball around the pitch in the 2nd half was a joy to watch. Simon, uncompromising as usual, held the midfield together with another commanding display, enabling Weng Khong to support the attacks.
Visibly affected by the warm weather, everyone appeared lethargic with our passes coming up short and astray most of the times. The closest we came to scoring in the 1st half was when Teck Wah’s stiff shot rattled the horizontal. Yong Chua came in for the fast-tiring KH and duly made Minnows pay for their sloppy defending. Credits must be given to Hock Leong, who intelligently evaded 2 players closing him down in midfield before delivering a diagonal pass into the box. Yong Chua brought the ball down well, turned and shot past the keeper. 1 – 0! Our joy was short-lived when Minnows launched a quick attack down their left flank. A high ball meant for their quicksilver No 8 was unprofessionally stopped by Weng Kwan’s raised hand. The referee had no hesitation to produce the 2nd yellow card for WK who, despite the dismissal, nevertheless earned our respect for intelligently stopping their play. We held on to the slender lead at the break.
Despite us having a man down, Minnows did not manage to capitalize on their numerical superiority. We kept possession well for the large part of the 2nd half until the last 10 minutes when the heat really got into us. Yong Chua led the front line superbly, holding the ball well and bringing the midfielders into play. Weng Khong came close to stretch our lead but his effort also came off the horizontal after Ng overlapped from his left fullback position into the box to meet a delicate cross from Kian Hwa. Ng deployed his hairy chest to good use with a nice cushioning of the ball with his chest before laying the ball to Weng Khong but the woodwork denied a good piece of footballing action. Simon was the next one to see his effort agonizingly denied by the horizontal again. That came after some good work by Kian Hwa on the left, who turned in between 2 defenders well and teed up Simon for a shot.
Yong Chua then re-entered into play for a corner. Mike headed the ball onto the path of Yong Chua, who once again turned and converted to double our lead. 2 – 0! It would have been 3 nil up but Hock Leong’s intelligent knockdown from just outside the box trickled diagonally across the penalty box before it came off the right upright. At the back, our defence held firm to break down their offensive moves. Minnows scored a dubious consolation goal from clearly an offside position when their No 8 received the ball but he went on to slot the ball past Brandon. Teck Wah and Yong Chua took turn to provide an assist to each other and both came close to extend our lead. Teck Wah met Yong Chua’s lob into the box but his left–footed shot failed to trouble the keeper. Teck Wah then turned provider for Yong Chua and the latter’s shot from the outside the box sailed narrowly over the bar.
The heat took a heavy toll on our depleted resources but we managed to hold the 2 – 1 margin to the final whistle.
Man of The Match: Yong Chua (10 out of 16 votes)
Another sparkling performance, another convincing and deserving MoTM award!
“For the strategy to hold midfield and player rotation throughout the match, KH shd be nominated MOM. For the precise execution and imposing play, YC gets my vote today.” [Editor: Wa low eh, what kind of nomination was this? Like cock teaser! Want to nominate me, say so lah! Worse than a sympathy vote, man :)]
“my vote goes to Yong Chua. Played well as a lone striker, with two goals to win the match.”
“Yong Chua: Attack well and score a very good goal.”
“Motm is yong chua. He did not stay on the pitch for long but he is certainly effective in converting those 2 goals.”
“motm yong chua, lucky got him, convert his 2 scoring chances into goal….”
“Motm to yong chua, for scoring the 2 impt goals. Intelligent play upfront in the second half also helped the team manage the 1 man disadvantage.”
“YC for good finishing, converting 2 out of 3 chances”
“Obvious choice. YC. Played the role of striker really well. When he played alone up front he held up expertly. Plus if got two well taken goals”
“Mom is yong chua. 2 well taken goals”
“Mom is yong chua for the good holding up play as well as 2 goals to secure victory.”
The remaining 6 votes went to our defenders, a huge acknowledgement of their work at the back. Ng (2 votes), Hock Leong (2), Chor Guan (1) and Weng Kwan (1), stand up and be counted!
Not that Minnows were pushovers. They may not be as skilful as Young Boyz, but they were robust and quick in challenging us for every ball. In their No 8, they possess a quicksilver with quick feet to stretch our defence. No 8 eventually went on to cause our usually infallible Weng Kwan to intercept a breakaway through ball with a deliberate handball and earn himself a consequent marching order before the break. Sometimes, it is more difficult to play against a team with one man down, as we proved to be. Surprisingly, we had the majority of possession in the 2nd half and could have won more handsomely if the woodwork had not denied us on those occasions.
Once again, Yong Chua was deployed as one of our front men and again, he put in a sparkling performance not only with his brace of goals but admirably leading the front line as the sole striker in much of the 2nd half. And again, not surprisingly, he was overwhelmingly voted as the Man of The Match.
Whilst Yong Chua led the line upfront, Chor Guan and his crew of Hock Leong, Weng Kwan, Chung Wen, Ng & Leo at the back doused Minnows’ effervescence with non-stop cold water. Weng Kwan’s send-off, Hock Leong’s recurrence of hamstring injury and Chor Guan’s twisted ankle were no small price we paid to fend off the onslaught from a young team. Shielding the defence were Simon and Kok Hock controlling the middle of the park. Kok Hock was clearly regaining his finesse. The way he calmly spread the ball around the pitch in the 2nd half was a joy to watch. Simon, uncompromising as usual, held the midfield together with another commanding display, enabling Weng Khong to support the attacks.
Visibly affected by the warm weather, everyone appeared lethargic with our passes coming up short and astray most of the times. The closest we came to scoring in the 1st half was when Teck Wah’s stiff shot rattled the horizontal. Yong Chua came in for the fast-tiring KH and duly made Minnows pay for their sloppy defending. Credits must be given to Hock Leong, who intelligently evaded 2 players closing him down in midfield before delivering a diagonal pass into the box. Yong Chua brought the ball down well, turned and shot past the keeper. 1 – 0! Our joy was short-lived when Minnows launched a quick attack down their left flank. A high ball meant for their quicksilver No 8 was unprofessionally stopped by Weng Kwan’s raised hand. The referee had no hesitation to produce the 2nd yellow card for WK who, despite the dismissal, nevertheless earned our respect for intelligently stopping their play. We held on to the slender lead at the break.
Despite us having a man down, Minnows did not manage to capitalize on their numerical superiority. We kept possession well for the large part of the 2nd half until the last 10 minutes when the heat really got into us. Yong Chua led the front line superbly, holding the ball well and bringing the midfielders into play. Weng Khong came close to stretch our lead but his effort also came off the horizontal after Ng overlapped from his left fullback position into the box to meet a delicate cross from Kian Hwa. Ng deployed his hairy chest to good use with a nice cushioning of the ball with his chest before laying the ball to Weng Khong but the woodwork denied a good piece of footballing action. Simon was the next one to see his effort agonizingly denied by the horizontal again. That came after some good work by Kian Hwa on the left, who turned in between 2 defenders well and teed up Simon for a shot.
Yong Chua then re-entered into play for a corner. Mike headed the ball onto the path of Yong Chua, who once again turned and converted to double our lead. 2 – 0! It would have been 3 nil up but Hock Leong’s intelligent knockdown from just outside the box trickled diagonally across the penalty box before it came off the right upright. At the back, our defence held firm to break down their offensive moves. Minnows scored a dubious consolation goal from clearly an offside position when their No 8 received the ball but he went on to slot the ball past Brandon. Teck Wah and Yong Chua took turn to provide an assist to each other and both came close to extend our lead. Teck Wah met Yong Chua’s lob into the box but his left–footed shot failed to trouble the keeper. Teck Wah then turned provider for Yong Chua and the latter’s shot from the outside the box sailed narrowly over the bar.
The heat took a heavy toll on our depleted resources but we managed to hold the 2 – 1 margin to the final whistle.
Man of The Match: Yong Chua (10 out of 16 votes)
Another sparkling performance, another convincing and deserving MoTM award!
“For the strategy to hold midfield and player rotation throughout the match, KH shd be nominated MOM. For the precise execution and imposing play, YC gets my vote today.” [Editor: Wa low eh, what kind of nomination was this? Like cock teaser! Want to nominate me, say so lah! Worse than a sympathy vote, man :)]
“my vote goes to Yong Chua. Played well as a lone striker, with two goals to win the match.”
“Yong Chua: Attack well and score a very good goal.”
“Motm is yong chua. He did not stay on the pitch for long but he is certainly effective in converting those 2 goals.”
“motm yong chua, lucky got him, convert his 2 scoring chances into goal….”
“Motm to yong chua, for scoring the 2 impt goals. Intelligent play upfront in the second half also helped the team manage the 1 man disadvantage.”
“YC for good finishing, converting 2 out of 3 chances”
“Obvious choice. YC. Played the role of striker really well. When he played alone up front he held up expertly. Plus if got two well taken goals”
“Mom is yong chua. 2 well taken goals”
“Mom is yong chua for the good holding up play as well as 2 goals to secure victory.”
The remaining 6 votes went to our defenders, a huge acknowledgement of their work at the back. Ng (2 votes), Hock Leong (2), Chor Guan (1) and Weng Kwan (1), stand up and be counted!
“Tough choice. So many had good game this week. KH, simon, khong, wah, hok hock, hock leong just to name a few. Even kwan was fantastic but for the dubious red card. But my choice to a returning prodigal son, Ng. He shut out their attacks clinically and make some nice moves upfront. Setting up a perfect chance for khong.” [Editor: Might as well mention the whole team for good performance :)]
“Motm: Ng. Thought he had a solid game n made a few positive runs forward, nearly connecting with a header. Never seen him as ‘lively’ as today.”
“MOM for last sat: Hock Leong-set up the first goal and almost scored the goal of the season.”
“Hock Leong, not for his superb defensive effort, which needs no mentioning but for his intelligence and high level of awareness. I was already suitably impressed by how he evaded the 2 players closing down on him, his eventual pass led to the opening goal was icing on the cake. His awareness of his position almost scored a brilliant goal but for the stubborn woodwork!”
“MOTM goes to Kuan for his last ditch effort to prevent possibly a goal by opponent team's no. 8, which could be a pivotal foothold for the young opponents to gather confidence & belief, thereby changing the complexion of the whole game.. Well, if that is not good enough a reason, he sacrificed his playtime in the process... hahaha..”
“Motm to guan. Reassuring last line of defence.”
[Editor: My records reveal a rather disturbing sign. Empirical evidence points that Yong Chua has a certain affinity and inclination for young men. He seems to get turned on by young men! How else would you explain this – MoTM against Minnows and Young Boyz and not forgetting coming in 2nd on 4 Jan at Temasek Sec Sch against Blue & Green Thunderbolts. All against young opponents! ]
“Motm: Ng. Thought he had a solid game n made a few positive runs forward, nearly connecting with a header. Never seen him as ‘lively’ as today.”
“MOM for last sat: Hock Leong-set up the first goal and almost scored the goal of the season.”
“Hock Leong, not for his superb defensive effort, which needs no mentioning but for his intelligence and high level of awareness. I was already suitably impressed by how he evaded the 2 players closing down on him, his eventual pass led to the opening goal was icing on the cake. His awareness of his position almost scored a brilliant goal but for the stubborn woodwork!”
“MOTM goes to Kuan for his last ditch effort to prevent possibly a goal by opponent team's no. 8, which could be a pivotal foothold for the young opponents to gather confidence & belief, thereby changing the complexion of the whole game.. Well, if that is not good enough a reason, he sacrificed his playtime in the process... hahaha..”
“Motm to guan. Reassuring last line of defence.”
[Editor: My records reveal a rather disturbing sign. Empirical evidence points that Yong Chua has a certain affinity and inclination for young men. He seems to get turned on by young men! How else would you explain this – MoTM against Minnows and Young Boyz and not forgetting coming in 2nd on 4 Jan at Temasek Sec Sch against Blue & Green Thunderbolts. All against young opponents! ]
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