Match #15 (21 March 09): An Uninspiring 6 – 1 Win; Just Good For Goal Tally

For second successive week at this beautiful ground, opponents were tardy and short in numbers and we had to make emergency player loans to them in order to get the match going. Similar to last week, it was another high-scoring match but we thoroughly deserved to be on the right side of the score. Alas, the match ended 10-minutes prematurely when egos and words prevailed between players of both sides, and that resulted in nearly a free-for-all before the incompetent referee abandoned the match. Just as well, it was a poor quality match to begin with, and watching from the sideline was agonising. Perhaps it was destined that the match ended early.

When Liverpool mauled Aston Villa 5 – 0 at home on Sunday, it was surprising to find Torres not among the scorers. Similarly, with such a 6 – 1 score line we registered on Saturday, our hotshot Teck Wah was not among the durian pickers though he must be credited for a couple of assists.

Despite getting 2 players from us, NWKWSLSISL1 still came up a player short. That doused our enthusiasm somewhat. NWKWSLSISL is an all-Indians team until our 2 players joined them to dilute the colour. They turned out to be just half decent to what we usually expect an all-Indians team to be. We had plenty of possession but lacked the final conversion to make those penetrations count. On the contrary, NWKWSLSISL hardly made use of the 2 on-loan players, chose to shoot from distance but whenever they got near our box, they created close shaves for us. Brandon had to be superbly alert to get down fast to save a cross-shot from the right. At the other end, their makeshift keeper miraculously produced a triple saves to deny us the opening goal.

The cracks in the dam were obvious, it was a matter of time that the floodgate opened up. It took Gan to celebrate the birth of his twin daughters with an eventual hat-trick to crown a Man-of-The-Match performance. His 1st goal came just before the break when he was put through. Instead of moving into the box to beat the keeper, he moved the ball 2 steps to his right outside the box before unleashing a grounder that caught the keeper wrong-footed. It was only 1-nil at half-time but the opening 15 minutes of the 2nd half was a completely different story.
We took nearly 40 minutes to get our 1st goal but found the net 4 times when the match resumed for less than 15 minutes. And all these goals came from beating their high defence line and their lack of desire to chase back when we breached their defence. Gan was the first one to benefit when the watch hardly registered 2 minutes into the 2nd half. A through ball that beat the line, he raced it into the box before planting the ball at the far right-hand side of the goal beyond the reach of the keeper. Teck Wah provided the assists to the next 2 goals. Again, a through ball left him free and his left-footed shot from outside the box came off the right post. No one was in the box except Weng Khong who diligently followed through and tapped in the rebound for 3 – 0. Gan got his hat-trick with the easiest of goal when the keeper fumbled a cross from Teck Wah from the left. Gan thought he was blessed enough to have 2 healthy girls and he couldn’t believe his luck when he saw the durian dropping at his feet. He had nothing to do except packing the durian home. His hat-trick goal and 4 – 0 to us!

Simon then came up with a brace, sandwiching their consolation goal coming from our player loaned to them, Mike. Simon first benefitted from the static defence and had a clear home run to place the ball past the hapless keeper for our 5th goal. He then put up a terrible return 1-2 pass but luck was again on our side when NWKWSLSISL gifted the ball back to him. Simon atoned for that terrible pass with a curler from outside the box to beat their keeper. That was half-a-dozen to our good! Mike got in front of Hock Leong to meet a cross and plant a header past Brandon for their consolation goal.

Round 2 of verbal exchanges ensued, the first one being in the 1st half when 1 of NWKWSLSISL players claimed to be a former S-League player and that his late tackles were perfectly alright in S-League then. He switched to guarding goal in the 2nd half and another war of words with our Teck Wah resulted in fracas between both sets of players. Apart from the beautiful pitch, it was a forgettable match of the poorest quality – opponents were poor, referee was inept, our performance and passing were scrappy and to round it up, ill-discipline among our players, just as guilty as them.

*NWKWSLSISL stands for Now We Know Why S-League Standard Is So Low. Their player had the gall to claim to have been a S-League player. We could only shake our heads in disbelief. And our S-League will always remain a poor cousin of the regional leagues with such players plying the trade. What a waste of our talents not to have played for Singapore!

Man of The Match: Gan (7 votes)
1 MoTM award; 2 daughters; 3 goals – what a week for him!
“motm: Gan for his hat-trick which included 2 cool finishes.”
“Motm-gan for his 3 goals since no other stand out”
“MOTM – Gan – 2 well taken goals and 1 durian. Getting his scoring form back”
“Mom Gan, not for his goals but for his textbook link up play. More like the vintage gan I know. Congratulations and wish u many loving sleepless nites to come with your 2 newborns. Hope your wife still lets u play!”
“Not a satisfactory match except Gan who seems an inspired father. Great breakthrough goals and hard work being an outlet to ping our attacks. Deserving hattrick & motm.”
“It was a scrappy match with no clear mom for me. I would nominate gan for good hold up play and the goals he scored.”
“Gan for a measured 1st goal and an eventual hat-trick”

Simon weighed in with 4 votes:
“Today Motm goes to Simon for his dominating presence in the midfield but his passes could have been better in some instances.”
“Motm goes to simon. His influence in midfield is undeniable and once again did very well today with 2 great goals.”
“Vote goes to simon. He was the creative playmaker. Almost everything goes through him.”
“My choice is either Gan or Simon. But Simon stands out for his ability in holding the midfield well and creating various chances.”

And a consolatory vote for our man leading the attack, in whatever sense :)
“Teck Wah. He played the attacking role well with numerous assists and creations. He also perform a superb drive like those rugby tackle at a opponent during a scrumb.”