The pre-match “taunting” (that Galacticos were playing against a not-so-good team, i.e. us) seemed to spur us on. We pulled up our socks and put in a gutsy, though scrappy, performance to etch out a close 1 – 0 win over the fancied Galacticos. Both sides were deprived of key players – Galacticos claimed that their three S-Leagues players were absent whereas our Tang brothers decided to enhance their sibling love elsewhere. We thought we were short in quantity and resorted to calling up 2 guest players in James and Terk. The 11th-hour turnouts by Hock Leong and Brandon further strengthened our cause. Galacticos fared even worse than us in the number. Further coupled with the tardiness of their players, they were forced to start the match with only 8 players.
The opening 10 minutes of the match saw Galacticos’ play littered with wayward and risky passing around their penalty box, resulting in a couple of dangerous interceptions by firstly, Gan, and then Melvin. But on each occasion, Galacticos’ superior fitness and mobility enabled them to recover and clear the danger away before any real harm materialised. Without several regular players, we were forced to reshuffle our line-up. The versatility of Mark and the willingness of a few players to play out of their usual positions enabled us to field a decent line-up and put up a credible play to fend off Galacticos. Leo and Hock Leong, despite missing past few matches, did not appear to have been away. Neither missed a step nor a beat in clearing the danger. But we paid dearly for our strong performance as both our reliable fullbacks, Chung Wen and Ng, sustained serious injuries and added themselves to our lengthening list of out-of-action players. The brightest spark of all was that Melvin seemed to have rediscovered his magic of old and was enjoying his Indian summer in football. Perhaps, having had his next generation well abundantly in place, humping nowadays is purely for pleasure and the regularity and high intensity of which must be the cause of his slimmer frame. Within 60 seconds of the kick-off, he launched his first foray down the right, sold the Galacticos' left fullback a neat pull-back before putting in a left-foot cross into the box. Though the cross was easily cleared by Galacticos, it stated our intent to take the game to them. On several instances, he put in strong interceptions to break up Galacticos' play on the right. When he was muscled out by a few players, his fearsome tackles did the trick to impose his authority. And his match-winning goal was the ultimate moment of glory of the match, unveiling his talent that has long been submerged by his indulgence in mutton curry and teh tarik. After robbing the ball from Galacticos’ left back, Mel waltzed past him with such astonishing pace before sashaying past the centre-back with a sublime cut-in. Though the keeper advanced out to narrow the angle, Mel coolly slotted the ball past the keeper's left arm into the net instead of blasting it, as we expected.
Stung by the goal, Galacticos upped the tempo in their play but found us to be a brickwall to contend with. To say that we parked a bus in front of our goal carried a tad of injustice to our compact play. We had further clear-cut chances to seal the game, with Chwee Leng’s effort early in the 2nd half and Gan’s header over the bar late in the match, whereas Galacticos had to resort to shooting from outside the box. We did not set out to play negative football but circumstances forced us to pass the ball upfront at the 1st instance most of the times. Firstly, our poor first-touch kept gifting possession away. Secondly, it did not help that Galacticos’ players were faster in closing us down. These resulted in us having difficulty to play the ball on the ground. As the match wore on, frustration grew on Galacticos and our resilience increased just as well. Their territorial advantage was not converted into real chances at us, let alone a goal to account for.
Final score was a slim but richly satisfying 1 – 0 win for us.
Man of The Team: Melvin (7 out of 12 votes)
Even the Galacticos had to applaud his goal! Any surprise that he was voted the MoTM?
“MOTM = Melvin. An impressive overall performance in midfied cap with an oustanding solo goal that proved to be the match winner.”
“MOTM - The only scorer for the game who waltzed his way into the 6 yard box in slow but smooth strides just like the way he fell onto the pitch a few weeks back. Melvin Singh for a classy match winner that's a joy to watch”
“MOTM - Melvin - The gelak king is back.....what a goal worthy to win any match...and he did not make any 'mistake' after that.”
“MOTM goes to Melvin for his adroit manuevre into the penalty box & netting in that only goal of the game in a very calm & composed manner... Having found out just before the game that his weight is 90kg... that is amazing stuff! That is one piece of weight-defying act!”
“Finally, we had something to 'cheer' about after two consecutive defeats. First, thanks to our captain who returned after 2 match suspensions. Joke aside his presence seemed to instill some discipline and determination in our game today. We played with intents and everyone on the pitch today stucked to the roles very well. KH was extremely hardworking by example and on several occassions, he had to run back to help out the defence and was there to shut out their left winger (2nd half in particular). Hock Leong was excellent in defence and was rock solid. I dont recall a single moment that any of the opponents had gone past him! My admiration also goes to Chwee Leng whom I thought did extremely well as a striker during the 1st half but his second half performance as a right back was even better winning crucial header and had to rely on his "bro..." to block a shot within the 6 yard box....... Simon knowing he will be out for the next few games gave all his best and was good in orchestrating the attack during the 1st half...and finally to the rest whom I did not single out, pls accept my apologies for if i continue, my MOTM will be longer than KH's report ...... Chung Wen, Ng and Simon, please rest well and return soon as I am sure you will be missed for the upcoming games ......Now for my MOTM.... though he may lack a bit of fitness and may be slightly overweight and slow......but for his composure and excellent skills which did not go missing, he helped us tremendously by scoring an excellent individual goal ....Mel!”
“MoTM to melvin. Scored the only goal that won us the game. Was a joy to watch how he singlehandedly twist and turn the 2 defenders before finishing it calmly out of reach of their goalie. Special mention to kian Hwa and Mark. Kian hwa's running and tough challenges in the second half gave them little time to build their game. Mark was a rock in defence.”
“By far, the most impressive performance from Melvin. The goal, without question, is a very strong contender for the Goal of The Season! Mel is the Man!”
KH returned from his self-imposed "exile" to collect 3 votes:
“MOM - My MOTM is Kian Hwa for his tireless running up and down the flank to close down the opposition winger, also for the full blooded commitment in every tackle as well as support given to the strikers as well. Only he could have done so much and kept up the tempo throughout the entire match as well.”
“kian hwa, he run every where, did very well in midfield and also in defence.”
“MOTM: It was the most cohesive performance I have witnessed from MS. Everybody knew what they had to do. Everybody did their job well. Perhaps it was Chye's previous email who warned us of a tough match ahead, the labelling of MS as "not so good". But in selecting a MOTM, i vote for Kian Hwa who inspired MS with his all out chasing display on the left. I mean he really chased everything, making up for his 2 week vacation. Taking Kian Hwa's cue, everybody ate their spinach and upped the tempo - melvin had two extra springs in his step and I liked the way Weng Khong tracked back to cover the right back to steal a few balls.”
The remaining 2 votes went to resurging Chwee Leng and the ever-dependable Mark:
“Motm to leng. Whilst mark was solid in defence, & everyone played with determination, leng has showed conviction with his brand of proactive defending, getting first to the ball countless times against younger more mobile opponents.”
“Motm to mark. Kept defence steady especially in the second half. Was an important calming effect for the team”
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