Match #37 (11Aug 09): Another Agonising & Narrow Loss

Match report contributed by Leo

Simply Red started the game with 2 players short and that gave us an easy first 10 minutes. Chor Guan was red carded at this ground before, Ng had a fistfight here before and Teck Chye almost joined the ranks as well. He had to be calmed down but he refused to be taken off . True enough he managed to get his adversary to give him a body check right in front of the referee and got him sent off for a 2nd yellow card offence. Around the 30 minutes mark, against the run of play See Chiang scored the first goal of the game. I missed seeing the goal and when I asked See Chiang for a description, all he said was, just report that I scored with a “tonjoe”. See Chiang has for the 2nd time and 2nd week in a row hit the post again with his now famous “tonjoe”. Simply Red equalized before half time. The 2nd half was tough for us as all of us made a lot of uncharacteristic errors and did not have many scoring chances as our midfield and defence did not mange to move up into the opponent’s half to support the strikers. Simply Red scored the second goal and the game ended with a 2-1 defeat for us.

Some comments that I heard during and after the game :
We were beaten psychologically
The last time I played against this team, they took the corner flags out and fought with it.
5 of the opponents don’t wear shin guards, must be confident .
I had so much space and time to pass, don’t know why I underhit this time and over hit the next time.
Immediately after we scored the first goal, one of the opponent players on the touchline was talking to the “photographer who took our team photo: “This team is quite strong, they have a short passing game and then suddenly launch into attack.”

Man of The Team: (4 out of 13 votes)
Mr Rock returned with another solid performance:
“motm = hock leong. Make numerous good clearance that spoil opposition from scoring. Tough in the air and tackle well.”
“Hock leong the man. Defended stoutly. Super tackles and brilliant headers”
“Hock leong. He always gives his all whenever he plays, injured or not. I like his positioning and proved to be a major impediment to our opponent's movement in our half.”
“MOTM to hock leong for his all round and no nonsense play”

Chwee Leng is certainly revelling in his full-back role! Just 1 vote behind Hock Leong.
“chwee leng. consider see chiang and chwee leng, vote to chwee leng, saw him counter attack few times from our half all the way to their penalty box, do it more often next time....”
“Chwee Leng - stick to the striker as if they are glued together, never give him space to turn. Make a few good runs down the flank.”
“Another strong opponent with lots of stamina. My MOTM will be Chwee Leng who did well in defending as well as providing good attacks by bringing balls to the bye line of the other end for the strikers.”

See Chiang and Teck Chye had 2 votes each. Since SC scored for the 2nd successive match, he deserved to win the tie and a 3rd position:
“MOTM - See chiang, another good toe-poked goal, straight to the top of the net.”
“MOTM goes to See Chiang for scoring the spectacular & well-placed, top-left-hand-corner goal. By the way, he was having fever, cough & runny nose.”

The remaining 4 votes went to the Tang brothers and Leo:
“motm teck chye. showed lots of ball skills and running in the 1st half when the team was playing better.”
“MOM : Teck Chye for his tenacity in leading the line and adding an attacking thrust to our game.”
“MOM for 11 Aug-Teck Wah - never gave up running despite all the loose high balls and poor passes. Full marks for dedication”
“Motm to Leo for staying focused in a half when we were basically chasing shadows.”