It was a keenly contested encounter between Marine Sunday and Yellow, with plenty of goal-mouth action and breathtaking goalkeeping saves to keep everyone at the gallery on the edge. Both sides had enough chances to turn the result into a badminton scoreline but the final outcome bore semblance of a football match, a narrow 3 – 2 win in our favour. Yellow claimed in the post-match handshakes that they had no reason to lose. Then again, we did enough not to lose although in the last quarter of the match when we, as they claimed, had to dig deep to defend stoutly.
To be fair, it was not a pleasing performance to the eyes of the football purists. The defence worked hard, no doubt, but at times we were living on knife’s edge with half-measured clearances, understandably so due to our lack of fitness. On the other end, we squandered chance after chance that Yellow found it sufficient to just leave their short, but supremely agile and confident, goalkeeper to face our forwards. Our usual crappy passing was aplenty from everyone though the performances of a few individuals stood out, in whatever sense. Chor Guan, as lion-hearted as usual, ran himself to the ground to keep their playmaker at bay. The Rock threw his limbs and body in the firing line and that explained the bruises he sustained on his thigh and shin. Teck Chye was literally screaming at everything and everyone that even Kian Hwa paled in comparison. Teck Chye claimed he was down with a flu, we thought he was starved of sex for months. See Chiang, lacking confidence and conviction, was not as marauding down the flank as he once was. We suspect both Gan and Brandon might have the same ancestral roots – both can make you wanting to pull your hair off with their insipid performance for 90% of the time but when it comes to the crunch, they deliver with the crucial goals or the vital saves to save us the day. If Gan was Stan Collymore, erratic with fleeting moments of brilliance, Brandon is David James in his younger days, hesitant and lacking focus but a brilliant ball stopper. We are left with only 1 engine and that’s Simon. Credit to him for keeping himself in good shape to last every match, his enthusiasm and willingness to fight for the cause of the team is second to none (errrh…..well, maybe, just second to one person). But there’s a limit to how much he can pull the team together on the pitch if we don’t throw in our weight.
It pains this self-declared journalist to write how we conceded the 2 goals but for the 3 goals we scored, it was worth the ink. Simon, one way or another, directly or indirectly, had a hand, or a leg, in all of them. Our equalising goal came from, as Simon described it, “the best moves of the match” where a rare series of non-wayward passing led to Kian Hwa free on the right to receive a pass from Simon. KH advanced into the box and Teck Chye called for the ball and the latter duly received the square pass and confidently shot past the keeper without breaking his strides. Gan must have been presented with 5 chances, of which he managed to convert one. The low conversion rate worried us. What bothered us even more is that despite he and Teck Wah being much younger than most of us, their fitness and work rate are nowhere near their best. But both did score when it mattered. Again, Simon battled hard to win back the ball in the middle of the pitch and instantaneously found Gan unmarked just outside the box. The only moment Yellow’s keeper did not come off his line, he was punished by Gan’s placement and that put us in a 2 – 1 lead before the break. Teck Wah delivered the eventual winning goal and he also benefitted from Simon’s hard work. Simon switched to shooting from distance in the 2nd half and he was not far off the target on those occasions. One effort caught their short keeper stranded, the ball came off the horizontal and Teck Wah had the luxury of time to execute a sepak-takraw kick to put the ball in the net.
The goals aside, both sides rued their luck after seeing so many other near-misses gone to nothing. Brandon, for all the anguish he inflicted onto us, brilliantly denied Yellow with one point-blank block in the 1st half and another timely off-the-line body block to stop a one-on-one effort. Their keeper showed a safe pair of hands and astute reading of the game, often bravely getting down to cut out our low crosses from the flanks. Teck Wah hit the bar in the 1st half, Yellow hit the same spot of the goal frame in the 2nd half. We squandered about 5 through balls, they failed to make just as many chances count, including one glaring miss in front of the open goal early in the match, after Ng’s sloppy pass gave the ball back to their left winger, who then crossed in for their unmarked striker in the 6-yards area. With Brandon hopelessly out of position and the open goal invitingly in front of him, the striker skewed the ball way past the right upright! No wonder they said they had no reason to lose. But then, they had!
Man of The Match: Simon (10 out of 15 votes)
The only one, besides our goalkeeper, to last the whole match but by miles, a deserving MoTM:
1. “When one STamps his authority, with what? With his feet lah! Simon did just that. Our firST 2 goals came from his battling to win the ball back and SubsequenTly laying the pass to SeT up the goals. Our 3rd goal came from his confident long ShoT that cannoned off the bar, though the ultimate beneficiary was Teck Wah. MoTM = ST!”
2. “motm. simon. saw him power few shot from about 20 meter but all go no where, at last one hit bar and let teck wah pick durian.”
3. “MOTM goes to Simon for controlling the midfield very well & playing a part in the build-up of the goals we scored & most notably & importantly one, is the one he whipped a beautiful volley towards goal only to be denied by the post but enough to throw the keeper off guard for Teck Hua to convert it.”
4. “MOTM for 3 Sep – SIMON. very good performance by him since a long long time. Pass well, support well and have a 'leg' in all 3 goals I think. Finally his shooting training prior to start of game paid off......3rd goal came from a long shot from him that came back off the bar. Have a few long shots on target but to bad can't beat the keeper.”
5. “MOTM = Simon. Oustanding play in midfield. Good distribution of passes, support well in attack. Created two excellent chances for the strikers to score.”
6. “MOTM for last nite's match was Simon. He was instrumental in controlling the midfield, helped the defence out substantially and most importantly for zeroing his long range shots until it finally hit the bar for TW to do a vertical scissors kick for the 3rd goal.”
7. “motm 3rd Sept: Simon. Led the central midfield well and maintained a good line between defence and attack. direct and indirectly assisted two of the goals.”
8. “Motm is simon - Some of the passes were brilliant”
9. “MOTM - Simon. All 3 goals flow through him. Need I say more!!”
10. “MOTM to Simon. Only saw him in the second half but man he was all over the place. Won so many in the middle, supported defence and three really good shots at goal, one of which resulted in our winner. Solid game again.”
He had to shoulder part of the blame for the 2 goals conceded but his 2 brilliant saves garnered him 2 nominations and put him in 2nd place:
1. “MOTM is Brandon. Match saving saves from one on one situations. Directing and encouraging defenders during dead ball situations.”
2. “Finally a win, & Brandon kept us safe on 2 critical occasions when match was poised on knife edge with last ditch saves. Recovered well from a shaky start to play assuredly thereafter.”
Remaining 3 votes went to Teck Chye, Hock Leong and Chwee Leng. 3rd position to Hock Leong for the bruises sustained in his usual stout defending:
1. “MOM for 3 Sep: Hock Leong-the rock remains rock solid”
2. “Teck Chye is playing well despite his sickness. Cover the defend well by stopping their midfielder and also distribute the balls well to the frank and strikers.”
3. “Chwee Leng has my vote for his consistent play in both halfs. Timing, stamina, closing in on their wingers and positioning were spot on. Some key interceptions to boot.”
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment