No, not that giant from Italy but our opponents must have fashioned themselves to be by virtue of their previous jersey :)
So, except for 1 who is 47-years old and is only 2 years older than most of us, the rest may not even have their age starting with 4. We felt they had misrepresented slightly and maybe that was why they weren't surprised that they stole an early lead on the 3rd minute when a few of our players hadn't even touched the ball. Their movement was swift and their football was pleasing to the eyes, and for a split second slower in movement, we tripped their forward just outside the box. For that, we paid a heavy price as their play-maker, No 16, curled in a beautiful shot from the resultant free-kick. This play-maker could have inflicted more damage on us with another free-kick from almost the same spot but it hit the side netting instead, leaving our shaken Brandon visibly relieved.
We slowly got to the grip of the match. Teck Chye and Simon broke up their play in the middle and the latter quickly released Teck Wah on the right, whose low cross into the box was forced into an own goal by Inter's defender under the pressure of Mike. The defender regretted falling to Mike's trap as he realised later that had he left Mike alone, he was actually harmless as proven later. Teck Wah set Mike through on a one-on-one but our physics specialist took too long to calibrate his momentum and calculate his force of inertia. With only the keeper to beat, Mike screwed the ball wide. And the Inter's defender then realised the trick :). The introduction of Weng Khong produced immediate impact as he intercepted a ball and headed back into the box for Teck Wah to shoot past Inter's keeper. Teck Wah could have notched a hat-trick in first half but his 2 other efforts kissed the horizontal instead. Kama had a header cleared off the line. Otherwise, we could have ended the half on much more than just 2-1.
We resumed the match with a simple game plan, i.e. shackle their No 16 and choke the supply line. Kama, and later Simon, worked their socks off to great effect. We began to gain more possession of the ball. Gan fended off the attention of their pesky left-back and produced a delightful cross that sailed beyond everyone's head and dropped nicely onto Weng Khong's path. His turn-and-half-volley produced the fruit and brought an immediate substitution by Inter - the goalkeeper changed his gloves! Wow! That was serious stuff!
Not to be outdone, Melvin showed Inter's No 16 that he could score directly from free-kick as well. At a much further distance from goal, about one-third length of the pitch, at 45 degree angle to goal, Melvin's shot produced that kind of flight which goalkeepers hate. And it went into the top left-hand corner of the goal, leaving their keeper wonder why he bothered to change the gloves. Mike then produced another of his tricks to fool Inter's defenders to notch goal No 5 for us. Doing his trademark seagull run towards goal and without looking at where the ball was landing, it gave their defenders false hope that it was leading to nowhere. But all the remote controls on the sideline cued Mike on where the ball was and more importantly, where Inter's keeper was standing. Mike dutifully lobbed the ball over him and we gave ourselves top mark for such team coordination :)
5-1! A convincing win and we hugely deserved the beer after the match.
So, except for 1 who is 47-years old and is only 2 years older than most of us, the rest may not even have their age starting with 4. We felt they had misrepresented slightly and maybe that was why they weren't surprised that they stole an early lead on the 3rd minute when a few of our players hadn't even touched the ball. Their movement was swift and their football was pleasing to the eyes, and for a split second slower in movement, we tripped their forward just outside the box. For that, we paid a heavy price as their play-maker, No 16, curled in a beautiful shot from the resultant free-kick. This play-maker could have inflicted more damage on us with another free-kick from almost the same spot but it hit the side netting instead, leaving our shaken Brandon visibly relieved.
We slowly got to the grip of the match. Teck Chye and Simon broke up their play in the middle and the latter quickly released Teck Wah on the right, whose low cross into the box was forced into an own goal by Inter's defender under the pressure of Mike. The defender regretted falling to Mike's trap as he realised later that had he left Mike alone, he was actually harmless as proven later. Teck Wah set Mike through on a one-on-one but our physics specialist took too long to calibrate his momentum and calculate his force of inertia. With only the keeper to beat, Mike screwed the ball wide. And the Inter's defender then realised the trick :). The introduction of Weng Khong produced immediate impact as he intercepted a ball and headed back into the box for Teck Wah to shoot past Inter's keeper. Teck Wah could have notched a hat-trick in first half but his 2 other efforts kissed the horizontal instead. Kama had a header cleared off the line. Otherwise, we could have ended the half on much more than just 2-1.
We resumed the match with a simple game plan, i.e. shackle their No 16 and choke the supply line. Kama, and later Simon, worked their socks off to great effect. We began to gain more possession of the ball. Gan fended off the attention of their pesky left-back and produced a delightful cross that sailed beyond everyone's head and dropped nicely onto Weng Khong's path. His turn-and-half-volley produced the fruit and brought an immediate substitution by Inter - the goalkeeper changed his gloves! Wow! That was serious stuff!
Not to be outdone, Melvin showed Inter's No 16 that he could score directly from free-kick as well. At a much further distance from goal, about one-third length of the pitch, at 45 degree angle to goal, Melvin's shot produced that kind of flight which goalkeepers hate. And it went into the top left-hand corner of the goal, leaving their keeper wonder why he bothered to change the gloves. Mike then produced another of his tricks to fool Inter's defenders to notch goal No 5 for us. Doing his trademark seagull run towards goal and without looking at where the ball was landing, it gave their defenders false hope that it was leading to nowhere. But all the remote controls on the sideline cued Mike on where the ball was and more importantly, where Inter's keeper was standing. Mike dutifully lobbed the ball over him and we gave ourselves top mark for such team coordination :)
5-1! A convincing win and we hugely deserved the beer after the match.
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