Match #50 (22 Dec 2013): We Weren't Perfect, Just Simply Effective

Perfect rued their missed scoring chances again. They crafted enough opportunities to turn this match into a badminton scoreline but instead, they had to settle for another agonising defeat against us. The 5-2 win looked flattering to us, compared to the first encounter of a narrow 2-1 win, but we deserved it, no less. We were simply effective, converted our chances well.

KH was lively in the opening encounter, putting in a few crosses into the box but posed no threat to Perfect. Then, a miscued cross had Perfect's keeper flapping to push the ball against the bar and Mike followed up to put the ball into the open goal. Mike then notched his 2nd goal after he turned well to meet a throw-in from the right and instantly produced a first-time volley. Our next 2 goals came from Teck Chye and as a result, he topped the goal-scoring chart for the 2013 season, breaking the stronghold of his younger brother who has been topping the chart for the past we-lost-count-how-many seasons. He first produced an exquisite free-kick that gave Perfect's keeper no chance. Then he intercepted a sloppy pass from Perfect's not-so-perfect last man and went on to beat the keeper with relative ease. 4-0 at the break and we seemed to be cruising. In between our goals, Perfect carved a few good scoring opportunities but their less-than-perfect conversion let themselves down.

Perfect came out livelier in the 2nd half, pinning us in our half but a quick breakaway resulted in our 5th goal. Chor Guan capped a fine season, having scored in the first match of the season, with our final goal of the season, our 209th. Gan picked Chor Guan out with a pinpoint pass after Chor Guan had galloped from the rear to beat Perfect's high defence line. Chor Guan recovered from his initial tumble to put the ball into the net.

We ran out of steam and Perfect's younger players took full advantage of our lack of pace and stamina, after all most of us just came back from vacation of feasting and putting on weight. They produced 2 consolation goals and were so unlucky to have missed a handful of cutting edge chances.

We proved to be effective and that won us the match, 5-2!

Match #48 (1 Dec 2013): Spirited display but we lost on just the odd key moments

For sake of reference, opponents wearing white top with red hoops shall be called QPR. Comprising a fine mix of old and young, they are a team very confident on the ball. Their early composure helped them to a two goal lead though we had created more chances. Then we had a lampardesque moment when our scorcher from way outside the box left the keeper completely rooted, crashed against the underside of the bar, crossed the line and spinned back towards the grateful arms of the keeper.

The cruel decision not to award the clear goal at that stage meant we had to summoned the renown MS spirit for the second half. Pressing like footballers possessed, we subdued QPR with pacey and breathtaking approach play. It looked like there was only to be one winner when we equalised through Mike and Chye (penalty earned by Gan). QPR was quaking pissing and rocking under the incessant pressure. Gan was to earned us another stone cold penalty as QPR's defenders couldn't cope with his excellent hold-up play. This time, our penalty was well saved by the keeper.

That was to haunt us as QPR earned a corner in one of their rare potent attacks. Their agile striker eluded the attentions of our unlucky fella whose goal was not recognised earlier, and planted a firm header to give them the winning goal.

Bottom line - one that got away, but the MS spirit was worth savouring.

Match #45 (10 Nov 2013): A Stylish 3-1 Win Over The Hair-Stylists

Salon One are a respectable team comprising veterans who sure know how to play football. They did come close on several occasions but luck must have deserted them. Notwithstanding, we were worthy 3-1 winners out of this duel as we just had as many, if not more, goal-scoring chances as them. Mike was both hero-villain for us, notching our first goal in the first half before a poor giveaway in the 2nd half led to their equalising goal. Then a couple of cool finishing from the Tang brothers beat their stylish keeper and settled the issue.

But the most memorable moment came from See Chiang's glaring miss after beating Salon One's keeper to the ball and with the goal wide open, he placed the ball wide. Now we know why he is never successful with the Xiao-Mei-Mei :)

match #44 (3 Nov 2013): Marine Sunday vs KOP - 2nd Leg: We Proved Our Worth

Coincidentally, we lined up against Kop for 2nd week in a row and we showed last match's 1-1 draw was a hiccup on our part as we ran out worthy 6-3 winner in this "2nd-leg" match. Yes, 4 of our 6 goals were gifted by their schoolboy defensive blunders but we didn't ask for those, did we? We capitalized on those blunders, shouldn't we?

But Kop were no pushovers. While we had Teck Wah at his predatory best today, notching a hat-trick by punishing them dearly on those defensive blunders, Kop had in their No 9 a sure-footed striker who scored a brace and had an assist in their other goal.

Chor Guan (penalty), Mike and Kama completed the repertoire for us in a match that wasn't pleasing to the football purists. There was hardly any passing from both sides. It was more like a primary school football match with both sides simply booting the ball forward and hoping for the best.

An ugly match but a beautiful win for us :)

Match #43 (27 Oct 2013): All The Misses Caused The 1-1 Draw

We should have buried Kop 12 feet under given the number of misses we had. Kian Hwa was the biggest culprit, with 4 open-goal opportunities at his mercy but fluffed them all. Both goals were of superb quality that were worth watching repeatedly. Simon intercepted a ball from midfield and, spotting the keeper out of position, produced a delicate chip over the stranded keeper to keep us at 1-0 lead at the break. But Kop's equalising goal wasn't any inferior compared to Daniel Sturridge's audacious chip in the match against WBA. Meeting a cross from the right, their No 1 danger man leaped high and cushioned the ball with his cultured left foot to lob it over Brandon.

The match degenerated into a physical encounter but both shared the spoils.

Match #42 (13 Oct 2013): Family United Lost But They Won Big-Time In Family Spirit. They Remain Family United!

I was told post-match that there were 7 brothers among the Opponent and those 4 women at the sideline were their sisters! Wow, 11 siblings and they still remain so close at their age. Very admirable. Sure, they lost the match big time to us. 10-nil....but they had won big, very big in terms of family tie.

Simon (3), Chor Guan (2), Kama, Mike, Teck Chye, Kian Hwa, Woon scored the 10 goals but no way did we dent the love among their 11 siblings :)

Match #41 (6 Oct 2013): Question Marks Had A Lot To Answer

When a team is named Question Marks, either they are casting doubt on their opponents or they have been searching for answers. Today, they might have been enlightened by a bunch of mid-life crisis folks who overran them 7-1.

Yes, the goal conceded was a sore point in an otherwise thoroughly perfect outing. If KH had not missed the sitter less than half-a-meter from the open goal, it would have been the lucky eight.

Mike put in a top-form display and notched 2 goals, Gan also notched a brace and a goal each from Teck Wah, Kama, Simon completed the misery for Question Marks. Question, anyone?

Match #40 (29 Sep 2013): KTGL!

Our performance and result today fell into Quadrant 2 of my Result Interpretation matrix (see attached pic).....KTGL - Kio Tio Gu Lan (Pick Up a Bull's Ball).

We narrowly beat Perfect 2-1 and of course we had who else but Teck Wah to put in the winning goal for us. But the match was really won by our rear guards. Gan, as stand-in keeper in 1st half, blocked a one-on-one when the match was not even 1 minute old. And then, he recovered brilliantly, after thoroughly wrong-footed by Chwee Leng's back header, to claw the ball away just 5 cm from goal! Brandon, arrived in time for 2nd half, produced 4 stupendous one-on-one saves to keep us alive. And Chor Guan blocked a certain goal on goal line and later when Perfect launched a quick counter-attack, he coolly organised Chwee Leng to cover him while he went to close down their playmaker and close down he did. Chwee Leng was at his tenacious best in the 2nd half, battling 4 players and even won a free-kick out of it. See Chiang, though rusty and frequently out of position, produced one vital block to prevent Perfect's striker from taking a shot at goal in the box. And not forgetting our two evergreens - Leo and Ng, who ran their hearts and lungs out trying to contain their wing play.

Our first goal came from their defender as he deflected Teck Wah's cross and wrong-footed his keeper. Perfect equalised in the 2nd half after putting us under tremendous pressure in the opening 20 minutes of 2nd half. Though Teck Wah settled the match for us, I am sure everyone would pay tribute to our guys at the back! :)

Match #39 (22 Sep 2013): Sep clean sheet shattered despite win

6-0 up and with 5 minutes left to play, complacency set in and allowed opponent to score 2 quick consolation goals. It was frustrating to see a clean sheet being unnecessarily denied by our own sloppiness. Up to those last 5 minutes, we were in control throughout although our passing could have been better.

3-0 up at the break, courtesy of Teck Wah's cool finishing, Weng Khong finishing off Teck Wah's cut-back and Woon latching onto Gan's backheel pass to side-step Opponent's keeper. Gan then added a brace in the 2nd half, with the his first coming from distance after spotting Opponent's keeper way off his line and his second was a credit of his doggedness in the box to finally put the ball in the net after being hauled down before that. Teck Chye thumped in a header from a corner by Teck Wah. We looked to further increase the margin but instead the final 5 minutes denied us the icing on the cake.

Match #38 (15 Sep 2013): The Young Ferocious Ones Ganned Down

Young wasn't enough, we have to contend with ferocity as well, and how we ganned them down. Opponents, perhaps with their affinity for speed and power and thus named themselves Carrera (a model of Porsche, you know?) clearly knew how young they are compared to us. In an altercation with Ng, the rude opponent indicated as much declaring that we are old enough to be their father! Where's the respect for the elderly? Ferocious they were, as straight from the kick off, their battle cry bordered on the maniacal as they came charging at us like a pack of wolves. But they could not contend with our fine blend of composure, wisdom, resilience and a man who goes by the name of Gan.

Just as Arsenal acquired the king of assists, the match today was in large part significant for Gan's triple assists. First, he took a difficult ball and advanced into the box causing the panicky defender to pull him down. Weng Khong took responsibility and promptly put us one up. Then he dealt with a high bouncing ball, nonchalantly chesting it into the path of Simon who powered a stiff grounder which the keeper could only deflect it to spin into goal. Two goals up at half time.

Carrera came into the second half with renewed energy and pulled one back quickly. Suddenly, the tide seemed to start turning as they attacked in waves. Nevertheless, two incisive counter-attack from inside our own half did them in. The first defence-splitting pass found Teck Wah sprinting down the left to square for Gan who was too strong for their defenders and they had to drag him down again. Up stepped Teck Chye to restore our two-goal cushion. Then a replica of that pass found Teck Chye whose cross caused havoc in the defence. With the keeper stranded, Rashpal recovered the ball and passed to Alex whose delightful chip was heading for goal until a defender pawed at it. That was the cue for Alex to step up and score from the spot.

Final result - a well deserved 4 - 1 win.

Match #37 (8 Sep 2013): Boon Lay Old Boys Slaughtered By Old Men

Marine Sunday refused to get intimidated by the impressive looking Boon Lay Old Boys who were decked out in pristine all-white. We started confidently and ended the match impressively. Their keeper seemed to have a split personality - a bundle of nerves and spilled every ball in the air in the first half; but was so full of confidence and plucked every ball in the air like harvesting mango with ease in the second half. But his dismal first-half performance allowed us to surge to a commanding 4-0 lead at the break, and could have been more if Alex had been alert to react to an open goal and Gan would have been credited with a goal after his long clearance bounced over the keeper into the net but the goal was disallowed for a dubious offside call on Teck Chye.

Still Mike, Teck Wah, Alex and Teck Chye, in that order, got us the goals. Our fluidity stretched their defence with ease and they must be relieved to hear the whistle for the break.

Boon Lay Old Boys came back with a heightened sense of purpose when the match resumed and began to impose themselves but without real threat to us. We were pinned back for the first 15 minutes and it took a poor clearance from their keeper and the brilliance of Teck Chye to put the ball beyond the stranded keeper for our 5th. Then Alex set up Teck Wah nicely for the latter to place the ball beyond the despairing dive of their keeper for our 6th. And that was the last touch of the match and the referee's final whistle ended the slaughter.

You could say that we reduced Boon Lay Old Boys to literally a....BLOB.

Match #36 (1 Sep 2013): Enciks Spank The Young Guns 3 - 0

What could be more satisfying for a bunch of mostly mid-40s uncles when facing a crew of young guns in some fearsome-looking outfit? Just stand up to them and dish out some disciplined and effective football without all the fanciful footwork. Result? A handsome 3 - 0 win, which the young guys, Lutador FC also could not quite figure it out.

We did labour in the early stage before Teck Wah opened the account after receiving a brilliant cross-field pass from Kama. Teck Wah finished it, just another day in the office. Woon then added to our scoreline after he reacted quickest to a loose ball that cannoned off the post and put in the rebound. Second half did not produce much cutting edge but a quick movement involving KH, Weng Khong set up Gan to score from just outside the box. 3 - 0

Match #35 (25 Aug 2013): Refugees sneaked one in at the death to salvage a 2-2 draw

Opponent, oddly named Refugees, certainly didn’t look famished or malnourished. They were perhaps a tad too fast and too fit for us to handle. We wilted in the 2nd half whereas they were highly spirited and motivated to come from 0-2 down at the break to equalize in injury time for a draw.

Chwee Leng got his first goal of the season when Refugees' keeper spilled his speculative high lob into the net. While the first goal was courtesy of a huge dosage of luck, our 2nd goal was a textbook routine meeting the corner in the box and Woon did just that with a thumping header to put us 2-0 up at half-time. But 2nd half was a completely different story with their playmaker, No 8, spearheading the attack and he wreaked havoc with his determined run at our rearguards. An assist and a fine goal, and he could have more if Gan had not produced some fine saves to deny him, stamped his class. His equalizing goal deep in injury time was avoidable but it resulted from KH's crucial defensive lapse, allowing the long punt from Refugees' keeper to reach the No 8, who then sidestepped Kok Hock before walloping a low ball from a tight angle to beat Gan at near post.

Match #34 (18 Aug 2013): Raven Ravaged 6-2

Experience overcame youth and exuberance once again as Marine Sunday emerged victorious with a convincing 6-2 win over Raven. But the match was not as easy as the score-line suggested. It was 2-2 up to the 60th minute when Raven fought back from 2-0 down to level the score. They were obviously uplifted but a defensive lapse allowed us to claw back a 3-2 lead and from then on, it was a point of no return as we rampaged home further 3 goals to register an easy-looking 6-2 win.

Kama, Chor Guan (2 goals), Kian Hwa, Leo (penalty to open his account for the season) and Teck Chye (after missing 3 golden one-on-one chances) made us look good :)

Match #33 (11 Aug 2013): Vitality Won The Day....Narrowly

It was a day where we were no match against the vitality and vibrancy of Orange Young Men, most of whom are still undergraduates in the universities. That means one can guess the age gap. If we had not been a bit robust, read experienced, in our approach, we might have let them overrun us. While we came up short in getting to the ball, we were ample in spirit but that was a tad insufficient for today's narrow 2-3 loss against them.

We conceded the 3 goals through free-kicks and in each occasion, the goal was avoidable if we were defensively alert and disciplined. First goal, why was there a need for Weng Khong and Gan to swap positions in the wall, they themselves knew better, and the goal came via deflection off Gan's head and wrong-footed Brandon along the way. Second goal, the entire defence was expecting a referee whistle and had gone sleeping, and they took the free-kick quickly for their winger to slot the ball past Brandon. Third goal, Brandon was busy organising the defenders and had his eyes off the incoming ball from the free-kick. Three silly goals conceded. In between each of their goals, Mike and Teck Wah made the scoreline respectable.

Match #32 (8 Aug 2013): Friendly win over KS Whites

In the early morning hours, on the large expanse of St Wilfrid's ground, two ageing teams lacking subs competed not on brute strength nor pace, but a measure of footballing intelligence and clinical finishing. A casual observer would have commended both teams for their discipline to keep good shape, and more so to play an arsenaleques style of football, albeit with much less zip. For once, the notion that our matches were supposed to be friendly held true.

In the end, experience was vital. The older team played more compactly as a unit, dominated possession and produced the cutting edge on the two critical moments that determined the outcome of the match. Alex smashed a loose ball low and true, from the edge of the box after good build up play had caused havoc. In the second half, Elder Tang thumped an unstoppable header off younger Tang's corner. In between, KS Whites scored a good goal with a well-worked move. 2-1 to MarineSunday.

Match #31 (4 Aug 2013): A Disjointed Performance But Worthy 2-0 Winner

It seems like we are gearing ourselves up for the annual lunar 7th Month syndrome where, for whatever reason, our results tend to go haywire during this lunar month :D

Our recent performance, especially against seemingly easy opponents and teams who started the match with 1-man short, has been patchy. Against Team Orange, we were disjointed in the first half - misplaced passes, hasty lay-offs, heavy touches, miscommunication in the backline and to sum up in Chwee Leng's words, we were simply slow to every ball and not robust enough. We presented them with two howlers but fortunately, they failed to capitalize and thankfully, on each occasion, the sleeping Brandon woke up in time to smother their goal-scoring opportunities. We suspect it was his desire for showmanship :) At the other hand, Teck Wah had a close-range effort blocked by the defender on the line and their keeper brilliantly denied KH and Chor Guan on two one-on-one situations. Teck Chye had another clean break-through to face only the keeper but uncharacteristically, the ball did not find the intended net despite wrong-footing the keeper. Match ended in stalemate at the break.

Despite their younger age, Team Orange appeared tired and jaded in the 2nd half. We cranked up our machinery to good effect. Our opening goal came from a textbook-style defence-to-attack-in-1-second. Weng Khong cleared the ball down the right strip to set off Chor Guan a lung-bursting run down the right. After a swift cut-in, he set up KH flying down from the opposite flank for a decisive finish past their rooted keeper, who was perhaps mesmerized by how swiftly we moved the ball from our half to their half. Weng Khong again had a hand, or rather a head, in our 2nd goal goal. His powerful header from our half found Chor Guan in the opposite box (geez...that was quite a header!). CG brushed off their defender's marking like sweeping dandruff off his shoulder before planting a left-footed shot past their keeper. 2-0 and we were cruising. They were struggling and this was further compounded by their lack of reserves. When they saw we made another wave of 4 substitutions on the 75th-minute mark, they must be wondering if we had a life apart from football :)

Match #30 (28 Jul 2013): Convincing 8-3 Win, But Not Good Enough

It was a match of two halves. We were sixes and sevens in the first half against Tebing FC, which, no disrespect to them, we should have done better in this half than to concede two soft goals. We were not even containing them, let alone controlling the match. Second half saw us in our menacing self, reversing a 1-2 deficit at the break to eventually carve out a rather flattering 8-3 win.

Short of all the recognised central defenders, except for Rock, it was a case of wrong deployment of players in the two central defending positions by fielding Rock and Teck Chye (and then later replaced by Kama) as sweeper and stopper respectively. It was not a question of their capabilities but a matter of regularity and familiarity of them in these roles. Neither plays regularly in the assigned role, as simple as that. Generally, were were disjointed and appalling in the first half, with hurried play and misplaced passes. A tactical switch made at the break paid off. Instead of making two players not totally comfortable in their roles, we switched Rock, a specialist stopper, to his usual role and dropped Simon to sweep the line. Now, at least we had one player totally comfortable in his central defending role and that seemed to work in the second half as we imposed ourselves right from when the match resumed after the break.

Tebing FC were a big suspect in their backline that appeared vulnerable to crosses and defending against dead ball. They were just as static to cut off through balls. Four of our goals came from corners, the other four resulted from through-balls which they failed to read the running of our front players.

Teck Wah (3), Mike (2), Kian Hwa (2) and Woon completed the rout. We conceded a late goal in the second half, a scant consolation to Tebing.

Match #29 (21 Jul 2013): Humbled by Veterans 2-4

Last week, we were awesome against Eusoffianos, a team of players ranging 14-18 years younger than us. But we were awful against Essex Lasallians, a team of players ranging 8-10 years older than us, today. We came up short in every department, we were lethargic and lost the first ball about 80%-90% of the time. We had our chances though but their keeper was simply brilliant to deny us 4 certain goals. We were simply bossed around in the opening 30 minutes of the match and conceded our first goal during then. We came alive in the last 15 minutes of the first half. Chor Guan's effort produced a stupendous reflex save from their keeper and the resultant corner beat their keeper but Chor Guan missed it by a whisker. 1-0 at the break.

We were rampant in the opening 10 minutes of the 2nd half. Mike's close range effort from a square ball by KH was brilliantly blocked by their keeper at the far post and then the latter snuffed out KH's feeble attempt from a one-on-one situation. In between, Gan equalised for us from his solo effort into the box before producing a left-footed shot to beat their custodian. We then allowed them too much space and time in our half and their patient build up paid off with another goal. 2-1. A fantastic double-act from the Tang brothers down the left had Mike benefitted from Teck Chye's cross to put the ball into the net. 2-2. Teck Chye was then unbelievably denied by their keeper at the edge of the penalty box when he was put through. At this juncture, the ploy to push Chor Guan upfront to try seizing a win backfired as they found space at our rear to notch further 2 goals to finish us off at 4-2.

Match #28 (14 Jul 2013): Marine Sunday Tamed Eusoffianos 5 - 1

In the past four encounters with Eusoffianos since we first met in 2010, we won thrice and each was a close win. The only loss against them was a 3-7 whitewash on 26 Jun 2011. And today, we let them have a taste of the medicine as we exacted a handsome 5-1 scoreline over them, although our first 3 goals were rather fortuitous. But nobody could fault us with our robustness, commitment and top-class work rate to close them fast and deny them space. Considering that they are 14-18 years younger than us, and with a few of them fresh from uni 2 years ago, we have every reason to be proud of and immensely satisfied with this unexpected result.

We almost opened the account early in the match when Teck Chye's delightful chip caught Eusoffianos' keeper hopelessly stranded but the ball came off the horizontal. Then Teck Wah forced a one-handed save from him, with the ball again coming off the upright. Then their generosity presented two durians to us - first, their defender totally fluffed a very tame square ball from Gan and even Teck Wah, just standing behind the defender, was shocked to see the ball coming to him. Just a slight touch from him converted it into our opening goal. Then, a horrendous clearance of a harmless looking through ball by their keeper gifted Alex to do another simple tap-in for his first goal of the season for us! Eusoffianos' only notable efforts in the 1st half were two long-range efforts from their two playmakers but Brandon dealt with them easily. Apart from those efforts, our well-marshalled defence comprising the steady Chor Guan, brilliant Chwee Leng, enterprising Woon on the right and the tenacious Chung Wen on the left were stingy on the space and time for them. Melvin, coming in late in the 1st half to relieve the midfield of increasing pressure from Eusoffianos, produced a delicate chip just outside the box. The ball again came off the bar but it hit the keeper for a rebound into goal. The Dubious Goal Committee would have judged this an own goal by Eusoffianos' keeper but on repeated appeals and threats by Melvin, we overruled the DG Committee to credit the goal to him...also his 1st goal of the season. 3-0 at the break.

Eusoffianos almost broke the duck early in the 2nd half but a brilliant reflex save by Brandon denied their close-range effort resulted from a free-kick just outside the box, which came from KH's robust tackle on their winger. Things were then evenly matched and then another avalanche of goals came in the last 15 minutes of the match. They earned another free-kick just outside the box which their defender gave Brandon no chance. Deficit was reduced but the gap was shortly widened. Teck Chye profited from another miscued clearance in their box and dispatched a left-footed effort to beat the keeper at near post. 4-1. Another forgettable clearance by their custodian allowed us to seize the initiative again and Simon's grounder squirmed under the keeper's body for our 5th goal. We had another handful of efforts on targets and our numerous forays into their box proved threatening but no further goals ensued. Final score: 5-1!