the beauty of astro pitches. it was raining heavily just before the match and the rest was played in a drizzle, life goes on. it's also good to play against corporate teams, chances are you don't mean gangsterish bengs! IBM are a good mix of mainly young players, full of drive, a good number had trickery to boot. they move the ball well for a corp team and their cohesion was held together by a few skillful and intelligent ball players in midfield. they were however quite light in defence but had a brave keeper to compensate. we had our chances in the first half but failed to capitalise. then yc suffered a cut above the left high from a clash of heads and had to leave the field. IBM capitalise on our reorg to take a 1-0 lead. ms weather the rest of the first half storm. it's not over.....typical of ms, we have the resilience and discipline to grind out an opening to stage a recovery. fortune favored us for our equaliser, but everything else was a testimony of teamwork over individualism. here are the moments.
IBM's opener: our right mid left too much space for IBM to exploit and their midfielder had all the time in the whole to drive a diagonal ball through our defence. as players on both sides comically tried to clear, block, retrieve in miscued fashion, the ball eventually fell to an IBM player who just managed to toe-poke the ball past brandon who had came out well earlier to block one of the shots.
Half time 0-1: Tim came in to add bite to the defence. chiang moved from stopper to right midfield where he enjoys his marauding runs.
MS's equaliser: mark put the ball down the right in a counter-attack and as leng shaped up to cross, he delivered a weak shot which floated over the keeper. both players' only mistake of the game, which changed the overall momentum of the match.
Chye's goal: MS began to attack with greater threat in the opponents third. a sweeping move from right to left found st at the edge of the box. watched by a defender, he shifted the ball from his left to right and from the smallest opening created, curled a ball to the far corner which the keeper brilliantly tipped over. it's not over.....there was no escape from the resulting corner as IBM failed to clear and chye continued his superb form with an unstoppable volley.
Brandon's save of the match: it's not over....IBM was not giving up and continued to press knowing a breakthrough on their part could change the game. as we defended, we sometimes allowed long range shots. a thunderbolt from their central playmaker went just wide and later, another was soaring for the top right corner when brandon, seemingly a step off position, leapt like a salmon and palmed it firmly to safety. critical moment save.
Mark's long range missile: another of mark's trademark (pun not intended) goals. again steady team work was key to the build up. defence broke up an attack, ball played to chiang on the right and as defenders stepped up on him, he played a simple ball to st in the middle. good movement by mark to space and st had no difficulty placing the ball in between 2 IBM players for mark to stride on. supporting movements from our strikers pulled defenders away and mark was free to unleashed his missle from way out. too good and keeper was not to be blamed.
Wah's emphatic finish: st robbed the ball in midfield and as wah dragged a defender down the left, allowed st to play a ball wide out to mike who had more space. mike drew a player and then played the ball back to st who shaped up to shoot only for a defender to come in for cover. st then flicked the ball past the defender and for the second time, another defender came in to nick the ball away. it's not over.....it fell nicely for wah to confidently smash in a shot into the far corner.
Final score: 4-1
Fracas: Towards the end, a full blooded but completely fair tackle by ng brought down IBM's playmaker. it was alleged the IBM player had pushed ng as he was getting up and ng retaliated with a slap on the opponent's head. as players from both sides tried to stop the scuffle, opponent managed to break through and give ng a dose of his own medicine. luckily no one was hurt and the IBM fellas were all sensible. without wanting to pinpoint blame, establish flashpoint etc, may i humbly suggest we, as individuals in a respectable team should always consider how our temperament in the game affects the team as a whole. in the world of amateur football, we have heard of some serious incidents, parang chasing, broken jaw, police interference, etc. not that we are anywhere close to cheena juventus whom nobody wants to play against now. but if we respond to the slightest of provocation.... i'd rather our excellent brand of team football be our spokesman. despite a great come from behind win last night, personally, i felt it ended on a rather sour note.
it's not over.....fracas at the end notwithstanding, expect IBM to arrange a rematch.
Now you know why the title of the blog is 'it's not over' :)
IBM's opener: our right mid left too much space for IBM to exploit and their midfielder had all the time in the whole to drive a diagonal ball through our defence. as players on both sides comically tried to clear, block, retrieve in miscued fashion, the ball eventually fell to an IBM player who just managed to toe-poke the ball past brandon who had came out well earlier to block one of the shots.
Half time 0-1: Tim came in to add bite to the defence. chiang moved from stopper to right midfield where he enjoys his marauding runs.
MS's equaliser: mark put the ball down the right in a counter-attack and as leng shaped up to cross, he delivered a weak shot which floated over the keeper. both players' only mistake of the game, which changed the overall momentum of the match.
Chye's goal: MS began to attack with greater threat in the opponents third. a sweeping move from right to left found st at the edge of the box. watched by a defender, he shifted the ball from his left to right and from the smallest opening created, curled a ball to the far corner which the keeper brilliantly tipped over. it's not over.....there was no escape from the resulting corner as IBM failed to clear and chye continued his superb form with an unstoppable volley.
Brandon's save of the match: it's not over....IBM was not giving up and continued to press knowing a breakthrough on their part could change the game. as we defended, we sometimes allowed long range shots. a thunderbolt from their central playmaker went just wide and later, another was soaring for the top right corner when brandon, seemingly a step off position, leapt like a salmon and palmed it firmly to safety. critical moment save.
Mark's long range missile: another of mark's trademark (pun not intended) goals. again steady team work was key to the build up. defence broke up an attack, ball played to chiang on the right and as defenders stepped up on him, he played a simple ball to st in the middle. good movement by mark to space and st had no difficulty placing the ball in between 2 IBM players for mark to stride on. supporting movements from our strikers pulled defenders away and mark was free to unleashed his missle from way out. too good and keeper was not to be blamed.
Wah's emphatic finish: st robbed the ball in midfield and as wah dragged a defender down the left, allowed st to play a ball wide out to mike who had more space. mike drew a player and then played the ball back to st who shaped up to shoot only for a defender to come in for cover. st then flicked the ball past the defender and for the second time, another defender came in to nick the ball away. it's not over.....it fell nicely for wah to confidently smash in a shot into the far corner.
Final score: 4-1
Fracas: Towards the end, a full blooded but completely fair tackle by ng brought down IBM's playmaker. it was alleged the IBM player had pushed ng as he was getting up and ng retaliated with a slap on the opponent's head. as players from both sides tried to stop the scuffle, opponent managed to break through and give ng a dose of his own medicine. luckily no one was hurt and the IBM fellas were all sensible. without wanting to pinpoint blame, establish flashpoint etc, may i humbly suggest we, as individuals in a respectable team should always consider how our temperament in the game affects the team as a whole. in the world of amateur football, we have heard of some serious incidents, parang chasing, broken jaw, police interference, etc. not that we are anywhere close to cheena juventus whom nobody wants to play against now. but if we respond to the slightest of provocation.... i'd rather our excellent brand of team football be our spokesman. despite a great come from behind win last night, personally, i felt it ended on a rather sour note.
it's not over.....fracas at the end notwithstanding, expect IBM to arrange a rematch.
Now you know why the title of the blog is 'it's not over' :)
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For the second consecutive game, we conceded 3 goals. It was probably down to bad luck as I think we played relatively well. As age caught up with us, MS is susceptible to counterattacks when we lose possession. Luckily in this game, we score more. It took some great holding skill from Gan & a fantastic thru ball from him that set me up for goal no. 3. Learning from the previous game, I decided to go round the keeper this time & slot in from a tight angle. It was a relief after all the misses in the last game. But then the misses came haunting me in the second half & I start missing one on one again. Was it the new boots?? I really hope not.... guess it's just me, losing sharpness & confidence...
Think we gave their midfielders too much space, few attempts at goal and they scored 3 goals. Think we have to start playing team of our age, see the amount of time we need to control a ball. By the time we got the ball controlled, opponents are already at our back or already got away with the ball. Also, some of us when frustrated started shouting at our own teammates(including mysleg) which I think will happen more often in future games if we continue to play against such opponents (fast and young). Maybe some of us should start to play in other position that may be more suitable due to fitness, age etc.......
I arrived only in time for the 2nd half, but maybe I should do that more often, for I scored one goal...it has been a long time coming. Here's a short account of the goal...
YC made a through pass from midfield. Leng did a parallel run before runing forward beating the offside trap...referee did well to wave play on....leng continue with his run..coming one-ono-one with the goalie..with the angle narrowing...and with his team mates expecting him to shoot straight at the goalie or shoot wide..leng managed to score with the outside of his right foot, the ball curling round the keeper and inside the near post...what a relief...