Match #21 (18 May 08): 4-1 non-event over Blue Social Incompletence

sunday morning matches typically has a slow and predictable feel about them. not, withstanding we'll have less than our usual numbers (thanks to the god-fearing ones), its almost a certainty that we'll win and usually, rather 'durainly' too (were the g-f ones praying for us whilst we're having fun). we will have opponents that stroll in btw 9.15 - 9.30, like a casual morning walk with the dog. then you see them making calls for back-up in a most relax manner, no different from the way a dog lifts its leg to pee! match starts and the dog starts its energetic pursuits which inevitably results in it lying down pitifully after a few beatings. then, there goes the meaning of the match. to borrow from dale cargenie, "there's no use beating a dead dog". it's a purely rhetorical argument as at the end of the day, sunday morning matches are an essential aspect of timing rotation to ensure we play a good mix of opponents. and when the team is in a rut, like having been hammered 1-7 a week before, he he....what can we say?

last sunday however should be considered a non-event. Blue Social Incompletence played with 10, 9 and 8 players at various times of the match (hence the title), we had 11 throughout. they gave up midway into the second half after the 4th goal and requested to call a halt to the match. frankly, it was out of pity, given the dead dog scenario that we just let it go. there's absolutely no point in persisting at that stage. so, the scoreline indicates nothing and didn't matter. what really mattered was that BSI scored an equaliser when they had 9 against 11. now that's quite a feat and to call the match a non-event is quite honestly a discredit to BSI. there's still plenty for marinesunday to do.

Start: BSI started with 10 players and kicked off with some degree of assurance. they attempted to keep the ball and even did some dribbling which was to haunt them later in the match. they also played a high line (dangerous tactic for a long field) which cost them the first goal.

Goal #1: we harassed to recover possession on the right. chiang passed the ball to mike wide out. mike played the ball to st who came in from centre to support. seeing chiang making a typical surge forward, st instinctively first-timed a through ball forward into space. chiang's acceleration took him one on one with the keeper who saved the former's first shot. the rebound richochet off chiang's trusty old knee powerfully into goal.

First Half: 1-0.
Despite being superior in numbers, marinesunday has trouble finding the next breakthrough. Here are some observations:
1. strikers didn't take their chances well enough or with conviction (including the writer's own 2 clear-cut ones).

2. too many players (including defenders) trying to collect durains. players rushing in to score and not spreading out making space. players clashing with each other over the same ball.
suggestion: stick to your position and adjust area of coverage along with team's movement but don't get into the same space that a team-mate has already occupied. midfielders should not be too hasty to move into the final third unless the defence has left an opening and our own player can easily put a ball there.
3. midfielders have trouble finding players (see 2.) and yet trying to put in hopeful through balls.
suggestion: attackers should be prepared to face the midfield to receive the ball on the feet. midfielders to play a direct ball to the striker's feet, allowing strikers to have possession near/in the box, spelling trouble for the defence. other options include playing wall passes or taking shots when the defence plays a game of containment and retreat.
4. wingers crossing spectacularly but lacking in product when a simple short pass to a supporting team mate is available.
suggestion: by all means make crosses, but use an easier option if available.

2nd Half: BSI started with 9 after one of their players were injured at the end of first half.

Goal! Unbelievable equaliser for 9-men BSI: Our attack broke down and BSI punted a long hopeful ball up to their lone striker. He started down our left unmolested and managed to crack a shot which we deflected to our right side of the field. another of their players somehow managed to leave our right midfielder and defender trailing and recovered the loose ball. he let fly what seemed like a shot which was firmly tucked in for a deserving equaliser. a good reminder of observations 1. and 2. above. the goal served as a wake up call to ms.

Goal #2: BSI was sitting back pretty and inviting us to come forward. again from the right, st found chiang with a through ball down the right for a cross. despite BSI's protests for offside, chiang stabbed a low one which wah trapped with back towards goal before recovering his balance and backheeling it cheekily to salvage some pride.

BSI reduced to 8. One of the players had the hang-dog look and his team-mates chided him and told him to take a breather. they forgot they had earlier expended some energies in unnecessary dribbling.

Goal #3: BSI continued to pack their defence and chye punished them good with a curler from out of nothing outside the box. see observation/suggestion 3. no chance for the keeper against such class!

BSI back to 9. hang-dog returns innocuously.

Goal #4: A through ball down the left found chye who steadily brought it closer to goal before releasing the ball into the danger zone for mark's simple tap-in.

BSI players telepathically signals to each other a need to rest and someone request a halt to trading ... erm i mean, bashing, senseless bashing.

ps - the part that takes the longest (and hardest) to write was the observation/suggestion section. not meant to pinpoint blame, i only hope it can help to improve the team game.

Match #20 (11 May 08): Thrashed by Jurong West

there's one thing good abt a thrashing, an eloquent report. first half 2 goals, second 5. period.

Match #19 (3 May 08): MS falls again to MOE

report contributed by kh

Marine Sunday is in a crisis! It’s one that the elders, seniors and founders of the team took seriously and decided to take drastic action to address it. Come to think of it, it was not by pure coincidence that The Straits Times featured a 6-pages Men & Sexuality article last Saturday, the same day we were overrun by a veteran team, was it? OK, we are referring to our Old Warhorse, the venerable Ng. He isn’t a spring chicken anymore. We doubt he needs the little blue pill as well. But looking at the way he hecked down the men in the box and consequently conceded 2 penalties, we reckon that he is in a dire need of “Reliever of His Internal Fire”! Has he stopped visiting Sichuan? We decided that enough was enough and denied him of the dubious honour of being the 1st player in the entire football history to ever give away 3 penalties in a match, and so we took him off.

Whilst we came up short in terms of possession but we were certainly not overrun as the 4-1 score line suggested. We were not slick in our passing and movements but we were more penetrating in the box. However, we were not clinical, and that was our killer! We were not sharp and brutal in converting those gilt-edged chances.

We conceded the 4 goals – first two due to hesitation and ball watching by our defence line and the last two by our Butcher Ng, although it was not entirely his fault. Position and coverage wise, he is top class. He is just too eager to stick out his leg to trip players, just as he is too eager to stick out his other leg to trap err….you know lah, no need to state too obvious, right?

We conceded a soft goal through nothing but hesitation and ball-watching in the box. A cross-field high ball into our box reached nobody but yet, we allowed their winger plenty of time to recover the loose ball. He had the world at his feet to pick out his mate unmarked in the box, who then tap in beyond Seah’s reach for the opening goal.

Our equalizing goal resulted from patient build-up, followed by a typical well-timed run into the box by KH to receive a defence-piercing pass by Simon, then a well-drilled square pass to the far post for a typical finishing by Teck Wah. The movement looked pleasing to the eyes. And we thought we had the game back when we finished the 1st half at one a piece.

3 glorious goal-scoring opportunities were created but we fluffed them. First, Teck Wah brought down a high ball with his exquisite first touch and turned his marker flat dead. He faced the keeper in the 6-yards box. Mind you, it was in the 6-yards box and you could imagine how close. But he blasted the ball over the bar.

Next Simon was left unmarked outside the box to receive the ball. With no one closing him down, he let fly with a right-footer that the keeper palmed it away. And he recovered in time to save KH’s follow-up with his feet.

Teck Chye then wriggled his way into the box, rounded the keeper but his shot was blocked by a defender. KH followed up with a stiff grounder that came off the keeper before another defender deflected Teck Wah’s weak left-footed attempted for a corner.

And we paid dearly for those misses as MOE Veterans buried 3 goals past us. A slick back-heel left our defenders flat-footed and their striker slammed the through ball past Seah. Next, the 2 penalties and each one was converted with superb confidence, leaving Seah no chance to pull off any heroics we had been accustomed to.

We could have done better, we knew that. Despite the mauling, we were overall quite positive in terms of team spirit and how we handled this outcome, compared to the other huge loss, 4-0, against the Holy Prayer United 2 weeks ago. Keep it up!

Match #18 (26 April 08): Easy 5-1 win over homely guys - A rebound on the cards?

Report contributed by Mike

Ah…..the smell of grass greeted us as we strolled into Bendemeer Secondary on a cool Saturday evening. Some of us were glad because grass/mud will be kinder to our old knees. Others were secretly hoping that this change from a plastic pitch would bring about a change of fortune.

Opponents were MYJIA Family F.C (NEW PAPER Feb 07), a young team whose members are sort of related to each other in some way. Their records this year before meeting us: P5, W4, L1 (they played fortnightly). On paper, they are better. But football can be funny sometimes. One week shit, another week unbeatable. On the pitch, this week, it was MS that played more like a family unit.

Hock Leong was back at defense, showing none of the effects of a recent injury. He completely shut out their beefly striker who has caused us problems in previous games. In midfield, Chor Guan’s energy and tenacity reminded us that we were once young. The whole team seemed different from last week’s. Confidence perhaps? Discipline and tactical positioning? Who knows? That’s why we love football so much.

Teck Wah gave us an early lead when he displayed clinical finishing by lobbing the keeper after a high ball into the box from Leo. Next, Gan was put through by a long ball, showed some fancy footwork to dance past the keeper, and picked the ball up after it crossed the goal line. Another assist from Leo when his clearance reached Teck Wah whose first time volley (his specialty?) went high into the roof of the net, 3-0.

MYJIA just have no answer to our compact defense. But seconds before half time, their best midfield player found space on the left side of the box, dribbled in skillfully and placed a low shot just inside Seah’s left upright.

After the break, Myjia had most of the possession but we had the better chances when we counterattack with fast breaks. One resulted in a disallowed goal for offside and Teck Chye, uncharacteristically blasted another one over. See Chiang had two spectacular falls, but still managed to hold on to the ball. Perhaps, he is still getting into grips with grass as he was playing in the mud in the first half.

Off another fast break, Simon our playmaker, lifted a ball to the left for Mike to run in and placed a lucky shot through the keeper’s legs for goal No.4. Leo got his hattrick of assists when his strong run to the left byline resulted in a simple tap in for Teck Wah to claim his hattrick. Last kick of the game belong to Teck Chye. After a nice one-two with Simon on the right, he again blasted over. Maybe Teck Chye prefers to play on plastic.

Match #17 (19 Apr 08): (Felt like) Taken to the cleaners

Report contributed by Wah.

For the 2nd consecutive week, Marine Sunday suffered defeats. What was similar were that we were in our all blue strip, the opponents scored 4 goals, with both games played on the astro pitches. What was contrastingly different were the way we played, and the after match mood amongst the team. If last week we felt we played well and felt good even with the loss, we could hardly say the same for the performance this week

Going back to See Chiang's archives of our past records, it was way back in December 2006 that we were last beaten by 4 goals - 5 goals to 1, then to King of Dunearn. This time, it was 4 goals to the opponent without reply from MS.

Similar to the match against KOD then, this week we were pretty short in numbers. Hock Leong decided 2 days before to bully a bunch of kids in a basketball game, but instead got himself injured when he decided to do an Air Jordan move from the 3 point line. So we had 10 players starting the game...actually 9.5 players, cos See Chiang had gone to the gym earlier in the day and his soul was still lingering in the gym behind the girl with the cute butt on the treadmill.

Anyway, you can see this first time match report writer is trying his best to BS a long story without mentioning the game itself. Well, that's because there wasn't really much to mention, from our perspective that is. Ok, MS started the first 10 minutes pretty well, though both teams weren't really creating any chances upfront. Somehow MS started losing the plot from the time we had our 11th man in. The first goal came when the MS defense tried to play a high line and was caught out by a hopeful punt into space for their lone forward to run onto. The referee - who I may add was terribly inept at positioning himself throughout the game - waved off the offside calls from our last man, and thus allowed the forward to round Seah to put them ahead. The first half ended with the 1 nil scoreline, which gave MS hope of a fightback.

Sadly, the 2nd half was to prove otherwise. Passes went astray, first touches were bad, everyone seemed a step slower than the opponents...all in all, this was to prove to be one of our worse performances in a long while. The 2nd and 3rd goals were similar in nature. Quick breakaways from defense to attack from our opponents resulted in two quick goals. By this time, we knew the game was gone, even though the trusty old St Wilfrid clock showed there were still about 20 minutes to play.

The misery was compounded when the opponent curled a corner kick right to the near post, where Ng was holdng fort. Perhaps blinded by the spinning Mikasa ball, Ng attempted to leap (or more like tip-toe) and head the ball away, only to see the ball skim his head and straight into goal.

Perhaps a change to an all white strip next week for a change of fortunes?

Match #16 (12 Apr 08): 3-4 loss to babylon (again)

report contributed by kh.
attendance 17: seah, guan, kwan, ng, wen, leo, chiang, st, mark, wah, mike, chye, leng, gan, hleong, kh, lakesh.

Babylon proved that quality rules over quantity, with only 10 men against the 17-men Marine Sunday and still walked off as deserving winner in a pulsating match. Marine Sunday reciprocated with an overwhelming dosage of never-say-die spirit that could have finished off the game with an equalizer.

Despite having a man short throughout the match, Babylon passed the ball around the pitch that would have Arsene Wenger drooled over it as well. Marine Sunday, whilst chasing the game and closing down space, displayed the doggedness that would have embarrassed the over-rated English players.

Babylon players were definitely more nimble-footed and mobile. Conversely, we always came up 1 step short and committed a few suicidal fouls. The first of many such fouls led to the opening goal when Simon tripped their player 10 metres outside the box. Their playmaker, No 25, curled one sweet left-footer over the 3-men wall and sailed into the net. Even though Seah had 1 hand to the ball, it just packed too much power to be punched away.

A quick breakaway led to their 2nd goal as we came up short in pace to chase after their left winger. Without breaking his strides, he walloped a cracker from outside the box and the ball landed diagonally at the top right hand corner, with Seah rooted. 2 goals down!

Babylon’s overwhelming possession could have further yielded 2 goals but we rode our luck. First, Chung Wen was a step slower to clear the ball in the box and tripped their player instead. Referee pointed to the spot without hesitation but Babylon blew the resultant penalty wide off the left upright. Then, Seah denied another swift breakthrough down the left but Babylon’s follow-up to the loose ball was miraculously denied, not once but twice in quick succession, by Teck Chye on the line.

We pressed on and before the half ended, Teck Chye sneaked in from behind to receive Mike’s floater from the right, and Chye coolly lobbed over the keeper to narrow the deficit 1-2 at half-time.

2nd half resumed in pretty much the same manner with us chasing the game but we surprised them with our equalizing goal. Now, the younger Tang brother did what his elder brother earlier did as he capitalized on the miscommunication between Babylon’s keeper and left fullback to lob the loose ball over the keeper. Now, we were all square.

Babylon appeared nervy now but a couple of defensive lapses allowed them to regain the lead. An attempted back-header to Seah by Chor Guan was intercepted by their lurking left-winger, who then squared the ball into the box. Again, we were 1 step slower to clear the ball. See Chiang hecked the man down instead of reaching the ball. This time round, Babylon coolly converted the penalty. Then another dangerous cross into the box allowed their striker to get in behind Chor Guan for a knock-on. The ball came off the upright but still ended in the net.

Not taking it lying down, we stormed back. Simon was picked out by Lak and the former squared a low ball across the box. See Chiang’s sweeping right-footer shot came off a Babylon’s defender to trickle past the out-of-position keeper. Again the deficit was narrowed and we were inspired.

See Chiang was then 1 step slower to meet Chwee Leng’s teasing cross from the right. Another cross from Simon on the right put their defence in sixes and sevens but Mike somehow slipped at the crucial moment when the ball landed at his feet.

We piled the pressure on the right flank and it almost paid off. They conceded a throw in near the corner flag and Mark’s long throw was back-headed by Mike across the goal. Ng stole in from the blind and powered in a thunder header that was heading towards the top left-hand corner. But it wasn’t to be as their keeper managed to collect the ball. With that, the final whistle went. 3-4 was the final score and accordingly, it was out first loss this season in our all-blue!

Match #15 (6 April 08): Air Force team hit for six

we savored another good win against strong opposition. apparently, this is their first loss in a long time and well, the scoreline just rubbed it in. like last sunday, our opponents from tengah air base showed up slowly, and all seemed a size bigger than us on average. last week taught us not to judge the opponents by those factors and so we didn't. it didn't surprise us that our opponents were good on the ball, played confidently and were fast to close us down. though our defence was solid as usual, we were missing our regular stoppers. the masterstroke today was fielding chiang in that role. he played an imperious match, chomping on incoming balls before opponents could control them, and their 'old guard with an attitude' at the back had to resort to verbal threats to chop our number 13 in an altercation. so in second half, kh played chiang on the left wing just so to tease old bugger, whose own tackles were not to be scoffed at. it was a tight game in the first half and we had to hold on for a period when we lose the ball too frequently. in the end, again, it was teamwork that wore out individualism to produce another fabulous win. here are the goals.

(1-0, gan): we dominated the early exchanges. gan had sight of goal in the first minute when wah, coming back from injury, chested the ball for him. one touch and the volley from gan went just over. minutes later, a throw-in from lakesh found st who casually clipped the ball into the box. gan controlled it well and was brought down as he was about to pull the trigger. no hesitation from the referee and the penalty was duly despatched by the one who earned it.

(2-0, guan): we defended a corner well and as our guys shouted 'up', almost the entire team took it to the extreme. the remaining 3 guys jogged up in our half to see a sea of blue spread across opponent's final third area. we had moved the ball swiftly along the left flank and a cross was delivered across the penalty box where guan had popped up from defence to finish it at the far end.

(2-1, opponent): towards the end of the first half, opponents had the measure of us as their urgent pressing caused us to be unable to keep possession for long. we lost the ball on our left and their right winger had some time to consider his options. he hit a speculative shot which seah had a hand to but it dropped past the line. seah managed to scoop it out but this referee wasn't going to allow a repeat of what roy caroll did.

half time 2-1.

(3-1, mike): we got this important breakthrough to demoralise our opponents. chye's corner was low but mike stooped low to produce a carbon copy header to the one he scored against techwood. different assist, same result.

(4-1, wah): we now started to dominate possession as opponents wilted under the sun and that feeling of helplessness not being able to make any headway. lakesh recovered a ball in midfield and played to st on the right. watching kh make the run, st played the ball in-between 2 defenders and kh's pace and strength beat them to it. with composure, he delivered the perfect ball across goal for wah to finish it with confidence.

(5-1, st): more pressure from us on the left. chiang brought the ball up on the left and as opponents appeared to have recovered possession, he, kh and gan formed a triangle in pressing the opponents inside the box. out of desperation, the defender's attempted clearance ended up as a pass to st who was lurking just inside the box. an opponent closed in and st shifted the ball to his right only to be held back by the defender. as he fell, he managed to conjure up half a shot which just looped over the keeper into goal.

(6-1, gan): by now, the match had become a struggle for opponents as their attacks lack fluency and bite. it was easy for us to contain them and launch counter attacks. gan received the ball outside the box and with no one closing in on him, he decided on a delightful chip to round off the day's excellent win.

final score 6-1.