We went to the same pitch where the game was rained off a couple of weeks ago on Saturday. But this time, we had a good squad of 16 instead. The opponents were Astana and Ben mentioned that we had played them twice and beaten them the last time. They were a young and good side. Skillful and hardworking youngsters but they only had 10 on the day.
Starting line up
Ben
Jiunn Kee SK Clarence
Daryl Andy (Capt) Harold Jason Yiong
Henry
Subs:
Yew Boon
Roger
Bee
Damian
Jerome
We started with a bang, literally. Within 1 minute, we were 1-0 up. A long punt from midfield, Henry hustled for it and their centre back toe-poked into the goal. It was so quick, that no one was quite sure who scored until it was pointed out that it was an own goal. We thought it will be a field day for us, going one goal and man up. However, that wasn’t the case. Astana took the game to us and quickly settled down. They moved the ball quickly and made full use of their possession. Their striker upfront held the ball well and laid it off for their midfield to go through. We struggled to hold on to the ball and ALSO struggled to get the ball back. They got the equalizer when they broke on our left, and shot into the bottom right corner which Ben couldn’t do anything about it. Changes were made but we continued to struggle. We didn’t managed to create clear cut chances, except when Yew Boon header from a corner was cleared off the line, and it got worse. A corner got to their tall defender who headed unchallenged into the goal. 1-2 down at half time.
We were clearly not in the game. It was reminded to the team that they were letting themselves down. Having not even managed to string passes together, we didn’t even want to work together as a team. We were playing against 10 boys. And yet we cannot even do ourselves justice. We had to pick ourselves up and make it count.
2nd Half and we switched to 4-4-2. Daryl partnering Yew Boon upfront to try to hustle and tire the opponents. Daryl ran after a lost cause, kept the ball in, couldn’t decide what to do, so squared it back. Somehow, it landed at Andy’s feet who shot into the bottom corner. 2-2. Ecstasy on the sidelines. That goes to show how much it meant. A corner from the right reached Damian who headed into goal. 3-2. We were playing so much better now. We were hustling from the top and creating lots of chances. A defensive lapse resulted in an opponent weaving his way through on the left and scoring the equalizer. 3-3. We didn’t let our heads go down. Harold got to the end of a good move, Yiong with the final pass and placed it into the bottom left corner for the lead again. This time, we didn’t give the lead up. Jason then scored with his head to put us further ahead. The 10 boys were tiring and we were clearly on top. Jerome was strolling around upfront after our attack broke down. THEN the ball went straight back up, he hassled the defender, got it, shimmied past the keeper and instead of shooting, tap it to Harold, who blasted into the net for his second goal. 6-3 and time winding down. We reverted to 4-5-1 and even their keeper went on the offensive which prompted several of us to ask Ben to shoot when he got the ball. Full time reached and final score 6-3 to us.
What a difference at full time compared to half time. All smiles instead of gloomy faces. The team clearly felt that they had done a good job. A question was asked to me, what happened in the 2nd half? We didn’t actually played that much better. I said, it was the desire that made the difference. Many of us stepped up in the 2nd half. Ben did a great job when called upon, making several good saves. Andy and Jason worked hard in midfield. Clarence gave his all when asked to play in midfield. Yew Boon did his job upfront. Yiong channeled his anger to the game. Defence was working the off-side well. Several candidates for MOM like Harold with his 2 goals. But one player shone. He had improved his game, made good use of the ball when he had it, provided space to his team mates for the pass and even made an assist. MOM this week – JEROME.
Simple lesson from this game. We might be one man more on the pitch but if we don’t work together as a team, that’s not an advantage. Make full use of possession, make the right pass, work for each other and the result will come. If we played well and still lost, we cannot have any complaints but to lose by not putting in the effort certainly destroys the Saturday evening we spend on a game we call football.
Well Done Guys.
