This is our first time playing at Crescent Girls School. Our opponent was Cedric in White.
We requested for our players to show up earlier than usual for a team meeting however, due to the new location, many were late trying to find this new venue as parking was also an issue as the school was situated in the private estates with limited parking spaces.
JP has to pulled out prior to kick off as he was down with a flu and SK has to deputize for him in goal.
We started with the following team at the weekend:-
In Goal: SK
Defense: Jiunn/Kee / Ben / Bee
Midfield: Henry / Jason / Lawrence / Richard/ Jerome
Forward: Colin
You can see the sparkle in Colin’s eyes when he was restored to the starting line-up. If you were wondering if this will be a master stoke by me to start Colin, please read on.
The game was pretty balanced in the first 10 minutes of play as both teams were sizing each other up. Cedric did have some decent players down the right and that did pose some challenges to our defense. If not because of their poor finishing, they could be ahead before our first goal by the 10 minutes.
As the game went on, our dominance in the middle of the park showed with dynamic players like Jason, the Destroyer, Richard, the Skilled Craftsman and Lawrence, the Enforcer controlling and breaking down every Cedric’s play.
Cedric conceded a penalty as early as the 5th minute as their defender handled the ball inside the box. The referee pointed to the spot and our ever confident penalty taker Lawrence stepped up to resume spot kick duty. I think Lawrence didn’t read the script before the game and for the first time, his spot kick hit the left post and bounced off to safety.
Despite the penalty missed, what pleased me were the team’s encouragements given to Lawrence for his miss. That’s the spirit and togetherness that I was trying so hard to inculcate and long may it continue.
Our first goal came with a throw-in by Jason on the left. It was a brilliant throw that found Colin’s head and went into the open net with the keeper completely stranded.
What happened next completely drove me nuts. Stan, who was making a guest appearance last week, was sent off by the Referee for discontent. He was only on the pitch for less than 10 minutes and I think that was totally uncalled for and I hope Stan will learn for this episode to show more respect to the match official. We have to make pleas to the referee so that he can come back on again in the second half.
In the second half, the instruction to the team was to play more to the wings as the pitch was pretty compact and the middle of the park was quite congested. The plan paid off as our wing plays were quite impressive on both ends. Harold’s trickeries, Henry’s pressings and Jerome’s pace were a constant menace to Cedric’s full backs.
Colin scored on the 69th minutes and his third on 79th minutes. Both goals were created by Harold after his good works down the right channel found Colin on both occasions. I think it’s probably the lure of the Red Wine for MOM that made him worked even harder, hardly seen him being so motivated before till we made this special perks available. Anyway, credit to him for being in the right place at the right time, as long as he doesn’t take the match ball back, we are happy as we are much poorer now in the bank reserves. Colin’s reward for his hat trick was an immediate substitution and was replaced by Marc. The idea was for Marc to find his debut goal for this team as it will do wonders to his confidence and give much competition to Colin.
His chance duly came and was in a one-on-one situation with Cedric’s keeper after having beaten the offside trap. With only the keeper to beat, Marc decided to place his shot to the right bottom instead of blasting it with power. Unfortunately for him, his decision didn’t quite come off and his goal bound shot was brilliantly saved by the keeper. The rebound fell kindly for Daryl as he smashed home our forth with literally the last kick of the match.
Overall, it’s a good team performance from everyone despite playing with an inferior team. However, we still need to score to win as domination doesn’t win us 3 points.
We finally had our team meeting after the triumphant win. I made introduction the committee members and their roles for the team. For the benefits for all who aren’t present that day, here’s the recap of what had been shared:-
Sherman – Team Manager, responsible for all pre, during and post-game matters except the designated roles covered by my fellow committee members as mentioned below. Decisions for the team were made jointly as a committee as we constantly debate, discuss and make decisions for the good of the team.
Lawrence- IC for all pre-games warm ups
SK – Chief Entertainment Officer and club captain.
Jansen – Treasurer, IC for collecting game money
I’ve also shared my vision on game tactics and strategies for the team. We are in the rebuilding phase as the immediate priority is to strengthen the defensive play. The next stage of the process will be to improve our attacking play. Ultimately, the objective is to allow us to have options to play with various formations and tactics depending on our opponents.
Lastly, we touched on our team core values. The committee came up with 3 core values for this team and they are:-
1. Be respectful to your fellow Teammates, Referees and Opponents
2. Stay United, trust and be supportive to your Teammates
3. Have fun and enjoy your football.
We also made the announcements that all players will be receiving their jerseys for free. We will refund the money that was collected 2 weeks back. So stay tune.
Thanks for the attention and looking forward seeing you all this weekend.
