It has been months since we last played in the East. We were back to Marsiling Secondary last week and I can’t even recall when was the last time we played there.
We had a good turn-out this week, and below were the team we started:-
In goal: SK
Defense: Daryl/Ben/Kee/Jerome
Midfield: Henry/Lawrence/Jansen/Andy/Matt
Forward: Colin
After a comprehensive victory the week prior, I saw the confidents and passions on each of the players’ face and body languages. Everyone was raring to go again. We started with the team briefing again using the latest tool, The Whiteboard. The emphasis was again on the shifting-play for the back 4s and defending as a unit closing down spaces. I think it will soon sound like a broken record if we continue this way, anyway we will find something else to talk about come this week.
We started the game last week without our 2 main players, Harold and Clarence. How badly will we missed them, read on and you will soon find out.
We were playing against StandChart, Jiunn’s former company and team. The only intel we gathered was this is a newly formed team so the quality was unknown. Thanks for that Jiunn.
The game started where we left off in our previous game. We were playing a high line and denying our opponent spaces to play their game. The midfield was so compact that the first half actions were played mostly in the middle zones.
There were many occasions that our high defensive lines played the offside traps perfectly. Ben was marshaling the defense superbly. SK was supporting the defense well by coming off his line couple of time brilliantly.
There were a lot of heroics acts during the first half; one that stand-out was Jerome’s clearance off the line with his head. All these highlighted the determination to keep the opponents at bay. The opposition were quite frustrated with our stubbornness and refuse to let them intimated us physically.
Our first goal came midway thru the first half. A corner resulted in a missed time kicked by Yiong at the edge of the goal area and the loose ball fell kindly to Lawrence. He smashed the ball into the top right hand corner with his left volley strike. A rich vein of form from this nimble midfielder scoring 6 goals in 7 games.
We saw out the half with no further goals.
Half time team talk was about making some minor corrections to the defensive and -up play. Also, the team was told to watch out for attacking down both flanks as the opponent does have fast players to run down both channels.
We started the second where we left in the first. We made some resource adjustment with Henry playing the forward role. The pressing was good at the start of the second half. Good work from the left by Andy which allowed Yiong to run into the box to create some havoc. It was a sloppy start by the opponent and Henry duly scored from the right to the far post with Yiong assisting.
We conceded our first goal in the 58th minutes. It was a vast improvement from our previous games where we were conceding goals as early as the 7th minutes. There was miscommunication between SK and Daryl when there was a ball to be challenge inside the keeper’s box. A high ball resulted in a bounce and both were expecting each other to clear. An opposition forward took advantage of the situation and made us paid for our indecisiveness. Something we will work on in this week’s game.
Shortly after conceding our first goal, we conceded again after 1 minute. I reminded the team to watch out for the side channels as they do have fast players running on the lines, our lack of concentrations cost us the game eventually.
The second was conceded when Bee was beaten for pace down our left. A cross was sent in and was duly converted by their on rushing forward evading our central defensive pairings. The third goal was conceded in similar fashion but this time it was on the opposite side.
The game ended with us losing 2-3.
In conclusion, I think the team performed admirably well, we are not perfect but the efforts shown were satisfying to me. I ask the team to continue playing this way and in no time, we will be winning games consecutively.
The man of the match this week goes to Ben, his has shown so much determinations and concentrations after his return this week. Thanks Ben for the leading the line well.
Thanks and see you guys soon.
