Great Result at the weekend.
The team won 2-0 playing a young team at 3.00pm. It was our first clean sheet since 12 Oct 2013 playing Team Chen.
We had 18 players for this game for the first time. A mixed up in playing resources resulted in Ben playing in goal which he was not totally unaware of prior to the game. The players for this game consisted of 7 Defenders, 10 Midfielders and 1 Striker. Quite unbalanced in my opinion and left me with a selection headache prior kick off.
We welcome back Eddie (Henry's elder brother) who was in town last weekend. Lawrence Heavey and Bing was our guest player for this game as well.
The starting lineup was :-
Keeper: Ben
Defence: Jiunn / SK / Roger / Clarence
Midfield: YB / Patrick / Eddie / Lawrence / Yiong
Striker : Harold
The game staretd with us getting out of the block quicker than our opponents. It was quite a contrast from our previous game and we look a totally different side this week. Team Synergy was playing quite deep and we took control of the midfield 10 mins into the game.
We are still a team in transition from the previous playing system and the focus for this game was improving on our defensive play. We had some opportunities at goal but the imbalance of the team caused us to break down in nearly every attack. Jalil was playing at right back replacing Jiunn in defence. His composure and precise passing added a different dimension to some purposeful attacking play down the right. The first half ended 0-0 and Ben was rarely troubled.
The half time team talk was about keeping the shape and keeping the defence tight and compact because I wasn't very happy with the shape at the back. The other emphasis was also in attacking play as we did not commit enough bodies in the opposition box to cause any danger. I wanted the ball to play both thru the middle and the wings to stretch the opposition so the attacking players can join in the attacks.
The second half started with more discipline to our shape and more commitments from the players. The passing was crisp and the defence was improving. Our first goal came in the 55 mins. Lawrence went thru on goal after his inital pass was deflected off the defender and back to his path to goal. He placed a well taken shot beating their keeper at the left corner of goal.
The second goal was another well worked goal. Lawrence again at the heart of every positive moves sent Yew Boon thru on goal and he duly delivered.
We had a few scares ourselves where a miscommunication between SK and Ben resulted in a mix up at the back. The opposition striker stole the ball and fired a shot narrowly wide passed our goal. They also had a shot that hit the post in the second half and in the end, our defence held up well. The game ended 2-0.
As mentioned earlier, this was our first clean sheet since October last year. I like our play in the second half were we were in control of midfield, compact and tight at the back. Bee was also playing his heart out by putting his body on the line protecting our lead. This is not possible if we are not discipline in our shape as we were always left exposed at the back in previous games.
Now we managed to play the way I think we should play, the next challenge to the players is consistency. We need to continue to work hard and play with intelligence which I know everyone is capable of.
The MoM for this game is Lawrence Loy. He admitted that he played better than last week because he got to bed 2 hours earlier on Satrurday morning comparing to the last.
We do not have a game in this week as it's SK big day. Please remember to turn up his wedding reception if you had already committed.
I leave you with this quote which I came across while trying to look for a way to motivate the team after last week's painful defeat:-
"Winning isn't everything, WANTing to win is" - Vincent Lombardie (American Football Coach)
Cheers, Sherman
