Goodfellas 2-0 Pak Luen
Chan (55') assisted by Cheung
Tang (65') assisted by Seidal
The starting line-up
Spenny
D-Cheung Howard Kai
Raz Bear
Edwin Fong(GK)
Subs: Garrow, Seidal
Notable Spectators: Lionel (suspended), Flo (injured), Tina, Flo Jnr, Lita, Carrie
Goals from Kai Chan and Howard Tang put Goodfellas equal on points with leaders ?? with one extra game played.
Manager Steven Garrow went with his first choice formation 2-3-1, but surprised more than a few with the unusual positioning of David Cheung out on the left wing, with Howard Tang fitting in the central midfield role. After a stellar performance in his last game against Samplan, Kai Chan was again entrusted with the right wing role. The rest of the side was as expected.
2-3-1 v 3-2-1
The match panned out as you would expect with a 2-3-1 v 3-2-1, with Goodfellas aiming to build up their passing game from the back and utilise the width of the pitch with their wingers and Pak Luen being content with defending deep, and when in possession looking to dominate the central midfield battle with their extra man with their full-backs providing width.
There was one slight exception to this, although not a surprise. Garrow was more than happy to let the defensively-minded opposition left back have time on the ball, and instead played his right-winger very narrow. Throughout the game, Chan tucked in and helped out in the midfield zone nullifying the threat of Pak Luen's extra centre midfield player. His challenges took place in a much narrower position than Cheung’s on the opposite flank.
In turn, this meant that Spenny Chiu could venture towards the right flank to escape his marker, and also to give the opposition LB problems.
Width
A notable battle was David Cheung v Pak Luen's right back. Cheung has generally coped well on the wings since his move to Goodfellas, but that’s often been in a defensive sense. In this game, he constantly took the ball past his direct opponent, which had the double impact of creating opportunities, and making Pak Luen's RB less of an attacking threat as he was scared to leave his position.
As a result, Pak Luen struggled to find any width and was too often caught in possession due to the relentless pressure from Tang and Chan in the middle of the park and their lack of passing options. Since Pak Luen's striker was isolated and denied of any supply for most of the game, this meant that Goodfellas was more than comfortable leaving only one centre-back, Kelvin Bear Wong, with the marking duties. This in turn allowed Raz Dasinghani and at later stage Garrow, when he came on for Bear, to participate and support Goodfellas' offensive plays. This was the perfect set-up for Garrow, often know as the Michael Vick of “Soccer”, to dictate play from deep-lying positions with his unparallelled vision, pinpoint passing and devastating offensive runs.
Possession and Goals
Failure to convert possession into goals is a concept Goodfellas has been all too familiar with this season. With multiple chances from Cheung, Seidal who came on for Kai on the right wing, Chiu and Dasinghani failing to put the ball on the right side of the posts, the home crowd could not help but dread that it was going to be another of those “At-Least-We-Played-Well” days. To their credit, Goodfellas remained calm and composed and stuck to their passing game until they eventually got their well deserved break.
Pak Luen lost possession of the ball from a throw-in in their own half to Cheung, who did well to hold off Pak Luen's RB before finding Chan in space in the middle of the park on the edge of the box. Chan controlled the ball in the direction of the goal and with a scoffed right-foot shot directed the ball to the bottom right corner of the goal for the massive ecstasy of the players and of the home crowd. Chan's second goal in 2 games ensured that his 100% record in 7-aside football with Goodfellas is maintained (3 wins out of 3 games) with an impressive goals-to-games ratio of 1.
Finishing off
Pak Luen finally decided to take the handbrake off, and Goodfellas who had looked in control until this point, started to look nervous for a brief spell. Clearances were more hurried, tackles looked more desperate, but they kept 2-3-1 with Garrow deciding to bring on Tang and Bear in the place of Chiu and Chan to hold off Pak Luen's offensive attempt. Pak Luen didn’t seem to have any cohesive strategy with Goodfellas still looking like the more dangerous team on the break.
The moment of relief finally came when Tang received an exquisite cross from Seidal on the right and headed it onto the cross bar. With the keeper already committed on the first attempt, the ball came off the cross bar for Tang to knee it cleanly home to put the game beyond Pak Luen. Following a hat-trick against Jeen Yau in the midweek M7 game, Tang's fourth goal of the week brings his total tally of goals to an impressive 8 for this season so far, topping both the Top Goalscorer table and the Most Assists table (4) for Goodfellas.
In his post-match interview, manager Garrow was also keen to praise young and new recruit Edwin Fong for his contribution in keeping a clean sheet. “Edwin took some great low catches and came out and pressured their striker in that one-on-one to make him miss in the first half. He is really coming on.”
Conclusion
A dominant performance from Goodfellas that was all about control – Pak Luen briefly rallied in the second half after conceding, but after a slight nervous period, Goodfellas were professional and disciplined from back to front.
