By Andre Lin On a misty and cloudy afternoon, the fellas traveled to Shun Lee in a long journey for a S7 game against the lower mid team Samplan. Not to mention, it will be my last game for fellas as many of you may know and this will also be my last match report "for now". Don't miss me too much coz i will come back and i will play in friendlies and participate in training. Besides, no one should ever touch and use no. 86, coz it's mine!!!! Anywayz, apologize for all the bullshit, so before the game started, i made a very powerful speech basically saying the only thing we can do in today's game is to win. After the speech, we walked onto the crappy artificial grass pitch and this is the starting line up with a 2-3-1 formation: Mullen (GK) Maarteen (RCB) Garrow (LCB) Koh (LWing) David (CM) Howie (Rwing) Andre (Striker) Our tactic was to press them and try to captivate opportunities through the opponents' mistakes. This tactic actually worked very nicely where Samplan was forced to make long balls to feed their midfield and strike force. However, with our defense strong as always dominating on headers, we hold majority of the possessions. Samplan barely had a chance to shoot for the first 15-20 mins. With our midfield and i continuously putting on pressure on their defense as well as their goalie, we finally captivated a chance where i ran towards the goalie while he was trying to clear the ball. The clearance hit my foot and made a deflection towards their goal. As i was looking at it slowly rolling in and i thought this would make my day with a goal before i leave, but sadly it hits the outside of the post and roll out for a goal kick. I guess i am the king of post hitter on the team, do we have this award at the end of the season? I am so gonna win it !!!!! It was still 0:0. After a swift 5 minutes, we finally opened the deadlock. Koh was making a nuisance on the left flank, and made a decent shot towards the goal but the goalie couldn't hold it firmly, and Howie was at the right place at the right time and made a tab in in the 6 yd box, V. Nistelrooy style, 1:0, 2nd goal back to back, and he was so joyful that he busted out his signature smile. Julian went in for koh, Justin went in for me and Shiuy subbed in for maarteen. The score stayed the same til half time. The refs blowed the whistle and 2nd half started with the opposite team kicking off. Our starting roster is as follows: Mullen (GK) Shiuy (RCB) Garrow (LCB) Julian (LWing) David (CM) Koh (Rwing) Kingsley (Striker) Samplan made some changes tactic wise; they stopped playing long ball and doing short passes and also Delap throws but not as far. These changes actually created some chances for them but not much threats to Mullen. After 15 mins or so, Justin and Maarten went in for Julian & Kingsley. Those 2 substitutions created 2nd goal for the fellas. David made an accurate pass to the left and Maarteen went down the flank, went pass the last defender and made a distinctive and accurate shot to the goalie's left hand corner, goalie has no chance, not even a glimpse of chance to deflect it. Maarteen scored his first goal for the fellas, the whole team was relieved, but too bad Maarteen didn't do much on his celebration. It was a let down. 2:0 that is. Maybe because we were 2 goals up, the team lost a bit of concentration. Samplan came straight to us. They were going at us, with the whole team pushing up on attack. They were winning a lot more corners, and making all the shots comparing to none on the first half. Finally they caught us on our lazy midfield and defense, and scored left bottom corner, not sure if it hit the post and went in though. 2:1 They were pumped up and thought they were able to get another one, however, we stood our ground, even though the whole team was a bit fatigue due to parties, alcohol intoxication, late nights, wanchai strip clubs and whatever the reason. We did find some opportunities with much free space at their back; Koh did a messi going pass 3 players but his shot got saved, David nearly did a one on one though couldn't score his first which i was expecting for. At the end, we couldn't find the 3rd goal to make it looks more like a convincing win. I have to say the shape of the pitch is weird, narrow flanks but very long vertically. The goals are higher than usual but narrow in terms of width, so it took us awhile to get use to it. Also, the inconsistent refs making strange or i should say wrong decisions turn it into an interesting game. I was given the honor to make the post game speech, and tears were rushing out.....coz i can't believe i didn't score at my final game. haha. kidding. On that note, i would like thank all ya'll fellas to make me a better player, not just that but a team player as well as meeting all ya'll awesome peeps. Keep in touch i would say, i will email my China no. in the future so if you are visiting hopefully to see me, business/leisure trips and any other reasons, send me an email beforehand and give me a buzz, i will happy to hook u up with fake alcohols or Shanghainese hookers, if i know any...... Keep winning Goodfellas! Hoorrahhh! Cheers, Andre
