First and foremost, a sincere apology for the delay of the match report. It was fustrating time for many of us as we suffered our 1st defeat of the new season to a veteran's team which are similar to us in many ways.
First Half
Eagles kicked off with an identical team in terms of age and limited number of players under 35. However said, our pace and tenacity were much superior to them. We dominated play in the opening 10mins of the game with countless attacking play but chances went to naught, due to poor finishing and at times, luck. Right about the 15th min mark, our opening goal finally arrived, curled in directly from a corner by Harold, abit a slight deflection off an opponent's shin (although we are still debating whether it's an own goal or not....lol). However, after that goal, we somehow went to sleep, sloppy plays from both the midfield and defence allow the oppponents to equalise. A seemingly harmless looking cross landed on their forward on our right hand post area, and he had all the time to control, look and shot past our helpless keeper. We momentarily woke up after conceding the goal, and should have gotten the lead back almost immediately. Lawrence's constant harrassment of the opponent led to winning back the possesion and he released the ball down the left flank for Harold. Harold took route 1 as he weaved past 3 defenders down the left and crossed into the box with Patrick lurking freely. However, his attempted side tap (lost for words to describe) somehow ended up hitting his face instead of the net. 1st Half ended 1-1.
Second Half
As usual, SK half time team talk was harsh and straightforward, identify the opponent's danger man, shut him down, and more effort from everyone. However, on this unusual day, we uncharacteristically started slow and mistakes proned. A mispass in middle of the pitch led to a quick counter attack, and ended with the opponents scoring a scorcher just outside the box. We burst into life after going a goal down, but fustration was creeping up as countless mispasses and unforced errors from most of us happened frequently. A rare moment of good play soon arrived as simple short passes in midfield by Yiong, Lawrence and Harold led to an identical pass down the left flank, and Harold once again weaved his way down into the box and squared a inch perfect ball into box, with was finished 1st time into the roof of the net by Jansen. Relieved was the expression on everyone's face as the score was finally even again. 5mins later, Harold would once again terrorised down the same flank, and laid another ball into the box, this time it missed Jeff as well as the opponents, and into the path of Jansen, who fluffed his shot on his left foot. Another chance came soon after, but an attempted bicycle kick by Pat, was mistimed and called offside by the referee. The sucker punch came when the opponents attempted a long range strike which crept in Sherman's right hand post. With the clock ticking down, we were left constantly on the backfoot instead of chasing the equaliser, and only hard work from our defence that kept the score as it was until the final whistle. Final Score 2-3.
This was our first loss of the new season. A defeat that wasnt supposed to be, a team that we should have beaten easily. Somehow, the saying, "the ball is round" is true. No fingers pointing on any individuals, and no one is responsible for the loss. We play as a team, we will lose as a team. We will live to fight another day!
This week's MOM goes to SK. He played the entire 2nd half with grit and tenacity, winning countless tackles, headers, and taking a lot of physical abuses from the opponents. One notable incident was when he took a WWE like elbow into his chest in while in midair! The committee's take on MOM was always the player who played above himself on match day, and our manager, SK certainly deserved it.
Cheers Lads, we go again!
