11am, Saturday morning, team had 12 players with many maybes. Committee was scrambling to get more players. Jansen was forced to make an early return from injury to fill in the numbers. Our head scout was also activated too. This finally resulted in a credible 17 players at kickoff, including guest goalkeeper, Kim.
A long trek to the north west, Regent Secondary, resulted in many turning up late. At warm-up, we only had 12 players. There was even one who was still asleep. This didn’t bode well, but on the other hand, the opponents only had 9 players. We seriously need to be punctual. It is not fair to others who make the effort to be early and ready, only to see other players strolling in late.
Our opponents were 2nd in the table and this was a crucial game for us to close the gap as we had played one game more. We started the game trying to contain them, with clear instructions to hold the shape. All these went out of the window after 5 minutes, because we were clearly the much better team and we started pressing them high and early. This resulted in several opportunities created. I cannot exactly remembered the sequence, there were 2 free-kicks. One by Ron, that went into the condo behind and another by Harold, which struck the bar. Then a succession of corners, easily 7-8 in a row, where we looked like scoring at every one. Finally, one went in directly. This was taken by Richard, who swung in his corner which flew straight into the top corner. Opponents were certainly there for the taking. Through ball from Lawrence to Yew Boon, who dashed down the line and squared for Siong in the box but unfortunately, went over the bar. Another through ball from Lawrence sent Roger on a 1-1 with the keeper. He was caught in two minds, “shall I chip or shall I dribble past him?” and the keeper kept it out. No breakthrough despite all the attacking and chances. Defence was doing great in handling the few attacks that the opponents had and Eddie dealt comfortably with the shots that came in from far. Couple of minutes before half-time, sleeping beauty got into the game, through ball from Lawrence put him through 1-1 with the keeper. This time round, he didn’t miss. Although many of us were VERY worried he might. 2-0 half-time and we were very comfortable.
Half time team talk was all about keeping the shape and not let complacency set in. We were doing well, but we were not clinical in front of goal. We need to covert our chances, especially against teams like this.
We kept up the pressure and had more chances to kill the game. Yew Boon was working hard and harassing the defence. Patrick had a few chances but couldn’t cross to the right person or convert when 1-1. Siong was also put through but didn’t manage to score. The midfield was clamping down the game and our 2nd half guest keeper really had nothing much to do. Richard played upfront when he came on and tried hard. He had a few chances but couldn’t convert too.
Overall, a good game where we played to our strengths.
These are the couple of firsts for Incepcion.
1) 1st clean sheet of the season
2) 1st time we won by more than 1 goal.
3) 1st goal of the season for both Patrick and Richard
4) 1st goal direct from a corner
In a very tight vote, Richard got the nod for MOM as he played above his usual game, scored the first goal and generally worked his socks off. Well done Richard.
Kudos to other players in the team for stepping up when necessary. Especially in midfield when Ron, Roger, Jansen and Damien did a good job in stifling the opponents. Let’s go on and do this again this week!
