We return to the Mitra league and we kick off the season with an opener against Temasek Royals. We have set high expectations for ourselves and we tried to bring our full squad out. Despite reminders to be on time, players were still late to the game. We have to take this seriously and prepare ourselves accordingly.
A long team talk by the manager before the game stressed the point of putting in effort and trying to get a result. A plan for kickoff was setup and when we did kicked off, the plan went awry. We lost the ball immediately and Temasek Royals counter attacked. Their left winger got to the bye line and cut it back for an unmarked player to shoot into goal. A disastrous start right in the 2nd minute. We couldn’t come to grips with the game and conceded another goal when they broke down our left and a shot went past Sherman at the near post. Both goals were soft in my opinion as I felt they could have been stopped. Mistakes galore. We then conceded a penalty when their main player burst through into the box and Patrick was judged to have brought him down. Sherman had no chance. We struggled to get into the game and create chances. Max had 2 shots that flew high behind. The best chance was when Kenny went on a run down the right and crossed perfectly for Colin. Faced with an empty goal, Colin connected perfectly and sent his volley high over the bar. A less than perfect connection would have probably resulted in a goal. Half time 3-0 down.
Heads went down at half time. Manager tried his best to rally the team. There was still time and we do have the better of the play.
Second half kicked off pretty much the same way. We launched numerous attacks and Max finally scored when his left footed shot from the edge of the box found the net. We were back in it or we thought we did. Then a casual dribble at the back by Jansen saw him being robbed of the ball. They burst through and he squared the ball for the opponent to stroke it into an empty net. Big blow when we thought we were back in it. We continued to pour forward and Benny was in the thick of the action. His bursting runs down the right gave the opponents a lot of problems. A through ball from Max to him saw him smashed his shot against the goalkeeper face instead. Patrick was trying hard as well. His industry in the box led him to being fouled and Colin barely scored from the penalty. 4-2. We had a chance. More chances were created as the opponents started to rotate their team. Another penalty was awarded to us when Max was fouled in the box. This time, Colin emphatically slammed it in. Time was running out and we were really going for it. We couldn’t make the most of the chances and failed to get the equaliser. Last chance was when Colin saw his soft header gratefully gathered by the goalkeeper. The referee then blew the final whistle. Full time, 4-3.
A very disappointing start to the campaign as we didn’t make our efforts count. It was tough to give game time to everyone as we tried to chase the game. And I believe that this could potentially be the case in these league encounters. All of us were definitely disappointed and upset by the result. Let’s pick ourselves up and try to do better next games.
