After the MJC match, our coach reminded us about the story of Jacob, and that we just needed to believe. Honestly, I found it hard to believe that we were going to qualify. While I never had any doubt that we would secure the last 6 points against NYJC and JJC, I found it hard to believe that ACJC were going to slip up against YJC and TPJC. While I wanted nothing more than to believe in a miracle, rationally, I found it hard to believe in one. Junliang was perhaps the only one in the team who was willing to voice it out, and sadly he was persecuted for saying out loud what alot of us felt deep down inside.
Personally, this was my lowest point of the tournament, where even my faith in the team was tested. I could see the people on the bench, people like Quan and Darrell, who didn't have the chance to change the outcome of the MJC match by playing, trying to rally the people around them to believe as they did. Quan talked about it all being a test, evoking memories of Istanbul, and Darrell was zealous in his belief that we would qualify and that fate had ordained that it was our year. Darrell would go so far as to spend additonal time praying that ACJC would slip up, an act that both amused and touched me profoundly. And on the other hand, I could see some of my teammates who were somewhat jaded, another season of disappointment looming. I guess all of this translated onto the pitch.
We knew that all we could do at this stage was to secure our 6 points and apply some pressure on ACJC, and so we were all ready to face NYJC and improve on our goal difference, which would only come into play if we drew against JJC and ACJC lost to TPJC, which seemed unlikely but worth preparing for. Furthermore, we would play JJC on Monday, while ACJC would play at TPJC on Tuesday, and were we to slip up in either of our final two matches, the pressure would be all off ACJC. I guess we were also hoping an emphatic scoreline would remind ACJC that we were just behind them, and hopefully pressure them into slipping up against YJC and TPJC, because at this stage, we all admitted that it was ACJC's qualification to lose.
Boy were we wrong. Of all the teams in the tournament, I believe we underestimated NYJC the most. Having seen them lose 5-1 to ACJC at MJC, I think virtually all of us wrote them off. Tactically, we played a 4-3-3 formation, the first and only time I believe we made a serious formation mistake.
The lineup was: Timon, Junliang, Cunzhi, Eugene, Zenzel, Hashir, Martin, Woohan, Sean, Chaolun, Bong, with me in the centre of the park.
Perhaps it was the bad MJC pitch, or just jitters, but NYJC were a far superior side to the one we had witnessed on video. They played a 4-5-1 formation, and their 5 man midfield tore our 3 man midfield into tatters. With Hashir being asked to drift to the left, a role he was not used to playing, with the 3 forwards being told not to drop back too much, with Woohan being asked to tuck in more despite being a natural down the line winger, at time I felt like I was playing 1 v 3 in the middle of the park. To make matters worse, the NYJC midfielders were excellent. Their captain was very adept at winning the ball, and pounced at any poor first touches Hashir or myself had, and he would immediately pass off the ball to their malay midfielder, who I suppose was their playmaker. The two of them really outplayed us for most of the first half. Also, either their RW or their Forward was an ex-club player, and according to Cunzhi, he was the best player for Sengkang. He caused quite alot of problems for our defense, though by himself he was unable to get pass our solid back-line.
The goal we scored was pretty shabby, with the goalkeeper spilling the ball and Sean nodding home from close range. The rest of the half, and in my opinion the entire game on the whole, was scrappy at best. During halftime, our coach blasted the forwards for being ineffective, but in my opinion, it was the midfield that was letting the team down. He left us with these words in mind, that if ACJC were to draw with TPJC or slip up against YJC that day, we would rue our performance that day. He told us that unless he saw us buck up in the second half, he threatened to throw the match for us.
In the second half, things did not get much better, I would says the game just got quieter. Maybe it was the heat, or the fact that we had lost the hunger to play, but we were largely content with holding the scoreline at 1-0. While in our minds we all knew that we had to secure the match as soon after the restart as possible, perhaps ours hearts weren't really in the game. The match ended 1-0 in the end, not for a lack of trying on by both sides.
Testomony to our coach's faith in the depth of the squad, he substituted Darrell on for his first taste of A Division soccer, as well as giving Si En, Yangyi, Liben and Joseph each a chance to change the match. While none of them were able to forge an opening to double our lead, I believe the energy they brought into our team contributed to our victory in no small part. I guess I would like to single out Darrell the most, I guess because I remember his contribution the most. He was fired up during the half time talk, and possibly because we were playing quite poorly. When he came on, he cleared every ball that came his way, he threw his body at any thing that came our way. While he might not be the most technically gifted player on the field, I think Darrell's heart and capacity to believe in his teammates is one of the strongest in the team.
I guess I would like to really thank the support players in our team, not sure whether that's the most politically correct term, but I guess it'll have to make do. There are some players in the 25 man squad who knew that they weren't really going to be involved in too many matches during the season, for lack of ability or the fact that they were being kept out of the lineup by better players. For the first 6 games of the season, I was with those people on the bench. We knew that we couldn't change the game with our feet, so we would sit on the bench with our hearts in our hands and shout our lungs out, every little bit to help the team. While it takes true fighting spirit for the players on the pitch to come back from a goal deficit, it takes even more spirit for the people on the bench to keep believing in the team. It was these support players who would play out the opposition formation during training sessions, who would spend training sessions just defending and defending without any joy of attack.
Thank you, thank you for keeping the faith, for believing in us when it seemed the hardest. At the end of the day, we won it together. Each and every one of the 25.
The post-match de-brief was marred by an ugly incident, which was quickly resolved in good humour by the time we boarded the bus back to school. We headed for a team dinner at Swensen's in Thompson Plaza after the game, in the traditional dinner after the group stage that happened every year, and the miracle that was not to be.
Earlier, during the debrief, our coach had asked us which player had been yellow-carded during the MJC game, and after some discussion, we told him that it was no. 7. Apparently, that sparked off a controversy as player no. 7 had played for MJC in their 2-0 victory over NJC, and this caused the NJC teacher-in-charge to launch a formal inquiry into the matter. While some people in our team were sure that it had been the no. 7 who the referee had flashed a yellow-card at, the MJC pitch manager had recorded it down as no. 21, who either did not play or was not on a previous yellow card. At this news, some of my teammates thought that we had been granted a miracle, albeit a rather unorthodox one, as we struggled to remember whether which player it had been that received the yellow card.
We spent a large part of the entire dinner debating it, I went as far as to call my friends who had been in the stands to ask them if they remembered. In fact, I was the one who the foul had been committed on, a rather painful tackle from my side that left a huge abrasion on the back of my left thigh. Mr. Kadir joked that miracles had happened before, but never one like this. Hashir and Clifton was amamant that it had been no. 7 who received the yellow card, but of course we weren't exactly a neutral party in this matter. Although we were not sure what the consequences were, we speculated that it was possible MJC would be disqualified from the tournament, which would mean that we would qualify 3rd of the table, a rather sordid way of qualification but qualification nonetheless. Another possible theory would be that MJC would be docked 3 points and 3 points would be awarded to NJC instead, which would do us absolutely no good as MJC were 4 points ahead.
The facts of the case:
1. It was no. 21 who committed the tackle on me. Both Bowen and I confirmed this as we were the closest to the ball when I was fouled from the side.
2. MJC's no. 7 was the nearest MJC player to no. 21.
3. When the referee showed the yellow-card, no. 7 was in between the referee and no. 21, so it was ambiguous as to who it was shown to.
4. No. 21 was walking away with his back to the referee when the yellow-card was shown, which was unusual practice as the referee normally calls the player back.
5. No. 7 held his head after the yellow-card was shown, either for himself or for his teammate.
We had hoped that the video-replay would tell us more, but aside from the fact that video-evidence was inadmissable, it had been taken from too far away, from the 13th floor of the HDB block opposite MJC, and the video was too grainy and small for us to discern individual faces. Furthermore, the JC1s who had video-taped the match had paused the video after the foul, and did not record down the yellow-card.
It was Jeremy who finally convinced our coach and teacher that it had not been no.7 who had been yellow carded, and I respected him for his moral fortitude in the face of peer pressure. For people reading this not from the team, I guess you're pretty disgusted at how quickly we latched upon the idea that MJC had played foul and might be disqualified, and admittedly, it was a pretty sad way to qualify for the semi-finals, and even if we had gone on to win it from there, our victory would certainly have been tainted. But all I'll ask is that you try to understand, we had trained so hard (yes other JCs had as well), we had so much belief in our team, we had come so far, and this little miracle presented itself, it was hard to blame anyone who clung to this little spark of hope that came our way. But Jeremy provided the clincher: He told us that he heard no. 7 tell no. 21 to go apologise to the referee, something no one else heard, a detail which seemed inconsistent with any theories we had arrived at to explain why the referee might possibly have cautioned no. 7 instead: dissent for instance. In the end, even I was convinced of Jeremy's account, and our would-be miracle disappeared before our very eyes.
While we had a great time at Swensen's, laughing and taking pictures with Cunzhi phone which he would later distort into stupid faces, deep down, all the chocolate and food couldn't wash away the sinking feeling that our season was coming to an end, and that the next match was our final swansong.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
MJC
Alright, from now on the posts might be a little longer and more detailed because I started this match (and played for more than 5 minutes), and all the subsequent matches. Now that the season is over, I don't mind admitting that out of all the starters from the MJC game onwards, I consider myself perhaps the least talented player on the pitch. I'm pretty short, can't jump phenomenally well, I'm not the strongest, I'm not very fast, can't head the ball very well, I can't kick very far etc. I'm not trying to put myself down or anything, but I was honestly very surprised that I was going to start the MJC match, which was perhaps the most crucial game of our season: make or break. Nevertheless, I am very grateful to our coach and my teammates in having faith in me.
Throughout the preseason, I believe that the performances of the midfield pairing of Eugene and Hashir had justified their selection as the starting centre-mids, I belief that I still subscribe to. I think the only reason I got a chance to play was because 1. our team is pretty short, and before the arrival of Zenzel and Junliang as fullback, our back 4 didn't exactly impress the opposition 2. the most common tactic among A division teams is to play high balls. While this tactic is extremely unglamourous, experience has proven to me that it is nevertheless effective. Therefore, being a short team, we try to avoid playing high balls, yet have to be prepared to deal with other teams employing such a tactic against us.
Maybe I should talk a little bit about Eugene here. I've known Ong Bak since secondary school, and I've always respected his abilities as a sportsman. Tactically, he draws alot from his experience with basketball, and he has that natural aggression from playing rugby. All in all, aside from his rather poor first touch, I think he's the consumate athlete on the soccer pitch. While many people think that the heart of our defense is our captain Cunzhi, who is tasked to make the last-ditch tackles and crucial interceptions, Eugene's job as stopper could not be more important to us. While Eugene might not be the tallest central defender, I have never seen him beaten to a high ball. His jumping power is second to none in our team, and on a good day he can probably shut down any striker. A hard tackler to boot, Eugene is a one-man wall that repels any ball that hangs in the air. Playing in front of him, I can boast that if Eugene calls for the ball, I can confidently push up to receive the second ball because I know he is going to win it.
As I mentioned earlier, the MJC game was a make or break one for us. We needed to get a victory against MJC in order to keep our qualifying fate in our own hands, i.e. if we were to draw with MJC, we would need ACJC to slip up somewhere in order for us to qualify second in the table, an unlikely occurence considering their relatively easy run-in, they had SRJC, YJC and TPJC left to face. This would be our second and last game at the MJC pitch, a rematch of the last match of the 2006 season, where we held MJC to a goalless draw.
Some background info: there was a fair amount of bad blood between us and MJC. In the 2006 season, we played MJC at Teacher's Network and were losing 4-1 with about 5 minutes to go. The pitch was absolutely awful that day, as it was raining very heavily, and at least one of MJC's goals was scored because the ball just suddenly stopped in a puddle of water. Even though the rules of the tournament call for a match to be cancelled if the pitch is unplayable, which if being water-logged isn't then I don't know what is considered 'unplayable', the match went on. However, 5 minutes from full time, there was lightning. The referee called in both coaches, and explained the situation. My coach offered to play finish the game because frankly, to argue that the match should be replayed with 5 minutes left was unsportsman-like, but it was the MJC coach who insisted on a replay at a later date. So, the match was cancelled with us having been thrashed by MJC. As things panned out, the 2006 team faced MJC on the last match, and events had unfolded such that a victory over MJC would guarantee our qualification while putting MJC's own chances in doubt. There was an implicit suggestion that my coach should field a second string side and play to lose as we had by right lost the first match, a suggestion that caused alot of anger in my seniors. At the end of a hard-fought match, my seniors could not score against MJC and were eliminated when SAJC beat TPJC despite gathering 17 points. When the groupings were announced just after the March holidays, everyone's attention had been drawn to this clash with MJC, and our seniors who came back to give us advice on the season, Donovan in particular, all really wanted us to play our very best against MJC and prove to them that we weren't pushovers. Incidentally, MJC were the only seeded team which we had not played a friendly against (we drew 2-2 with SAJC once, and lost to them 3-2 the 2nd time, we beat VJC 3-0, and drew with JJC 1-1).
On an irrelevant note: the MJC coach was an exteammate of Cunzhi's at Jurong FC.
The MJC game was to be played on the day before my birthday, a Tuesday, so that meant that we would be training out of school on a Monday. True enough, we were brought to a field somewhere in Novena to train, in the hope that training out of school would bring inspiration to our team. The field was full of clay, and I had to spend 15 minutes cleaning my boots when I got back to school.
The lineup against MJC was this: Timon, Junliang, Cunzhi, Eugene, Zenzel, Yijing, Martin, Hashir, Woohan, Bong, Chaolun
It was a huge boost to us that Zenzel had fully recovered from his ankle injury, and was back in the starting lineup. Tactically, one of our strikers was supposed to hassle the MJC no. 8, their captain, who had played for MJC the previous year. Their captain was a national player, and by all reports, was a fantastic player. Strong, as fast as Bong, as calm as Cunzhi in defense, an individually outstanding player, he was the heart of the MJC team. Furthermore, he possessed an incredibly powerful right foot, one that allowed him to kick goalkick further than anyone in the entire tournament, and one which MJC utilised with every freekick to take a direct shot. We were warned that MJC took all their direct freekicks the same way, with one variation. No. 8 always took a direct shot on goal, but the only variation was whether the two people in front of the ball would either shift the ball right, left, or would just scatter. Our coach also warned us about the danger of quick freekicks by MJC, who had been conceded a goal to us in the cancelled match because Damien had taken a quick freekick while the keeper was arranging the wall. Therefore, urgency in building the wall and delaying the freekick was of the essence.
Another of the danger players was their AM, no. 21. MJC played in a 4-5-1 formation, with their 2 DMs sitting back protecting the back 4. Eugene was tasked with the job of shutting their AM down. Their RW, no. 7, was also identified as a threat, and Junliang and Zenzel were both warned that he might play on either wing. I was supposed to handle both DMs, to press them and stop them from supplying the ball to their AM or their striker, with Hashir supposed to help me out when necessary but largely to keep himself free as an outlet to launch the ball. This was the first game where we received no instruction as to how to attack during the pre-match briefing, and I think for the better, we were no longer playing to our opponents but were trying to establish our style of play on them.
During the pre-match briefing, all my teammates kept telling me to play like Gattuso in an attempt to psyche me up. Gattuso had totally shut Ronaldo down during the 2nd leg of the Champion's league semi-finals. I realise that my playing style was somewhat like Gattuso's, I would attempt to do all the dirty work in defense, and after winning the ball I would just pass it off, and I was not very involved with the attack.
One of the biggest problems our team had faced this season was the fact that we were always a second-half team, slow out of the blocks, we only seemed to really play in the second half. However, our coach warned us that if we did not get straight into the match from the kickoff, we were going to be punished by MJC. True enough, MJC set a very high tempo from the start: their style of play involved playing a quick high crossfield ball whenever they won possession in the midfield, with their wingers having been conditioned to pull wide quickly.
Well enough said, onto the match. During the warm up, as usual, during the long ball section of the warm-up, I screwed up my long balls. I think at the back of my mind I didn't really see myself doing alot of long-balls so it didn't really matter to me. In the huddle, my first huddle, I realised that the most pumped up person was Eugene. Cunzhi would always say a few lines, but mostly instructional and in a cool and calm tone, which he justifies as "passion doesn't last". It's a nice mix in the huddle, with a few very pumped up people, and a few people who are totally calm. I think if everyone is shouting their lungs out in the huddle it's good for energy, but not the greatest for clarity. On a side note, it's my routine to be somewhat silent during the huddle, I like to quieten my mind and just mentally prepare for the kickoff. As we lined up along the side of the field, I was somewhat nervous, and I couldn't even look into the stands to look at my friends, I just kept doing tuck-jumps which would later become part of my routine. Quite amazing how the silliest of things can become part of our pre-match routine, like going to the toilet, or chocolate bars, or red underwear, or "Time is Running Out" by Muse. My pre-match routine involved eating Yong Tao Fu with my standard 6 items, using the toilet, eating a Banana and some Papadum, listening to Muse, and wearing my long socks during the pre-match briefing. I was also the first person down the bus every single match.
The two wingers had somewhat of a torrid time this game. Woohan told me that the LB was the best he had played against the entire tournament. Fast, strong and good in the air, Woohan was not able to 'burn' him with sheer pace as he had with other fullbacks. While Yijing achieved a greater amount of success against the RB, the field was not suited to dribbling with its bumby surface, and the RB had a tendency to go in hard from behind. Aside from moments of brilliance, our wingers were largely subdued by their fullbacks during the first half.
Up front we were really struggling. Chaolun played the whole match with a fever, and everytime a substitute came on we were all expecting Chaolun to go off. Bong was virtually non-existent in the game, I'm not sure whether he was trying to mark no. 8 or not, but in either case, he had little impact on the game. On the other hand, our defense was also doing remarkably well against MJC's offense. Their vaunted no.7 was tussling with Junliang every time he got the ball, but aside from winning a few free kicks because Junliang kept using his hands when he jumped for a ball, he was shut down by Junliang. Their left winger had no chance against Zenzel, and Eugene kept the AM quiet for the first part of the first half. Soon, they were forced to make a subsitution, with their CM no. 10 coming off (I think he pulled his hamstring after high-booting Hashir's head), and their AM dropping to the midfield. I think Hashir and I had an excellent game, and even though I gave away a number of fouls, none were in a highly threatening position. I remember one sequence where I controlled the ball and drew my man in, and released it to Hashir, who delivered a sensational diagonal ball for Woohan. The game basically see-sawed in the first half, with neither side gaining the ascendency, with two excellent defenses neutralising one another. I achieved my personal target of going into the half with a clean sheet, as I fully expected to be substituted for Bowen. However, to my surprise, I was sent back onto the field for the second half.
Some of the refereeing calls in our game was quite ridiculous. Most blatantly would be the foul on Junliang on our right flank, where either their centre-back or their left-back went in high and late, yet escaped a card. Furthermore, I remember the referee threatening to send in total 4 different players off for tussling/jostling, Eugene and Hashir from our side and no. 7 and one more MJC player on the other side. But I'm also pretty sure that MJC would have their fair share of gripes with some of the referee's calls, and who am I to complain, I must have committed 8 or more fouls and escaped without a booking. The closest I came to getting carded was when I slid in for a tackle after we had just cleared a ball from one of MJC's set-pieces, and even though I am absolutely sure I got the ball cleanly, the referee blew for a foul. I was so enraged that I smacked the ground in frustration and the referee called me back to ask me to calm down :(
The half-time team talk was quite positive, with our coach urging us to continue with our performance and to maintain our level of play in the second half. It was incredibly hot in the first half and as usual, this was to our advantage as we could clearly see fatigue seeping into the MJC players. The MJC captain uncharacteristically mis-kicked a couple of goal kicks, a sure sign of fatigue, whereas for our side, our coach's plan of rotating goals kicks between Cunzhi, Junliang and Zenzel kept each of them fresh. Yet another example at how depth helps relief the burden on one player.
At some point during the game, Zenzel succumbed to cramps and had to be substituted out of the game. He was replaced by Jeremy, with Junliang switching to right-back. I think this was the pivotal moment of the game, as it marked a period of sustained pressure from MJC, which had a flurry of freekicks, throw ins and corner kicks. Earlier in the game, Eugene almost scored an own goal when he flicked a cross backwards that hit our goal post but thankfully went to safety. However, we would have no such luck this time around. We were unable to deal with the high ball cleanly and one of the MJC players beat Jeremy to the header and nodded it towards our goals. Unaware that Cunzhi was behind him and in a better position, Eugene stretched for the header but could only send it backwards and sideways past Timon who could only claw the ball into our goal despite being at full stretch. It was a horrible goal to concede, and of all people it would be Eugene to score the own goal, the hero so often turned villian.
Personally, I guess I lack that fighting spirit and I was deflated after letting in a goal after defending stoutly for so long. But I guess here is where I would like to credit the players around me, for their indomitable spirit, especially Bowen. Before the match, I told Bowen that my goal was to play so well that I would keep him out of the game, and true enough, he came on for one of the strikers while Si En replaced Hashir to freshen up the legs in midfield. I asked Bowen after our season whether he had always believed that we would win the title, and without any hesitation, he told that he had always known we were going to win it. I swear, that boy is only good for 2 things, scoring goals and believing in the players around him, and that's more than enough.
Bowen started the move, and finished it. He held up the ball in midfield, and after eluding his man with his favoured stutter step dribble, he switch the ball wide to Junliang. Junliang, playing in his familiar RB role which he plays for Young Lions, brough the ball up and tried to feed it through to Sean who had pulled wide. However, through some luck, the defenders cut out the initial pass but the rebound fell straight back to Junliang, who made no mistake with the second pass. With his speed, Sean was able to cut the ball infield and shield it from any recovery tackle from the Meridian LB, and looking up, he cut the ball back to an unmarked Bowen, who sent the ball into the roof of the net and made us believe in miracles once more.
From then on, it was all RJC, and the only thing that stopped us from winning was the clock, and having equalised too late into the game, there was simply not enough time to score the winning goal. When the referee blew the final whistle, although we were slightly disappointed at not winning the match, we fought hard and proved our mettle to MJC, earning applause from the MJC crowd and the respect of the MJC players, who we hopefully manged to establish cordial relations with. One MJC player shook my hand, and told me that they would meet us in the finals, an act of sportsmanship which really got us rooting for MJC during their semi-finals with SAJC. While I would like to point out the MJC centre back, who in his zeal to protect his last man (his captain), had a tendency to step on our strikers' feet, I feel that MJC played us hard and fair, and while we would have liked to have won the match, a draw was a fair result.
At the end of the match, we sat down in in the middle of the MJC field, awaiting the result of the SRJC-ACJC game, as we felt that SRJC represented the last meaningful obstacle to ACJC and their qualification. We saw Mr. Low and Mr. Kadir chuckling to themselves, and even though we later found out that ACJC had won SRJC by a single goal, I think that even then they always had tremendous belief that we were going to qualify. We had finally managed a second-half perfomance in the first half, and although fate was no longer in our hands and prospects of qualification looked bleak and dwindled with each ACJC victory, we knew that we had to secure the last 6 points to even stand a chance at qualification.
During the warm down, I recall asking to speak after Cunzhi, Hashir and Bowen had their turn, as I felt that this might be the last meaningful time I had to express my appreciation for the people on the bench who had supported us throughout the match and the tournament, as well as for Weijie. I will never forget Darrell's words to me at halftime, where I was feeling completely exhausted having played like I was only playing for one half. He told me that I was playing for each and everyone of us, and to never forget that. Ironically, the game where I thought I would only play one half ended up being the only game where I played the entire match. I felt that I played the best soccer of my life in the first half against MJC, winning every tackle I went in for, winning my fair share of headers, even distributing the ball sometimes.
During the second half, I picked up a loose ball and due to a poor first touch, pushed the ball a bit too far away. I saw an MJC player start to sprint to that ball, so I lowered my head and sprinted faster than I have ever sprinted in my life for that 50-50 ball, getting there a split second before the MJC player and passing it off to Bowen. Although in hindsight, the referee might well have played advantage as Bowen was in an excellent position, the referee chose to book the offending player, an action which will become VERY important later on. From that tackle alone I picked up an abrasion at the back of my left thigh the size of my hand as I was tackled on the sandiest part of the pitch. By the end of the game, I had cuts on my left and right hand, my left and right elbows, my left and right knees and my left thigh. I had given up my body for the team, getting winded in the process after blocking a freekick by MJC's captain, which hit me squarely in the solar plexus, an impact loud enough for the supporters in the stands to hear. He hit that shot harder than I've felt anyone hit a shot in my life.
Credit to the MJC crowd by the way, their cheer of MJC Boleh could be heard clearly from the 13th floor of the HDB block opposite the school where our J1s were filming the match. Timon also said that it was the first time that a cheer affected him.
Throughout the preseason, I believe that the performances of the midfield pairing of Eugene and Hashir had justified their selection as the starting centre-mids, I belief that I still subscribe to. I think the only reason I got a chance to play was because 1. our team is pretty short, and before the arrival of Zenzel and Junliang as fullback, our back 4 didn't exactly impress the opposition 2. the most common tactic among A division teams is to play high balls. While this tactic is extremely unglamourous, experience has proven to me that it is nevertheless effective. Therefore, being a short team, we try to avoid playing high balls, yet have to be prepared to deal with other teams employing such a tactic against us.
Maybe I should talk a little bit about Eugene here. I've known Ong Bak since secondary school, and I've always respected his abilities as a sportsman. Tactically, he draws alot from his experience with basketball, and he has that natural aggression from playing rugby. All in all, aside from his rather poor first touch, I think he's the consumate athlete on the soccer pitch. While many people think that the heart of our defense is our captain Cunzhi, who is tasked to make the last-ditch tackles and crucial interceptions, Eugene's job as stopper could not be more important to us. While Eugene might not be the tallest central defender, I have never seen him beaten to a high ball. His jumping power is second to none in our team, and on a good day he can probably shut down any striker. A hard tackler to boot, Eugene is a one-man wall that repels any ball that hangs in the air. Playing in front of him, I can boast that if Eugene calls for the ball, I can confidently push up to receive the second ball because I know he is going to win it.
As I mentioned earlier, the MJC game was a make or break one for us. We needed to get a victory against MJC in order to keep our qualifying fate in our own hands, i.e. if we were to draw with MJC, we would need ACJC to slip up somewhere in order for us to qualify second in the table, an unlikely occurence considering their relatively easy run-in, they had SRJC, YJC and TPJC left to face. This would be our second and last game at the MJC pitch, a rematch of the last match of the 2006 season, where we held MJC to a goalless draw.
Some background info: there was a fair amount of bad blood between us and MJC. In the 2006 season, we played MJC at Teacher's Network and were losing 4-1 with about 5 minutes to go. The pitch was absolutely awful that day, as it was raining very heavily, and at least one of MJC's goals was scored because the ball just suddenly stopped in a puddle of water. Even though the rules of the tournament call for a match to be cancelled if the pitch is unplayable, which if being water-logged isn't then I don't know what is considered 'unplayable', the match went on. However, 5 minutes from full time, there was lightning. The referee called in both coaches, and explained the situation. My coach offered to play finish the game because frankly, to argue that the match should be replayed with 5 minutes left was unsportsman-like, but it was the MJC coach who insisted on a replay at a later date. So, the match was cancelled with us having been thrashed by MJC. As things panned out, the 2006 team faced MJC on the last match, and events had unfolded such that a victory over MJC would guarantee our qualification while putting MJC's own chances in doubt. There was an implicit suggestion that my coach should field a second string side and play to lose as we had by right lost the first match, a suggestion that caused alot of anger in my seniors. At the end of a hard-fought match, my seniors could not score against MJC and were eliminated when SAJC beat TPJC despite gathering 17 points. When the groupings were announced just after the March holidays, everyone's attention had been drawn to this clash with MJC, and our seniors who came back to give us advice on the season, Donovan in particular, all really wanted us to play our very best against MJC and prove to them that we weren't pushovers. Incidentally, MJC were the only seeded team which we had not played a friendly against (we drew 2-2 with SAJC once, and lost to them 3-2 the 2nd time, we beat VJC 3-0, and drew with JJC 1-1).
On an irrelevant note: the MJC coach was an exteammate of Cunzhi's at Jurong FC.
The MJC game was to be played on the day before my birthday, a Tuesday, so that meant that we would be training out of school on a Monday. True enough, we were brought to a field somewhere in Novena to train, in the hope that training out of school would bring inspiration to our team. The field was full of clay, and I had to spend 15 minutes cleaning my boots when I got back to school.
The lineup against MJC was this: Timon, Junliang, Cunzhi, Eugene, Zenzel, Yijing, Martin, Hashir, Woohan, Bong, Chaolun
It was a huge boost to us that Zenzel had fully recovered from his ankle injury, and was back in the starting lineup. Tactically, one of our strikers was supposed to hassle the MJC no. 8, their captain, who had played for MJC the previous year. Their captain was a national player, and by all reports, was a fantastic player. Strong, as fast as Bong, as calm as Cunzhi in defense, an individually outstanding player, he was the heart of the MJC team. Furthermore, he possessed an incredibly powerful right foot, one that allowed him to kick goalkick further than anyone in the entire tournament, and one which MJC utilised with every freekick to take a direct shot. We were warned that MJC took all their direct freekicks the same way, with one variation. No. 8 always took a direct shot on goal, but the only variation was whether the two people in front of the ball would either shift the ball right, left, or would just scatter. Our coach also warned us about the danger of quick freekicks by MJC, who had been conceded a goal to us in the cancelled match because Damien had taken a quick freekick while the keeper was arranging the wall. Therefore, urgency in building the wall and delaying the freekick was of the essence.
Another of the danger players was their AM, no. 21. MJC played in a 4-5-1 formation, with their 2 DMs sitting back protecting the back 4. Eugene was tasked with the job of shutting their AM down. Their RW, no. 7, was also identified as a threat, and Junliang and Zenzel were both warned that he might play on either wing. I was supposed to handle both DMs, to press them and stop them from supplying the ball to their AM or their striker, with Hashir supposed to help me out when necessary but largely to keep himself free as an outlet to launch the ball. This was the first game where we received no instruction as to how to attack during the pre-match briefing, and I think for the better, we were no longer playing to our opponents but were trying to establish our style of play on them.
During the pre-match briefing, all my teammates kept telling me to play like Gattuso in an attempt to psyche me up. Gattuso had totally shut Ronaldo down during the 2nd leg of the Champion's league semi-finals. I realise that my playing style was somewhat like Gattuso's, I would attempt to do all the dirty work in defense, and after winning the ball I would just pass it off, and I was not very involved with the attack.
One of the biggest problems our team had faced this season was the fact that we were always a second-half team, slow out of the blocks, we only seemed to really play in the second half. However, our coach warned us that if we did not get straight into the match from the kickoff, we were going to be punished by MJC. True enough, MJC set a very high tempo from the start: their style of play involved playing a quick high crossfield ball whenever they won possession in the midfield, with their wingers having been conditioned to pull wide quickly.
Well enough said, onto the match. During the warm up, as usual, during the long ball section of the warm-up, I screwed up my long balls. I think at the back of my mind I didn't really see myself doing alot of long-balls so it didn't really matter to me. In the huddle, my first huddle, I realised that the most pumped up person was Eugene. Cunzhi would always say a few lines, but mostly instructional and in a cool and calm tone, which he justifies as "passion doesn't last". It's a nice mix in the huddle, with a few very pumped up people, and a few people who are totally calm. I think if everyone is shouting their lungs out in the huddle it's good for energy, but not the greatest for clarity. On a side note, it's my routine to be somewhat silent during the huddle, I like to quieten my mind and just mentally prepare for the kickoff. As we lined up along the side of the field, I was somewhat nervous, and I couldn't even look into the stands to look at my friends, I just kept doing tuck-jumps which would later become part of my routine. Quite amazing how the silliest of things can become part of our pre-match routine, like going to the toilet, or chocolate bars, or red underwear, or "Time is Running Out" by Muse. My pre-match routine involved eating Yong Tao Fu with my standard 6 items, using the toilet, eating a Banana and some Papadum, listening to Muse, and wearing my long socks during the pre-match briefing. I was also the first person down the bus every single match.
The two wingers had somewhat of a torrid time this game. Woohan told me that the LB was the best he had played against the entire tournament. Fast, strong and good in the air, Woohan was not able to 'burn' him with sheer pace as he had with other fullbacks. While Yijing achieved a greater amount of success against the RB, the field was not suited to dribbling with its bumby surface, and the RB had a tendency to go in hard from behind. Aside from moments of brilliance, our wingers were largely subdued by their fullbacks during the first half.
Up front we were really struggling. Chaolun played the whole match with a fever, and everytime a substitute came on we were all expecting Chaolun to go off. Bong was virtually non-existent in the game, I'm not sure whether he was trying to mark no. 8 or not, but in either case, he had little impact on the game. On the other hand, our defense was also doing remarkably well against MJC's offense. Their vaunted no.7 was tussling with Junliang every time he got the ball, but aside from winning a few free kicks because Junliang kept using his hands when he jumped for a ball, he was shut down by Junliang. Their left winger had no chance against Zenzel, and Eugene kept the AM quiet for the first part of the first half. Soon, they were forced to make a subsitution, with their CM no. 10 coming off (I think he pulled his hamstring after high-booting Hashir's head), and their AM dropping to the midfield. I think Hashir and I had an excellent game, and even though I gave away a number of fouls, none were in a highly threatening position. I remember one sequence where I controlled the ball and drew my man in, and released it to Hashir, who delivered a sensational diagonal ball for Woohan. The game basically see-sawed in the first half, with neither side gaining the ascendency, with two excellent defenses neutralising one another. I achieved my personal target of going into the half with a clean sheet, as I fully expected to be substituted for Bowen. However, to my surprise, I was sent back onto the field for the second half.
Some of the refereeing calls in our game was quite ridiculous. Most blatantly would be the foul on Junliang on our right flank, where either their centre-back or their left-back went in high and late, yet escaped a card. Furthermore, I remember the referee threatening to send in total 4 different players off for tussling/jostling, Eugene and Hashir from our side and no. 7 and one more MJC player on the other side. But I'm also pretty sure that MJC would have their fair share of gripes with some of the referee's calls, and who am I to complain, I must have committed 8 or more fouls and escaped without a booking. The closest I came to getting carded was when I slid in for a tackle after we had just cleared a ball from one of MJC's set-pieces, and even though I am absolutely sure I got the ball cleanly, the referee blew for a foul. I was so enraged that I smacked the ground in frustration and the referee called me back to ask me to calm down :(
The half-time team talk was quite positive, with our coach urging us to continue with our performance and to maintain our level of play in the second half. It was incredibly hot in the first half and as usual, this was to our advantage as we could clearly see fatigue seeping into the MJC players. The MJC captain uncharacteristically mis-kicked a couple of goal kicks, a sure sign of fatigue, whereas for our side, our coach's plan of rotating goals kicks between Cunzhi, Junliang and Zenzel kept each of them fresh. Yet another example at how depth helps relief the burden on one player.
At some point during the game, Zenzel succumbed to cramps and had to be substituted out of the game. He was replaced by Jeremy, with Junliang switching to right-back. I think this was the pivotal moment of the game, as it marked a period of sustained pressure from MJC, which had a flurry of freekicks, throw ins and corner kicks. Earlier in the game, Eugene almost scored an own goal when he flicked a cross backwards that hit our goal post but thankfully went to safety. However, we would have no such luck this time around. We were unable to deal with the high ball cleanly and one of the MJC players beat Jeremy to the header and nodded it towards our goals. Unaware that Cunzhi was behind him and in a better position, Eugene stretched for the header but could only send it backwards and sideways past Timon who could only claw the ball into our goal despite being at full stretch. It was a horrible goal to concede, and of all people it would be Eugene to score the own goal, the hero so often turned villian.
Personally, I guess I lack that fighting spirit and I was deflated after letting in a goal after defending stoutly for so long. But I guess here is where I would like to credit the players around me, for their indomitable spirit, especially Bowen. Before the match, I told Bowen that my goal was to play so well that I would keep him out of the game, and true enough, he came on for one of the strikers while Si En replaced Hashir to freshen up the legs in midfield. I asked Bowen after our season whether he had always believed that we would win the title, and without any hesitation, he told that he had always known we were going to win it. I swear, that boy is only good for 2 things, scoring goals and believing in the players around him, and that's more than enough.
Bowen started the move, and finished it. He held up the ball in midfield, and after eluding his man with his favoured stutter step dribble, he switch the ball wide to Junliang. Junliang, playing in his familiar RB role which he plays for Young Lions, brough the ball up and tried to feed it through to Sean who had pulled wide. However, through some luck, the defenders cut out the initial pass but the rebound fell straight back to Junliang, who made no mistake with the second pass. With his speed, Sean was able to cut the ball infield and shield it from any recovery tackle from the Meridian LB, and looking up, he cut the ball back to an unmarked Bowen, who sent the ball into the roof of the net and made us believe in miracles once more.
From then on, it was all RJC, and the only thing that stopped us from winning was the clock, and having equalised too late into the game, there was simply not enough time to score the winning goal. When the referee blew the final whistle, although we were slightly disappointed at not winning the match, we fought hard and proved our mettle to MJC, earning applause from the MJC crowd and the respect of the MJC players, who we hopefully manged to establish cordial relations with. One MJC player shook my hand, and told me that they would meet us in the finals, an act of sportsmanship which really got us rooting for MJC during their semi-finals with SAJC. While I would like to point out the MJC centre back, who in his zeal to protect his last man (his captain), had a tendency to step on our strikers' feet, I feel that MJC played us hard and fair, and while we would have liked to have won the match, a draw was a fair result.
At the end of the match, we sat down in in the middle of the MJC field, awaiting the result of the SRJC-ACJC game, as we felt that SRJC represented the last meaningful obstacle to ACJC and their qualification. We saw Mr. Low and Mr. Kadir chuckling to themselves, and even though we later found out that ACJC had won SRJC by a single goal, I think that even then they always had tremendous belief that we were going to qualify. We had finally managed a second-half perfomance in the first half, and although fate was no longer in our hands and prospects of qualification looked bleak and dwindled with each ACJC victory, we knew that we had to secure the last 6 points to even stand a chance at qualification.
During the warm down, I recall asking to speak after Cunzhi, Hashir and Bowen had their turn, as I felt that this might be the last meaningful time I had to express my appreciation for the people on the bench who had supported us throughout the match and the tournament, as well as for Weijie. I will never forget Darrell's words to me at halftime, where I was feeling completely exhausted having played like I was only playing for one half. He told me that I was playing for each and everyone of us, and to never forget that. Ironically, the game where I thought I would only play one half ended up being the only game where I played the entire match. I felt that I played the best soccer of my life in the first half against MJC, winning every tackle I went in for, winning my fair share of headers, even distributing the ball sometimes.
During the second half, I picked up a loose ball and due to a poor first touch, pushed the ball a bit too far away. I saw an MJC player start to sprint to that ball, so I lowered my head and sprinted faster than I have ever sprinted in my life for that 50-50 ball, getting there a split second before the MJC player and passing it off to Bowen. Although in hindsight, the referee might well have played advantage as Bowen was in an excellent position, the referee chose to book the offending player, an action which will become VERY important later on. From that tackle alone I picked up an abrasion at the back of my left thigh the size of my hand as I was tackled on the sandiest part of the pitch. By the end of the game, I had cuts on my left and right hand, my left and right elbows, my left and right knees and my left thigh. I had given up my body for the team, getting winded in the process after blocking a freekick by MJC's captain, which hit me squarely in the solar plexus, an impact loud enough for the supporters in the stands to hear. He hit that shot harder than I've felt anyone hit a shot in my life.
Credit to the MJC crowd by the way, their cheer of MJC Boleh could be heard clearly from the 13th floor of the HDB block opposite the school where our J1s were filming the match. Timon also said that it was the first time that a cheer affected him.
Monday, May 28, 2007
NJC
It was halfway through the tournament, and we had picked up 10 out of a possible 12 points from the first 4 matches. However, things were going to get alot harder as we still had NJC and MJC to face, as well as a replay with JJC. First off, I would like to say that of all the matches we played, the NJC match was the most disappointing of all. Had we not qualified for the semi-finals, I think it would be safe to say that every member of our team would point to our performance in this match as the main reason why. Just like our seniors before us, who had led the table all the way until they lost 1-0 to AJC, NJC could so easily have proven to be our downfall. I would not mind playing a rematch with NJC again sometime soon, just to see which team is better.
I didn't play at all this game, resigned to standing behind the goal with Quan cheering our teammates on, who carved out many gilt-edged chances but just couldn't find that killer touch. Admittedly, it was a very close game, with both sides having chances to steal the game, with NJC missing a chance to steal the game with virtually the last kick of the game. In my opinion, NJC played their best game of the tournement against us, and were a far cry from the team we saw play against YJC later on. They outcommunicated us, they outwitted us tactically, and to some extent, I think they simply wanted a result more than us. Although I think we were the better team, we could so easily have lost this match.
NJC had gone through along with us into the semi-finals 2 years ago, surviving the group of death (RJC,TPJC,SAJC,NJC). My coach was familiar with the NJC coaching staff, and warned us not to underestimate them, or to assume that a result against them was guaranteed. Our coach warned us that this was a crucial game for NJC, as a loss against us would effectively eliminate them from the competition barring a miracle. I learnt a very important lesson in this game: never underestimate your opponent. Perhaps an early warning of our slackish attitude leading up to the match was the state of the briefing room when our coach walked in, with people sleeping on the floor, the chairs not arranged, lots of rubbish on the white board about soccer guys and their various associated girls- admittedly Jeremy and I had just finished a few games of gin rummy. Mr. Low was very angry at our overly casual attitude, and from then on, the first thing we did when entering the room was to arrange the chairs.
Lineup was: Timon, Jeremy, Cunzhi, Eugene, Weiyu, Joseph, Hashir, Bowen, Guan Koon, Bong, Chaolun
I remember Cunzhi had suffered a hip injury going into this game, and actually sat out most of the training the day before. Mr. Low even emphasised that he wanted Eugene to work more so he could protect Cunzhi's hip, but ironically, Cunzhi had to work even harder during the game then he was used to playing a flat four system. Weiyu was back in right-back after letting his heels heal a bit, but they were still quite raw, and I really respect him for playing through the pain. Joseph was handed a rare start ahead of Yijing, and it was good to see that our coach was willing to let every single player have a chance to play.
The pre-match briefing had identified the NJC DM as their key player, who was a national player as well, and scouting reports said that NJC was weak in the air and their goalkeeper was prone to fumbles. Of these 3 pieces of information on which we built our game plan, only 1 proved to be right. Their DM played unbelievably well, getting to the ball just that split second before our players did. NJC was by no means weak in the air, and their keeper caught countless of our cross without spilling the ball. Tactically, we were completely outfoxed this match, and our entire game plan crumbled before our very eyes. Clearly, scouting isn't always a good thing.
I would like to compliment NJC for their impressive communication, in Timon's words, "they were the first team we faced to out-communicate us". We later learnt that their coach had screened the movie 300 before out match, and throughout the match the NJC players would shout and echo "300!" every available opportunity, exceeding if not matching our calls of "green ball!" and "Raffles!". The NJC players were by far the most fired up team we had ever faced.
From the opening kickoff, it was a nervy start for us. One of the NJC players took a shot at our goal from the kickoff, but he scuffed the attempt. However, the referee spotted an infringement and called for a retake of the kickoff. Again, NJC took a shot at our goal. Previously, only SAJC in our 1st friendly with them have taken a shot directly from a kick off, at that time it hit the corner of the goal post and crossbar, as Timon had partially misjudged the flight of the ball. This time, with strong tailwind, the NJC player's high and lofty shot caught the wind and flew at our goal. I was just walking to the back of Timon's goal to help pick any balls that flew past when I saw Timon catch the ball behind the line. Whether the whole of the ball crossed the goal line I will never know, as Timon reacted smartly by quickly flicking the ball out before any of us could take a second look. However, the linesman never even batted an eyelid. I noticed that the linesman had not reached the goal-line by the time the ball reached Timon because he had to run from the half-way line. So a little of luck kept us from going down early on in a close and tight match.
The game was very tight, with our defense standing firm against the NJC attack, but our offense was largely stiffled by their defense, in part due to the fact that we tried to stick to our game plan of testing them aerially. The move of the match was an absurd flick by Bowen with the outside of his boot somewhere outside the penalty box, right in the path of Chaolun's run. Sadly, Chaolun's far post drive beat the keeper but not the goal post, and it bounced out for the NJC defender to clear to safety. Chaolun would have a number of excellent chances to put us ahead, including: a near-post shot akin to the one he scored against Johor FC which the keeper did well to parry, a free header from a cross by Woohan that he headed straight into the keeper, a shot from a scrappy corner which Eugene's head cleared off the line. Even Yijing had an excellent chance, but his volley on the run was just wide.
In the dying moments of the match, a series of mistakes by our defense presented the NJC national player with an open goal, after one of their players managed to get a shot in from the right channel which Timon could only parry into the path of another player, whose shot was blocked by Weiyu last ditch challenge. The ball finally bobbled into the path of their DM, and considering Timon was out of position and Cunzhi had slipped at the crucial monent, with the goal was at his mercy, the DM blasted wide to the relief of all our players.
In the end, both sides had their chances but neither side could stick their noses ahead. While some of my teammates believe that had they scored from the opening kick-off, we would certainly have 'woken up' and won the match, I think that we should count ourselves lucky. At this point, we had dropped 4 points from a maximum of 15, and our qualifying chances had taken a turn for the worse as ACJC looked unlikely to drop any more points. Team morale was definitely down after this match, even though we were told not to dwell on it and to focus on our upcoming match against MJC. Incidentally, this was the only match where we failed to score a goal.
I didn't play at all this game, resigned to standing behind the goal with Quan cheering our teammates on, who carved out many gilt-edged chances but just couldn't find that killer touch. Admittedly, it was a very close game, with both sides having chances to steal the game, with NJC missing a chance to steal the game with virtually the last kick of the game. In my opinion, NJC played their best game of the tournement against us, and were a far cry from the team we saw play against YJC later on. They outcommunicated us, they outwitted us tactically, and to some extent, I think they simply wanted a result more than us. Although I think we were the better team, we could so easily have lost this match.
NJC had gone through along with us into the semi-finals 2 years ago, surviving the group of death (RJC,TPJC,SAJC,NJC). My coach was familiar with the NJC coaching staff, and warned us not to underestimate them, or to assume that a result against them was guaranteed. Our coach warned us that this was a crucial game for NJC, as a loss against us would effectively eliminate them from the competition barring a miracle. I learnt a very important lesson in this game: never underestimate your opponent. Perhaps an early warning of our slackish attitude leading up to the match was the state of the briefing room when our coach walked in, with people sleeping on the floor, the chairs not arranged, lots of rubbish on the white board about soccer guys and their various associated girls- admittedly Jeremy and I had just finished a few games of gin rummy. Mr. Low was very angry at our overly casual attitude, and from then on, the first thing we did when entering the room was to arrange the chairs.
Lineup was: Timon, Jeremy, Cunzhi, Eugene, Weiyu, Joseph, Hashir, Bowen, Guan Koon, Bong, Chaolun
I remember Cunzhi had suffered a hip injury going into this game, and actually sat out most of the training the day before. Mr. Low even emphasised that he wanted Eugene to work more so he could protect Cunzhi's hip, but ironically, Cunzhi had to work even harder during the game then he was used to playing a flat four system. Weiyu was back in right-back after letting his heels heal a bit, but they were still quite raw, and I really respect him for playing through the pain. Joseph was handed a rare start ahead of Yijing, and it was good to see that our coach was willing to let every single player have a chance to play.
The pre-match briefing had identified the NJC DM as their key player, who was a national player as well, and scouting reports said that NJC was weak in the air and their goalkeeper was prone to fumbles. Of these 3 pieces of information on which we built our game plan, only 1 proved to be right. Their DM played unbelievably well, getting to the ball just that split second before our players did. NJC was by no means weak in the air, and their keeper caught countless of our cross without spilling the ball. Tactically, we were completely outfoxed this match, and our entire game plan crumbled before our very eyes. Clearly, scouting isn't always a good thing.
I would like to compliment NJC for their impressive communication, in Timon's words, "they were the first team we faced to out-communicate us". We later learnt that their coach had screened the movie 300 before out match, and throughout the match the NJC players would shout and echo "300!" every available opportunity, exceeding if not matching our calls of "green ball!" and "Raffles!". The NJC players were by far the most fired up team we had ever faced.
From the opening kickoff, it was a nervy start for us. One of the NJC players took a shot at our goal from the kickoff, but he scuffed the attempt. However, the referee spotted an infringement and called for a retake of the kickoff. Again, NJC took a shot at our goal. Previously, only SAJC in our 1st friendly with them have taken a shot directly from a kick off, at that time it hit the corner of the goal post and crossbar, as Timon had partially misjudged the flight of the ball. This time, with strong tailwind, the NJC player's high and lofty shot caught the wind and flew at our goal. I was just walking to the back of Timon's goal to help pick any balls that flew past when I saw Timon catch the ball behind the line. Whether the whole of the ball crossed the goal line I will never know, as Timon reacted smartly by quickly flicking the ball out before any of us could take a second look. However, the linesman never even batted an eyelid. I noticed that the linesman had not reached the goal-line by the time the ball reached Timon because he had to run from the half-way line. So a little of luck kept us from going down early on in a close and tight match.
The game was very tight, with our defense standing firm against the NJC attack, but our offense was largely stiffled by their defense, in part due to the fact that we tried to stick to our game plan of testing them aerially. The move of the match was an absurd flick by Bowen with the outside of his boot somewhere outside the penalty box, right in the path of Chaolun's run. Sadly, Chaolun's far post drive beat the keeper but not the goal post, and it bounced out for the NJC defender to clear to safety. Chaolun would have a number of excellent chances to put us ahead, including: a near-post shot akin to the one he scored against Johor FC which the keeper did well to parry, a free header from a cross by Woohan that he headed straight into the keeper, a shot from a scrappy corner which Eugene's head cleared off the line. Even Yijing had an excellent chance, but his volley on the run was just wide.
In the dying moments of the match, a series of mistakes by our defense presented the NJC national player with an open goal, after one of their players managed to get a shot in from the right channel which Timon could only parry into the path of another player, whose shot was blocked by Weiyu last ditch challenge. The ball finally bobbled into the path of their DM, and considering Timon was out of position and Cunzhi had slipped at the crucial monent, with the goal was at his mercy, the DM blasted wide to the relief of all our players.
In the end, both sides had their chances but neither side could stick their noses ahead. While some of my teammates believe that had they scored from the opening kick-off, we would certainly have 'woken up' and won the match, I think that we should count ourselves lucky. At this point, we had dropped 4 points from a maximum of 15, and our qualifying chances had taken a turn for the worse as ACJC looked unlikely to drop any more points. Team morale was definitely down after this match, even though we were told not to dwell on it and to focus on our upcoming match against MJC. Incidentally, this was the only match where we failed to score a goal.
YJC
Having been held to a draw by ACJC, we knew that we had to win YJC by a convincing score-line, both to boost our confidence ahead of the NJC/MJC double-header, and to increase our goal difference in the event that it came down to that. At this point in the tournament, YJC were already out of the equation, having lost to many matches to have a realistic hope of qualification. We hoped that this would be in our favour as they might not be as fired up or the might even field 2nd team players to let everyone have a chance of playing.
Up till this point, Cunzhi had scored in every game we had played at JJC's synthetic field. He was injured during our first match against MOE teachers, he scored in the friendly against JJC, and had scored penalties during the SRJC and TPJC matches. Our coach always said that if we played to our full potential, he would not be surprised if our top scorer was one of our fullbacks. Cunzhi even joked that if he continued his hot streak on JJC's turf, he might win the golden boot award based solely on penalties earned by our team, going so far as to joke that he would engrave the names of all the goalkeepers he had beaten from the penalty spot on the golden boot.
The lineup for YJC was highly offensive: Timon, Jeremy, Eugene, Cunzhi, Clifton, Yijing, Hashir, Bowen, Woohan, Bong, Chaolun.
First, let me explain the chanages in the lineup. Most notably, Eugene had been moved to his old role as stopper, which he played during the 2006 season. At this point, we were unsure why this change had been implemented, either because our coach wanted Eugene's aerial prowess in defense to cope with the high ball tactics teams seemed to be implementing against us, or to accomodate Bowen, who's midfield vision and attacking movement seemed best suited for AM. With 3 outstanding midfielders in Eugene, Hashir and Bowen, this seemed like the only possible formation where each could play successfully. Bowen had scored quite a number of goal for the 2006 team, and although his form during the previous games had been somewhat below his high standards, we had great faith that he would return to his goalscoring ways. Also, tactically, we moved away from the flat four system we had trained for during the entire preseason back to the old stopper system, a moved that left quite a few of us puzzled. I speculated that it might possibly be due to the fact that Eugene had not played centre-back for quite some time, and our coach did not want to risk him playing in an unfamiliar position.
Clifton also started this game and would go on to play the full 80 minutes. Zenzel was still out with his ankle injury and Weiyu had huge blisters at the back of his feet because he had changed boots halfway through the season. Despite the fact that he was effectively our 3rd choice right back, I felt that Clifton played solidly during this game, and it was his first time cross that led to our opening goal. This just demonstrates our impressive squad depth, where even our 3rd choice right back could step up when called upon.
As I mentioned before, this lineup was very attack-minded. Woohan was handed his first start of the competition, and we all hoped that he would be able to last the entire match. Our coach likes to remind each player in the team during the pre-match briefing about the reason for their inclusion. Eugene to win the high balls, Hashir for his 'pin-point passes', Bowen for his vision, Sean and Bong for their pace and hard work, Chaolun for his height and target-man play, Yijing for his skill and penetration dribbling, and Woohan for his flatout pace.
From the kickoff, we could sense that YJC were no pushovers. They fought hard for every ball, and even though it was apparent that they came into this game with a defensive mindset, with 10 men sitting in their own half behind the ball and a lone striker up front, they were largely able to foil our initial attacks. However, the pressure mounted and YJC eventually collapsed, with Bowen sneaking in the far past to tap in a goal. Bowen would eventually reward our coaches' faith in him by bagging a second goal, putting us 2 goals up going into the break. Despite being two goals up, our coach was far from pleased during the halftime break, and told us that if we were satisfied with a two-goal margin, then we might as well give up on the A Division title.
Bong would put us up 3-0 with a decent strike to the far post, which the keeper ought to have saved but was too slow getting down to parry the ball to safety. This just goes to show that at our standard, taking shots will always reap dividends. Pei Qian, from the batch before Donovan, had taken us on our 1st Malaysia trip in J1, and had tried to drive into our strikers the importance of taking shots, which was one of the main weaknesses of our team. Bong had always been one of the culprits who either took too long to shoot, or opted to pass off when a shooting window arose, but he proved his detractors wrong for his second goal of the tournament. The fourth goal was scored by Bong again, but this time it was a true poacher's goal. Having just watched the video, this is exactly what happened: Timon rolled the ball out to Jeremy, who found Hashir supporting, who attempted to break out of a two man trap, delivered a diagonal ball to Woohan, who showed good strength in holding his man off and laid off the ball to Bowen. Bowen brought the ball up a bit, and delievered an amazing outside foot through ball to Woohan, who had continued his run. Having accelerated, Woohan was never going to get caught by the left back and push the ball inwards, sending a low drive to the far post the already beat the keeper. However, Bong was on hand to make sure of the goal, forcing the ball into the back of the net. RJC 4 - YJC 0.
Sadly, this would prove to be Woohan's last action of the game, succumbing to cramps after making our 4th goal. I was sent on to replace him, playing in the centre of midfield alongside Bowen with Hashir pulling out to the right wing. Later on, Liben would come on to play right wing and Hashir returned alongside me in the centre of midfield. My entrance into the team would prove uneventful, and as I am a more defensive player, the game eventually simmered down after my arrival, with the only excitement being Eugene's attempted long range shot which he scuffed, again. ;) I remember shouting, "Remember the game plan guys!", and hearing a YJC player echo the same sentiments, "Come on guys, remember the game plan, clear the ball first time upfield". YJC had clearly gone into the game with the intention of frustrating us, and for a large part of the game, they succeeded.
My only gripe with the game is that I don't understand why 1 ball has to be used all the while, compared to the referees approving a few balls so that there will not be as much of a delay everytime the ball goes very far out. This would enable the game to flow more smoothly, considering the referees hardly allowed for injury time, often blowing shortly after the prescribed 40 minutes were up. Timon mentioned to us on the bus ride back that he heard the YJC bench applaud the refereee when the final whistle was blown, shouting "Nice one ref!". :) Both Bowen and Bong grabbed braces, with Bong emerging as our top scorer with 3 goals in 4 games. Sadly, Cunzhi's streak of scoring at JJC was broken, but he wasn't disappointed at all, claiming that he would willingly give up his penalty goal if it meant we won 4-0 everytime.
We were all in good spirits by the end of the game, and on the bus ride back, we sang our traditional victory anthem, "Love, Me" by Collin Raye, with ahem modified lyrics.
Up till this point, Cunzhi had scored in every game we had played at JJC's synthetic field. He was injured during our first match against MOE teachers, he scored in the friendly against JJC, and had scored penalties during the SRJC and TPJC matches. Our coach always said that if we played to our full potential, he would not be surprised if our top scorer was one of our fullbacks. Cunzhi even joked that if he continued his hot streak on JJC's turf, he might win the golden boot award based solely on penalties earned by our team, going so far as to joke that he would engrave the names of all the goalkeepers he had beaten from the penalty spot on the golden boot.
The lineup for YJC was highly offensive: Timon, Jeremy, Eugene, Cunzhi, Clifton, Yijing, Hashir, Bowen, Woohan, Bong, Chaolun.
First, let me explain the chanages in the lineup. Most notably, Eugene had been moved to his old role as stopper, which he played during the 2006 season. At this point, we were unsure why this change had been implemented, either because our coach wanted Eugene's aerial prowess in defense to cope with the high ball tactics teams seemed to be implementing against us, or to accomodate Bowen, who's midfield vision and attacking movement seemed best suited for AM. With 3 outstanding midfielders in Eugene, Hashir and Bowen, this seemed like the only possible formation where each could play successfully. Bowen had scored quite a number of goal for the 2006 team, and although his form during the previous games had been somewhat below his high standards, we had great faith that he would return to his goalscoring ways. Also, tactically, we moved away from the flat four system we had trained for during the entire preseason back to the old stopper system, a moved that left quite a few of us puzzled. I speculated that it might possibly be due to the fact that Eugene had not played centre-back for quite some time, and our coach did not want to risk him playing in an unfamiliar position.
Clifton also started this game and would go on to play the full 80 minutes. Zenzel was still out with his ankle injury and Weiyu had huge blisters at the back of his feet because he had changed boots halfway through the season. Despite the fact that he was effectively our 3rd choice right back, I felt that Clifton played solidly during this game, and it was his first time cross that led to our opening goal. This just demonstrates our impressive squad depth, where even our 3rd choice right back could step up when called upon.
As I mentioned before, this lineup was very attack-minded. Woohan was handed his first start of the competition, and we all hoped that he would be able to last the entire match. Our coach likes to remind each player in the team during the pre-match briefing about the reason for their inclusion. Eugene to win the high balls, Hashir for his 'pin-point passes', Bowen for his vision, Sean and Bong for their pace and hard work, Chaolun for his height and target-man play, Yijing for his skill and penetration dribbling, and Woohan for his flatout pace.
From the kickoff, we could sense that YJC were no pushovers. They fought hard for every ball, and even though it was apparent that they came into this game with a defensive mindset, with 10 men sitting in their own half behind the ball and a lone striker up front, they were largely able to foil our initial attacks. However, the pressure mounted and YJC eventually collapsed, with Bowen sneaking in the far past to tap in a goal. Bowen would eventually reward our coaches' faith in him by bagging a second goal, putting us 2 goals up going into the break. Despite being two goals up, our coach was far from pleased during the halftime break, and told us that if we were satisfied with a two-goal margin, then we might as well give up on the A Division title.
Bong would put us up 3-0 with a decent strike to the far post, which the keeper ought to have saved but was too slow getting down to parry the ball to safety. This just goes to show that at our standard, taking shots will always reap dividends. Pei Qian, from the batch before Donovan, had taken us on our 1st Malaysia trip in J1, and had tried to drive into our strikers the importance of taking shots, which was one of the main weaknesses of our team. Bong had always been one of the culprits who either took too long to shoot, or opted to pass off when a shooting window arose, but he proved his detractors wrong for his second goal of the tournament. The fourth goal was scored by Bong again, but this time it was a true poacher's goal. Having just watched the video, this is exactly what happened: Timon rolled the ball out to Jeremy, who found Hashir supporting, who attempted to break out of a two man trap, delivered a diagonal ball to Woohan, who showed good strength in holding his man off and laid off the ball to Bowen. Bowen brought the ball up a bit, and delievered an amazing outside foot through ball to Woohan, who had continued his run. Having accelerated, Woohan was never going to get caught by the left back and push the ball inwards, sending a low drive to the far post the already beat the keeper. However, Bong was on hand to make sure of the goal, forcing the ball into the back of the net. RJC 4 - YJC 0.
Sadly, this would prove to be Woohan's last action of the game, succumbing to cramps after making our 4th goal. I was sent on to replace him, playing in the centre of midfield alongside Bowen with Hashir pulling out to the right wing. Later on, Liben would come on to play right wing and Hashir returned alongside me in the centre of midfield. My entrance into the team would prove uneventful, and as I am a more defensive player, the game eventually simmered down after my arrival, with the only excitement being Eugene's attempted long range shot which he scuffed, again. ;) I remember shouting, "Remember the game plan guys!", and hearing a YJC player echo the same sentiments, "Come on guys, remember the game plan, clear the ball first time upfield". YJC had clearly gone into the game with the intention of frustrating us, and for a large part of the game, they succeeded.
My only gripe with the game is that I don't understand why 1 ball has to be used all the while, compared to the referees approving a few balls so that there will not be as much of a delay everytime the ball goes very far out. This would enable the game to flow more smoothly, considering the referees hardly allowed for injury time, often blowing shortly after the prescribed 40 minutes were up. Timon mentioned to us on the bus ride back that he heard the YJC bench applaud the refereee when the final whistle was blown, shouting "Nice one ref!". :) Both Bowen and Bong grabbed braces, with Bong emerging as our top scorer with 3 goals in 4 games. Sadly, Cunzhi's streak of scoring at JJC was broken, but he wasn't disappointed at all, claiming that he would willingly give up his penalty goal if it meant we won 4-0 everytime.
We were all in good spirits by the end of the game, and on the bus ride back, we sang our traditional victory anthem, "Love, Me" by Collin Raye, with ahem modified lyrics.
ACJC
This match was somewhat anti-climactic, as we had hoped to have secured victory over JJC before facing off with ACJC. As previously mentioned, all schools excluding ourselves and MJC had lost at least once already, and ACJC's sole loss had come against MJC in a last gasp penalty winner. We knew from our experience last year that ACJC were certainly no pushovers, where we required a last minute goal to edge a victory over them 2-1. From their thrashing of NYJC, we knew they were perhaps our strongest competitors in the group after MJC.
We played a friendly against ACJC last year, losing 1-0 on a direct free kick from about 30 metres out that lobbed our reserve keeper Weijie. (Timon was out because of achilles tendonities, an injury which would keep him out of quite a number of friendlys). I remember playing a little in that match, but of greater significance I remember that Cunzhi sat out because of his ankle. Weijie was named Man of the Match that game because his outstanding performance kept us in the game, and Sean missed a penalty in the last 10 minutes which would have earned us at least a draw. My overall impression of ACJC was that they played a very physical game, and in the words of my senior, they played soccer like they played rugby, and to great success.
Going into the game, scouting information placed their striker as their main threat, and a tendency to attack down their left hand side. True enough, at least 3 of the goals scored against NYJC were down the left hand side. The game was played at MJC for the 2nd time in a row, and it was our first game away from the flat smooth synthetic grass of JJC. While the MJC pitch was certainly larger and suited our style of play, giving more space for our wingers and strikers to run, the bumps and bare patches were going to prove a problem for our passing game. A victory this time around would effectively secure MJC's qualification, and so we went into the match intending to do MJC a big favour.
The lineup: Timon, Junliang, Quan, Cunzhi, Weiyu, Yijing, Eugene, Hashir, Guan Koon, Bong and Chaolun
I recall seeing the ACJC Eurasian centre-back play for the team last year against us, and he was certainly a key member of their team. Bong's assignment was to take out the captain who played centre-back alongside the Eurasian player, and Chaolun was supposed to take the Eurasian player. Both ACJC centre-backs were very tall, and our pre-match briefing included instructions to the wingers to avoid high crosses and to drill the ball low and hard across the face of the goal.
I didn't play in this match at all, but I remember it most clearly for being a game of two halves. Just like our seniors before us, ACJC was practically camped in our half for the 1st half, and only desperate defending at times allowed us to escape relatively unscathed. Ironically enough, the goal we conceded, the first time we were behind in the tournament, did not arise from ACJC pressure, but from a series of mistakes on the part of our defense. Junliang took a quick throw from about the halfway line to Cunzhi, who took a little too long on the ball and his clearance got charged down. A quick through ball saw Quan one on one with the ACJC danger striker, and as Quan slipped the ACJC striker shifted the ball to his left foot and drilled the ball into the near post past Timon. Weiyu had been caught upfield out of position because he was still running back having been committed up front for a corner. Junliang's quick throw was not wrong, but had he realised Weiyu was out of position, he might have delayed for a while. Cunzhi was unfortunate, and I would say this was one of the very few mistakes he made throughout the tournament. Quan could perhaps have been tighter on the striker, but one-on-one he decided not to commit to a tackle and had already forced the striker onto his weaker foot. All in all, a series of little individual errors that caused us to concede a stupid goal, but credit to the ACJC striker for spotting the gap and being clinical with his finishing in front of goal.
And just like our seniors before us, we got shelled during the halftime team talk. Our coach brought us to the exact spot where Donovan's batch had failed to win against AJC, and told us that unless we stepped up with our game, we would end the game in tears as well. In the huddle, Eugene was perhaps the most psyched up player, and he was screaming like a wounded animal. Going into the second half, we would step up our performance like never before.
As I mentioned earlier, the game was a game of two halves, and like Donovan's batch before us, practically the entire second half was spent in ACJC's half. Every ball they cleared was soon switched to our fullbacks and pressure resumed. After a delightful chip by Junliang to Bong's feat after some nice interplay between Junliang and Yijing, Bong squared the ball to Chaolun who could not miss, and we were soon level. Despite an onslaught of pressure by us, ACJC's defense stood firm and managed to repel most of our attempts. Although we had a slew of chances, none were very clear-cut, the closest we came to a winner being Yijing's attempted lop of the keeper, which came agonisingly close.
On a side note, the ACJC captain was one of Hashir's friends, and the captain was responsible for the majority of ACJC's trash talk. At one point, he even told Chaolun to "go back to China", a comment which Hashir took offense to and had a word with him about, with him apologising for it later. The ACJC also told his right-back to "leave the little pussy on the left wing alone", clearly underestimating Yjing, who was anything but useless. Also, I thought that the ACJC striker (the one who scored) was an excellent player, even drawing comments from some of my teammates that he must have played for a club before. Not only was he able to turn his marker more often that not, he caused havok from practically every throw in. He was able to shield the ball very well, and at one point managed to turn and dribble past 4 players. Even though his dribbling style was by no means classy, it was very effective. Junliang was exceptionally angry at the ease with which he was able to turn some of our defenders. He was also intelligent enough to notice Yijing was pushing up much more than Woohan was in the 2nd half, and consequently exploited the gap between Yijing and Junliang on our left channel.
In the end, we were punished for our first-half mistake, and the final score was one all. We weren't devastated, as the competition was still in its early stages, but we certainly viewed the match as two points dropped instead of one point gained. We were now in second position, having dropped two points, MJC having dropped none, and ACJC having dropped 5 with a lost to MJC and a draw with us.
While we were disappointed with the result, we were definitely pleased with our second half performance, where glimpses of our pre-season form could be seen.
We played a friendly against ACJC last year, losing 1-0 on a direct free kick from about 30 metres out that lobbed our reserve keeper Weijie. (Timon was out because of achilles tendonities, an injury which would keep him out of quite a number of friendlys). I remember playing a little in that match, but of greater significance I remember that Cunzhi sat out because of his ankle. Weijie was named Man of the Match that game because his outstanding performance kept us in the game, and Sean missed a penalty in the last 10 minutes which would have earned us at least a draw. My overall impression of ACJC was that they played a very physical game, and in the words of my senior, they played soccer like they played rugby, and to great success.
Going into the game, scouting information placed their striker as their main threat, and a tendency to attack down their left hand side. True enough, at least 3 of the goals scored against NYJC were down the left hand side. The game was played at MJC for the 2nd time in a row, and it was our first game away from the flat smooth synthetic grass of JJC. While the MJC pitch was certainly larger and suited our style of play, giving more space for our wingers and strikers to run, the bumps and bare patches were going to prove a problem for our passing game. A victory this time around would effectively secure MJC's qualification, and so we went into the match intending to do MJC a big favour.
The lineup: Timon, Junliang, Quan, Cunzhi, Weiyu, Yijing, Eugene, Hashir, Guan Koon, Bong and Chaolun
I recall seeing the ACJC Eurasian centre-back play for the team last year against us, and he was certainly a key member of their team. Bong's assignment was to take out the captain who played centre-back alongside the Eurasian player, and Chaolun was supposed to take the Eurasian player. Both ACJC centre-backs were very tall, and our pre-match briefing included instructions to the wingers to avoid high crosses and to drill the ball low and hard across the face of the goal.
I didn't play in this match at all, but I remember it most clearly for being a game of two halves. Just like our seniors before us, ACJC was practically camped in our half for the 1st half, and only desperate defending at times allowed us to escape relatively unscathed. Ironically enough, the goal we conceded, the first time we were behind in the tournament, did not arise from ACJC pressure, but from a series of mistakes on the part of our defense. Junliang took a quick throw from about the halfway line to Cunzhi, who took a little too long on the ball and his clearance got charged down. A quick through ball saw Quan one on one with the ACJC danger striker, and as Quan slipped the ACJC striker shifted the ball to his left foot and drilled the ball into the near post past Timon. Weiyu had been caught upfield out of position because he was still running back having been committed up front for a corner. Junliang's quick throw was not wrong, but had he realised Weiyu was out of position, he might have delayed for a while. Cunzhi was unfortunate, and I would say this was one of the very few mistakes he made throughout the tournament. Quan could perhaps have been tighter on the striker, but one-on-one he decided not to commit to a tackle and had already forced the striker onto his weaker foot. All in all, a series of little individual errors that caused us to concede a stupid goal, but credit to the ACJC striker for spotting the gap and being clinical with his finishing in front of goal.
And just like our seniors before us, we got shelled during the halftime team talk. Our coach brought us to the exact spot where Donovan's batch had failed to win against AJC, and told us that unless we stepped up with our game, we would end the game in tears as well. In the huddle, Eugene was perhaps the most psyched up player, and he was screaming like a wounded animal. Going into the second half, we would step up our performance like never before.
As I mentioned earlier, the game was a game of two halves, and like Donovan's batch before us, practically the entire second half was spent in ACJC's half. Every ball they cleared was soon switched to our fullbacks and pressure resumed. After a delightful chip by Junliang to Bong's feat after some nice interplay between Junliang and Yijing, Bong squared the ball to Chaolun who could not miss, and we were soon level. Despite an onslaught of pressure by us, ACJC's defense stood firm and managed to repel most of our attempts. Although we had a slew of chances, none were very clear-cut, the closest we came to a winner being Yijing's attempted lop of the keeper, which came agonisingly close.
On a side note, the ACJC captain was one of Hashir's friends, and the captain was responsible for the majority of ACJC's trash talk. At one point, he even told Chaolun to "go back to China", a comment which Hashir took offense to and had a word with him about, with him apologising for it later. The ACJC also told his right-back to "leave the little pussy on the left wing alone", clearly underestimating Yjing, who was anything but useless. Also, I thought that the ACJC striker (the one who scored) was an excellent player, even drawing comments from some of my teammates that he must have played for a club before. Not only was he able to turn his marker more often that not, he caused havok from practically every throw in. He was able to shield the ball very well, and at one point managed to turn and dribble past 4 players. Even though his dribbling style was by no means classy, it was very effective. Junliang was exceptionally angry at the ease with which he was able to turn some of our defenders. He was also intelligent enough to notice Yijing was pushing up much more than Woohan was in the 2nd half, and consequently exploited the gap between Yijing and Junliang on our left channel.
In the end, we were punished for our first-half mistake, and the final score was one all. We weren't devastated, as the competition was still in its early stages, but we certainly viewed the match as two points dropped instead of one point gained. We were now in second position, having dropped two points, MJC having dropped none, and ACJC having dropped 5 with a lost to MJC and a draw with us.
While we were disappointed with the result, we were definitely pleased with our second half performance, where glimpses of our pre-season form could be seen.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
JJC (1)
At the end of our 2nd game, which was the 3rd round for the rest of the schools, we found out that every school with the exception of MJC and us had lost at least one match, and that we were in excellent position to qualify. The next game against JJC would be crucial in determining whether we were contenders or pretenders this year, as JJC had finished 3rd last year and were the other seeded team in our group after MJC. We had drawn with JJC 1-1 during pre-season, a match where the entire team was substituted during half-time. I played in the first half of this match, and I remember I had just come back from my peroneus tendonitis in my right ankle, the 2nd injury I sustained. JJC had an African player as their striker, and he played well against us in the first half. He was quite skillful, and rather unpredictable, executing a bicycle kick after chesting the ball from a throw-in, a moved that caught me completely off-guard.
The match against JJC was on Friday, and the Thursday training before the game had been in my opinion, our best ever training session. The strikers were slamming the ball into the net from every position, the wingers were spot on in their crosses and the centre midfielders were distributing well and supporting the attack. As such, we went into the JJC game with high morale, knowing that in the form we were in, nobody could stop us. Furthermore, we hadn't exactly played brilliantly in the first two matches, and had hardly justified the hype that we had generated in the preseason. We knew that this game against JJC was not only important in terms of getting 3 points, but we knew we needed to send a message to the rest of the teams, as well as those in the other group, that we were contenders, and not pretenders to the title this year. And what better way then to get a good result against the 3rd placed team last year.
To my surprise, I was scheduled to start the JJC match, as their key players had been identified to be their 2 CMs and our coach wanted a more defensive presence in the centre of midfield, so I started ahead of Hashir, partnering Eugene. We knew that JJC would come in hard because this was their elimination game, their 'finals', having already lost to SRJC, they knew that another loss to us would mean that they were effectively out of contention.
Lineup: Timon, Junliang, Quan, Cunzhi, Weiyu, Yijing, Martin, Eugene, Guan Koon, Chaolun, Bong
I remember that this was the first game where both Junliang and I started because we were joking after the match how we were cursed because the game got cancelled due to bad weather. We were playing the 4.45 game and after only 5 minutes of play, the rain starting pouring for the next 40 minutes. We were a bit sore that the match had been cancelled because we thought that the decision had been made prematurely, as after 40 minutes the rain had stopped but the rules called for a decision to be made after 30 minutes of rain. Junliang started ahead of Jeremy as Jeremy had been been playing below his usual high standards, and we knew that JJC preferred to attack down their right side. True enough, the opening kick-off saw them send a diagonal ball straight to a sprinting winger, and they kept us in our own half for the beginning of the match. We survived a nervy opening minute, which saw Weiyu miss a clearance from a harmless cross, but thankfully Guan Koon was at behind him to clear the ball before the left winger came in.
This was the 3rd match in a row which Guan Koon had started ahead of Woohan, due to both his excellent preseason form where he had been scoring goals in his newly discovered position of RW and also due to the fact that Woohan had not been able to last an entire match during the preseason because of sheer exhaustion and cramps. Woohan's speed and style of play involved alot of down the line sprinting, and even though we constantly teased him because he cramped out quite often, it is of my opinion that he established himself as one of the best wingers in the entire tournament. While Woohan might not be as fast as Sean or accelerate as fast as Bong, his sprinting stamina was incredible, and he caused alot of problems for opponents.
The tempo was very high, with JJC pressing us extremely tightly in our own half, and while this created gaps in their defense, we were unable to capitalise. I was assigned with the role of shackling their captain, the AM, a Malay player I think, while Eugene was assigned to press their DM, a Chinese player. Even though the match was only 5 minutes long, I think I played well and established my presence in the midfield, going in for a hard tackle that left their captain complaining to the referee that i had gone in two-footed, which upon video-replay was not true. I remember making a delightful left foot pass to Chaolun, which I will now admit was entirely lucky because I just kicked it to get the ball away. :) I thought that the the pairing of Eugene and myself effectively neutralised their CMs: Eugene's physical strength and jumping power neutralised their DM who was basically a hardman type, and I was able to read their AM's play and get in a foot when it mattered.
I also remember messing up a one-two with Yijing because my return ball was too soft and got cut out by the defender. Yijing was of the opinion that their right-back was rather weak, and after a few dribbles, it was evident that Yijing was going to have his way with him as the match progressed. I remember there was once where Yijing managed to chest the ball and turn his man, a move which signalled to me that either the defender was giving him too much respect and space or the defender was simply ineffective.
I remember Bong was playing quite well in this game, and his pace and strength gave their stopper alot of trouble. Bong was able to shield the ball very effectively during this game, and was able to turn their stopper while riding a challenge, but I felt that he took too long to release the ball sometimes because he had to take an additional second to get his balance before releasing the ball to the wingers.
I also remember that both Eugene and Bong had misplaced back-passes during this game, and both Cunzhi's and Quan's clearances got charged down and their strikers managed to break free and run towards our goal. Thankfully, on one occasion their striker attempted to shoot from 20 metres out, an overly ambitious attempt against a keeper of Timon's quality.
In the 5 minutes we played (in terms of video it was 5 minutes, but our video stops for throw-ins and freekicks), not once did JJC attack down their left-flank. I also took note of their kickoff routine, because I was pretty sure that it had been rehearsed. In hindsight, if this match hadn't been cancelled, I am pretty sure we won have won based on the excellent training session we had the previous day, and with 9 points in 3 matches we would have been in a far better position to qualify. However, things did not pan out as planned, and we would face JJC as our last match of the group stage instead.
The match against JJC was on Friday, and the Thursday training before the game had been in my opinion, our best ever training session. The strikers were slamming the ball into the net from every position, the wingers were spot on in their crosses and the centre midfielders were distributing well and supporting the attack. As such, we went into the JJC game with high morale, knowing that in the form we were in, nobody could stop us. Furthermore, we hadn't exactly played brilliantly in the first two matches, and had hardly justified the hype that we had generated in the preseason. We knew that this game against JJC was not only important in terms of getting 3 points, but we knew we needed to send a message to the rest of the teams, as well as those in the other group, that we were contenders, and not pretenders to the title this year. And what better way then to get a good result against the 3rd placed team last year.
To my surprise, I was scheduled to start the JJC match, as their key players had been identified to be their 2 CMs and our coach wanted a more defensive presence in the centre of midfield, so I started ahead of Hashir, partnering Eugene. We knew that JJC would come in hard because this was their elimination game, their 'finals', having already lost to SRJC, they knew that another loss to us would mean that they were effectively out of contention.
Lineup: Timon, Junliang, Quan, Cunzhi, Weiyu, Yijing, Martin, Eugene, Guan Koon, Chaolun, Bong
I remember that this was the first game where both Junliang and I started because we were joking after the match how we were cursed because the game got cancelled due to bad weather. We were playing the 4.45 game and after only 5 minutes of play, the rain starting pouring for the next 40 minutes. We were a bit sore that the match had been cancelled because we thought that the decision had been made prematurely, as after 40 minutes the rain had stopped but the rules called for a decision to be made after 30 minutes of rain. Junliang started ahead of Jeremy as Jeremy had been been playing below his usual high standards, and we knew that JJC preferred to attack down their right side. True enough, the opening kick-off saw them send a diagonal ball straight to a sprinting winger, and they kept us in our own half for the beginning of the match. We survived a nervy opening minute, which saw Weiyu miss a clearance from a harmless cross, but thankfully Guan Koon was at behind him to clear the ball before the left winger came in.
This was the 3rd match in a row which Guan Koon had started ahead of Woohan, due to both his excellent preseason form where he had been scoring goals in his newly discovered position of RW and also due to the fact that Woohan had not been able to last an entire match during the preseason because of sheer exhaustion and cramps. Woohan's speed and style of play involved alot of down the line sprinting, and even though we constantly teased him because he cramped out quite often, it is of my opinion that he established himself as one of the best wingers in the entire tournament. While Woohan might not be as fast as Sean or accelerate as fast as Bong, his sprinting stamina was incredible, and he caused alot of problems for opponents.
The tempo was very high, with JJC pressing us extremely tightly in our own half, and while this created gaps in their defense, we were unable to capitalise. I was assigned with the role of shackling their captain, the AM, a Malay player I think, while Eugene was assigned to press their DM, a Chinese player. Even though the match was only 5 minutes long, I think I played well and established my presence in the midfield, going in for a hard tackle that left their captain complaining to the referee that i had gone in two-footed, which upon video-replay was not true. I remember making a delightful left foot pass to Chaolun, which I will now admit was entirely lucky because I just kicked it to get the ball away. :) I thought that the the pairing of Eugene and myself effectively neutralised their CMs: Eugene's physical strength and jumping power neutralised their DM who was basically a hardman type, and I was able to read their AM's play and get in a foot when it mattered.
I also remember messing up a one-two with Yijing because my return ball was too soft and got cut out by the defender. Yijing was of the opinion that their right-back was rather weak, and after a few dribbles, it was evident that Yijing was going to have his way with him as the match progressed. I remember there was once where Yijing managed to chest the ball and turn his man, a move which signalled to me that either the defender was giving him too much respect and space or the defender was simply ineffective.
I remember Bong was playing quite well in this game, and his pace and strength gave their stopper alot of trouble. Bong was able to shield the ball very effectively during this game, and was able to turn their stopper while riding a challenge, but I felt that he took too long to release the ball sometimes because he had to take an additional second to get his balance before releasing the ball to the wingers.
I also remember that both Eugene and Bong had misplaced back-passes during this game, and both Cunzhi's and Quan's clearances got charged down and their strikers managed to break free and run towards our goal. Thankfully, on one occasion their striker attempted to shoot from 20 metres out, an overly ambitious attempt against a keeper of Timon's quality.
In the 5 minutes we played (in terms of video it was 5 minutes, but our video stops for throw-ins and freekicks), not once did JJC attack down their left-flank. I also took note of their kickoff routine, because I was pretty sure that it had been rehearsed. In hindsight, if this match hadn't been cancelled, I am pretty sure we won have won based on the excellent training session we had the previous day, and with 9 points in 3 matches we would have been in a far better position to qualify. However, things did not pan out as planned, and we would face JJC as our last match of the group stage instead.
TPJC
Spirits were pretty high after our last gasp victory over SRJC, and having notched a victory under our belt, we felt confident of getting another 3 points entering the TPJC game. Scouting reports stated that TPJC had a key player in their left winger, and some of the members of the 2006 team thought that he might be Ammad(?), who had played for TPJC the previous year. Moreover, Zenzel had picked up a nasty ankle injury and the second choice right-back, Weiyu, had to come in to play against their 'dangerous' left winger. However, with the inclusion of Weiyu, both fullbacks had the ability to throw the ball into the 6 yard box, and our arsenal increased. During the pre-season, we scored 2 goals directly from throw-ins, and we hoped to increase that tally against TPJC.
We played TPJC on the Tuesday fixture, and we trained out of school the day before, as the Softballers had booked the RJC pitch. Initially, the season was supposed to be played on Mondays and Thursdays just like last year, but aside from being delayed twice, our season fixtures were changed to Tuesday and Fridays, which took us by surprise. Previously, we would play a match on Monday, train on Tuesday (our usual training time), have light training on Wednesday, have a match on Thursday, rest on Friday, and come back on saturday to train for the next match. However, with the shift of fixture dates, we now had to train on Mondays out of school, and our coach even toyed with the idea of training on Sunday. The only things I can recall about this training was our coach's emphasis on how the TPJC keeper had a tendency to offer us 'gifts' with his goal kicks, and Quan's 15 minutes of fame as strikerfor the shadow side, in which his attempted backheel throughball for Guan Koon failed.
Starting lineup was: Timon, Jeremy, Quan, Cunzhi, Weiyu, Yijing, Hashir, Eugene, Guan Koon, Sean and Bong, with us playing our two fastest strikers, or dashers as our coach put it, up front in the hope that their pace would unlock TPJC's defense.
We went ahead quite early in the match, with Sean winning a penalty after some neat interplay on the left wing. Cunzhi stepped up and duly converted, but that was to be the only goal of the half. We had our fair share of chances, but due to poor finishing, we kept TPJC in the game. During half-time, our coach warned us that if we didn't put the game away soon, we would be inviting an upset as a one goal lead was but a slender margin.
I didn't play in the game at all, and I can't really remember the subsitutes, but safe to say Chaolun came on and Sean scored his 1st goal of the tournament by sneaking in the far post after some good work by Bong/Chaolun led to a loose ball in the 6 yard box. The goal was very scrappy actually, and the ball actually got stuck between Sean's feet the goalkeeper and defenders charged him down, and for a moment, as Eugene put it, "his balls dropped" as we thought that Sean might miss the golden opportunity to put the game away. However, he un-stuck his feet and tapped the ball in, sparing us some blushes. The third goal was typical of A Division soccer: Cunzhi took a free kick from slightly in front of the half way line and sent a high and fast ball in. The keeper spilt the ball and Eugene had the simple task of knocking in the rebound.
During the game, we strung together a flowing move that totalled 12 continuous passes, starting with one touch possession on our left flank, a one touch switch to our right flanks, a lay off by Guan Koon to Eugene and a piercing through ball by Eugene to Bowen who had made a beautiful backdoor run. Sadly, even though we described Eugene's pass as Bowen-esque, Bowen missed narrowly, prompting Eugene to jest that Bowen's finishing fell short of being Eugene-esque.
Aside from that one move, we didn't exactly play good football, and we could have increased our goal tally if not for some poor finishing, but in my opinion, no offense to TPJC, we were never in serious danger of not winning the match. Credit to TPJC, they did fight us all the way to the end, but considering our intel had been mistaken and their left-winger was NOT Ammad, they did not pose much an attacking threat up front. Our coach wasn't too pleased with our performance, not that we played poorly, but that we were never forced into top gear and we largely settled for the 3-0 scoreline.
We played TPJC on the Tuesday fixture, and we trained out of school the day before, as the Softballers had booked the RJC pitch. Initially, the season was supposed to be played on Mondays and Thursdays just like last year, but aside from being delayed twice, our season fixtures were changed to Tuesday and Fridays, which took us by surprise. Previously, we would play a match on Monday, train on Tuesday (our usual training time), have light training on Wednesday, have a match on Thursday, rest on Friday, and come back on saturday to train for the next match. However, with the shift of fixture dates, we now had to train on Mondays out of school, and our coach even toyed with the idea of training on Sunday. The only things I can recall about this training was our coach's emphasis on how the TPJC keeper had a tendency to offer us 'gifts' with his goal kicks, and Quan's 15 minutes of fame as strikerfor the shadow side, in which his attempted backheel throughball for Guan Koon failed.
Starting lineup was: Timon, Jeremy, Quan, Cunzhi, Weiyu, Yijing, Hashir, Eugene, Guan Koon, Sean and Bong, with us playing our two fastest strikers, or dashers as our coach put it, up front in the hope that their pace would unlock TPJC's defense.
We went ahead quite early in the match, with Sean winning a penalty after some neat interplay on the left wing. Cunzhi stepped up and duly converted, but that was to be the only goal of the half. We had our fair share of chances, but due to poor finishing, we kept TPJC in the game. During half-time, our coach warned us that if we didn't put the game away soon, we would be inviting an upset as a one goal lead was but a slender margin.
I didn't play in the game at all, and I can't really remember the subsitutes, but safe to say Chaolun came on and Sean scored his 1st goal of the tournament by sneaking in the far post after some good work by Bong/Chaolun led to a loose ball in the 6 yard box. The goal was very scrappy actually, and the ball actually got stuck between Sean's feet the goalkeeper and defenders charged him down, and for a moment, as Eugene put it, "his balls dropped" as we thought that Sean might miss the golden opportunity to put the game away. However, he un-stuck his feet and tapped the ball in, sparing us some blushes. The third goal was typical of A Division soccer: Cunzhi took a free kick from slightly in front of the half way line and sent a high and fast ball in. The keeper spilt the ball and Eugene had the simple task of knocking in the rebound.
During the game, we strung together a flowing move that totalled 12 continuous passes, starting with one touch possession on our left flank, a one touch switch to our right flanks, a lay off by Guan Koon to Eugene and a piercing through ball by Eugene to Bowen who had made a beautiful backdoor run. Sadly, even though we described Eugene's pass as Bowen-esque, Bowen missed narrowly, prompting Eugene to jest that Bowen's finishing fell short of being Eugene-esque.
Aside from that one move, we didn't exactly play good football, and we could have increased our goal tally if not for some poor finishing, but in my opinion, no offense to TPJC, we were never in serious danger of not winning the match. Credit to TPJC, they did fight us all the way to the end, but considering our intel had been mistaken and their left-winger was NOT Ammad, they did not pose much an attacking threat up front. Our coach wasn't too pleased with our performance, not that we played poorly, but that we were never forced into top gear and we largely settled for the 3-0 scoreline.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
SRJC
This was the first match of our season, and only 7/25 had previous A divison experience: Hashir, Cunzhi, Eugene, Sean, Chaolun, Bowen and Jeremy. Fortunately or otherwise, we were playing in the 2nd round of matches because our group had 9 teams and we were the team sitting out the 1st round of matches for the 2nd year running.
The starting 11 was this (and will be in this format, GK-LB-CB-CB-RB-LW-CM-CM-RW-FW-FW in a 442 formation): Timon, Jeremy, Cunzhi, Quan, Zenzel, Yijing, Hashir, Eugene, Guan Koon, Bowen, Chaolun)
Subs were 1. Woohan for Guan Koon 2. Sean 3. Bong 4. Junliang for Quan 5. Martin for Zenzel
Ok, I didn't start this match and can only write about the little I remember. My impressions were that SRJC were quite a strong side, nothing like what our seniors had told us last year and very much like what we had learnt about them: Very dangerous from set-pieces, the first time they hit the crossbar was from a freekick. Timon saw it late and failed to hold on to it, and spilt it, and one of their CMs took a shot from about 6 yards away with no pressure but it rattled the crossbar and went out. After the match, I found out that the ball grazed Timon's forehead on it's way up, and perhaps that was a generous slice of luck on our part. The second time they hit the cross bar was a counter-attack, and one of their players hit a looping shot that again hit the crossbar squarely and was cleared to safety by Zenzel. Even though Cunzhi would later claim that he was absolutely sure the shot was never going it and even went as far as saying that the crossbar was as thick as his fist and the ball had hit it thickly in the middle, it certainly didn't seem so on the bench. We hadn't been playing poorly, and we had our fair share of chances though not as close as the crossbar, but just couldn't find the breakthrough. Bong had an excellent chance to open the scoring, but after jinxing past the centre-back with his stepovers to create a one-on-one with the keeper, he took too long to pull the trigger and allowed the other centre-back to put a challenge in that saw a golden chance turn into a tame shot. That incident summed up our first half performance, good build up play but impotent up front.
The SRJC team was quite tall on the whole, and with the exception of Eugene and Zenzel, they were all taller than us and were winning the majority of headers. Their CMs were having a good game, and this was compounded by the fact that Eugene and Hashir were having a poor game, their first in a long while having played excellently during the pre-season where they firmly established themselves as the starting CMs, a combination I still believe to be the strongest.
Furthermore, we weren't helping ourselves either by giving away a slew of freekicks, which we already knew to be their main mode of attack. In that game alone, I think Eugene gave away 16 fouls, most of them because of pushing. At this juncture, I would like to emphasise my displeasure with the inconsistent refereeing in A Division. Some referees hardly gave any freekicks, even when players would come in hard from behind or two-footed, yet some referees called foul at anything that moved. I'm personally in favour of the former being an aggressive tackler myself, but the least I think players ask for is consistency among referees. Some of the referees looked rather inexperienced, attempting to brandish yellow cards in order to get a firm grip on the game. And some of the linesmans' calls were somewhat shocking, e.g. a blatant offsides was not called in the TPJC match before our ACJC match at Meridian and it led to a goal against TPJC, and later on one of their strikers was mistakenly flagged offside. I know that this is a common complaint in all soccer leagues, and some might say it's part and parcel of the game, but what do I mean by blantant. As my striker teammate described, "before the ball was played, he was about 3 metres offside, when the ball was played he was still 3 metres offside".
In my opinion, the game swung when Sean was brought on. His pace and direct dribbling really changed the game, and he was instrumental in laying off the ball for Yijing to run into the penalty box which earned us the penalty, as well as delivering the through ball for Bong to smash in for the winner. Coincidentally, Cunzhi the captain scored the first goal for us, just like Donovan the captain for the 2006 batch scored the first goal for their season.
I was only subbed on in the last 12 minutes shortly after we scored. I was sent on to tighten the midfield but shortly after, SRJC equalised from a corner because of a free header in the 6-yard box. I remember the SRJC players celebrating wildly at their bench, and I was feeling very demoralised having immediately failed in the duty i was entrusted with. But credit to the belief of the players around me, they summoned up their courage and fighting spirit, and after a neat interplay between our strikers Bong and Sean, Bong found himself behind the defensive line and smashed his shot into the top-left corner leaving the keeper no chance, redeeming himself after his earlier miss. After this, it was just stout defending on our part to hold onto our lead, and I think the SRJC players were a little demoralised having conceded so soon after having equalised.
Of note: the SRJC left back was very angry at the end of the match, and even got into an altercation with his coach. He refused to shake any of our hands after the match, and even lashed out at his coach who was trying to calm his down. This resulted in the SRJC coach grabbing his jersey in a very tense faceoff, with the SRJC players trying to calm both parties down.
While luck certainly played a role in this game, I think that the 2 goals we scored really epitomised how much our team had developed since last year. The penaty that we won was due to penetrative dribbling in the box, something we really lacked as a team before Yijing came, and the winning goal was simply a powerful finish by a striker, a stark contrast to our absolute lack of finishing in pre-season matches, a problem that had plagued our team from the start. In the end, I felt somewhat sad for SRJC because it was not a game that they deserved to lose, but still we managed to convert our chances when it mattered, and rode our luck when it counted. Sadly, Zenzel got injured during this match after spraining his ankle, an injury which would keep him out for the next 4 matches. His ankle was really swollen, about the size of a walnut, and I think it's a small miracle he was able to recover fully in just 2 weeks.
The starting 11 was this (and will be in this format, GK-LB-CB-CB-RB-LW-CM-CM-RW-FW-FW in a 442 formation): Timon, Jeremy, Cunzhi, Quan, Zenzel, Yijing, Hashir, Eugene, Guan Koon, Bowen, Chaolun)
Subs were 1. Woohan for Guan Koon 2. Sean 3. Bong 4. Junliang for Quan 5. Martin for Zenzel
Ok, I didn't start this match and can only write about the little I remember. My impressions were that SRJC were quite a strong side, nothing like what our seniors had told us last year and very much like what we had learnt about them: Very dangerous from set-pieces, the first time they hit the crossbar was from a freekick. Timon saw it late and failed to hold on to it, and spilt it, and one of their CMs took a shot from about 6 yards away with no pressure but it rattled the crossbar and went out. After the match, I found out that the ball grazed Timon's forehead on it's way up, and perhaps that was a generous slice of luck on our part. The second time they hit the cross bar was a counter-attack, and one of their players hit a looping shot that again hit the crossbar squarely and was cleared to safety by Zenzel. Even though Cunzhi would later claim that he was absolutely sure the shot was never going it and even went as far as saying that the crossbar was as thick as his fist and the ball had hit it thickly in the middle, it certainly didn't seem so on the bench. We hadn't been playing poorly, and we had our fair share of chances though not as close as the crossbar, but just couldn't find the breakthrough. Bong had an excellent chance to open the scoring, but after jinxing past the centre-back with his stepovers to create a one-on-one with the keeper, he took too long to pull the trigger and allowed the other centre-back to put a challenge in that saw a golden chance turn into a tame shot. That incident summed up our first half performance, good build up play but impotent up front.
The SRJC team was quite tall on the whole, and with the exception of Eugene and Zenzel, they were all taller than us and were winning the majority of headers. Their CMs were having a good game, and this was compounded by the fact that Eugene and Hashir were having a poor game, their first in a long while having played excellently during the pre-season where they firmly established themselves as the starting CMs, a combination I still believe to be the strongest.
Furthermore, we weren't helping ourselves either by giving away a slew of freekicks, which we already knew to be their main mode of attack. In that game alone, I think Eugene gave away 16 fouls, most of them because of pushing. At this juncture, I would like to emphasise my displeasure with the inconsistent refereeing in A Division. Some referees hardly gave any freekicks, even when players would come in hard from behind or two-footed, yet some referees called foul at anything that moved. I'm personally in favour of the former being an aggressive tackler myself, but the least I think players ask for is consistency among referees. Some of the referees looked rather inexperienced, attempting to brandish yellow cards in order to get a firm grip on the game. And some of the linesmans' calls were somewhat shocking, e.g. a blatant offsides was not called in the TPJC match before our ACJC match at Meridian and it led to a goal against TPJC, and later on one of their strikers was mistakenly flagged offside. I know that this is a common complaint in all soccer leagues, and some might say it's part and parcel of the game, but what do I mean by blantant. As my striker teammate described, "before the ball was played, he was about 3 metres offside, when the ball was played he was still 3 metres offside".
In my opinion, the game swung when Sean was brought on. His pace and direct dribbling really changed the game, and he was instrumental in laying off the ball for Yijing to run into the penalty box which earned us the penalty, as well as delivering the through ball for Bong to smash in for the winner. Coincidentally, Cunzhi the captain scored the first goal for us, just like Donovan the captain for the 2006 batch scored the first goal for their season.
I was only subbed on in the last 12 minutes shortly after we scored. I was sent on to tighten the midfield but shortly after, SRJC equalised from a corner because of a free header in the 6-yard box. I remember the SRJC players celebrating wildly at their bench, and I was feeling very demoralised having immediately failed in the duty i was entrusted with. But credit to the belief of the players around me, they summoned up their courage and fighting spirit, and after a neat interplay between our strikers Bong and Sean, Bong found himself behind the defensive line and smashed his shot into the top-left corner leaving the keeper no chance, redeeming himself after his earlier miss. After this, it was just stout defending on our part to hold onto our lead, and I think the SRJC players were a little demoralised having conceded so soon after having equalised.
Of note: the SRJC left back was very angry at the end of the match, and even got into an altercation with his coach. He refused to shake any of our hands after the match, and even lashed out at his coach who was trying to calm his down. This resulted in the SRJC coach grabbing his jersey in a very tense faceoff, with the SRJC players trying to calm both parties down.
While luck certainly played a role in this game, I think that the 2 goals we scored really epitomised how much our team had developed since last year. The penaty that we won was due to penetrative dribbling in the box, something we really lacked as a team before Yijing came, and the winning goal was simply a powerful finish by a striker, a stark contrast to our absolute lack of finishing in pre-season matches, a problem that had plagued our team from the start. In the end, I felt somewhat sad for SRJC because it was not a game that they deserved to lose, but still we managed to convert our chances when it mattered, and rode our luck when it counted. Sadly, Zenzel got injured during this match after spraining his ankle, an injury which would keep him out for the next 4 matches. His ankle was really swollen, about the size of a walnut, and I think it's a small miracle he was able to recover fully in just 2 weeks.
'Miracle'
Wow... That word just sums up everything I'm feeling I don't think I'm alone in the team/school in expressing just amazement at the fact that we won the championship- however, this is not because I don't think we deserve the title, but rather that element of disbelief at the miraculous journey of our 2007 season. It has really been a season of miracles, and since I've always been one to look at things objectively, this season has really taught me that (sorry for cliche) there can be miracles when you believe. (thank you darrell).
What is this little blog about then? This is just my blog, (fyi: I'm Martin Wong no. 16 CM). I don't intend to flame anyone or any school, I just want to record down my memories of our own 'miracle' so that I will never forget it. If you are from another JC and you read this, please don't be offended, I take pride in the fact that after every game we've congratulated our opponents for a well-fought game and left the pitch with good relations (especially with MJC, whom we admittedly had some tension with after last season's controversial replay).
To those of you who feel that our victory was due to nothing more than luck: I do admit, luck played a considerable role in us reaching the semi-finals, and I would say luck was really with us during the SRJC match where they hit our crossbar twice, but please do not think that we have not trained as hard as other 'top' JCs have and that we're not as deserving of our efforts. Officially I can say that our 2007 team has NO DSA or appeal players, and every player in our team is in RJC based on his own merit. It is our coach's policy not to DSA soccer players even though the school has offered to allow him to. During the November/December holidays, we trained twice a day, 7.30am-11am, lunch break, then 2.30pm-5.30pm+++. We've trained until 9pm during the season once. Each and every one of us has given up so much for soccer, our time, our minds, our bodies. 22 out of the 25 players in our team have at one point or another, been injured during training, ranging from achilles tendonitis, pulled ankle ligaments, hipbone injuries, and even 2 concussions by one of our goalkeepers. To add to the strain, our coach even monitors our grades to see if they fall below a C average. It's been a long and tiring journey, and I guess that's what makes our victory so sweet and wonderful. This has been the experience of a lifetime, and I sincerely hope I will never forget it.
Perhaps now is a good time to admit: as a team, I don't think we are as fast as SAJC (who have a very fast striker), and we're rather short compared to VJC (I think I was the 4th shortest starter in the VJC match and I'm only 1.67?), nor as big as MJC (who were on average bigger than us). Truth be told, in terms of niche, I would say we only had 3 ingredients for success: 1. our style of play, where we TRIED ;) to play a passing game, moving the ball on the ground instead of long or quick (I suppose getting to play at JJC was a big bonus consequently), and 2. our fighting spirit, the latter being far more crucial. I suppose that we were really a 2nd half team, and more often than not, we played better football under desperate circumstances, when time was running out or when we were a goal behind or needed to win desperately. And last of all, as a credit to my teammates, we had squad depth. I don't think anyone knows this except RJC players and my coaches, but not once during the entire season did we sent out the same starting lineup. While on one hand this was in part due to various injuries to certain players over the course of the season, on the other hand, it points to the fact that we have 2 good players for every position. The only players who have started EVERY match are Timon Chiong the goalkeeper, Xu Cunzhi my captain, and Eugene Ong (who moved from CM to CB after a few matches). Of the 3, only Cunzhi and Eugene played every minute of every match, but credit to them, that this is more because of their outstanding leadership presence and excellent play than due to the fact that we do not have cover for them . Furthermore, I am also happy to say that every single player in the team got a chance to play in the A division championship, even though we never secured qualification before the last match, my coach had the belief in each and everyone of us to play us even when we needed a result.
Just a quick wrapup to the introductory post, I would like to express my respect for each team that played us. True to what my coach and seniors told us before our season, the so-called minnow JCs might be playing poorly in any match, but when they face Raffles, they always step up, and true enough, EVERY single JC that has played us, 'big' or 'small', has fought us tooth and nail. Of the teams in our group that did not make the semi-finals, I feel that SRJC and NYJC pushed us very hard this year, and both matches were extremely close.
The tally at the end of the season: 18 goals scored, 5 goals conceded. Sean 5, Bowen 5, Bong 3, Cunzhi 2 (2 penalties and 1 missed penalty), Eugene 1, Chaolun 1, Guan Koon 1. Our strikers contributed 14/18 goals.
Scorelines
RJC 2 - SRJC 1 (Cunzhi penalty, Bong)
RJC 3 - TPJC 0 (Cunzhi penalty, Sean, Eugene)
RJC - JJC (postponed due to rain)
RJC 1 - ACJC 1 (Chaolun)
RJC 4 - YJC 0 (Bong, Bong, Bowen, Bowen)
RJC 0 - NJC 0
RJC 1 - MJC 1 (Bowen)
RJC 1 - NYJC 0 (Sean)
RJC 4 - JJC 1 (Sean, Sean, Bowen, Guan Koon)
Semis
RJC 1 - VJC 1 (Sean)
penalties: RJC 7 - VJC 6 (Bowen, Cunzhi, Eugene, Weiyu, Junliang, Darrell, Chaolun, Sean)
Finals
RJC 1 - MJC 0 (Bowen)
Perhaps I should mention our discipline situation. I am not sure how we rank on the list for yellow cards, but I hope it's good. We picked up 8 yellow cards in total, with no suspensions.
vs SRJC (Hashir for taking a free kick too fast, Zenzel for a tackle)
vs TPJC (Weiyu for time wasting for cleaning the ball with a towel, Chaolun for diving *he tripped over the guy and didn't appeal for a foul)
vs JJC (Sean for kicking the ball away in the 10th minute?)
vs VJC (Jun Liang for a tackle from behind, Guan Koon for a late tackle)
vs MJC (Eugene for a tacke from behind, Hashir for a high tackle)
My entire team in order of jersey number:
1. Timon (GK)
2. Junliang (LB)
3. Jeremy (LB)
4. Joseph (LW)
5. Guan Koon (RW)
6. Zenzel (RB/CB)
7. Bowen (CM/FW)
8. Eugene (CM/CB)
9. Yangyi (FW)
10. Hashir (CM)
11. Chaolun (FW)
12. Sean (LW/FW)
13. Clifton (RB)
14. Bong (FW/RW)
15. Quan (CB)
16. Martin (CM)
17. Liben (RW)
18. Yijing (LW)
19. Woohan (RW)
20. Weiyu (RB)
21. Cunzhi (CB)
22. Darrell (CB)
25. Weijie (not in the team because school did not allow him to train/play due to medical reasons: 2 concussions)
26. Weizhi
34. Shanghui (RB)
36. Si En (CM)
Coach: Mr. Kevin Low
Teacher I/C: Mr. Kadir
What is this little blog about then? This is just my blog, (fyi: I'm Martin Wong no. 16 CM). I don't intend to flame anyone or any school, I just want to record down my memories of our own 'miracle' so that I will never forget it. If you are from another JC and you read this, please don't be offended, I take pride in the fact that after every game we've congratulated our opponents for a well-fought game and left the pitch with good relations (especially with MJC, whom we admittedly had some tension with after last season's controversial replay).
To those of you who feel that our victory was due to nothing more than luck: I do admit, luck played a considerable role in us reaching the semi-finals, and I would say luck was really with us during the SRJC match where they hit our crossbar twice, but please do not think that we have not trained as hard as other 'top' JCs have and that we're not as deserving of our efforts. Officially I can say that our 2007 team has NO DSA or appeal players, and every player in our team is in RJC based on his own merit. It is our coach's policy not to DSA soccer players even though the school has offered to allow him to. During the November/December holidays, we trained twice a day, 7.30am-11am, lunch break, then 2.30pm-5.30pm+++. We've trained until 9pm during the season once. Each and every one of us has given up so much for soccer, our time, our minds, our bodies. 22 out of the 25 players in our team have at one point or another, been injured during training, ranging from achilles tendonitis, pulled ankle ligaments, hipbone injuries, and even 2 concussions by one of our goalkeepers. To add to the strain, our coach even monitors our grades to see if they fall below a C average. It's been a long and tiring journey, and I guess that's what makes our victory so sweet and wonderful. This has been the experience of a lifetime, and I sincerely hope I will never forget it.
Perhaps now is a good time to admit: as a team, I don't think we are as fast as SAJC (who have a very fast striker), and we're rather short compared to VJC (I think I was the 4th shortest starter in the VJC match and I'm only 1.67?), nor as big as MJC (who were on average bigger than us). Truth be told, in terms of niche, I would say we only had 3 ingredients for success: 1. our style of play, where we TRIED ;) to play a passing game, moving the ball on the ground instead of long or quick (I suppose getting to play at JJC was a big bonus consequently), and 2. our fighting spirit, the latter being far more crucial. I suppose that we were really a 2nd half team, and more often than not, we played better football under desperate circumstances, when time was running out or when we were a goal behind or needed to win desperately. And last of all, as a credit to my teammates, we had squad depth. I don't think anyone knows this except RJC players and my coaches, but not once during the entire season did we sent out the same starting lineup. While on one hand this was in part due to various injuries to certain players over the course of the season, on the other hand, it points to the fact that we have 2 good players for every position. The only players who have started EVERY match are Timon Chiong the goalkeeper, Xu Cunzhi my captain, and Eugene Ong (who moved from CM to CB after a few matches). Of the 3, only Cunzhi and Eugene played every minute of every match, but credit to them, that this is more because of their outstanding leadership presence and excellent play than due to the fact that we do not have cover for them . Furthermore, I am also happy to say that every single player in the team got a chance to play in the A division championship, even though we never secured qualification before the last match, my coach had the belief in each and everyone of us to play us even when we needed a result.
Just a quick wrapup to the introductory post, I would like to express my respect for each team that played us. True to what my coach and seniors told us before our season, the so-called minnow JCs might be playing poorly in any match, but when they face Raffles, they always step up, and true enough, EVERY single JC that has played us, 'big' or 'small', has fought us tooth and nail. Of the teams in our group that did not make the semi-finals, I feel that SRJC and NYJC pushed us very hard this year, and both matches were extremely close.
The tally at the end of the season: 18 goals scored, 5 goals conceded. Sean 5, Bowen 5, Bong 3, Cunzhi 2 (2 penalties and 1 missed penalty), Eugene 1, Chaolun 1, Guan Koon 1. Our strikers contributed 14/18 goals.
Scorelines
RJC 2 - SRJC 1 (Cunzhi penalty, Bong)
RJC 3 - TPJC 0 (Cunzhi penalty, Sean, Eugene)
RJC - JJC (postponed due to rain)
RJC 1 - ACJC 1 (Chaolun)
RJC 4 - YJC 0 (Bong, Bong, Bowen, Bowen)
RJC 0 - NJC 0
RJC 1 - MJC 1 (Bowen)
RJC 1 - NYJC 0 (Sean)
RJC 4 - JJC 1 (Sean, Sean, Bowen, Guan Koon)
Semis
RJC 1 - VJC 1 (Sean)
penalties: RJC 7 - VJC 6 (Bowen, Cunzhi, Eugene, Weiyu, Junliang, Darrell, Chaolun, Sean)
Finals
RJC 1 - MJC 0 (Bowen)
Perhaps I should mention our discipline situation. I am not sure how we rank on the list for yellow cards, but I hope it's good. We picked up 8 yellow cards in total, with no suspensions.
vs SRJC (Hashir for taking a free kick too fast, Zenzel for a tackle)
vs TPJC (Weiyu for time wasting for cleaning the ball with a towel, Chaolun for diving *he tripped over the guy and didn't appeal for a foul)
vs JJC (Sean for kicking the ball away in the 10th minute?)
vs VJC (Jun Liang for a tackle from behind, Guan Koon for a late tackle)
vs MJC (Eugene for a tacke from behind, Hashir for a high tackle)
My entire team in order of jersey number:
1. Timon (GK)
2. Junliang (LB)
3. Jeremy (LB)
4. Joseph (LW)
5. Guan Koon (RW)
6. Zenzel (RB/CB)
7. Bowen (CM/FW)
8. Eugene (CM/CB)
9. Yangyi (FW)
10. Hashir (CM)
11. Chaolun (FW)
12. Sean (LW/FW)
13. Clifton (RB)
14. Bong (FW/RW)
15. Quan (CB)
16. Martin (CM)
17. Liben (RW)
18. Yijing (LW)
19. Woohan (RW)
20. Weiyu (RB)
21. Cunzhi (CB)
22. Darrell (CB)
25. Weijie (not in the team because school did not allow him to train/play due to medical reasons: 2 concussions)
26. Weizhi
34. Shanghui (RB)
36. Si En (CM)
Coach: Mr. Kevin Low
Teacher I/C: Mr. Kadir
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