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.