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.