NYJC

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.