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.