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.