Final Score: Familie Voetbal 5 : 1 MFC (Guo Xian 1)
MFC's 9 match unbeaten run came to a halt, against Familie Voetbal, a new malay team with a good blend of senior and young players. MFC went into the match with alot of players available for selection. Some notable absentees were Captain Eric, Hanrong while MFC welcomed back Firdaus after a long absence.
The match begun with MFC first off the starting blocks. Familie Voetbal took some time to find their footing and MFC took advantage of that; Gerald dispossesing a defender and let Guo Xian through to a one on one with the goalkeeper. Guo Xian's usual clinical finishing let him down this time, his finish was slightly off the goal.
That opportunity signalled the intentions of MFC to grab the early goals and MFC got it, courtesy of Guo Xian. He did very well, collecting the ball deep and beating 2 defenders with his pace before finishing well from an acute angle into the far right side of the goal. MFC was elated and the team sought to find more goals to secure a win and extend the unbeaten streak to 10 match. That was supposed to be the script, until Familie Voetbal woke up from their slumber and decided to rewrite the script.
Firstly, a well taken shot from outside the penalty box was mishandled by keeper Cross and that allowed Familie back into the game. Familie also adopted a new strategy, cross diagonal long balls from their own half to fast and tricky wingers waiting patiently on the flanks. With their morale high and a new strategy on the cards, Familie was taking the game back to MFC. Their wingers exploited MFC's left and right back and very soon, it was 2-1 to Familie when another long shot crept past the MFC goalkeeper.
The referee was also affecting the gameplay. He seemed to make bad decisions, including flashing needless yellow cards, not noticing at least 3 handballs by Familie and most importantly, failing to reassure players that he is in control of the match. After Familie's second goal, the blundering referee blew for halftime.
Vice Captain Walter's team talk was geared towards encouraging MFCians to provide good feedback to each other during the game, in his effort to raise morale and hopefully spark a comeback. His briefing had little effect, as some MFCians already had already been so demoralised that their attitude was apparent in the second half.
Truth be told, MFC never turned up in the second half. There were hardly any shots on goal and such was the complacency of Familie Voetbal that their opposing keeper could even could do ball juggling tricks during the gameplay. Ball possession and distribution was also poor and though some MFCians can claim credit for their efforts, MFC needed the whole team to be motivated and united together to claw their way back. However, what MFC got was blaming and unhappiness during the match.
Familie Voetbal became comfortable, knowing that MFC simply had no answer to their cross diagonal long balls to which they used effectively to break MFC's defence and they would go on to score 3 more in the second half, with the final one being a penalty awarded. The referee rounded up the game with his last blunder, playing only a total of about 39 minutes of game time, which also includes all the delays in throw ins, injuries, substitions. This meant that the actual time spent on playing was much lesser than 39 mins.
The game ended 5-1 to Familie Voetbal and in all honesty, it could have been a match which MFC could have drawn or at least won if only we had been focused and united. We need to understand that winning and losing is after all part and parcel of the game; the most crucial element of MFC is the friendship as it is what would really make this team tick. Putting all the mistakes, blaming, unhappiness and poor refereeing aside, MFCians would need to look at each of ourselves to reflect and evaluate how to better handle such situations in future.
High Points
1) MFC's first 15 minutes was excellent
2) Jonathan's tireless running up the flanks and tracking back to help the defence
3) Terence's support for the team; even though he was injured and came for his motorcycle, he dropped by to watch us play
4) Lil Eric coming to play even though he had a shin injury
Low Points
1) MFC needs to learn how to defend against diagonal cross balls
2) The blame game; it never works. As much as it is justified, it does not help the person receiving the blame
3) The referee was the worst this writer has ever seen. Shortage of playing time, failure to spot handballs and an unprofessional attitude to the match whereby even though he and both goalkeepers are decked in the same red jersey, he did not even care.
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