Final Score: Lega Calcio 0 : 0 MFC (Match Abandoned)
If you are expecting a boring draw review, you will be encouraged to read on by the astonishing events that happened on the pitch. In fact, this is considered the best match played by Maestro so far in the league. Stunning!
Coming to this match, Maestro was full of ambition and enthusiasm after finishing last season league champion British Exiles with 2 goals last week. Fans of Maestro from all across Singapore wrote in to Maestro’s facebook account congratulating the fantastic win last week and the encouragement comments coming to this match. Maestro also enjoyed keeping clean sheet since despite recent tabloids criticism on the weak defense.
However, Maestro could never forget the last friendly meeting with Lega which ended a 6 – 1 scoreline embarrassment. Additionally, Lega was last season division 4 champion, this game would prove Maestro too much to handle for Lega’s football. That match also saw an unbelievable half-way line kickoff goal from Rong An.
From Guo Xian early brief, Maestro’s tactic was not to commit to their technical capability and contained their midfield to frustrate their play. He risked the game play by fielding 4 centre midfielders to support Norris and Rong An on top.
Lega made a positive start and came close to taking the lead after 3 minutes. Right-back Hakim was caught holding the ball too long when 2 Lega players closed him down and won the ball from him. This ball directed to Raja, who had a good 1 Vs 1 position with Gary at the goal-post. However, a charismatic save from Gary saved Hakim the shivers.
Apart from that, both goalmouths were busy with balls zooming close by. Despite Maestro being the busier half, none of the shots were directed to the goalpost.
Knowing this was Maestro biggest test of the season so far and without Guo Xian to drive the team forward, Maestro were content to play within themselves, keep a fairly rigid shape and let Lega expend their energy trying to break Maestro down.
For Maestro part, the bees failed to get sufficient support to Rong An/ Norris/ Jeff, who worked incredibly hard up front on his own but was limited to speculative long-range efforts.
In a tactical battle with defences largely on top throughout, the effectiveness of Alan, Howard, ZiRong, Hakim, Chris, Silas, Wee Hian halted all attacks from Lega. Gerald came close in the final minutes of first half when his left footed shot was on target but easily collected by Ahmad. First half ended in stalemate.
During the half-time talk, Guo Xian emphasized on putting more efforts on the wings, and calmed their attacks from all sides. His decision proved to be vital in the survival of the match.
The first ten minutes of the second period produced as much intense action as there had been in the whole of the first. Jonathan after fed by Jeff, ran free to the corner of the post. He attempted to shoot at the corner, but was palmed away from Ahmad. Another incident, Raja (1) ran free after confusion in defence, but was tackled last minute by Zirong, and kicked to safety by Wee Hian for a corner.
At 60th minute, Lega responded with their first meaningful assault on the Maestro goal, a shot from Raja (2) forced Gary to make a decent low save to deny him. It was the sweetest of strikes, which looked goalbound until somehow Gary threw himself to his right to tip it off the post and away to safety. Even Gary was amazed by his save, as he was caught unbalanced. That save was simply World class.
Man City manager, Roberto Mancini was in the stand would definitely be impressed by Gary’s performance. He later admitted that he was interested in signing Gary as a replacement for Joe Hart.
Lega struggled to impose themselves on the Bees, their attacks are diffused time and time again. And an afternoon of frustration for the Greys was compounded when their play was often disrupted by fouls of Maestro. Under such circumstances, it was hardly a surprise it began to get a bit tetchy and Raja (3) booking for a reckless sliding tackle on Gerald gave way to a period of play scarred by physical confrontation.
The real action started when the injured Gerald was slapped by Raja (4) on the head while he was down. Raja was shown a straight red card for that slap. However, clearly displeased by the referee action, he hurled vulgar language and middle fingers to prove his annoyance. This was then, hell broke loose, Lega players knowing that their win against Maestro proved fruitless, they started verbal abuse and provocation of fights.
The benched players from both sides came into the field to add the aggravation into fire. Despite a matured response from Maestro, Lega players did not want to back off from the shoveling. A discussion from Little Eric turned sour when all wanted to launch punches at him. Maestro players were quick to react and pushed away the Rajas and kept Eric under the safety shelter in the rest area.
Rong An, during the shoveling between Raja 6, was kicked in the nuts, but he was able to pick himself up and be composed to end the arguments. Seriously, if that was either you or me, we could never calm ourselves down from celebrating father’s day.
The Rajas continued to crowd around Maestro rest area, aiming to draw Eric out from the Maestro players protecting him. The act was ba_bar_c (censored) as even though the storm had past, they did not want to bury the hatchet. Despite having numbers, the cowardice act did not happen on Eric.
The incident was not all disheartening, the pleasing thing was that Maestro players were out to defend each other. Additionally, the maturity of Maestro players was commendable, typically Alex and Norris who were often infamous for the wrong reasons. In this incident, they stayed out of trouble.
Despite the match not ended completely, there are certain things Maestro could bring back from the match. Firstly, everyone want to have a good time on Sunday, thus substitutions should be put unlimited so as to facilitate fringe players to develop their skills. Secondly, fights were unavoidable when heads were hot, Maestro kept his cool and stayed out of trouble. And this was praiseworthy. Thirdly, despite an unpleasant ending, a clean sheet credit could never take away from Maestro’s defence. Remarkable defending and excellent teamwork guys!
Football: Let us love "the beautiful game"
High Points
- Man of the Match performance – Gary, with 2 world class saves
- All worked together to defend a fortress and denied a victory for Lega
- Maturity shown in the game and off the game
- Hard won draw and a clean sheet for the defence (2 in a row)
- Maestro is not a team to mess with... When the going gets tough, the tough gets going
Low Points
- Not all 19 players have any chance of playing due to the substitution rule
- Match not ended in a proper manner
- Civilized City with Barbaric acts of intolerance
- Attacks and finishing must prove more critical in such matches, but nobody can deliver the magic
- Referee’s only language: Chinese. No wonder the misunderstanding with the R_ja_ (censor).
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