PS: Sorry for the late posting. (from webby guy) T_T
Final Score: Aldersgate 2 : 2 MFC (Rong An, Norris)
Maestro lost its steam of the winning ways
Thanks to Brian of Aldersgate who is Chris’s ex-army colleague for the friendly with the juniors.
Aldersgate welcomed MFC to Fairfield where MFC lost to this ground previously 3 – 2 to the senior team. Despite the lost, the Christians respected opponents and offered a challenge for their junior team.
Unlike MFC, Aldersgate were governed by a coach and have all the resources they required; The playing ground for practice, the washing point, and the cheers from home supporters. Judging from the fitness of Aldersgate, they were definitely at the peak of the game as compared to MFC who grew bellys rather than the agility. However, MFC was unquestionably technically superior than the Christians in terms of strength, skills and finishing.
First Half started with an EPL salute of shaking hands and fair play checks by the referee. The overly cautious referee was the talking point throughout the game which the story would explode later. Fairfield isn’t the correct standard of any other pitch, the length of the pitch was ridiculously shorter and the width was restricted by the growing space of Singapore. The goal kicks taken by the Ex-Columbia Mafia Head could directly reach Gary in no time. Chris got lost on where he should position himself in order to shield the defence, which resulted him to play deep in midfield.
In a battlefield of midfielders, Gerald did a wonderful job to run everywhere for the ball. MFC had a tactical error when wingers are playing too upfront to support the strikers when there were 2 strikers ahead. Additionally, due the shorten pitch, Chris had pull back in order to gain the sky battles. Thus, a 4 – 1 -3 -2 formation turned to be 4 – 1 – 1 – 4 formation. Gerald had to be the ball-winning role in midfield. The control of Aldersgate was dictated by the Shining Head who was constantly looking to threaten MFC defence with his deadly through pass.
Despite the difficulty to gain superiority in midfield, MFC is doing a good job to defend and spring to a counter-attack when required. MFC turned deadly when all MFC players were connected at one heart; For instance, a ball fell to Logan, and he found difficulty to control the ball when 2 Aldersgate players crowd around him. Chris found the opportunity of the space created and ran ahead to do an overlap on Logan. Logan instinct sprang into action, he scrambled to make sure the ball to be ahead of Chris. Chris ran down the right flank with an approaching defender to halt his tries for attack. Chris knew the gap created by the approaching defender would be covered by Maestro’s strikers. He decided to give a hard low-cross, which proved too far for Columbia keeper and just right for the imminent Rong An to slot in the open goal. Rong An did not celebrate the goal as if it was his, but he came over Chris to thank for the goal opportunity created for him. And that was teamwork.
The first half ended with 1 goal lead against the home crowd. The coach of Aldersgate was furious and lectured the players for the poor performance.
The second half started with a change of players with different roles. Howard started upfront with Jeffery and few other changes. The second half had all his excitement, and a free-kick given to Norris out in 25 yard, he looped the keeper which seems to be a mistake by the Columbia keeper. An advice for this Chinese New Year period to MFC: Do not go gamble with Norris, he was running into luck recently. The goal was a gift to his superb form recently.
Aldersgate did not give up since. They started to pour 4 strikers and poured long balls into the box, and believe the Stoke style would result in a goal. The tactic worked when they were given a goal on the 70th minute. A shoutout of an offside striker were not called out by the referee, but the ball was cleared out frantically. An Aldersgate player picked up the scrambled ball and placed a long cross into the box again. This time Kartik came forward to assist Wee Hian, but the header of Wee Hian was not well contacted, leaving the space left by Kartik to be crept by the striker to meet one-on-one with Gary. The tight angle shot deflected into the net when Gary did not have the best contact on the ball.
Another controversial goal was assisted by the referee when a well tackled challenge by GuoXian turned into a penalty in the last minute of the game. Everybody in the crowd including the players was expecting a goalkick, but the referee shook his head to GuoXian putting the ball at the penalty spot. The protest was waved off and Aldersgate shot furiously in the middle, leaving Gary helplessly.
The game ended a draw, with Aldersgate felt luck was on their side.
After the game, in the conversation with Brian, he mentioned that MFC was out of steam in the second half. The fighting spirit was lost, while Aldersgate was dominating in psychologically. He suggested that if we played like what we do in the first half, we could dump in more goals against his side. He also mentioned that Rong An was a very good player, his free-kicks were deadly and consistent. Lastly, he recommended that we should join other leagues in Singapore, as he was not a fan of the Sunsports due to the pricing and customer service that Sunsports provide.
Good Points
- · Aldersgate observed Fair-play in a Fair-field pitch
- · Cheapest game ever! $5 per person and there are enough to save. The economy is really picking up.
- · Nobody is hurt in the game
- · Everybody on time and match started on time.
- · There are everything needed in Fairfield, water, toilet, washing point, grand stand, etc.
- · Gary capable to take goal kicks at least to midfield position. I wondered why Wee Hian is still required to take the goal-kicks. Not confident Gary?
- · Let’s explore long throw options – Who can throw a Roy Delap javelin into the box in MFC?
Bad Points
- · The rotation for writing the match review seems depleted.
- · We lost a ball. Rong An’s shot that bounce onto the plastic sheet into 2nd level. The probability is so small that I could say that it is extremely lucky / unlucky.
- · Lost of steam? WTF comment is that? MFC, lets picked ourselves up.
- · Man of the match – Nobody played as well for MFC as compared to the Shining Head.
- · FAS referee? How do they pick FAS referee? No offence to GuoXian – You are doing a good job. The referee was doing a good job until the last minute, and this was not a bias remark.
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