13/03/11 Match Review MFC vs. Liaoning FC

Headlines: MFC ROO-ED LiaoNing FC out 4-0
Contributed by Walter Tan

MFC 4:0 LiaoNing FC (Gary, August, Guo Xian, Rong An)

The afternoon scorching sun and low attendance today caused many MFCians to get tired out easily given the fact that MFCians played their 2nd game in just 2 days. The Safra game on Friday was comfortably won and it was the same verdict for today. The game started on the dot, 3.30pm with MFCians being ushered in by a new referee “Roo” who was a familiar opponent to us during our MFC vs Aang Wolf clashes as far as 2 years back. We all remembered Roo as the deadly striker who often caused problems to our MFC defence. However, today he played a new role as a referee on trial and his decisions throughout the game were questionable-Believe it anot.

4-5-1 was the safest formation MFC played with for the entire 1st half as we had exactly 11 man on the pitch. With Alex as the GK, Jon, Chris, Walter, Alwyn as the backline, Augustine, Gerald, Jeff, Pom, Kartik as the midfielders and RongAn holding the fort upfront alone.

Van der Sim took the gloves bravely and spontaneously (this time without Norris’ adidas luminous spaghetti strap) for the first half of the match and had nothing much to do except his clash with DaWei. The giant striker clashed with Alex after he broke through MFC defence and had a 50-50 chance to score against Van Der Sim. The outcome? As we all could have guess, he missed as our GK had already caught the ball in his arms. Alex didn’t like the way DaWei budged into him and they were both involved in some pushing and exchanging of words but Roo clearly wasn’t aware of this or even bothered to stop match play after several players diverted his attention to them. He even told RongAn if later they fight then see how. MFCians didn’t care less after that and continue to put on pressure onto the Chinese team. Roo was booed throughout the first half for not calling numerous foul throw-ins displayed by the blue team. His excuse? Roo commented during the break to RongAn and Walter that he didn’t call the foul as he didn’t want to keep on interrupting the beautiful game. Really???!!!

2nd half saw some changes in MFC’s lineup with GX, Lil Eric and Gary coming in to beef up MFC’s chances of winning this game. MFC switch to a 3-5-2 formation for the 2nd period which saw a much improved side in terms of confidence and passing. It took MFC 50mins to break the deadlock through a penalty courtesy of a handball from the opponent-Handball in the most comical sense MFC have even seen (think it only happens in Katong,Sunsports League). One of the opposing defender blatantly picked up the ball in the penalty box from the ground after he “judged” Gerald handled the ball with his arm. His first instinct to pick the ball up without the referee’s whistle allowed Gary to step up and score from the spot. He took the shot confidently which left the other Gk “helpless” and “clueless”. (Gary commented to some of us during the bubble tea session that he was thinking whether he should shoot to top corner or give a powerFULL shot. Oh well, I think he went for an easy shot about 5degrees off the middle. Right GX?) The second goal was well assisted by Chris10 who slotted a great Fabregas type of pass to the lively Augustine who made no mistake inside the penalty area. Augustine’s right footed strike equaled that of Drogba and he celebrated with his hands up in the air. To be more precise, Augustine himself would describe his goal as “A quick one two, cutting in from the left and curled a shot into the top corner. Brilliant.” The pressure continued to soak up the Chinese team’s defense with RongAn and the other midfielders trying their luck on several occasions from freekicks and open play. Alex Giggs came close from one of his deadly freekicks with only the post to deny him. GX made it 3-0 with a brilliant close range finish (similar to Alam Shah, ermm…ok, maybe Berbatov but surely not Bebe) after he received a perfect through ball from speedy Ribery Kartik. To add icing to the cake, Rooney RongAn made it four within dying minutes of the game, thanks to a quick corner from Gerald Parker. He did a quick pass (like those in PS2 console where you simply press X) to RongAn who then dribbled in from the right hand side of the penalty box and gave a thunderous strike to ensure LiaoNing FC left the pitch at full time embarrassed and dumbstruck.

The final score 4-0 proved to be a good result for the 14 faithful MFCians who turned up and stretched their unbeaten run to 7 games without a defeat. Keep up the good work you BEES!!!!

High Points
1. We won 4-0 and kept a clean sheet.
2. A brave performance from Jeff.
3. Gary taking some time off from his studies to join us for this match.
4. Alwyn and his sticky balls technique-Like Messi

Low Points
1. Attendance was small-considering last week we got 18 players or more
2. Roo the referee with poor decisions and calls. His whistle blow was like that of a swimming pool lifeguard-commented by Alex
3. MFCians beginning to show signs of complacency in the 2nd half.
4. Hot weather compared to Safra’s cool night weather.