League game against Homeville

Match Review by Alan Chiang

Homeville 3:2 Maestro (Norris 2)

Controversial calls and bad refereeing marred over a good match-up between Maestro FC and Homeville. The match was abandoned with only five minutes left to play as referee had decided to call off the game (because his book comprises of the cards, and paper were torn in pieces). (Don’t ask me who did it. Those were present at the game felt that the referee had been going against MFC for the entire game.)

On a back of a good run, Maestro FC had begun the match with ferocity. But minutes later, it was the opponents who dominated the pitch. Their fluid passing game allowed their (speedy) player to get on to a loose ball and nicked it behind Gary’s net. Maestro strived on with a great goal from Norris. He was set up by Howard’s long throw, who found the goalkeeper dumbfounded when Norris went straight at him. Without hesitation, Norris fired a shot pass the goalkeeper’s hands. Rong An also had a clear chance at goal after Augustine had fed him with a through pass on goal. The opponent’s goalkeeper was equaled to his thunderous shot and the game stood at 1-1 mid-way through the first half-time.

Minutes later, the opponents found another goal in the back of the net who took their chances well. However, Maestro did not have to take too long to find another equalizer through Norris. But it took a moment of brilliance from Norris to cancel out the opponents’ goal. His movement in the opponents’ half had allowed him to break free from the defence and latched on to Alex’s free kick. With great pace and composure coupled with a crashing shot, the opponent’s goalkeeper had no chance to save his effort. The first half ended at 2-2.

Maestro started the second half where they left off and pushed for more goals. Several good build-ups had caused panic among the opponents’ half. Credits to Kartik, Augustine, Norris, Rong An, Hakim and Alex for pushing Maestro ahead but the fantastic efforts had been overturned by the opponents. They pounced on a counter-attack and managed to find a goal to take the lead again.

But the game had turned ugly with about ten minutes remaining. Alex was sent off after collecting one yellow card in each half, who had demanded the referee to explain his decision to ask Alex for an early bath. As the referee had kept quiet throughout the game, he did not speak to Alex and had stopped the game unless Alex had taken his leave.

Several decisions then went against Maestro and the Bees were not satisfied with the referee’s calls. The opponents had committed too many late tackles and unfair challenges throughout the entire game but they were not being told off, less the award of yellow cards. With five minutes left to play, the referee had decided to abandon the match as (one of us) had lashed out at referee’s book and torn it into pieces. It was not a wise decision but the (lousy) referee was indeed going against Maestro for the entire game.

This writer also felt that referee had not protected Maestro players whenever the opponents went in for late challenges and not awarded any cards for their infringements. This writer had suffered at least three knocks after he had got the ball in his feet. (I could remember No. 9, No.10, No. 15/16 and No. 20 had committed late challenges at Maestro players) Gary had also suffered a few knocks when he clearly got the ball in his safe pair of hands.

The match might have been contentious, but all credits were given to (Nasri) Norris who had a good spell in the match, and also scored two superb equalizing efforts for Maestro.

“Don't let anyone steal your dream. It's your dream, not theirs.” ~Dan Zadra

High Points

• Norris with two great goals
• Plenty of good build-ups
• Weather was good after an earlier shower

Low Points

• Bad refereeing for the entire game, was he the 12^th man for the opponent?
• Pitch was terrible, boots get stuck in the mud
• We had about 13 players for the game (we need more strength in depth)
• Should we still stick to Sunsports? Or move on? (But if we move on, we need committed players and players who are willing to play with their hearts)