Final Score: MFC 0:1 Daniel Myanmar
Venue: Katong Field
5.15pm: Maestro FC was eagerly anticipating a friendly encounter with Daniel Myanmar. With a large team available for Captain Guo Xian to select from, it provided him with a nice headache as to the starting lineup. MFC players were having their usual pre-match kick about with Kartik’s cousin a new face to the team.
5.30pm: Found out that opponents only had 8 players at that point in time. Given that the match was supposed to have started 15 minutes ago, MFC players were getting a little exasperated. Hence, with the 20 players available, MFC Red vs MFC Black took place with Guo Xian as the referee. MFC Red had the possession of the ball in the opening stages with MFC black content to sit behind the ball. One long ball over the top of the MFC Black’s defence allowed Kartik’s cousin, albeit seeming to be in an offside position, to take a touch and finish with aplomb past stand-in keeper Zhi Wei. The Intra MFC friendly ended 1-0 to MFC Red.
5.45pm: Daniel Myanmar arrived, no wait, sauntered their way onto the Katong field half an hour late and hence the official friendly took place. MFC started with the traditional 4-5-1 formation with Zhi Wei as keeper; Walter, Alan, Wee Hian and Logan as the back four: Augustine, Gerald, Jonathan, Rong An and Kartik in midfield with Jeffrey as the lone striker up top.
In the opening exchanges, MFC and Myanmar basically cancelled each other out with the both midfields having to do a lot of work in order to keep possession. Jonathan and Gerald in particular put in stellar shifts in the midfield harassing the opposition midfield. MFC’s defence was holding a good line as well with Myanmar’s players being caught offside on more than a few occasions. Myanmar too were coping well with MFC’s attempted through balls to Jeffrey. Even though their constant hoofing of the ball into the evening sky was a little agricultural and not stylish whatsoever. But hey, to each their own, right?
There were a few good plays down MFC’s left with Logan and Kartik managing to run onto balls past their defence. However, those attacks came to little avail. Rong An and Alex had couple of sighters at goal with their free kicks. Karthik himself made a couple of penetrating runs into the Myanmar’s defence.The opening exchanges went by without much else incident other than the substitutions in order to keep our players fresher than Myanmar’s frankly depleted match-day squad. The first half petered itself out into the half time whistle.
The second half started with MFC’s standard 4-5-1 with a couple of personnel changes. MFC started the second half better than they did the first with a lot of passing and moving to keep the ball away from pressure. Myanmar’s defence was once again content to just clear the ball as hard and far as their legs could kick.
As the game went on, the Myanmar players were getting a little more physical with their inability to break down MFC’s defence and to win the ball back. Gerald in the center of midfield bore the brunt of these challenges when, after managing to nick the ball of one them, got an elbow to the face as retaliation for the fair but hard challenge. This gave the referee not much of a choice but to show him the red card.
The match carried on in this pattern until disaster struck for MFC. A low corner kick went straight into the heart of MFC’s defence and the inability to clear the lines led to the opening and only goal of the game when one of the Myanmar players had a relatively simple task of finishing past Zhi Wei. It was heartbreaking for the MFC players who had worked so hard to keep Myanmar at bay.
After the goal went in, MFC adopted a formation change to a 3-4-3 in order to put pressure onto Myanmar’s 10 man team. MFC laid siege to Myanmar’s defence in the hope of getting an equalizer but time ran out when the final whistle blew and the match was over. A disappointing day for MFC but we will pick ourselves up as we always do and we will win our next match.
Cmon MFC!!
Good Points
1. Field was in pretty good condition for quick passing
2. Referee was fair and communicative, even though a little on the pudgy side =)
3. MFC players never gave up despite letting in the goal
4. Good effort by all players harass Myanmar’s players
Disappointing points
1. Opponents coming so late for the match but still took their sweet time
2. Some challenges by Myanmar were bad
3. Undeserved loss to a team not as strong as ours
4. Some MFC players didn’t get enough playing time with the large squad today
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