Songbo FC 4:2 Opponents
Date: 27th Sep 2009
Venue: Boon Lay Sec Sch
Jersey: Black
Starting Line-Up
Junbing(GK), H.Weijie(LB), Kenny(CB), Suichao(CB), T.Weijie(RB), Hweequan(DM), Jackie(LM), Alvin(CM), Mervin(RM), Yanshou(AM), Jeremy(ST)
Subtitutes:
Kelvin, Rujia, Jiaxiang
Scores:
HT: 3-2
FT: 4-2
Undefeated for 6 games that starts as far back as Jul 09, Songbo seems to have recovered from their two losses and is chasing the record of 12 games undefeated set during May 07.
The venue is at the familiar Boon Lay SS, which we have been playing for the past 3 weeks. As our team captain is a big ‘fan’ of Liverpool, it’s not uncommon to see him deploying the ‘rotational’ system. The back 4 remains the same, changes are made to the GK, RM and SS. What kinds of results will this system produce? Judging from statistics for the past 10 games, the wins are by a goal, the draws are 2 goals and the losses are 1 goal. Good or bad? You be the judge.
As one can see, the forwards have not been producing the goals that they used to have in the past. Even though our very own ‘El Nino’ has been on a goal run of 2 games, he is yet to be at his best of scoring at least 2-3 goals in the past. When will his form return? Will we see it in this game? As opposed to the front, the backline has been solid for the past 10 games, conceding 1 goal for all the games except the last match, which they let in 2 goals. Praise have to be given for their hard work and concentration when most of the teams members are trying hard to score goals, they are trying hard to keep goals from coming in. However, there will still be days where they will lose their concentration and allowing stupid goals to be conceded. This is taking into the account of the ‘unpredictable’ performance of ‘John Terri cum Fatty-hen’. In games when his performances are exceptional, no attackers can go past him or even dare to face him. On his off days, he’s letting in goals that even a 3 yr old kid can score. Predicting how good he’ll be performing in the game is like winning TOTO group one prize. Thankfully, his ever-reliable partner, ‘Vic-Ken’ is stepping up as and giving the much needed support to him.
This is a team that we have played for a couple of times. If my memory serves me right, we have yet to lose a match to them. Winning most of the encounters and drawing once. It seems though, that they have been actively recruiting members. There are always new faces whenever we played against them. With our key players back, Songbo field an almost full strength team for this battle.
The first half was a disaster for our Terri. Mistakes are made with his every touch of the ball. No one even for himself knew what is wrong and it’s just a matter of time when the mistakes made turned into a vital one. A harmless ball from the opponent half targeted at their small speedy striker is usually not a trouble for Terri. But with his presence form, an interception of the ball becomes an assist for the striker. Who managed to take control of the loose ball and break the deadlock. 0-1! To add salt to the wound, one can see that Terri will still have more ‘gifts’ to present to their strikers as the match progress.
The partnership between Tiger and El Nino has been building up recently (who knows what they have been doing for the rest of the week). They seem to be able to telepathically sense each other’s location and execute a perfect pass to the other party, or follow up whenever one has taken a shot to catch the rebound. The equalizer came with most credit to be given to El Nino even thought Commando Tan loop a high ball in for him. With brute strength, he managed to muscle (gym trip with Tiger?) the defender off the ball and slot the ball home. 1-1! The second goal came soon after with Tiger making a superb right wing cross to find El Nino unmarked on the left. With his blistering pace and regained confidence, he added a 2nd goal for Songbo. 2-1!
With the thought of killing the game off early in the first half, Songbo began to push his backline up. This turns out to be a bad move as the score line is tied once again. A slick pass from their speedy striker sent their left mid through on goal. He make no mistake by putting the back at of the net, even though one can argue that our Papasoh could have come out with a better save. 2-2!
The performance of the front and back seems to be going in opposite direction. When the back is down for today, the front seems to be able to find back their goal scoring touches. Catching on to a loose ball by their GK, who had parried a ball off from El Nino, Tiger (who haven’t scored since Jun 09, where he got a hat-trick) was there to make sure the ball is in the net with an acrobatic right-foot-high-kick volley. 3-2!
(Zouk quan was injured in the first half, but as most of our team mates thought it was an act, even though it’s real, I have decided to not write on this. Everyone is free to pen their thoughts in the comment section)
The first half ends a remarkable performance by the two forward and a disastrous one by our very own Terri. After receiving some hair-dryer treatment from Terri is back with the hopes of redeeming his ‘worst-ever’ performance.
The 2nd half started very brightly for Songbo. El Nino was able to finally get his well-deserved hat-trick (last one was in Feb 09). Reacting first to the loose ball, he executed a perfectly aimed header to place the ball at the top left hand corner of the net. 4-2!
With a 2 goal margin, Songbo has effectively killed of the game. Even though the opponents has now fielded taller strikers and putting in more pressure on the Songbo’s defence, a revitalized Terri stopped every one of the attackers at its track. With ‘Vic-Ken’ at its best and Terri back to his norm, they both make sure that the number 2, stays at number 2!
In conclusion, a good performance by Songbo and an even better one by the 2 forwards. Even though Terri has played one of his ‘worst-ever’ game in the first half, he was able to give a good performance in the 2nd. But then again, who knows that it may have been his plan all along to play a bad game intentionally so that the forwards can stepped up and regain their goal scoring confidence. A conspiracy in the making? Maybe….
Summary by
Bullocks13
