Match 51 - Draw

Starting Line up: Tiger Yan (GK), C-cup(DC), Kenny(DC), NBA Star(DL), Lusty(DR), Mervin(MR), Ah Lam (DM), Looney (CM), Thief(ML), Kelvin (FW) and Alvin Toh (FW)


Playing at kranji Secondary. No bathrooms, no water supply. Lousiest SSC field ever. Missing 3 players at the start due to some delays in buying a car. Looney finally break his drought with a nice shot from the right flank. But the opponents equalised upon a poor clearance from our defender. Sad to say, our golden striker Alvin Toh, injured his knee again. It looks very serious. With Toh down, Papasoh down and Ah Lam injuring his ankle(1 day later).....we can forsee a crisis in Songbo FC. Final time 1-1.

Things to learn: Heroes emerge from a crisis. Lets put wat we have learnt in the past in our next match. Lets not respect opponents too much. Giving them a knock is letting them learn, n thats a good deed. Lets do more good deeds k.

Match 50 - Win

Starting Line up: Tiger Yan (GK), C-cup(DC), Kenny(DC), NBA Star(DL), Lusty(DR), Kelvin(MR), Zouk Chua (DM), Sparrow (CM), Thief(ML), Ah Lam (FW) and Alvin Toh (FW)


Against Thief's fren. The one we played at the start of our new season in May. Hearing them say they had never lose b4, motivates us to do even better. The field was short, both team play very compact. Hard to play long balls and through pass. First half was 0-0. But 2nd half was more exciting. 2 goals from our Captain Sparrow, gave us hope that we are not going home empty handed. He is truely the man of the match. Though opponent scored one back...Songbo is still steady and unbreakable. Final time 2-1.

Things to learn: Carry soccer balls with you whenever you leave a place. Due to some bad blood between the 2 teams. The opponents took away 3 of our soccer balls. We must treat soccer balls as our wives. No balls....no game.

Match 49 - Win

Starting Line up: Tiger Yan (GK), C-cup(DC), Kenny(DC), NBA Star(DL), Lusty(DR), Spar_Tan(MR), Zouk Chua (DM), Sparrow (CM), Looney(ML), Papasoh (FW) and Alvin Toh (FW)

Playing at Fuchun Secondary. We play against of uncles with dun have much fancy skills but lots of rough tackling and smelly little tricks to irritate players. Papasoh scored the first goal after a blunder from their GK. But Opponents were lucky to equalise b4 first half. Opponents have a 'Luca Toni' that keeps eating our C Cup, grabbing his shirt and tickling his nipples and balls. Tiger Yan being the striker in the 2nd half, keep playing sprinting with their defenders till those old man cant take it, leading to him scoring 2 goals and 1 more from Alvin Toh. Toh has been impressing since he recovered from injury. Final time 4-1.

Things to learn: Dun be mentally or emotionally affected by opponents. Down to the crunch time, its real skill and fighting spirit that brings us through. We are all going to be Cat Y, we cant be playing like boys. Lets take every knock, every scolding and every game, a learining experience for us. We are nothing if we play 50 games and never really reflect on what we been through. Opponents will get tougher and tougher, we have to improve to survive in this arena.

Match 48 - Win

Starting Line up: Tiger Yan (GK), C-cup(DC), Kenny(DC), NBA Star(DL), Lusty(DR), Mervin(MR), Spar_Tan (DM), Sparrow (CM), Looney(ML), Papasoh (FW) and Ah Lam (FW)


Playing at Tanglin Field. Tiger Yan was GK for the first half and Papasoh took charge in the second half. By half time we were 3-0 up. 2 goals from papasoh and 1 from Captain Sparrow. Tiger Yan added a 4th to end their misery in the 2nd half. Looney wasted 4 golden clear cut chances to add a goal to his name. Tiger and Papa both got a yellow card from the 'Pian Jia' referee.

Things to learn: Tanglin field 1 and 2 are in the inner part and not the one besides the church. Against a team full of malays but without teamwork, through pass and looping balls did more damage. And we did it right by inflicting damage on them b4 they can learn to gel together.

Match 47 - Win

Starting Line up: PapaSoh (GK), C-cup(DC), Kenny(DC), Kelvin(DL), Lusty(DR), Ah Lam(MR), Zouk Chua (DM), Sparrow (CM), Looney(ML), Tiger Yan (FW) and Alvin Toh (FW)

Game at Juyiing Secondary. Goal post abit short. Referee turns out to be PapaSoh former encik...haha. Captain Sparrow scored one from a header through a corner kick by Looney. Alvin Toh scored the 2nd through a solo trickery. Opponent managed to score one back, injuring papasoh finger in the process.

Things to learn: Field was small, we play to our advantage by being compact. Dun play computer games till wee hours before a soccer match. Can be a safety hazard.

Match 46 - Draw

Starting Line up: Tiger Yan (GK), C-cup(DC), Kenny(DC), NBA Star(DR), Lusty(DL), Mervin(MR), Spar_Tan (DM), Kenneth (CM), Thief (ML), Ah Lam (FW) and Looney (FW)


First match of our opening season. Thief's fren. They say they never lose b4 but before the match keep emphasising they had many first team players not in squad. We played a squad thats one of the weakest in Songbo history. Looney scored the equaliser from the mid spot. Final time 1-1. Good result for us.


Things to learn: Enjoying in Bali has never been so relaxing b4 even when u know ur comrades are facing a crisis.

Match 45 - Defeat

Starting Line up: PapaSoh (GK), C-cup(DC), Kenny(DC), Spar_Tan(DR), NBA Star(DL), Robinho(MR), Zouk Chua (DM), Sparrow (CM), Ah Lam (ML), Tiger Yan (FW) and Mervin (FW)

This match is the last match of the season we rest for exams at fairfield methodist pri sch. Tiger Yan scored one but the opponents scored 3. 3-1 final time.

Things to learn: If u think u can win against GOD, dream on! Never play against christians in a christian ground.

Latest Updates

Since we have not had an update for our site like for the last 9 years, it's time to update on some of the latest stats. Our latest result is for Match 52, FT 1-1, Scorer: Jackie. 080707

Our match form for last 10 games, latest first: DWWWW DLLLW

As you can see, we are on a 6 unbeaten game streak...not bad but once again we failed to best our win streak of 4 games in a row.

Goalscorers list:

Jackie	23
Alvin Toh	21
Rujia	18
Yanshou	17
Alvin Cai	12
Junbing	10
Kelvin	9
Mervin	7
Sybian	6
Hweequan	2
Tan Weijie	2
Kenny	1
Suichao	1
Kaiseng	0
Huang Weijie	0
Binghong	0

We have scored 129 goals in 52 games, not including 4 own goals by our opponent. We have conceded 80 goals during that 52 matches as well, with 13 clean sheets to our name.

Match 44 - Defeat

18 mar 2007, a day of try outs for Songbo FC.

Today's opponents are the uncles we played against a mth ago, and we won 2-0 in that match at dunearn field. Today they are asking for another rematch, maybe due to the fact that they cant take it down nicely that they lost to us the other time, hence the rematch!!
Today's stand in capt for the day is robinho, its partly due to the naivety of capt jack sparrow tt he was bluffed into believing trickester robinho that today will be his testimonial match, but it was not!! hence robinho decided to try a new line up to try out ppl in different positions as we had played against the opponents before.

Starting line up are as follows: GK papa soh, LB thief, RB lusty seng, CB fallen comrades and jack sparrow, DMs C cuper and tiger yan, AMC merv-naldo, LM nba star, RM ah-lam,FW robinho.

Today marks the debut of thief after so long as a super sub, it was noted that he cant sleep the night before when he learnt of the news tt he will be making his debut the next day, so he was visibly shaking with excitment before the match.
several players are playing in new position for the first time, notably are the 2 CBs, fallen comrades and jack sparrow. Though lusty seng has been playing at RB for a long time, it is a relatively inexperienced backline, will the defence crumble to the relentless "slow" uncle attacks? we will see abt tt later. c cuper is back to playing midfield after so long as a CB, but its the first time as a DM, it spells the same for merv-naldo who is playing AMC for the first time. Ah lam is playing out of his usual posn as a FW, instead its RM for him. last but not least to top the players playing in a unfamiliar role is robinho playing as FW, who is also the capt for the day, we will see whether he can bring victory back for the songbo fc! on the bench are the normal starting 11 players: looney,zouk chua, ken-ni,AIA agent,toh. TOH???!!! oh yah its marks the return of toh back to the team after a yr long absence, so will his return boost the morale of songbo fc???

Kick off by the uncles, songbo fc lunged into action crying for blood! inspired by king leonadis of 300, every fellow players who watched it are inspired by the spartan spirits! namely fallen comrades wants to change his name to spark-tan! songbo began pressing the uncles with robinho leading the charge from the front. however 5 mins after the match starts, the bombardment from the persian uncle army began terrorising the backline of songbo fc. waves after waves the attack came, notably with no 13 uncle dictating the attack. soon songbo identify him as the main threat and robinho was asked to close him down before no 13 can launch any attack. however no 13 was much too good and experienced to be marked down. The uncles began doing their passing game and rampage our flanks, the inexperience of the backline soon showed and both RM and LM were drafted in to protect the flanks. Both CB were pulled out of posn to cover for the flanks but there wasnt any DM to cover them back, hence there was a noticeable hole in the middle. Gk papa soh was quoted later saying that there were no CBs at all, just 2 LBS and 2 RBS.Once when spark-tan was pulled out to cover lusty seng, his speed was too fast for the uncle and with him winning back the ball, he tried to launch an attack, but uncle on seeing that he cant get the ball, went in studs in at his ankle. This infuriated the song bo fc!! referee only gave a yellow card! it shd have been a red! luckily spark-tan was able to stand up and continue, the indomitable fighting spirit of his led him to continue the game further.

Besides that, papa soh was doing a great job of keeping the songbo fc in the game by making saves after saves, but he almost blunder once when he did a "jose reina". A uncle was closing him down when a ball was passed back to him, he tried to clear but the ball came off the uncle, with danger looming towards the goal, everyone was holding their breath. Luckily for songbo fc, the uncle took several touches before he can control the ball to shoot, and by then papa soh has already run back to do a last min saving tackle, and its a corner~

Whenever songbo can launch an attack, it will break down after few touches, noticibly was the emptiness of the centre mids, headers were all win by the opponents. capt robinho could do nothing more than run arnd like a headless chicken by trying to win the ball back for the team. Tiger yan joined in the attack and once almost break the goal. He lured 2 defenders and gk to one side and with the goal mouth open, he unselfishly square it back for robinho when he can score for himself, but b4 the ball managed to reach robinho, it was cleared! kudos to tiger for unselfishly create the chance. songbo fc won a few corners too, and it shows tt the opponent keeper was not comfortable with crosses, tiger yan threatened to score again with the keeper fumbling, but alas it was not meant to be.songbo fc stands firm to the persian uncles' army attacks, but then the uncles managed to find a small goat path to sneak in a attack from behind to score. Papa soh saved brilliantly from the long shot, but the rebound was put in by a uncle who is bigger size than papa soh~ oh no! 1-0 to the uncles! then the halftime whistle came~

halftime talk: changes were made with tiger yan to be gk, papa soh to partner with robinho. looney out for ah lam, ken-ni for spark-tan,zouk chua for jack sparrow. so now c cuper partner ken-ni as CBs, looney on the right, zouk chua as DM. Its a more familiar backline now. merv-naldo as CM, with robinho playing behind papa soh.

Songbo began the 2nd half playing better, maybe due to the fact that most of the players are now playing in their familiar roles, and with zouk chua playing in his favourite DM role, headers are now won more than in the first half. However, now our LM nba star is visibly shagged and tired. He keep running with the ball to the fence, maybe he was playing SM last night using fence as one of his equipment and hence keep carrying the ball towards it, he might be trying to reminisce last night's lusty encounter~

Papa soh on as FW has 2 clear chances to equalise for the team. Firstly, he was put through on goal by looney's through ball, he took the ball down well on his first touch but his 2nd touch was poor and by the time he got to the ball, the angle was already blocked by the gk and thus he couldnt do much with his shot....damn! The 2nd chance was robinho broke the offside trap and sprang down the right side of the opponents' half, he saw papa soh in the penalty box, and no 13 uncle is blocking his angle to shoot, hence he decided to float the ball to papa soh, papa soh was about to head the ball in towards goal, when.....PREWWWWWW~ the whistle blew! is it an penalty? nooo it was for a offside, it cannot be, 2 defenders were with papa soh, where was the referee looking at? the ref was standing at the centre circle! does he have a hawk's vision to be able to see from so far? fuck off ref!!!

Soon lusty seng signal to the beach for subsituation due to fatigue, today is his do or die match to cement his RB posn, so did he do enough to book his place in the starting 11 in the future? that will be up to capt jack sparrow's decision. On his place is AIA agent, who is bursting with energy,will be playing on the LB while thief moves over to RB. He made a instant impact by linking up well with robinho,playing a 1-2 before he was brought down by uncle RB where he will be through down the flank, its clearly an illegal obstuction but ref didnt blanish any yellow card! c'mon ref wake up pls!! then a change came. nba star is clearly fatigue, it is not sure whether its from his SM activities last night or from the match, his replacement is toh, who marks his return from a year absence.robinho is pulled back to play as LM. Zouk chua is clearly making an impact in the midfield, he is winning headers after headers, it is where the songbo fc is missing the whole morn. but later he was quoted as saying" what lao 30 mins liao, my leg cramping liao, cant run much" so capt jack sparrow has to plan properly how to deploy zouk chua in the future, maybe every 15 mins sub him out for 10 mins then bring him back to the game again, so tt he can substain for the whole match? haha~

soon the killer goal came~ songbo was under counter attack, the attack from our right flank,where the uncle suddenly swing one ball to our left flank, who pass it back to the centre and shoots! bottom right corner of tiger yan's goal...oh no~ songbo down 2-0. tiger yan can do nothing about it.can they come back after this? robinho requested a change with merv-naldo, he partnering zouk chua in the middle while merv-naldo goes to the LM.
but songbo never give up and continue to conduct attacks of their own, the persian uncle army was visibly tired and slower and the young spartan songbo fc was still visibly full of energy. then the break through came. looney got the ball on the right flank, robinho was running in front of him, he releases him who took just one touch and release to toh. Toh do his usual stepovers, switch the ball from his right foot to his left and shoots, uncle CB do just enough to deflect his shoot and its a corner from their right. robinho went over to place the ball for lonney to take, looney whispered to him "go near post", with tt robinho and toh were standing at the near post. Looney whipped in a near post cross, toh jumped into the air to challenge the gk for it and the ball went in! 2-1, songbo fc is clawing back from the brinks of death! a vital lifeline for them!

Quote from after the match, looney said he was shooting from the corner flag and not crossing, and toh said he didnt touch the ball at all, instead it skins against one of the uncle's head and went in. maybe that uncle is bald on the top of his head, and smooth surface makes the ball easily go into the goal~ haha~ songbo starts to fight for the equaliser and the uncles were clearly on the back foot now. The last shot of the game came from robinho. He took a pass from the centre, feigned past one player and shoots! but alas the shot was well too off from the goal and with tt marks the end of the battle of the titans between spartans songbo fc and persian uncles army. 2-1 the final score~

Though songbo fc lost this game, but by aggregate score we still win 3-2! anyway its a match to let everyone try different roles so as to let everyone know that actually not every role in the team is easy to play in. So everyone now will appreciated what others has been contributing to the team, and i hope that this will strengthen the team further and unite the team. kudos to thief for his never give up attitude to play the whole match for the team, and to toh for willing to try to come back to the soccer scence after his operation, it is noted that a year long absence has resulted in a visible tummy on him. A defeat today we face but victory will come again at our next match!

*No ratings for this match, as its a "testimonial" match. Overall everyone played well and had fun, so we will look foward to the next match then. Huat ah!!!

*report by robinho*

Match 43 - Win

Match 43 Win

Line-up for the match: PapaSoh (GK), Kenny(CB), C-Cup(CB), Hairy(LB), Kelvin(RB), Crampy Chua(DM), Chongster Chen(CM), Looney(LM), Com Tan (RM), Alvin AM), TigerYan (FW).
Lady Luck shining on Songbo fooballers.
Usual lazy Sunday morning! Team morale at songbo camp is relatively high after a 2-0 win against the old uncles during the last match. We could see everyone from songbo fc coming down to the soccer match late. Relax and happy on the last day of chinese new year seems the whole team has a net gained weight of 20 kgs .The Man utd fans were all on a high after a good win over their arch rivals the Kops. Alas dunno why the joy of the win the strength of their team can easily beat the kops by a couple of goals. But eventually man u only won by a single goal in a match the opponent dominated. This only prove on big thing u dun have to play well to win soccer matches just take your chances N most importantly do visit Thailand for some prayers to ensure lady luck would be by your side. If pools were taken over by Taskin a couple of years back no doubt they would be the top soccer team in Europe. But too bad their chance are gone they would always be pretenders for the coming years.
As usual the Bukit Batok guys are the earliest followed by the Jurong kids and as usual the CCK kids. The Sunday morning traffic in that area must be damn heavy to justify the fact that they r always the latest. As the Jurong n BB kids are all dress up for the big thing they realize something was amiss. A team which used to have 6-7 balls for training are left with only ONE N ONLY ball. The worse thing is apparently the latest ball was a proud sponsor of hairy shipping. This only shows one thing if hairy is not around the guys would be without any balls. Its rumoured that second hand soccer ball fetch a high price in the market. Watch out for your ball next time hairy.
During the usual warm up session this old man from NTU walked towards the opponent and we fear for the worst. Seem like we have to play the game at the ruby field. Morale was going down visibly. The old man walk toward us and told us the field was booked at 930 hence it seems like we have to play it at the ruby field. But as fighters of songbo fc we decided to continue our warm-up routine and play a waiting game. At the middle of warming up papa- soh made a hopeful yet ambitious statement. The game would be postpone n we would get our match on the pitch. True enough the match was cancelled and we know that it would be our day. More ever the opponent lost to us recently hence it would be an easy match. During the warm-up caption Chongster had a bit of problem his first choice fullbacks were not playing the game. He was sitting quietly at the bench trying to tinkle around with the formation. But end day only god know what’s the problem with him. With just limited options his line-up was pretty obvious. Apparently his mind the night before the game was on which ger to hook up instead of the team line-up.
1st half
As soon as the referee whistle gets under way songbo tactics was clear attack down the right flank where “Arron Kwok” is defending. He is the obvious link to attack as apparently arron is more suited for singing and dancing much more then soccer. Com tan had a real good fill on the right side of the pitch as all the balls are just pump and pass to him.But to the disappointment to the team the most he could get out of the so called “comparative advantage” was just a couple of corners. In the fifteen mins Alvin was off the pitch in complain of a blisters. As the game progresses the songbo team was confused and disturbed by the mono tone defender no 8. That fellow shouted commands around the pitch. Even before a goal kick or throw in is taken he would be shouting white ball. Only god know what ups in his head other den that 2 words as the 2 words ‘white ball’ at least occur 50 times in the 1st half. Maybe that is the tactics to distract opponents as it worked well with Kelvin as he miskicked the ball at least 2 times which allows the opponent thru. But with a strong backline of Kenny and C-cup every mistakes make seems not as serious. Maybe the sales targets of AIA is making Kelvin distracted from the match or could be the power of love ***** that make him lose concentration.
But soon songbo ran out of ideas how to attack the opponent as star singer Arron Kowk was taken off for a malay player. But as the saying goes looks may be deceiving. Who says that Malays would be better footballer than the Chinese. No doubt they spend maybe 60-80% of their time on football and guitar they might not be as gifted as some Chinese are. But songbo is lucky the malay fellow seems like spending more time on his guitar than football hence they are still in a fight. But the loss of arron was really too hard a blow for songbo as they cannot find much loopholes in the opponent. As the clock tickle downs the ball just had its difficulty getting near to each other goal. Both defense hold up well as the midfielders neutralize each other. The respective attacks would relatively toothless as the striker just run around like a headless tiger. Virtually everyone around the pitch was just waiting for the whistle to be blown.
During the halftime teamtalk, captain chongster switch on his pre recorded tape which was played over and over again. “Our team can win this game as long as we keep our shape and stay compact. I wanted the wingers to move in to help out the central defence.” But this time round certain names were mentioned Kelvin was asked to get more focus on the match instead of how much he need to sell. The usual mistake of trying to go for 50-50% is totally uncalled for as any potential miss would lead to an opening for the opponents. Tiger yan was asked to put his head on and try to provide some good running instead of wasting all energy. He was also task to mark the keeper during goal kick such that short pass would be make possible. “striker makes up for the 1st line of defense for any team”

2nd half
Songbo warriors move out to the field with the same lineup with thief and merv on the bench. As usual the gather and shouted the huat thing. But this time round something is different thief was not in the rally he went back to his bag to get his “gudu” he got from Thailand to give the luck the team was shouting for. As the match got underway both teams try to stamp their authority in midfield area which was too cramped for football. The fight for headers and the tackles got stronger than ever. Both defenses stand as firm as the 1st half while papa soh was just continuing his pop corns left over from the second half. But as the match moves on the fitness difference of both teams became telling as the white got more possession of the ball while songbo could only try to catch them on the break. In the sixty min the white makes a poor clearance to the middle of the park. With no one near him crampy chua powered in an header down the right flank which com tan broke thru. But com lose out a yard or two over the past 2 yrs. In the past he would definitely be clear thru on goal but this time round the defender managed to pip him to the ball before a good cross could be send in. that was a wake up call for the team as its shows that the game is there for them to take. The next header crampy chua has to make raise everyone eye brown as the previous header won give the team a good chance for a counter attack. But to every teammates except his own expectations he was down with cramps once and again. And it is rumoured that it’s a punters day as the bookies offered good odds for him not to last the whole match. The overwhelming bets left the bookies with a hold on their pockets as crampy chua lives out to his name. it was the 3rd straight match he could no finish.
On came thief for crampy as the whole team has to reshuffle. Suddenly the match took a turn. Within mins of coming on as a sub songbo took the lead. The Gudu thing work all thanks to the hardwork of thief.the goal was good work by tiger yan. Soon songbo was two nil up. Jacky score with a long shot after a lousy kick by the keeper. The opponent start pressuring the songbo defence. But good work from Kenny n chaos kept them away. Songbo eventually scored a third from tiger yan after soon hard chasing.
(sorry for the late report really busy nowadays n forgotten a lot about report)

New Look for our Blog

As the season draws to a close, I thought I would just change the look of our blog a bit to freshen some things up. I'm still experimenting with the colours and stuff so this might or might not be the final look.

Anyway, where the f&^# are the Match Reports?!

Match 42 - Win

Starting lineup - PapaSoh, C-cup, Kenny, Robinho, Zouk Chua, Sparrow, Commando, Ah lam, Looney, Lusty, Tiger Yan. Reserves: Old thief, Kelvin and Mervin

Playing against a group of uncles in the dunearn sec field, it was 'BAO JIAK' on the minds of the songbos. Indeed the prophecy was true. 15 minutes into the first half, Ah lam picked up a loose ball from the opponents and he dribble into the right side of the penalty area. Seeing Tiger in the middle of the box, he squared a pass and Tiger just tapped the ball in. 1-0 up!

35 minutes into the first half, a corner from Looney to Zouk Chua was perfectly executed, and Zouk Chua did well to head in his second goal of the season. 2-0 up!

Second half was kinda boring, so i wun mention anymore here. Final whistle, 2-0 win for Songbo.

Quote of the day: Young players we scared, old players we also scared, then is there anything we are not scared of? In the first place, y should we be scared.

Graduation Trip

Hi all, there will be a NATAS Travel Fair on the 23rd-25th March. Hopefully we can decide on the details b4 that and see if there are any deals at the fair.

Below are the fares: (Taken from travel fare brochures on 4th Mar 07)
ASA
   3/4D Taipei + Hot springs     fr$508
   3D Bali + 1N Free             fr$388
   3D Saigon / Hanoi             fr$298
   
Dynasty Travel
   3D2N Bangkok                  fr$238
   3D2N Bali                     fr$328
   3D2N Taipei                   fr$528

CTC
   3/4D Hong Kong                fr$298(Public Holiday Special Dep: Apr 5,6,28,29 May 30,31)
   3/4D Macau Gateway            fr$288
   3/4D Taiwan                   fr$458
   3/4/5D Bangkok/Pattaya        fr$198
   3D2N Hard Rock Bali           fr$368
   
SA Tour
   3D Bali                       fr$348(2 To Go)
   3D Thailand                   fr$198(Bangkok / Phuket / Chiangmai / Koh Samui)
   Star Cruise
      3D2N Redang                fr$219(or Malacca KL)
      3D2N Weekend               fr$309
      4D3N Penang/Phuket         fr$369(or Phuket/Langkawi)
      

The aboves prices are what i get from the brochures... Some may have promotions that come with it. There may also be some places which i did not include. Any enquiries pls find 1 day meet up, we gather all the enquiries and go to the place to ask.

Match 41 - Defeat

21 Jan 2007. Disaster day for Songbo FC.

A long break since Dec seems like a degrading cum disillusioned cum slacking period for some of our team mates. First to note, Captain Sparrow....he was sick, from reliable sources, he was clubbing and partying on Wed till he dunno what is his mother's name. He was spotted as energetic as a raging bull on the dance floor, a far cry from the sick and weakly image he appear on Sunday. Squeezing breast, drinking alcohol, he was doing what he was best in that night. Though he kenna road block, he was given a stern warning only. Judging from his past profiles, he wun give it a damn after 3 mths. He apply for an Att C on Sunday, but he got the energy to still play street soccer on Friday. He drinks but get sick, so whose fault? He can do watever he wants.
For now, i shall mention Captain Sparrow first, the rest will be highlighted later on.

Our match is 11am. We arrived early for our game at Blk 367 Yishun. But to our disappointment, the pitch was wet and muddy. We knew it was gonna be a tough game. This time, a bad new surfaced. Our Commando Tan was having a stomachache upon arrival. And the nearest coffeeshop is abt 600-700 m away. Soon after him, Tiger Yan and LustySeng both had the urge to shit too. The stomachache affected them mentally and physically.

Line-up for the match: TigerYan(GK), Kenny(CB), C-Cup(CB), NBA Star(LB), Kelvin(RB), Zouk Chua(CM), Com Tan(DM), Looney(LM), Mervin(RM), Ah Lam(FW), PapaSoh(FW).

The match began, there were no noticeable chances in the first few minutes. The opponents were obviously better at the wings, judging from the number of times they attack from the left flank. Low crosses were delievered into our centre but all were well cleared by our 2 centre backs. Our PapaSoh had a great chance in the 10th minute. A bad clearance saw him getting past their last man and had only the keeper to beat from 18 yards. But a weak shot allowed the keeper to collect it comfortably. Songbo had 2 spot kicks won outside the penalty box, and Looney was the taker. Without much efforts, he sent the ball high up to the air beyond the reach of the goalkeeper. The kind of quality will put even the best International Rugby player to shame. Great shot, but Looney forgot that he is playing soccer, the goalpost below is his target and not above.

Due to the wet pitch, our players esp the DM had difficulty controlling and passing the ball well. Their foot were often submerged into the mud and they had problem running, let alone dribbling the ball. Battle in the midfield started to show signs of overpowering, the opponents had a greater share of the posession and they were fast enought to release it to the flanks, bypassing our DMs. They were playing 2 strikers in front and it leads to Zouk Chua being deployed deeper to defend against them. As a result, theres a man lesser to battle for the ball and closing down on the opponents. Even Ah Lam dropped deep from his supporting striker role to help out. Fortunately, there were Commando Tan and Zouk Chua to cut out the opponents.

Songbo hardly had any possession and clearance was not far enough to reach PapaSoh. Even our left flankers had little chances to dribble down the flank and cross a good one in. Winning headers from goalkicks and drop kicks were totally outbeaten. In the 30th min, the opponent lay a through pass into the centre of the box, Kelvin was close to the player and he raises his foot to tackle the ball, with minimum contact, the opponent was drama enough to fall to the ground and won a penalty. It was obviously a soft penalty, and the decision came largely due to the ongoing protests of the opponents that they were being mistreated. The referee was more worried he cant collect money from the opponents rather than being firm and fair to the game.

80% of the matches that Tiger Yan was keeper for the whole game, there is a penalty for him. A ridiculous statistic that needs attention and soul searching to all. Tiger Yan was totally beaten as he chose the wrong direction and 1-0 to the opponents. A goal down, Songbo decide to push the defence line higher to catch offsides. The opponents were not stupid to fall for the trap, they lay the ball to their wingers rather than their strikers which poses a problem for the defence, but luckily there is Tiger Yan to sprint forward and sweep away the ball. Not long later, Tiger had a one to one encounter with the opponent just 6 yards outside. But a great Peter Schi dive blocked away the shot. The match ended not long later.

During the half time talk, Captain Sparrow pointed out some mistakes in the team and declared to play in the 2nd half. 2nd to note.......Zouk Chua. He was virtually punctured and claiming his legs were numb after the first half. Never had this happened before, bcos Zouk Chua always claim his 70% fitness is more than enough to win anybody. From reliable sources, Zouk Chua was rumoured to be 'STANDING' the whole night. It could explain the weakness of his legs on that day. Mervin was subbed for LustSeng and Kelvin changed to the right wing. Sparrow on for Zouk Chua.

The start of the 2nd half was better. Defence was tighter and flow was better. Header for the enjoyingballs was much improved due to the presence of Sparrow. Sparrow had a good spot kick on target but the speed was quite slow to beat the GK. Another noticeably phenomenon was from PapaSoh. He keep standing in offsides positions, be it attack or spot kicks. He claimed the move was to drag away the defenders but as Zouk Chua mentioned, " U keep using the same move, people know ur pattern already, they just bo hiu u and carry on their game. U must try out different stances to catch them unaware." By standing in an offside position, all he can do is pray the ball touched the defenders and appear near to him. But that situation never came true.
3rd to note.......LustySeng. It seems like he is better in his Fantasy Soccer than on the field. We can never see the smug look every week he top the fantasy league on the field. He is a person that is damn xia lan and confident. It will be good if he can behave that on the field.
Robinho came on for C-Cup. Robinho learning from previous experience, he did not dribble in his own area. Though the only downside is he has difficulty wacking the ball hard and high.
Songbo continue to play offside trap, but the opponents began to trap us back. Balls are being laid to the right winger, beating LustySeng time and time again and causing trouble for Songbo. The second goal came not long later. A miskick by Robinho saw the ball rolling towards the corner line, Tiger Yan sensing danger and does not want to concede a corner, run towards the ball and wack it away with his left foot. To his horror, the ball travelled comfortably to the legs of the opponent and he made no mistake putting into the net.

Tiger Yan could not take it and began his 'hair dryer' kao peh skill, ranting everyone on the field. Not long later, Commando Tan had a serious stomachache AGAIN! He had an emergency sub. Songbo are getting tired and they try to get a consolation goal back. Few minutes later, a cross from the left flank deliever to their striker, and though Robinho went forward and raises his leg to try block his angle. But the opponent fake him and smash the ball under Tiger Yan arm into the near post. 3-0 up to the opponents.

Songbo continued to make attack and not long later the referee blew for the final whistle. It has been a long time since Songbo lost a match. Pitch plays a part and fitness too. We are kinda rusty on the field and we are unable to field the best 11 on the field. So lets take this defeat as a good lesson to learn.
We must keep learning and reflect ourselves, if not even we play another 100 games, we learn nothing. Lets improve both physically and mentally.

Match stats: Tiger Yan(3pts), Ah Lam, Commando Tan, Zouk Chua(6pts), the rest (5pts)

Happy New Year! - 2006 in review

First up, a very Happy New Year to all SongBo members! Hope you all had a great time ushering in the New Year. I didn't though....lost my iPod Shuffle...damn it.

In this post, I thought I would just review our soccer stats in 2006 for all to see. You might find things that are interesting and some that are not encouraging.

Total Matches played: 21 (150106 - 171206)
Games Won: 12
Games Drawn: 7
Games Lost 2
Goals Scored: 54
Goals Conceded: 28
Clean Sheets: 7
Biggest Win: 6-0 (Match 29 & 34)
Biggest Lost: 1-4 (Match 31)
Form (Earliest to Latest) : WWDWD DWLWW DLDDW WWWWD W
Best Win Streak: 5 (Match 34 - 38)
Worst Lost Streak: 0

That's the stats I have for 2006. You might have noticed we have drawn quite a lot of matches; 7 out of 21. This might be a stat we want to improve on. To be fair, we only threw away our lead at HT to draw the game in 2 of the matches (out of 7). We have never lost a game when we were leading at HT in 2006. That's an encouraging statistic.


On a seperate note, I might be starting a project with Tiger Yan to produce a CD that contains the archive of all our photos that we have taken throughout the years. When the project kicks off, I would like all SongBo members to assist us by sending to us their photos, if any.

Ok that's all for now. Enjoy your holidays. 6 point lead for Man Utd and 2 goals for Ronaldo woo hoo~!

Pic of the Season....Must See!

A Wolf waiting to dine. Look at his face!

A meal well served.

SongBo FC

Match 40 by Capt Sparrow

Starting lineup: Tiger, Seng, Sybian, Chaos, Kenny, Quan, Sparrow, Jackie, Ah Lam, Tan WJ, Papasoh

The 2nd match of the new season…The team’s morale is high cos we started our season well..Once again, the opponents were courtesy of Mr Tay’s lobang and coincidentally happened to be Kenny’s frens whom we were supposed to play soon. Donning a Brazil lookalike jersey, the opponent looked dangerously good and technically gifted. However, Songbo was not to be daunted as they had managed to stifle a superior team just last week and were hungry to conjure a win in this match. The pitch was in a very bad condition, seemed like a mud bath and anything could happen in this conditions.

First half
The match started on a cautious note for both sides but it was evident that the Brazil opponents were technically better than South Korea Songbo. There was a secret weapon in the Brazil side in the form of a ‘Long thrower No. 18’. Time and time again, he managed to utilize his long throws to create a few problems for our defence but our resolute defence held firm.

As the opponent’s defence line was held high up, there were numerous times which our strikers namely Papasoh and Ah Lam got behind them. However, these chances often turned into some wayward crosses to nobody or harmless long shots.

The miss of the half came in the 30th min. From a cross, Papasoh did well to plant a header goalwards but the gk reacted with a stupendous save. With the ball stuck nicely in the mud in the 6 yard box, Captain Sparrow could only strike the ball over the bar. Later, he admitted that it was easy to score than to miss from that distance. It was a horrible miss and there are no excuses from missing from there. Instead of lifting the spirits of the guys as a Captain, he made them demoralized with that miss. He would have to bury his head in the mud to save himself from the embarrassment. Miss of the season??

Songbo missed another glit-edged chance later when ‘Fletchee-upgraded to Beckham’ made a good run down the right and with a vision like Zidane and execution like Beckham himself sent a beautiful cross to the unmarked Ah Lam at the far post. Facing the gk one to one and having even the time to shave his beard, Lam planted his shot wide of the right hand post. Omg! Songbo was beginning to have doubts if this is gonna be just another poor day.

Another highlight of the half was Tiger screaming at Brazil’s striker when the striker left a trailing leg after he has garnered the ball. ‘You better know what you are doing!’ was what Tiger screamed into his ears and it almost made him deaf and peed in his shorts. Well done Tiger by intimidating the opponents and showed that we are no pushovers.

Halftime Talk
Overall, Songbo performed well in the first half esp the defence. Altho the attack was guilty of missing some clear chances, they also did well in their off the ball running. The instructions were ‘stick in there with the performance and the goals will come’. The half saw some changes; Tiger moving outfield with the reliable Papa back in goal and Quan moving back to defence and Merv and Tongkat Huang introduced.

2nd half
Once again, the half started cautiously for both sides with Brazil dominating the bulk of possession due to their superior techniques. But Songbo was looking dangerous on the break with good running from the attackers.

A good move down the left saw Songbo winning a corner. From the clearance off the corner, the NBA star with his brand new Nike blue swinged in a perfect cross reminiscence of the real Ronaldo and Tiger, with superb anticipation connected with a diving header and sent the ball into the net! Well done! 1-0!

Songbo’s spirits were lifted and they were playing with some gusto now. Brazil seemed to be ignited by the goal and also lifted their tempo. After a string of passes by them, they managed to break clear of our defence and fortunately Papasoh was there to parry the ball but he received a knee onto his head similar to what Cech got to break his skull. However, the injury was not so serious and Papasoh was able to carry on with the game.

The game was swinging with both sides having possession and creating chances. Songbo knew that a second goal at this juncture would be able to kill off Brazil. With a good through ball, Ah Lam made a great run down the left and with a delicate touch, he rolled the ball perfectly to the on-rushing Jackie who put the ball into the net to double Songbo’s lead! 2-0!

The rest of the match saw Brazil trying the hearts out to break Songbo’s defence but it was well marshaled by Papasoh, Quan, Kenny, Seng, Tongkat Huang and Sybian. Tiger was also anchoring the midfield well with his tigerish tackles. In attack, Lam and Jack kept the opponents busy with their intelligent passing and off the ball running. Well done, it was truly a team effort. These kind of matches really make me, as the captain, very proud of the determination and teamwork shown by all the guys. Even tho we may be demoralized in the 1st half, we kept creating chances, have self belief and in the end, the result reflected our team spirit. Excellent job! Merry xmas and lose your virginity this festive season!

Man of the match: Tiger Yan

Ratings:
Papasoh 7.5
Seng 7
Sybian 8
Tongkat Huang 7.5
Chaos 7.5
Kenny 8
Quan 8
Tiger 8.5
Sparrow 7
Merv 7
Tan 8
Lam 7.5
Jack 7
Hong 7

As I said, my ratings for you guys are determined by the expectations and levels of individual players. I would like to specially mention Kelvin and Hong for showing the team spirit which truly bind us together. Hong, just had his Lasik, came down and aided the team even after being ‘shoot’ by me. Kel, tho he was late in the 1st place, showed exemplary attitude at the end of the match even tho he was not involved in the game. These are the kind of attitudes and characters that will bring the team far. Long live Songbo!

Where the f@#$ is the Match Report?

No, this is not another Tiger Yan post. It's by me... just a gentle reminder to that *someone* who is supposed to post the report.

Anyways, for those who need a refresher, below are the details for this Saturday:

CHRISTMAS / ALVIN'S BDAY BBQ

Venue: Alvin's 5 Star Chalet
Time: 1830 Till Late
Price: $10 for the food
Other: $10 gift for the Mystery Gift Exchange
Bring a female partner with you if possible
$5 gift exchange for the ladies

Match 39 - Draw (By LustySeng)

Match 39 – Draw By Lusty

Starting Line up : Tiger Yan(GK), Seng(RB), SaBian(LB), Chaos(CB), Kenny(CB), Quan(DM), CaptainSparrow(CM), Ah Lam(AM), Mervin(LM), Fallen Comrades(RM), Kelvin(CF)

This is our 1^stmatch after our 1 month season break. First of all, our opponents are always late. Seriously this problem must highlight to Mr. Tay although we dun need to pay any money for the referee as this might compromise our chance of using the field if there are other teams around just like our last match of the season. Though the unexpected Robinho arrived at the grand stand, he is obviously more interested in looking at girls and making sure his eyesball din drop or blur vision rather than supporting his comrades.

First Half

Kick off. The opponents started off brilliantly controlling the possession with spraying some short passes and long balls overrunning our midfield. We are constantly under pressure however our strong defense was able to contain their attack. And our first chance of the match finally came to much prevail.. A long ball from midfield into the opponents’ penalty area and the GK somehow or rather give away the ball, maybe he is thinking where to go party with his gf after the match. Kelvin picked up the loose ball and passed to Captain Sparrow and laid to the advancing Ah Lam. He made no mistake placing the ball to the bottom right hand corner with GK standing rooted to the ground. What a goal!! 1-0!!!

After this goal, we are more confident in taking our opponent heads on. The opponents are a lot technically stronger than us; they have taken control of the whole midfield leaving us to defense desperately. However, their long ball tactic seemed to be ineffective against us. They hardly threaten our defense and our Tiger yan by that time may have already shaven finished his moustache. The opponents are too confident with themselves and dribbled the ball too long even frustrating their own teammates. Due to this weakness, here come to our 2^nd chance of the day, our midfielders able to tackle back control of the ball, counter attack by lobbing the ball to the right freeing Kelvin and he sprinted along the byline and crossed the ball in. The GK was fully beaten and the incoming defender touched the ball letting it into the goal. 2-0!!! Nice cross by Kelvin and great pressuring on the defender by Mervin. Total 2 shot 2 goals!!

Second Half

After the break, the opponents changed their tactics to short passes and attack our flanks, which captain sparrow has highlighted during the break. They probably think that attacking through center is difficult especially our in love Quan keep cutting off their supplies of long ball from their midfielders to their strikers. At the beginning of 2^nd half, we did well to contain them. There were even several opportunities for us to increase our score line. Alvin had fed quan from the right hand side outside the penalty box, then Quan unleashed a thunderous shot aiming the bottom left hand corner. However it was inches wide, too pity not to be back of the net. Kelvin also had the chance to make it 3-0, he was again received a long ball at the right beating opponents’ off side trap, he cut into the penalty area. He had option to cross to Mervin waiting at the far post, but he decided to give it a shot and the shot was awfully wide. What a waste!!! He should have done it better than that.

After missing a few open chances, it was to be proven to be costly. Same thing, we are again constantly under attack. However, again Quan was able to obstruct their flow of attack a number of times. Maybe that is the power of love behind him. Huang being substituted for Mervin abt ten minutes into 2^nd half.

Our nightmare finally came. There is a well taken corner kick to our center of penalty box and the opponent bulleted the ball without being marked. At this time the always prone to concentration lapse Seng is unable to clear the ball away, and the ball went through beside his hip. 2-1…

The opponents made it 2-2, again it was Seng’s fault as he was unable to trap the incoming deflected cross from the left probably, letting the ball row to the opponent’s leg and he wasted no time shoot the ball aiming the near pole. Tiger yan was able to block the shot however the ball went through his hand and row in. Even his grandmother can save that shot. Poor defending from Seng and poor goalkeeping from tiger yan.

To add to our misery, we have conceded a penalty by Quan, a late tackling from the back. And the striker made no mistake finished it off aiming the bottom left from the spot. It was Tiger_Yan 3rd penalty in his career. We also have occasions of miscommunications between the centre backs and Tiger yan, resulted in collision between them. Which nearly cost us another goal, luckily chaos was able to do a goalmouth clearance. And then Tiger yan begun his saliva –mouthing scolding on Kenny, as he is still on the floor moaning in agony. So pity on him.

Although, we lost our lead and being overtaken, this had not dampened our SongBo spirit. We keep on battling. Finally our hard fought chance came.. It all started from a throw-in by Seng from our own side of field to Kelvin then he passed to Sparrow, then Sparrow flicked it to Tan setting him through on the right. Then Tan squared it to Ah lam and he wasted no time cross the ball in and Sabian was at the far post to pick up Ah lam’s cross and tap the ball into the empty net. 3-3!!! Soon the match ended.

Considering the fact that this is our first match after the season break, this result would consider acceptable. Hopefully more matches will be coming on so that we can improve our game play and match fitness as well.

Man of the match: Quan

Rating: Tiger Yan(GK) 6

Seng(RB) 5.5

SaBian(LB) 7

H.Weijie(LB) 6

Chaos(CB) 6

Kenny(CB), 6

Quan(DM) 8

CaptainSparrow(CM) 6.5

Ah Lam(AM) 7.5

Mervin(LM) 6

Fallen Comrades(RM) 6.5

Kelvin(CF) 6.5

Goals: Ah Lam, Own goal, Sabian

Assist: Captain Sparrow, Kelvin and Ah Lam respectively

10 Dec - Season start

Hey fellow Songbo brothers,

its time we gear up and prepare ourselves for the coming 10 Dec match. Fitness dropping is a major problem, after weeks of studying. Lets gain back some fitness before we play our opening match. We are gonna extend our 5th consecutive win and set a record. Woohooo!!!!

Chaos is coordinating with a Hall Team for a match. Lets hope it turn out to be true. We are really itchy on the legs liao. Nothing less than a win.