Match 109 - Win

Songbo FC 8:3 Opponents

Date: 14th Jun 2009
Venue: Commonwealth Sec Sch
Jersey: Red

Starting Line-Up:
Yanshou(GK), H.Weijie(LB), Kenny(CB), Suichao(CB), Kaiseng(RB), Hweequan(DM), Jackie(LM), Alvin Cai (CM), Sybian(AM), Mervin(RM), Junbing(ST)

Subtitutes:
Rujia, Kelvin


HT: 4-2
FT: 8-3


Match Kickoff...In the first few minutes a mistake by Songbo resulted in a turnover of possession, opposition right midfielder took the ball to the right before sending a low pass that evaded Chao's clearance attempt. Opposition striker took the ball and calmly place it into the net. Score (0-1)

Right after the kick off, Songbo launched an attack on the opponents and bing saw an effort parried away by the opponent gk.

Thus after that missed effort, the opponent launched a long ball and bypass our defence and Yan tried to smoother the ball but saw the ball bounced before him and the opponent only have an open goal to aim at. Score (0-2)

Within 20minutes, Songbo had a huge mountain to climb as the score reads 0-2 against their favour. But what we are going see is a huge change in fortune which will stun the whole of the footballing world with a massive comeback. Even Benitez will be proud of this.

Songbo launched attack after attack and saw the score reduced to 2-1 then to 2-2 all thanks to 2 superb looping headers from bin. Both of the goals were assisted by Sybian.

Before we could applause the outstanding efforts by bin and sybian, Songbo went in front for the first time in the match with the hattrick goal from bin this time huang weijie the provider. the score reads 3-2.

But SongBo did not rest on their laurels, they went in search of more goals to make up for the mistakes made earlier on and they did not dissapoint as bin added another to his tally to 4 goals with mervin providing the assist.

Ref blows for halftime, but we could see the faces of the opponents, from the excited faces to faces of person who missed just a colour in caribien poker...

2nd half start...soon kelvin made the score 5-2 with a superb header off the cross bar after a cool pass from sybian from the right...it is all SongBo from then on as the latest goal totally demoralised the whole opposition team...soon after Sybian and Rujia added the 6th and 7th goal for songbo both goals assisted by mervin...

IT IS DONE AND DUSTED...but who knows the opponent curled in a corner something like what jackie has done on many occassions... score reads 7-3...

Although the opponent scored the consolation goal...Yan came up with the goods again this time making it DONE AND TOTALLY DUSTED for the opponents with jackie crossing superbly and unselfishly to Yan to finish off the opponents...well done jackie and yan...*snigger*

WAT a good match it was...an entertaining and elaborated match...with tons of goals to saliavate on...


Match Report by: Jackie

Match 108 - Win

Songbo FC 1:0 Opponents

Date: 07th Jun 2009
Venue: Hua Yi Sec Sch
Jersey: Red

Starting Line-Up:
Junbing(GK), H.Weijie(LB), Kenny(CB), Suichao(CB), Kaiseng(RB), Hweequan(DM), Jackie(LM), Alvin Cai (CM), Yanshou(AM), Sybian(RM), Jeremy(ST)

Subtitutes:
Kelvin, Mervin, Rujia


HT: 1-0
FT: 1-0

Songbo started their 108 match in red with the whole team smelling blood as they are wearing red??hmmmm...

okay back to the match report...jackie reporting from FOTBOL CRAZY.com...

MAtch kicks off with both team stuggling to maintain possession as both team are equally strength as it is a match made in heaven as both set of players are equally skilled and equally psyched up for this game...

Soon after Songbo made the first breakthru as jeremy scored the goal that separetes the Spatans from the man...score reads 1-0 to SongBo FC...IT was such a sweet move that will make all the girls and boys crying out in pain...what i meant is that they are having toothaches...

time ticks on and the opponents just could not get pass the stout defending of Songbo...This reminds me of the movie 300 with Spatans defending their fortress against the mightly Persians...

After round and rounds of attacks from death ninjas to mighty persians army...the spartans fought it off with their grit and armour...

finally the match whistle went off...full time reads SongBo FC 1 Persians 0...

What a galant finish...i mean win...thanks to the magnificient teamwork by SongBo, we managed to keep the clean sheet... *applause*...


Signing off Jackie(Looney08)

Match 107 - Win

Songbo FC 4:2 Opponents

Date: 31th May 2009
Venue: Pioneer Sec Sch
Jersey: Black

Starting Line-Up:
Yanshou(GK), H.Weijie(LB), Kenny(CB), Suichao(CB), Kaiseng(RB), Hweequan(DM), Jackie(LM), Alvin Cai (CM), Junbing(AM), Sybian(RM), Jeremy(ST)

Subtitutes:
Kelvin, Mervin, Rujia, Jiaxiang


HT: 3-1
FT: 4-2

Match Report:


Pioneer secondary school, my first match wif songbo fc on this ground… it’s a good win for us.
4-2 was the final score. Jacky, sybian, yanshou and myself score for songbo-fc.


Jeremy

FICO League

Just received this in my e-mail........

Latest fund standings

Previous standings is 75

$75 - $ 5 (Fico 1) - $ 8 ( Fico 2) - $15 ( Fico 3) - $8 (Fico 4) + $10 (Blog Fine) - $8 ( Match )

= $ 41

We still waiting for jackie to pay us $ 10 as fine.. at the rate the fines are going out think we should have enough for a mid yr function..

Match 106 - Win

Songbo FC 2:1 Opponents

Date: 24th May 2009
Venue: Fuhua Sec Sch
Jersey: Black

Starting Line-Up:
Junbing (GK), H.Weijie(LB), Kenny (CB), Suichao(CB), Kaiseng (RB), Hweequan(DM), Jiaxiang (LM), Alvin Cai (CM), Yanshou (AM), Sybian (RM), Jeremy (ST)

Subtitutes:
Kelvin, Mervin


HT: 0-0
FT: 2-1

Match Report:

Fuhua Sec Sch is not a ground that brings back good memories for Songbo FC; their record there is mediocre, they lost several balls due to over-zealous players practising their shots but most significant of all, they lost their hard-man Yanshou to career-threatening injury that ruled him out for several months. In fact, coming into the match, they have lost a few good men due to injuries as well. Binghong was still nursing his leg injury after his surgery and Tan Weijie also carried a knock that ruled him out of the game. The worst was that the team received saddening news that their Captain had been hospitalised due to Hepatitis a fortnight ago. However, Rujia has been discharged after observation and arrives on match day to provide valuable moral support to the team.

The rising temperatures can be easily felt by the players who were sweating profusely simply by jogging around the field. Matter were made worse by the poor timekeeping of the opponents; by the proposed match time, only 8 of their players had turned up. Nevertheless, after some delays, they had their full squad ready and the match went on.

The starting line-up of Songbo FC yielded a surprise; Alvin, the vice captain standing in for Rujia, made his decision to field Yanshou, who havent started in an outfield position for months, as the support striker behind Jeremy. The backline was the familiar 4 for Songbo FC, with both Suichao and Kenny shaking of their injuries. Midfield was to be marshalled by Alvin in the middle, Hweequan covering the defense, Jiaxiang to be dispatched to the left and Sybian to the right.

It was a nervy start for Songbo FC, who haven't played in about a month, and unforced errors were being made periodically. However, the opponents couldn't really find a way through their defense. Their only real chance came when their striker managed a shot towards Junbing. Even though the ball was going wide, Junbing took no chances and pushed it out for a corner. The first half was pretty much the standard game of attrition. There was bright spark though; Yanshou, who played his last outfield game so long ago, didn't look uncomfortable at all on his return. His touches, though rusty, still had purpose and one slick pass almost paved the way for Jeremy to open his account for the day. The half ended 0-0.

The second half picked up from where the first half ended, with Songbo FC looking more likely to break the duck. One chance saw Yanshou through and he could only muster a shot right at the keeper even though he was 1-on-1. A similar chance for Jeremy saw the same outcome. Songbo FC was trying and they got the breakthrough they needed. A slick move saw the goal kick to Sybian being flicked neatly to Yanshou. Wasting no time, he slid the ball to Jeremy to send him through and this time, he made no mistake to add to his bulging tally of goals. 1-0 Songbo FC.

Songbo FC had a few more chances to widen the gap, with Kelvin wasting another 1-on-1 situation. Sometimes, they have the luck to ride a 1-0 scoreline till the final whistle but on this particular field, this luck seems to always elude them. Near the 3rd quarter of the game, while Hweequan was trying to clear the ball, he was uphended by an opponent. Despite the obvious foul and with almost the whole defense expecting a whistle to be blown, play went on and the ball found its way into the penalty area. Concentration lapsing, the defense failed to cover the angles of an inevitable shot and was punished by a well-placed shot into the bottom corner of the net. 1 apiece and Songbo FC was furious.

With time ticking away, it seemed that Songbo FC's rotten luck on this ground was to continue. Things work in strange ways though; some good defending saw Kenny in possession of the ball. A long ball played Kelvin through on the left. Using his speed, he was able to shake off his opponent to deliver a pin-point pass into the area for Jeremy to finish it off to send Songbo FC into delirium. 2-1 the final score!

Report By: Mervin

Some photos to share

Alvin's Birthday at Bin's House

Look at those undeveloped bodies


Guess whose body is this?

Answer coming up.......

Xiao Hong!!!

Charting The Way Ahead

With the recent inactivity on the field, I think I can take this time to post some plans that I have conceived for our team. Please note that all plans are still in an infant stage and is welcome to changes.


15th Anniversary PhotoBook

This has been first brought up while we were on our Perak Trip. We have decided to start work on it once we hit late June, starting with data collection first (mostly photos that you guys have from our younger years). Please contribute generously to this as we just need to loan your precious photos for about a month as we scan and collate them. We are then expected to start on the design and layout as well as captioning of the photobook once we hit early August. Projected completion date for now is early October. Members in this project: Yanshou (Design and Layout), Kenny (Data Management) and Mervin (Editorial and Captioning).


15th Anniversary Dinner

I remember I first suggested this while I was still in Taiwan to Rujia. Yes guys, it has been 15 years (for most of us) from 1995 - 2009. Therefore I was thinking of holding a dinner event to commemorate this milestone for us. This is still pretty much a suggestion and for now I am proposing that we hold a catered buffett in a condo's clubhouse that we can book. Wives, kids, girlfriends and potential girlfriends are all welcome. This will probably be held in mid October so as not to clash with Tan's wedding dinner. The photobook is to be ready by then for distribution at the dinner. I was thinking if we could have our AGM during then but I guess we should just leave it for our Christmas Party at the end of the year. Suggestions and comments for this are very welcomed.


More Plans for the Blog

We have been looking at this blog for the past few years and there's always been minor tweaks here and there. As I will be ORDing soon (finally my turn) I will have some time on my hands to make some improvements for our blog. Suggestions for improvements will be appreciated. Current plan is to have an individual profile page for each of us where we can view our statistics for current and past seasons. More to come on this.

FICO sessions during mid-week and on non match weeks.

Team, in the past two weeks, we have had 2 sessions of late night Fico sessions. I think the sessions were enjoyable and one thing for sure, it helps us to sweat it out.

These 2 sessions have shown that we can have a kick-about and improve ourselves. For me, I have realised that I am so much more clumsy and have lost a lot of my ability to control the ball properly. In addition, touches became trapping for opponents and ability to react under intense pressure have waned.

This shows how much technical ability I have lost over the past seasons. I mean i am not that good technically in the first place....but the point is I know I used to be better than now - a lot more. It may be due to increasing weight causing sluggish-ness but i suspect that the main culprit is the lack of exposure to a fast-paced game of soccer.

We used to ply our trade at the BB court where we play fast pace, one touch and high intensity football. Granted, they are different from field football but I see that certain positives can be obtained if we were to stick to a regular Fico session. For one, it increases our ability of decision making under constant pressure. Fitness will be improved due to the "interval-training" type of running we do in Fico. Technical ability which is very much the emphasis in Fico, will definitely be improved over time and this might be the pivotal factor when we play our weekend encounters.

As of now, I feel a 1 hour session is about just nice for fun and sweat. Once we get in gear, i think we would be craving to play a 2-hr session.


The point of this post is to gather feedback and of course seek opinion for a regular session.

Pls comment as per below...(Everyone to comment pls, we do everything as a team!!!)

1.) Feedback of previous 2 sessions. Any lessons learnt?

2.) Would you like a regular session? If yes, day/time pls.

3.) Any other comments?

Competitive Soccer - Part 2 (summary of comments)

Some of us have given their thoughts and views to the suggestions while some have either refused to comment or are just plain lazy....:)

I think thru the comments, many valid points were brought up and they are the result of the efforts of those who bothered to comment and contribute...Give yourself a pat on the back for that!!

Concerns

1.) Commitment - My view is that it does not take more commitment out of us than now. Maybe it will require a mid-week fico or something but we can do without it if majority feels its not necessary or its hard to get a common date for that.

2.) Team depth - Well, this is indeed the most glaring problem. But i am sure we can work something out if we want to. Ideally, we only accept players who are on the same wavelength as us and can accept suanning and tauntings.hahahahaha!! but seriously, we can look into many possibilities and avenues.

3.) Team ability - Like Captain has said many times, we are a team that are weaker in technical abilities but we overcome that by our teamwork and understanding. Our years of friendship and gatherings have imbued in us the spirit of not doing it for ourselves but for the team. We have many examples where we have won thru sheer hard work and team tactical discipline. this should be carried on. In addition, I think Kenny mentioned that we have played with his team(who is in the league) and we won...so I dun think we will be facing player like sundramoothy or the likes la...haha!!

4.) Team Spirit - Ah seng and kelvin have noted that currently we enjoy our post match bickerings and suannings at the coffeeshops. He is concerned that if we were to be in the league, this spirit might be affected if we take thing too seriously and affect our status quo. As such kelvin who was a former supporter of joining the league now prefers to enjoy his week end games than fight for more glory in support of current team spirit.

My Stance (not representative of anyone)

1.) We are getting old - now is the age when our bones starts to deterioriate - according to medical journals - and if we do not attempt to play in the league as a team soon, we may see the exit of some players due to retirement from injury! This is no joke...because we are at the age of thinking and doing things for our future and family and children. your mentality is totally different....so I doubt we will want to join when we are older, have more family commitments and are more health conscious.

2.) Better team spirits - Seriously, I think thru the league, we can enhance team spirit! There needs to be more communication and meet ups and I can only see team spirit getting stronger unless of course we have more inter-gals problem(pun intended)!!!! haha.. I envisaged that we will try and tell one another and encourage one another to improve our games - be it thru kopi or thru training or tactical session.

3.) Not much difference from now - Actually if you are to think deeper, we are indirectly in a league of our own right now - the referees league. You can see that most of the time the opponents are from the referees and some teams we do play a couple of time b4 and some many times. I doubt we will get many other NEW OPPONENTS unless we venture out from the referees league or the referees find new "customers"...LOL.

4.) More professional - The proposed league to join handles things in a very professional manner and this can only increase our team's own attitudes and professionalism.
Fixtures will be out in pre-season...so we can all know when we are playing who and we can know in advance which date we should make ourelves free, barring emergencies, and inform team captain if necessary about unfree dates.
Relegation/promotion system - For example we decide to enrol in the Sunday leagues and there are a lot of teams. We will be allocated a division where our ability is about the same as the opponents. SO there might be a total of 11 divisions in the Sunday league and the fun thing is the top 2 and bottom 2 are promoted/ relegated amongst these divisions! So the challenge is that if we do well and finish top two, the reward is tougher opponents!! How can we not improve then???
Points deduction for teams that are late!! - There is a penalty for teams that are late and this is met with a 2 points deduction from the table points. Thsi will make sure most opponenst are on time.
Referees are all certified and of good standards! - you dun get the normal nonsense "tan jiak ka" who just come to the games for a stroll and expect to be paid for nonsense work done. there is also a feedback system for referees so if he doesn't do well, he will be "pok".
Sports drinks provided - I think I read somewhere that all matches in the leagues will have drinks sponsered at teh match venue.
Suspension system - Red card equals one match suspension. No limits on yellow though.


Wa very long post.....will update again... the fuc*ing rule book very long...haven finish reading...wil update the rules and regulation again....

Match 106

Match 106 (supposed) – Lessons Learnt

Ill-discipline and disappointment.

These two words summed up the both camps after this week’s supposed match.

A bunch of ill-disciplined and immature kids were the opponents lined up for our match this week. Young, fast and skilful, this team will go a long way if they are able to get their act right. Unfortunately, they showed their worst side to us and they may require more than a whacking or two before they can learn their lesson. Almost 1 hour late and only a total of 9 players turned up for their team. Total disaster and a total waste of time for us.

On our side, disappointed is an understatement for Songbo. Reeling from a competitive and mauling, though marred by some violence, match last weekend, Songbo has hoped for another competitive match this week to erase the painful memories. However, God was not so kind to us this time around as the opponent did not give a glimmer of hope for Songbo to redeem themselves. In fact, this match brought about more disappointment and demoralized the team more than it should.

With only 9 players available for the opponents, Sparrow decided once again to field 9 players to start the match much to the dismay and disapproval of most of the team. The availability of almost the full squad enabled Songbo to engage in rolling substitutions and ensure all of the guys have a leisure Sunday kickaround.

The morning got worse when the match started and the Young Punks scored with a long range shot in their first meaningful attack. Tiger Yan, goalkeeper for the day, was to blame for the goal as he did not put in any effort to tip the ball over the bar. Songbo woke up from their slumber and came back strongly after the first goal. They finished the half 2-3 goals up, however, the first half was marked by the consistent efforts by the Young Punks to shoot from all angles and distances, seemingly identifying Tiger Yan as the weakest link. The second half was a forgettable and uneventful affair as Songbo continued its dominance and ended the match with at least a 5-goal win.

Although this match was almost a pointless one, it was important to point out a few important lessons learnt and positive events:

1. The mental strength and maturity of Tiger Yan – He was lambasted and criticized straight in the face during the half-time team talk for his no-effort in saving the first goal and being seemingly mocked by the Young Punks who identified him as the weakest link and bombarded shots from all angles and distances. However, being the Tiger we all know he is, Yan came back strongly from the criticism and finger-pointing during half-time and played his heart out in the second half. In the end, he made a couple of important one-on-one saves and kept a clean sheet for the remaining of the match. I think the important lesson to be garnered from here is that respect can be won or lost during the short span of a match and it is really up to the individual to decide if he wants to earn the respect or allow himself to be engulfed by external factors such as the unprofessional opponents in this case.

2. The self-respect displayed by the team – Although it took Songbo a while to adjust to the unprofessional match and immature opponents, the team ended the match in a professional and self-respecting manner. There was almost no instance where the team showed a lack of professionalism and respect for both themselves and the opponents given the situation. I guess we can lift our heads high and give ourselves a pat on the shoulder for the maturity shown. The giggles and lack of seriousness displayed by the Young Punks throughout the course of the match only points to a lack of self-respect and total immaturity. This truly disgusted and irked Songbo who was actually looking forward to a competitive match.

3. Commitment – Players such as Hweequan and Ah Lam actually played their hearts out and were rewarded with early showers. In matches such as this one, it was easy to lose focus and not give out our best. However, some of the players did show total commitment and went about their normal routine even though the conditions were unfavourable. Experience and sense of responsibility do play a part in this circumstances and I hope we can all learn from this.

From this match, we can at least see and feel first-hand about how and what kind of attitude and actions we DEFINITELY do not want to be associated with.

Respect has to be earned and it is imperative to have self-respect first. Respect, coupled with a sense of responsibility, differentiates the boys and the men, the failures and the successes.

Capt Sparrow

Compettitive Soccer for season 2010!

Recently, the senior members of the team have informally discuss how best we can motivate our team members for our weekly matches. It has been noticed that our performances of late are not up to standard..

One of the more possible reason discussed was that maybe our weekend soccer sessions no longer provided the kind of thrill that we got from it - when we first ventured from court soccer to the field. It has become something like a mundane chore that we wake up to on every Sunday morning. Without the passion and the competitive spirit that has kept us going in our early years, it has directly affected our performances recently - maybe also due to our falling testosterone????

After some casual analysis, the idea to stop this rot would be to give everyone a focus, an aim for the season - joining a competitive league!

We have in fact, a few seasons back, toyed with this idea but it was put off due to financial constraints and the transition from studies to work.

Now is the time!!!!

Pros

- We have something to aim for.
- It can still be played on Sunday mornings.
- There is not much additional costs to us. About the same as what we pay now.
- We can have more unity and cooperation in the team when we unite to fight for somthing.
- Players like jacky(pun intended) will find motivation to play to his best every week.
- We will get a taste of competitive football at last once in our lifetime before our bones and tissues cracks easily.(In fact, some of our bodies are already decaying!!!!)

Cons

- Because its competitive, we cannot afford to have just enough 11 players on matchday - like some of our matches - so there will be a slight influx of players to the squad to counter this problem.
- Players like papasoh cannot always kaobei kaobu anymore say want to come play outfield because we need the best of our players to be in every position.
- We might need team members to have an additional session of FICO or something for training purposes. Fico, because its trains your everything - stamina, agility, technique, passing etc. Its like a all in one training for us.

Proposed League to Join: http://www.espzen.com/home.asp


Team Members pls consider and comment thanks!!

Rumours (Soccerneh.com)

With the implementation of the "Fine" systems, the team has effectively put in place a system that deals with procrastination and late match reports.

From a reliable source that chose to remain unidentified, it has been confirmed that this week's match has been postponed because the alleged author for the latest match report has yet to put up his report....:)

By identifying a loophole in the system, cancelling a match enables him to have another week in hand before the match reports needs to be produced..

Well, as it is, the above snippet is just a rumour..... :)

THE FINE TAKE IMMEDIATE EFFECT!
dated: 23th April 2009 8.30pm

fine for all late bloggers

we gonna start a FINE system for people who are supposed to post their blog in a week's time but eventually did not. here are the RULES:

1. For bloggers who are unable to post the match report before the next match will be FINED 10 DOLLARS for the match even if you're a starter, a substitute or an unused sub. Eg. if you're a starter, your fine is only 2 dollars. A sub, means 6 dollars. An unused sub, will be 10 dollars.
2. If the following week you still cant come up with the report, everything will be doubled. Eg. second week will be 20dollars, third week 40dollars... And there WOULDNT be a maximum cap on the fine.

The current funds for our club is 75dollars. i need generous donors... so everyone... please take your time to post your blog! Thanks!

"chaoz please indicate who is supposed to write the report everyweek so that i can keep track."

Match 105 - Lost

Songbo FC 0:3 Opponents

Date: 12th April 2009
Venue: Fuhua Sec Sch
Jersey: Black

Starting Line-Up:
Junbing (GK), H.Weijie(LB), Kenny (CB), Hweequan (CB), Kaiseng (RB), T.Weijie (DM), Jackie (LM), Alvin Cai (CM), Rujia (AM), Mervin (RM), Jeremy (ST)

Subtitutes:
Yanshou, Kelvin, Jiaxiang


HT: 0-1
FT: 0-3

Match Report
The venue is a cursed place for Songbo. Set aside losing 2 soccer balls to the construction site, our records at Fuhua Sec is damn SHITTY! Losing twice to the same team twice is not acceptable. How the hell can we allow ourselves to lose so badly?
This match has confirmed to our fans that Songbo simply cannot perform during rainy days or wet pitch. Except Jacky, virtually none seems to be able to wack the ball above opponents heads. (I am not saying Jacky is good fyi....his story has yet to come)

The defence knew how the 3 goals are scored, through passes and mis-communication, lead to the downfall of Songbo. Wayang Quan has to really buck up his sharpness, lack of playing time at centre back is not an excuse. Midfield wise....aren't we supposed to have 5 midfielders to "PACK" the midfield and a lone striker to attack, machiam the LIVERFOOL style? It just look so Newcastle that day. I leave it to Captain Sparrow to fix this technical issue.

Losing is part and parcel of life, losing with grace is something that has to be cultivated and it is not easy, thats what separates Respect and Dispute from opponents. PapaSoh...u knn action more than badminton. Kenna scolded "Pig" by that Ah Neh u feel shiok ah? We worry for ur saftey more than that Ah Neh leh honestly. Worst is we quarrelled with people, but penalty MISS!

I dunno wat the shit Jackie is doing. It just makes the opponents laugh at us even more. I believe all of us are disgraced that the penalty missed. We had lost the very little face that we had left on the pitch to that miss. Thanks leh Jackie!

End of the day, i think we have more work to do on individual techical shortcomings first then followed by teamwork cooperation. Let this be a learning point for everyone.

By TigerYan

Match 104 - Win

Songbo FC 1:0 Opponents

Date: 05th April 2009
Venue: Kranji Sec Sch
Jersey: Black

Starting Line-Up:
Hweequan (GK), Jiaxiang (LB), Kenny (CB), Suichao (CB), Kaiseng (RB), Alvin Cai (DM), Jackie(LM), Rujia (CM), Junbing (AM), Mervin (RM), Jeremy (ST)

Subtitutes:
Yanshou


HT: 0-0
FT: 1-0

Scoring Summary:
Jeremy [Alvin Cai]

It’s been awhile since we last played at Kranji SS. Statistics have shown that for matches played here, the probability of Wins, Losses and Draws are around the same. Thus, we can’t really rely much on the mathematics figure to give us a physiological boost from our recent poor form. To add fuel to fire, the opponent is a team that we have played countless times, Winning most of the matches, drawing a few and losing one. In cases such as this, winning wouldn’t up the team moral, but losing to them will make the team feel even worse. Another significant “item” to mention from previous statistic is that, this is an injury prone venue with Alvin Toh going down with a ligament torn and some other players injured and out for weeks.

Before the match commenced, our captain laid down a target for us to achieve. Win the game by 3 goals and without conceding any. To us, it seems a reasonable proposal since we had hit them with 4 goals before. The only concern is with the defense. With the iconic “John Terri” in dreamland and “Vidic Ken” not in sync recently, it seems that the main concern is whether the goals we scored can be more than the ones we conceded.

Frankly speaking this match doesn’t have any events that are worth mentioning. 1st half started slowly and boring with not much chances being created for both sides. However, due to a lack of concentration by the “full-back superstar”, the “import player” from the opponent team almost got the chance to make a breakthrough. Sensing the danger, “John Terri” made a superb sliding tackle to deny his one and only chance of the whole game. Unfortunately, though the danger is cleared, our “superstar” paid a hefty price for it. The tackle was executed badly and he twisted his right ankle. Medical reports have shown that the team will be missing his “outstanding” defense abilities for at least 4 weeks. With this, it concludes the 1st part of the match.

After some hairdryer treatment by Captain Sparrow, 2nd half started more brightly, with our wonder kid, Jeremy, scoring the first goal within 10 mins from start. The score line would have read 3-0 if Alvin and Jeremy have both scored in their one-on-one situation. With no goals coming from the front, and the defense doing a fantastic job to hold off the attack, the game ended at 1-0. Ironically, this time round, we are able to keep a clean sheet, but failed to meet the goal scoring part. Nonetheless, a clean sheet is still something of significant. Kudos to the makeshift defense.

Cheers,
Bullocks13

Match 103 - Draw

Songbo FC 1:1 Opponents

Date: 29th March 2009
Venue: Boon Lay Sec Sch
Jersey: Black

Starting Line-Up:
Junbing (GK), Huang Weijie (LB), Kenny (CB), Suichao (CB), Kelvin (RB), Hweequan (DM), Jackie(LM), Alvin Cai (CM), Rujia (AM), Mervin (RM), Jeremy (ST)

Subtitutes:
N.I.L


HT: 0-0
FT: 1-1

Scoring Summary:
Rujia [Jackie]

Match 102 - Lost

Songbo FC 1:3 Opponents

SONGBO FC FACED TEST OF CONFIDENCE

Date: 22nd March 2009
Venue: Fuhua Sec Sch
Jersey: Black

Starting Line-Up:
Junbing (GK), Huang Weijie (LB), Kenny (CB), Suichao (CB), Kaiseng (RB), Kelvin (DM), Sybian (LM), Rujia (CM), Jackie (AM), Mervin (RM), Jiaxiang (ST)

Subtitutes:
N.I.L


HT: 1-1
FT: 1-3

Scoring Summary:
Jackie [Kelvin]

The game, which was supposed to be played in the late morning, got delayed to noon before kickoff. This was due to the lack of punctuality from the referee, a man who is supposed to more professional than anyone else on the pitch. But what can we expect from the bald-headed man-in-black, a dirty player who was once our opponent? Songbo FC also had to play the game with only 11 men without any substitutes due to key players not being able to make the trip.

The game started off to a high tempo, with attacks coming fierce and fast at both ends. No one could get the better of the other until the deadlock was finally broken at Songbo’s end. A neat passing move between the Red's striker and winger split open Songbo's defence ruthlessly and paved the way for the winger to close down onto the goal area. A clean strike of the ball to the near post had the GK beaten. 1-0 to the Reds.

Songbo picked themselves up from the opening goal and chased for an equalizer. It could be due to the thoughts that were going on in the players' heads that even though key players were missing, we were still more or less matching them all over the park.

This brought belief to the players which was most epitomised in Looney's strike which brought about an equalizer for Songbo. A corner was earned by Songbo and once again Looney went up to take it. The ball was cleared out by the Reds and it fell one to one of their players. The player made a mistake trying to dribble the ball of out the danger area and got slapped in the face when Kelvin nicked the ball away from his feet. A horizontal pass to Looney, who was now at the 30 yard line, was made by Kelvin and a thunderous looping strike by Looney caught the keeper offline and nestled nicely at the back of the net. Songbo was back in business!

The halftime team talk by Captain Sparrow emphasized on the importance of keeping up our energy and spirit. The team was doing well containing the threats and also with creating them at the other end.

Songbo went into the second half revitalized by the break and encouragement. However, dark clouds loomed. The Reds stepped up their offensive work and laid siege to Songbo's goal. This happened and was negatively complemented by Songbo's impotence in attack due to a one-man attack force in Jiaxiang who did not receive much service, despite his tireless running.

We couldn't say that luck was not on our side. An attack by the Reds was snuffed out when the striker hit the ball right smack on the goalpost with PapaSoh clearly beaten. On another instance, after a quick attack by the Reds, the left winger swung a mean strike at the goalpost. Resilience has always been a forte in Songbo's defence and Kenny showed that trait by arriving right on time at the goalpost to clear the goalbound shot off the line.

However, it was only a matter of time before the Red's second goal came. Prior to this, PapaSoh had showed his quality and class by producing a few world class saves by dropping to the ground instantly and getting his palm to save the ball. Alas, good things come to an end. A long ball into the goal area saw Chao missing his clearance header. The ball dropped to the striker's foot and his weak shot escaped PapaSoh's outstretched hand and leg to trickle into goal.

Songbo tried to keep things up with a strong self-belief to get another equalizer, however it was too little too late when the Red's third goal came. This time it happened due to Red's left winger who was clearly enjoying his free-roaming role. A blistering run with the ball into the penalty area had our defenders thinking he would cross to the centre to his striker. He had us all fooled when he hit the ball viciously with his stronger left foot to send the ball flying past a hapless PapaSoh.

Songbo's effort to get another goal was cut short when the referee shortchanged us of time and blew the whistle to signal an end to all proceedings. Even though, we lost this match, Songbo enjoyed the game thoroughly. Even though we had a few players absent, the existing crop of players did not show that we missed any of them at all with a spirited and disciplined performance.

Songbo's spirit remains sky-high, and we look forward to our next challenging game.

Preview of PhotoBook

Guys, you should have heard about our plans to come up with a PhotoBook to commemorate our friendship and brotherhood of 15 years. I was clearing up some stuff in my room today and I came across our old photos. Below are a couple of them just for a sneak preview of what would end up in the book. Enjoy!

Our graduation ceremony - 1998

Australia Trip - 1998

Our fetish for paparazzi actually started some 10 years ago...

...and what a valuable find this might prove to be.