You just know its not going to be your day when the phone rings while you're on the cab and approaching the match location and the caller-id shows that its one of your teammates.
Good thing KR reached us in time for us to redirect the taxi driver to Dorset Road instead of into Carlisle Road and that ulu-pandan patch of grass. Although it would have been better given the condition of the Farrer Park pitch. It was dry, but bumpy and threatened to trip you anytime.
And the opponents were familiar. Especially "Bus 151", whom I "crashed" into and hurt my knee in our previous meeting, which ended at 1-1 and with me up front chasing long, hopeful punts.
But there was to be no repeat of me reprising that role as we had our regular front two (SA was absent for the previous fixture) as well as Alex, who had been shifted into the advanced role with some effect in our previous game against "Spain".
And, perhaps the most shocking revelation of all: our dear captain arrived 5 mins AFTER kickoff! ;)
We had a 16-man squad for this match, and for once, I didn't start the game, the place going instead to Kelvin. Otherwise, the defence was unchanged, even with the return of Hong Loon from his unfortunate training ground injury. Seng partnered Reubs in the centre of the park in the other change to the lineup for this game.
The match finally got underway 20 minutes late, after the referee arrived late (As always, when something is late, the outcome for us is usually unfavourable). Both sides created chances, but in the first 10 minutes, failed to score. This changed after SA picked up a through ball on the left wing, beat three defenders and squared it for Leslie to tap into an unguarded goal.
Our lead did not last long. The opponents threatened and barely five minutes later, were level through a lob-shot which Jackson misjudged due to the sunlight shining into his eyes. The goal gave them confidence and we had to be on our toes to repel wave after wave of attacks. We had some chances of our own, notably another square ball from SA which found JLo who poked the ball wide, and another speedy run by JLo which put him clear but he could only manage to poke the ball straight at the keeper.
Half-time score, 1-1.
The malay guys changed their central midfielders in the second half, and that gave us the advantage. It was our turn to launch waves and waves of attacks, and when SA was fouled 30m from goal, Ben stepped up and delivered the goal of the month. It was a sweetly-struck free kick from 30 metres out which flew over the wall and into the top far corner of the net. The keeper was taken by surprise and didn't even move.
That goal spurred us on as we held firm in defence and had some good attacking moves up front. But for some lacklustre finishing and an unusually subdued performance by Alex up front, we could have been 3, 4 or even 5 goals to the good.
Alas, it was not to be our first win in a long long time as a hopeful cross by the number 19 was turned into our own net by KS.
Final score, 2-2 and KS with egg on his face. =)))
Monday, May 5, 2008
