Ulu Turf City Pitch 4, 1300 Hrs
YSOSRS FC 4 ISA 0
(Law x1, Santosh x3)
On our first field trip to the ulu location of Turf City, there was action aplenty as expected. Last minute dropouts, failed attempts at car pooling, boys who overslept due to too much partying or just plain sleepiness plus chicks aplenty at the touch rugby sessions just beside the field that we were slated to play our game against ISA on. Oooh boy, what a wonderful day it was going to be.
We finally got our team prepared and ready to play just after 1pm with a vehicle arriving just on the dot. Thank heavens for that as we were able to start with a good strong side thus not allowing ISA a numerical advantage.
Game kicked off with ISA having the better of the exchanges as their african players ran the show plus some former professionals in their ranks really stringing the passes together and stretching us all over the place. As expected, the acclimatizing period took some time but we were able to hold it together and not concede.
*The away dressing room. Brings back memories of being outfield?
Down the other end, our first couple of forays up-field saw Law, Bib, Santosh and AhCool attempting to net us a goal or 2 on the counter yet we were strangely tentative and non too clinical whenever the whites of the opposing goal loomed larger in our eyes. The best chances of an otherwise energy sapping yet boring half fell to Habib who on one of our counterattacks, faced up to his man one and one and cleverly cut it back onto his left to work some space with just the keeper to beat. Sadly for him and his gradually growing ass, he could only scuff the shot into the gleeful arms of the keeper. Pity...!
Well yes, the other chance i was talking about was a clear cut push on Law in the box with both him and his marker straining every nerve in their necks to get their heads to a cross. The referee however continued to have his afternoon stroll under the hot sun and with his eyes shielded by a pair of shades that would have fashionistas outraged, we were wondering if he was lumbering through the game with his eyes closed. Too many decisions during the half had gone against us and it was beginning to feel like mission impossible.
2nd half resumed with some personnel changes and late arrivals in the shape of our spring chicken, Chi plus the reinstatement of Phileo to guard the posts.. We kicked off after a passionate and inspired team talk by the gaffer. A siege mentality was hopefully instilled in the lads as we were still bitter at the unjust nature of the referee's decisions in the 1st half.
1-0: Apologies as my view was blocked, but an attack on the ISA goal plus a couple of lucky rebounds saw Law just inside the box with enough space to fire a shot at goal. Our reinvigorated player calmly tucked the ball past the keeper with a well placed finish into the bottom left hand corner to put us a goal to the good. Just the answer the gaffer was looking for as the early goal in the second half allowed us to settle down.
2-0: Santosh then decided to take on another beleaguered full back for the 2nd week running after much hustling in the 1st with little end product. This time round, he burst through the entire ISA backline after receiving the ball just inside our opponents half. Running for what seemed like ages, the ISA backline parted like the 'yellow' sea and allowed our winger to double our lead leaving the keeper helpless and heavily exposed.
3-0: Cue the moment where 'Oops he did it again'... Our nepalese winger replicated the exact same move as he did to score his first goal. Once again the boy burst down the left and from a really difficult angle... Tucked it home. 3 goals in the 1st 15 minutes of the 2nd half had left ISA with a mountain to climb and us in dreamland.
4-0: Finally, a whipped cross from the right by AhCool was bundled and spilt by the young opposing keeper as he reached to catch it. Chancing on the gift, Toshie boy collected the ball, rounded the sprawling keeper and ignoring the calls for his goal hungry team mates to set them up right in front of goal, our boy fired the ball into the empty net to truly seal the tie.
A couple of notable moments in the 2nd half with Weisheng trying out his Rooney-Like freekick that took a slight deflection off the wall and slammed against the bar. Unlucky!! A one on one save by Phileo in which he came out of the situation looking like superman albeit with a slightly larger tummy (sorry!! haha) as he dived at the feet of the ISA striker and caught it with one hand. Oh-so-cool...
And that was how it ended as we finished the game 4-0 victors. Hell yeah!
MOTM: Ronald was often double teamed in the 1st 20 but despite that, he definitely ran himself to the crappy Turf City ground with a stirling performance at fullback with hardly anyone able to get in behind him. Often nipping in ahead of his marker to steal the ball plus showing a really good turn of pace to cover his backline, it was only to be expected that he had to be taken off with a cramp. Superb defending dude! Special mention to our backline of 'off-ref-off huijie', herculean matt, always so calm hizam, smiling assasin jason and the cool but collected farhan plus of course both our keepers on the day for a job well done. The clean sheet was certainly just rewards for your efforts.
Gaffers words: Glad there were smiles aplenty after the game and that we found some positives from our trip to the ulu land. The touch rugby girls were quite something i must say but our performance was even better! Law and of course Tosh were on fire and were certainly our match winners in a clinical YSOSRS performance. Cheers for the performance and lets continue to enjoy our football in the coming weeks yo!
Personnel: 16
Allan, Phileo
Farhan, Ronald, Jason, Huijie, Hizam, Matt
Santosh, AhCool, Mok, Law, Syafiq, WS, LQ
Habib
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