it has been a long time; * from past till now. *

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Sorry for taking so long. And sorry again if I’ve missed out anything important.

Dunman 1:2 TPJC (12 May 07)
(Wen Guang)

East View Sec School field is proving to be an unlucky home ground for the Dunman High Team, who has lost all their matches there. To add insult to injury, they have not tasted victory since donning their maroon jerseys. It was their third straight defeat.

The signs were there. 30 minutes before kickoff, there were only 4 members present on the field. Clearly, Dunman High was not able to use their “rolling sub” tactic for this match. During warm-up, the opponents looked fresher and faster while the Dunmanians looked lethargic and struck the post several times. However, the Dunmanians were still quietly confident of their chances. After all, their performance against the VJ team last week was credible and surely, a team whose official jersey is a singlet shouldn’t pose much of a problem to them. The last blow came in the form of a man in black. No, it wasn’t the keeper, who, in all honesty, had a match to forget. Rather, it was their favourite referee, who AWOL-ed.

To the Dunmanians’ surprise, the TPJC team completely dominated the early exchanges. They were strangely subdued in a half that they would normally score. The TPJC’s midfield was running riot and Dunmanians were left chasing shadows. If the VJ team was about speed, strength and stamina, then this TPJC team was about technique and finesse. Their distribution of the ball was marvelous. This was well exemplified by the left back, whose long balls were a constant threat to Dunman High’s defence. Their neat passing created a couple of one on one chances in the first half.

Soon, Dunman High found their rhythm and began to press their opponents. On one occasion, their efforts almost paid off. After intercepting a weak clearance from their keeper, Dunman High's top scorer Wen Guang sent the ball to the penalty area which led to a goalmouth melee.

Towards the end of the first half, both sets of players were feeling the effects of the unrelenting sun, and their bodies were crying out for the half time whistle. The tempo of the match gradually slowed down.

Somebody pointed out that Dunman High is most vulnerable in the first few minutes of the second half and true enough, the deadlock was broken shortly after the restart. A quick turn by the TPJC striker put him through on goal and he slotted the ball past Zhirong coolly. It was a cruel blow as the Dunmanians had matched them stride for stride prior to half time.

TPJC continued to surge forward against a shell-shocked Dunmanians. They were stringing passes in Dunman High’s half with confidence and they got their reward soon after. A wayward shot took a wicked deflection off James and the ball lobbed over Zhirong. 2-0!

Dunman High was jolted into action. They responded with a goal almost immediately. An innocuous high ball by Wen Guang was heading towards the keeper. Inexplicably, he allowed it to bounce over him and into goal without making a decent attempt to save the ball. He seemed to be more interested in keeping a clean pair of gloves than a clean sheet.

Desperate for an equalizer, Dunmanians gave everything they could. Zan Rui displayed tremendous fighting spirit to clear the ball after losing it, even though he was on the ground. Kenny sprinted 100 metres to win back the ball. There were a couple of offside decisions which were appalling. Apparently, the replacement referee did not know that a player cannot be offside if he is not active.

Credit to the TPJC team though, who showed no signs of crumbling under pressure and stood firm to the end. Their defence limited Dunman High to a few shots throughout the match. If not for the freak goal, they would have had a clean sheet. However, the Dunman High team can be proud of themselves as well, for giving their all in a hard fought match.

Man of the match: Awarded to Zan Rui initially, but re-awarded to Wen Guang for playing through the pain barrier. Get well soon!

Quote of the day: “The referee should watch EPL tonight,” said Keng Yang, taking a dig at the referee’s knowledge of the offside rule.

Moment of the day: Zan Rui trying to clear the ball while he was on the ground.

Yellow Card: The striker who kept pushing Bang Wei in the first half.

Red Card: The referee.

Courtesy of Zhirong

frm past till now at-
3:03 PM