Wilson (GK)
Shafi - Azmi - Fazli - Firul
Omar - Rahman - Helmi - Rafeeq
Farhan - Syaifudean
Subs:
Akim - CB
Es - LB
Azman - CM
Azhari - CM
Amin - CM
Joharie - RM/LM
Huang - Str
Kelvin - Str
Scorer:
Joharie
p26 w5 d7 l14 f50 a87
Kambings i am sorry for not giving my very best today... I took some photos during the first half and i ended up sleeping.... :(
Shyairah
akim
As long as got pictures, it's good enough, Shyairah. To my team mates, I hope we win our next game!
Shafi - Azmi - Fazli - Firul
Omar - Rahman - Helmi - Rafeeq
Farhan - Syaifudean
Subs:
Akim - CB
Es - LB
Azman - CM
Azhari - CM
Amin - CM
Joharie - RM/LM
Huang - Str
Kelvin - Str
Scorer:
Joharie
p26 w5 d7 l14 f50 a87
I felt cheated by our organizer when I saw the pitch we were about to play on this past Sunday morning. We will never pay that amount again and I hoped Rahman will send a strongly worded message to him when he contacts us for this week's match, if any. Nevertheless, it was our first game since the start of the fasting month followed by a couple of weeks away due to Hari Raya season, so I would have played any match even if the field was played on (sic) quicksand.
The response was overwhelming though it was not like that initially when I confirmed that I had 14 players available from the start. 1 was supposed to have only arrived at half-time (though it was not supposed to be Es... :-), 3 of the players indicated only a day before the match that they wanted to play and I had asked Fazli to play when I felt he would be interested.
Thus, to get the guys into the stretch for more games in the next few weeks, and knowing some (especially at least one of us) needed match conditioning, we ended up with 19, of which 3 came at half-time. Of course, there was another reason why I agreed to get the 3 interested players to play, all of them regular players. If we had only the 14 players who had confirmed with me before, we would have started the game with only 11 players, so it was another justification to have so many players playing, not that I'm defending myself but I didn't want to over-rely on Malay promises as well, proven right yet again.
Onto the proper match review then. When I saw the pitch, it was terrible, it was narrow. When I saw the referee, I recognise him as the one my other team doesn't like to officiate their matches, and based on that, I was inclined to think that this would not be a good match for us. As it turned out, the two factors did not allow us to snap our current 3 game winless streak, yet I was pleased enough with the result as we showed that given a better pitch with a decent enough referee, we could probably take on the best amaeteur team around.
The first half was goalless and the lack of width meant our wingers could not use their pace to stretch our opponents' defence. Our two strikers had plenty of time on the ball but there were not many clear-cut chances. Midway through the first half, the flurry of subsitutions took place.
After assessing and putting to the test what I felt was our opponents' one and only weakness, a no-brainer really, I instructed our players at half-time, especially the wingers and strikers, to not pass the ball around too much especially in and around the opponents' penalty box, and to beat their man and shoot on goal. Some of them thought it was funny when I said 'beat the man' as in physically assaulting their opponents, but haha, whatever makes u happy la eh :-P K, lame....
The second half started with the same team who ended the first half apart from Es who replaced Firul at left-back and Farhan replaced Kelvin. Fazli started at right mid, debutant Joharie switched to the left.
Where the first half was very open and entertaining with both teams having their fair shot at each other, I felt we dominated the second half. One good move from defence found the ball out to the right flank and Shafi, who had raced the length of the pitch switched play to the opposite side of the opponents' goal. The initial shot from Joharie was frustratingly blocked when we should have scored but he was more clinical the second time around and scored on his debut for the lead we deserved after some enterprising play.
Somehow, that seemed to galvanize our opponents' resolve and they had a go at us. Our defence were suddenly finding ourselves opened up on a few occasions though there were no immediate threat on our goal. From nowhere though, our opponents scored their equalizer. A good goal it was when Wilson was caught flatfooted from a lob near the halfway line.
They then decided to breathe easy again and prepare for our riposte. And how we did retorted when Dean was obviously felled in the penalty area having beaten a couple of men in the penalty box but the referee failed to award us a clear cut penalty. Some frustrating non-existent offside decisions were typically awarded against us.
More subsitutions took place including the a debut from Amin who took control of playmaking duties in central midfield.
That referee's indecision though cost us any chance of victory and when the final whistle blew, we were ruing the referee's officiating. Despite that, as said previously, I was pleased with our performance. Joharie scored a good goal and proved he can play on either flank. Amin was a fresh change, giving us a 3rd option as playmaker in the team. Our 4 strikers were acquitting themselves well into our team's offensive play though our defence may be troubled by a more illustrious and adventurous opponents.
Another landmark was set today. We scored our 50th goal. But after 26 games, we are also still searching for only our 2nd clean sheet. Hopefully, a victory this week coupled with a shutout for Wilson.
The response was overwhelming though it was not like that initially when I confirmed that I had 14 players available from the start. 1 was supposed to have only arrived at half-time (though it was not supposed to be Es... :-), 3 of the players indicated only a day before the match that they wanted to play and I had asked Fazli to play when I felt he would be interested.
Thus, to get the guys into the stretch for more games in the next few weeks, and knowing some (especially at least one of us) needed match conditioning, we ended up with 19, of which 3 came at half-time. Of course, there was another reason why I agreed to get the 3 interested players to play, all of them regular players. If we had only the 14 players who had confirmed with me before, we would have started the game with only 11 players, so it was another justification to have so many players playing, not that I'm defending myself but I didn't want to over-rely on Malay promises as well, proven right yet again.
Onto the proper match review then. When I saw the pitch, it was terrible, it was narrow. When I saw the referee, I recognise him as the one my other team doesn't like to officiate their matches, and based on that, I was inclined to think that this would not be a good match for us. As it turned out, the two factors did not allow us to snap our current 3 game winless streak, yet I was pleased enough with the result as we showed that given a better pitch with a decent enough referee, we could probably take on the best amaeteur team around.
The first half was goalless and the lack of width meant our wingers could not use their pace to stretch our opponents' defence. Our two strikers had plenty of time on the ball but there were not many clear-cut chances. Midway through the first half, the flurry of subsitutions took place.
After assessing and putting to the test what I felt was our opponents' one and only weakness, a no-brainer really, I instructed our players at half-time, especially the wingers and strikers, to not pass the ball around too much especially in and around the opponents' penalty box, and to beat their man and shoot on goal. Some of them thought it was funny when I said 'beat the man' as in physically assaulting their opponents, but haha, whatever makes u happy la eh :-P K, lame....
The second half started with the same team who ended the first half apart from Es who replaced Firul at left-back and Farhan replaced Kelvin. Fazli started at right mid, debutant Joharie switched to the left.
Where the first half was very open and entertaining with both teams having their fair shot at each other, I felt we dominated the second half. One good move from defence found the ball out to the right flank and Shafi, who had raced the length of the pitch switched play to the opposite side of the opponents' goal. The initial shot from Joharie was frustratingly blocked when we should have scored but he was more clinical the second time around and scored on his debut for the lead we deserved after some enterprising play.
Somehow, that seemed to galvanize our opponents' resolve and they had a go at us. Our defence were suddenly finding ourselves opened up on a few occasions though there were no immediate threat on our goal. From nowhere though, our opponents scored their equalizer. A good goal it was when Wilson was caught flatfooted from a lob near the halfway line.
They then decided to breathe easy again and prepare for our riposte. And how we did retorted when Dean was obviously felled in the penalty area having beaten a couple of men in the penalty box but the referee failed to award us a clear cut penalty. Some frustrating non-existent offside decisions were typically awarded against us.
More subsitutions took place including the a debut from Amin who took control of playmaking duties in central midfield.
That referee's indecision though cost us any chance of victory and when the final whistle blew, we were ruing the referee's officiating. Despite that, as said previously, I was pleased with our performance. Joharie scored a good goal and proved he can play on either flank. Amin was a fresh change, giving us a 3rd option as playmaker in the team. Our 4 strikers were acquitting themselves well into our team's offensive play though our defence may be troubled by a more illustrious and adventurous opponents.
Another landmark was set today. We scored our 50th goal. But after 26 games, we are also still searching for only our 2nd clean sheet. Hopefully, a victory this week coupled with a shutout for Wilson.
Kambings i am sorry for not giving my very best today... I took some photos during the first half and i ended up sleeping.... :(
Shyairah
akim
As long as got pictures, it's good enough, Shyairah. To my team mates, I hope we win our next game!