match40: 18 Jan 09 vs. white-shirt team @ Tampines Mango 4-0 win

Wilson (GK)

Shahid - Calvin - Azmi - Shafi

Fazli - Azhari - Akim - Rafeeq

Farhan - Huang

Subs:
Firdaus Masdar
Imran
Joharie
Rahman Carrefour
Rahman
Azman
Syaifudean

Scorers:
Farhan x2
Huang
Syaifudean

p40 w13 d9 l18 f85 a109

It was one of our most convincing wins and there were so many positives to be taken after this rather one-sided victory.




GK
Wilson had one of his most comfortable clean sheets today. He was troubled earlier on and later towards the end of the match but was untroubled in between except to pick up loose balls. It certainly helped that he was shielded by a strong defence but as Fazli and I commented later during the game, Wilson can learn to be more commanding in his penalty box for example when coming out for a free-kick which was awarded to the opponent from the halfway line in the 2nd half. Other than that, I am pleased for this clean sheet.




Defence
For the first time, we have 4 strong centre backs in the squad, with the 2 starters, Azmi and Calvin, providing a combination of stability, physical aura and defence know-how that our team has always lacked from day one.

By the time Fazli and Imran replaced them both later in the match, the damage had been done. That was not to say that both replacements did not play a small role, as they had been strong in midfield prior too, if somewhat under-utilized at times. If I had my way, we will have these 4 players every single week every game.

The full-backs, Shahid, Shafi and Firdaus were also in inspired form, calm defensively and overlapped well on occasions too.




Midfield
We played very well here, keeping the ball well when in possession to move it around the opponents' half with relative ease, and despite any misgivings I have about the condition of the pitch, we managed to pressure our opponents to commit mistakes and win the ball back to initiate more attacks. As a whole, the midfield did their part to combine with the attack and carve out good chances especially in the 2nd half when the final score could have been in double digits.

The pairing of Azhari and myself in central midfield have never been tested before but 2 chances for me in the 1st half alone meant something was working. Rahman and Azman replaced us and they provided good long passes into dangerous territory and both even had chances to play strikers themselves.

Out wide on the wings, Rafeeq and Fazli started the game. I admit that Fazli was not being deployed actively as compared to Rafeeq but the pairing were effective to limit the opponents' runs and provided options for Azhari and myself, to combine and be involved in various inter-plays which resulted in chances for our team. Imran, Rahman Carrefour and Joharie (who came late) were more than adequate replacements. Although Rahman did look somewhat subdued, which he admitted later on, was due to the heat.




Attack
Huang and Farhan started in attack. Farhan snagged the first 2 goals to get the ball rolling. Huang was especially impressive with his control and ability to turn his opponents, which resulted in a goal to his name, though the shot was a tad fortunate to elude the GK. Dean scored the last goal in the 2nd half with a classic no.9 goal. That meant all our main strikers scored.

Shafi, Azman, Rafeeq and Rahman all took turns to play strikers too. Shafi got one great chance to score.

The flipside
While there was not much wrong with our game today, which meant we can get carried away for now, we could improve on certain aspects too. For example, which is fairly obvious, while we did create good chances to score, we were not clinical in finishing off our chances. The positive to take from that is that not only the main strikers scored but a lot of other players went close to scoring too. Also, the strength of our opponents were not comparable to the team we lost a couple of weeks ago. Therefore, given the manner we won today, we should make use of this game as a platform to keep on creating chances the way we did today, starting in the next supposed game against Fushan FC.

Feel free to voice out on areas which was weak today eg. teamwork, communication.

Akim - Reviewer
Shyairah - Team Pictures/Videos
Huda - Debt collector