Scorers (Assists)
Syaifudean (Muhammad) 1st half
Azhari (Helmi) 2nd half
Man Of The Match
Dean - 6 (top scorer with 3 goals, great finish and good runs, we need strikers who can score!)
Azhari - 3 (controls the midfield well and a good goal)
Akim - 2 (solid defending)
Shahril - 2 (helped kept a clean sheet)
Muhammad - 1 (is the distributor in the team - watch video)
Farhan - 1 (loves to play alongside Dean and it showed)
Fazli (GK)
Shahid - Akim - Shahril - Shafi
Kelvin - Azhari - Muhammad - Amin
Farhan - Syaifudean
Subs:
Kevin
Rahman
Helmi
Syafiq
Huang
Fazli enjoyed a clean sheet on his return as a GK but the team were made to work hard to win 2-0, with goals coming from either side of the half. The win, breaking a miserable run of 5 losses on the trot, also ensured a mid-table spot after 5 games after FC Corpus Christi beat La Calle Doce Futbolista in a high-scoring 4-3 scoreline.
In a match played under sweltering heat condition that made most players sweat even before the match started, Sporting Goras made it even tougher with good physical play and threatened on the counter-attack.
As a result, the entire defence were under the cosh at times with myself guilty of over-elaborating early in the 1st half that almost got the opponents through on goal. For the main part, Fazli was not made to work as hard as the rest of the team. I was playing alongside Shahril for the first time in central defence and it looks like I am going to enjoy playing alongside him in the near future. Our fullbacks, Shafi, Shahid and later Kevin, were all having a tough time coping with the ball played down the wings, Shafi especially looking very jaded but Kevin, though still on the learning curve (who isn't?), caught my eye with some good battles with his immediate opponent. Fazli's long punts and power goal-kicks were also huge assets but were sometimes probably taking too much to reach the ground. All in all, it was a good clean sheet to secure.
From the start, Kelvin and Amin were handed the tasks of patrolling the wings while Azhari and Muhammad partnered each other in the central of midfield. Kelvin is probably still unsure of his best role in the team but his commitment and desire is clear for all to see while Amin, playing in his preferred position on the wings, was also covering a lot of ground and showing plenty of neat footwork too. Rahman and Helmi were like-for-like replacements for Azhari and Muhammad. Rahman, with an injured toe, stuck admirably to his task as the destroyer while Helmi combined well with Amin (who was in groove with Farhan too) on the left flank mainly, much to Kelvin's chagrin on the opposite flank.
Farhan and Dean, perhaps the team's most potent strike partnership and also currently the team's top two goalscorers, started in attack. They certainly gave the audience a timely reminder of how devastating their partnership can be provided the service rendered to them is decent enough. Syafiq and Huang were also like-for-like replacements and while Syafiq was probably having a quieter game than usual, after his heroics in goal last week, Huang was again in the thick of the action, getting stuck in and showing a lot of desire to win and play the ball as well, one backheel pass a reminder of his innovation with his back to goal.
We started brightly indeed and managed to keep hold of the ball far better than we usually do. It is also a good sign that for the first 15 minutes or so, we were more or less playing in the opponents' own half.
The opponents' tall striker was their main outlet and their GK's long punts and their defender's long goal-kicks were often targeted at him which he usually manages to win in the air. They did look to the wings as often as they could as well but generally, they seemed to lack that invention in the final 3rd, which our team are of course often guilty of as well.
As we got in more shots, the bubble finally burst about 3/4 into the 1st half when Muhammad's juggling skills came to the fore and Dean, tracking back to support, beat a couple of defenders en route to goal and managed to stay on his feet to slot the ball home past the helpless GK.
Dean could have grabbed his 2nd goal minutes later but his shot smashed against the crossbar while Farhan and Helmi had some look-in on goal as well.
Our opponents did finally get themselves on the shots' statistic from a couple of corners before the 1st half ended, with headers going over the bar while Fazli injured his knee/thigh when he scrambled to save a grounder. But we were still had the lead going into the break. My only thinking was that we only needed to keep a clean sheet.
The 2nd half began in similar fashion except that we were not creating chances on goal. The opponents looked to strike on the counter-attack and tried to get the ball as far upfield as they could but Kevin, at right-back, was handling the situation rather decently while Shafi and Shahril worked in tandem to stop the threats coming down the left channel.
I had a free-kick that sailed over the bar while our corners were generally very poor today. It also seemed that we needed to score that crucial 2nd goal to kill off the game.
It was especially so when the opponents decided to tinker with the formation and adopted a slightly more offensive outlook.
Fortunately, the 2nd goal did come. Amin and Helmi, combining as well as they did in the 1st half, made sure tha ball was played to Azhari who had the composure to control it inside the box, skipped past his marker and picked out his spot to score his 1st league goal.
From then on, with our opponents perhaps deflated, we passed and stroked the ball as much as we could while keeping it steady at the back. One such key defensive moment came when Shahril recovered well from a lapse in concentration to make a tough but legal challenge on his increasingly elusive opponent. Eventually, his earlier game's exertions (with another team) took its toll and Amin came on as a stand-in replacement.
We will now go into next week's against league leaders Ultras, one of the two unbeaten teams left. Our rookie campaign has looked disastrous in recent weeks but if we can keep on showing similar resolve in front of goal, which we did in the 1st half last Sunday, there is no reason why we cannot compete.
akim
Rahman: i cant open my photo editing software because my computer is in PMS mode. hope this will make do..
click the links below to dwl all photos.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
In a match played under sweltering heat condition that made most players sweat even before the match started, Sporting Goras made it even tougher with good physical play and threatened on the counter-attack.
As a result, the entire defence were under the cosh at times with myself guilty of over-elaborating early in the 1st half that almost got the opponents through on goal. For the main part, Fazli was not made to work as hard as the rest of the team. I was playing alongside Shahril for the first time in central defence and it looks like I am going to enjoy playing alongside him in the near future. Our fullbacks, Shafi, Shahid and later Kevin, were all having a tough time coping with the ball played down the wings, Shafi especially looking very jaded but Kevin, though still on the learning curve (who isn't?), caught my eye with some good battles with his immediate opponent. Fazli's long punts and power goal-kicks were also huge assets but were sometimes probably taking too much to reach the ground. All in all, it was a good clean sheet to secure.
From the start, Kelvin and Amin were handed the tasks of patrolling the wings while Azhari and Muhammad partnered each other in the central of midfield. Kelvin is probably still unsure of his best role in the team but his commitment and desire is clear for all to see while Amin, playing in his preferred position on the wings, was also covering a lot of ground and showing plenty of neat footwork too. Rahman and Helmi were like-for-like replacements for Azhari and Muhammad. Rahman, with an injured toe, stuck admirably to his task as the destroyer while Helmi combined well with Amin (who was in groove with Farhan too) on the left flank mainly, much to Kelvin's chagrin on the opposite flank.
Farhan and Dean, perhaps the team's most potent strike partnership and also currently the team's top two goalscorers, started in attack. They certainly gave the audience a timely reminder of how devastating their partnership can be provided the service rendered to them is decent enough. Syafiq and Huang were also like-for-like replacements and while Syafiq was probably having a quieter game than usual, after his heroics in goal last week, Huang was again in the thick of the action, getting stuck in and showing a lot of desire to win and play the ball as well, one backheel pass a reminder of his innovation with his back to goal.
We started brightly indeed and managed to keep hold of the ball far better than we usually do. It is also a good sign that for the first 15 minutes or so, we were more or less playing in the opponents' own half.
The opponents' tall striker was their main outlet and their GK's long punts and their defender's long goal-kicks were often targeted at him which he usually manages to win in the air. They did look to the wings as often as they could as well but generally, they seemed to lack that invention in the final 3rd, which our team are of course often guilty of as well.
As we got in more shots, the bubble finally burst about 3/4 into the 1st half when Muhammad's juggling skills came to the fore and Dean, tracking back to support, beat a couple of defenders en route to goal and managed to stay on his feet to slot the ball home past the helpless GK.
Dean could have grabbed his 2nd goal minutes later but his shot smashed against the crossbar while Farhan and Helmi had some look-in on goal as well.
Our opponents did finally get themselves on the shots' statistic from a couple of corners before the 1st half ended, with headers going over the bar while Fazli injured his knee/thigh when he scrambled to save a grounder. But we were still had the lead going into the break. My only thinking was that we only needed to keep a clean sheet.
The 2nd half began in similar fashion except that we were not creating chances on goal. The opponents looked to strike on the counter-attack and tried to get the ball as far upfield as they could but Kevin, at right-back, was handling the situation rather decently while Shafi and Shahril worked in tandem to stop the threats coming down the left channel.
I had a free-kick that sailed over the bar while our corners were generally very poor today. It also seemed that we needed to score that crucial 2nd goal to kill off the game.
It was especially so when the opponents decided to tinker with the formation and adopted a slightly more offensive outlook.
Fortunately, the 2nd goal did come. Amin and Helmi, combining as well as they did in the 1st half, made sure tha ball was played to Azhari who had the composure to control it inside the box, skipped past his marker and picked out his spot to score his 1st league goal.
From then on, with our opponents perhaps deflated, we passed and stroked the ball as much as we could while keeping it steady at the back. One such key defensive moment came when Shahril recovered well from a lapse in concentration to make a tough but legal challenge on his increasingly elusive opponent. Eventually, his earlier game's exertions (with another team) took its toll and Amin came on as a stand-in replacement.
We will now go into next week's against league leaders Ultras, one of the two unbeaten teams left. Our rookie campaign has looked disastrous in recent weeks but if we can keep on showing similar resolve in front of goal, which we did in the 1st half last Sunday, there is no reason why we cannot compete.
akim
Rahman: i cant open my photo editing software because my computer is in PMS mode. hope this will make do..
click the links below to dwl all photos.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4