Scorers (assists)
Muhammad (pen)
Farhan (Shafi)
Man Of The Match
Danial (6) - majestic goalkeeping
Imran Ajmain (5) - made a solid impact when he came in 2nd half and when the backline was in need of fresh legs
Rahman (2)
Fazli (1)
Shiva (1) - impressive debut and played a part in winning goal
Syafiq (1) - returned to the team after a long absence and gave the opponents' defence real problems
Yellow card:
-
Danial (GK)
Imran - Amin (d) - Rashid - Fazli
Kelvin - Shiva - Rahman - Shafi
Muhammad
Farhan
Subs:
Mubarak
Yazier
Shafirul
Akim
Syafiq
Kambing FC fought back from a goal down to win 2-1 to secure only our 2nd win in the league this season. We claimed our biggest scalp as well as Industmarine Football was sitting in 3rd place in the table before this game. In a game of few clear-cut goalscoring chances, Muhammad's penalty for his 3rd league goal of the season leveled the score at 1-1. A well-worked built-up play, punctuated by a stroke of fortune, led to the winner when Farhan ended a barren run of 4 games without a goal to score his 5th league goal this season.
There were plenty of off-field action before the match in terms of personnel with changes to the team squad happening even on match-day itself. Muhammad made a surprise return, which was fortunate as Huang had backed out at the last minute. Imran's return was another major boost while Rashid and Danial overcame injury doubts to make themselves available for the match. Yazier was also recalled while debutant Shiva was given a taste of KFC football. Shiva played impressively despite some understandable hesitation in imposing his influence on his debut and played a crucial part in KFC's winning goal. The most significant addition was perhaps that of Syafiq, who prior to Danial's availability, was the stand-in GK. Syafiq had not featured for the team since October last year, due to selection headache with the current crop of strikers and wingers in the team.
Having started each league game this season, I opted to sit out this one. Nevertheless, apart from Shiva, the team had a familiar look to it for the start of the match. It was with some surprise that I felt we started the match very well. Given this was our first meeting with IF, and due to the competitive nature of the league so far, I had expected a team playing similar football to Total Football or 1980s United FC. However, the opponents did not look anything like the 3rd-placed team I had envisaged and my impression was they looked somewhat shaky and often resorted to long punts.
Despite that, I knew we had to be on our toes and there was a moment of panic when Amin (d)'s awkward clearance in defence minutes into the match almost saw the opponent stole in to capitalize on the lapse. Danial shook off any lingering doubts about his injury to save well. Our midfield was looking quite sharp with our quintet providing decent service to our striker, Farhan this time starring in the role. It was the kind of service we did not show last week to our striker then.
Our opponents' tactic banked on long punts. Not that it was ineffective, our defence and GK were often scurrying to latch onto those long balls, Danial in particular being assertive to claim them. IF brought us on tenterhooks with that tactic and could have in fact taken the lead many times if we had not been so alert to clear the danger almost at every first instance. On the whole, our defence had an assured first half and we went into the break goalless.
The second half began as we started. It was therefore with some frustration when we conceded a goal, perhaps ten minutes into the second half, when we finally failed to clear early one of those punts this time. From the GK goal-kick, the midfielder headed down the punt towards the striker. The striker managed to beat Rashid and dinked the ball over Danial to score the opener.
But we forced our way back into the game even if at this point, the match was still lacking much action in terms of actual shots on target from either team. When Imran came on to partner Rashid in central defence, we managed to repel those punts even better this time. Imran, who started at full-back, was one of the few key men on the players' lips after the match, and his aerial ability prowess was one of the main reasons.
In attack, Syafiq was the unlikely man leading from the front and his pace, cunning play and mobility gave us a swifter-looking offence. His numerous runs and off-the-ball running gave us plenty of options to vary our attack. Despite his height, he managed to beguile his defenders with his dribbles and often brought other KFC players into play as well.
We eventually drew level when Rahman, before his withdrawal in the second half, was pushed inside the penalty box in an attempt to receive a Fazli free-kick from the right flank. The referee did not hesitate to award the penalty in our favour and waved away the IF weak protests. Muhammad stepped up and calmly tucked the ball from 12-yards, or suspiciously, a lot nearer than that. Not that we care, we were back in the game.
IF tried to rally themselves to say that they can score again. Yet, true to style, KFC did not back down. The game threatened to get ugly with Firul, in particular, growing increasingly annoyed at some of the referee's calls that went against him while we suddenly found a new challenge in IF's gamesmanship, which was creeping into the game. Tempers eventually did boil over on at least two occasions. Firstly, Fazli voiced out to the IF striker when he felt that the striker did not pull out of a challenge with Danial, who already had the ball in his hands (which we caught on video). Secondly, Firul himself exchanged verbal words with the same striker over an incident from a goalmouth scramble just moments earlier. That took awhile to sort out but eventually Firul calmed himself down, a little. IF then tested us with a firm shot which Danial saved well at his near post.
In the end, I felt we channeled our frustrations in the right way when we eventually took the lead. In an awesome built-up play involving 7 players, we were stringing passes from inside our half towards the other when Farhan's low pass took a bobble off the IF's defender. Shafi nicked the ball away and Shiva surged forward on the left side of midfield to receive the pass. Pressing on towards goal, he cleverly played in Shafi inside the penalty box. Shafi attempted to go for goal and even though the IF defender and GK combination managed to make him lose his composure, he inadvertently assisted for the incoming Farhan to tap into an empty net from close range.
We were not unduly troubled for the remainder of the match, content with keeping ball for as long as we could and finally, the referee signaled the end of the match to mark a hard-earned victory.
Frustrations had threatened to spill into our game when we went a goal down. Yet the passionate fervor and utter determination of the team's response was a credit to us. The team, despite missing some regular players, called upon an impressive reserve set of players today. We also managed to retain our fair share of possession, especially in our last few games, and will now need to work on creating more goalscoring chances which we have shown recently; Omar's goal last week and Farhan's goal this week fresh in the mind showing proof we can do so.
We have now started the 2nd half of the league season with a win. The next two weeks may mean a break for us with the Chinese New Year festive period coming up next week and a day of celebration the week after. I can only hope that it does not disrupt the momentum that we may have gained from this match. Then again, if the apprehension come next game is anything like how I felt before this last game, I would welcome it with a good KFC team performance.
Our team in D2D league
Rest of results
Akim
There were plenty of off-field action before the match in terms of personnel with changes to the team squad happening even on match-day itself. Muhammad made a surprise return, which was fortunate as Huang had backed out at the last minute. Imran's return was another major boost while Rashid and Danial overcame injury doubts to make themselves available for the match. Yazier was also recalled while debutant Shiva was given a taste of KFC football. Shiva played impressively despite some understandable hesitation in imposing his influence on his debut and played a crucial part in KFC's winning goal. The most significant addition was perhaps that of Syafiq, who prior to Danial's availability, was the stand-in GK. Syafiq had not featured for the team since October last year, due to selection headache with the current crop of strikers and wingers in the team.
Having started each league game this season, I opted to sit out this one. Nevertheless, apart from Shiva, the team had a familiar look to it for the start of the match. It was with some surprise that I felt we started the match very well. Given this was our first meeting with IF, and due to the competitive nature of the league so far, I had expected a team playing similar football to Total Football or 1980s United FC. However, the opponents did not look anything like the 3rd-placed team I had envisaged and my impression was they looked somewhat shaky and often resorted to long punts.
Despite that, I knew we had to be on our toes and there was a moment of panic when Amin (d)'s awkward clearance in defence minutes into the match almost saw the opponent stole in to capitalize on the lapse. Danial shook off any lingering doubts about his injury to save well. Our midfield was looking quite sharp with our quintet providing decent service to our striker, Farhan this time starring in the role. It was the kind of service we did not show last week to our striker then.
Our opponents' tactic banked on long punts. Not that it was ineffective, our defence and GK were often scurrying to latch onto those long balls, Danial in particular being assertive to claim them. IF brought us on tenterhooks with that tactic and could have in fact taken the lead many times if we had not been so alert to clear the danger almost at every first instance. On the whole, our defence had an assured first half and we went into the break goalless.
The second half began as we started. It was therefore with some frustration when we conceded a goal, perhaps ten minutes into the second half, when we finally failed to clear early one of those punts this time. From the GK goal-kick, the midfielder headed down the punt towards the striker. The striker managed to beat Rashid and dinked the ball over Danial to score the opener.
But we forced our way back into the game even if at this point, the match was still lacking much action in terms of actual shots on target from either team. When Imran came on to partner Rashid in central defence, we managed to repel those punts even better this time. Imran, who started at full-back, was one of the few key men on the players' lips after the match, and his aerial ability prowess was one of the main reasons.
In attack, Syafiq was the unlikely man leading from the front and his pace, cunning play and mobility gave us a swifter-looking offence. His numerous runs and off-the-ball running gave us plenty of options to vary our attack. Despite his height, he managed to beguile his defenders with his dribbles and often brought other KFC players into play as well.
We eventually drew level when Rahman, before his withdrawal in the second half, was pushed inside the penalty box in an attempt to receive a Fazli free-kick from the right flank. The referee did not hesitate to award the penalty in our favour and waved away the IF weak protests. Muhammad stepped up and calmly tucked the ball from 12-yards, or suspiciously, a lot nearer than that. Not that we care, we were back in the game.
IF tried to rally themselves to say that they can score again. Yet, true to style, KFC did not back down. The game threatened to get ugly with Firul, in particular, growing increasingly annoyed at some of the referee's calls that went against him while we suddenly found a new challenge in IF's gamesmanship, which was creeping into the game. Tempers eventually did boil over on at least two occasions. Firstly, Fazli voiced out to the IF striker when he felt that the striker did not pull out of a challenge with Danial, who already had the ball in his hands (which we caught on video). Secondly, Firul himself exchanged verbal words with the same striker over an incident from a goalmouth scramble just moments earlier. That took awhile to sort out but eventually Firul calmed himself down, a little. IF then tested us with a firm shot which Danial saved well at his near post.
In the end, I felt we channeled our frustrations in the right way when we eventually took the lead. In an awesome built-up play involving 7 players, we were stringing passes from inside our half towards the other when Farhan's low pass took a bobble off the IF's defender. Shafi nicked the ball away and Shiva surged forward on the left side of midfield to receive the pass. Pressing on towards goal, he cleverly played in Shafi inside the penalty box. Shafi attempted to go for goal and even though the IF defender and GK combination managed to make him lose his composure, he inadvertently assisted for the incoming Farhan to tap into an empty net from close range.
We were not unduly troubled for the remainder of the match, content with keeping ball for as long as we could and finally, the referee signaled the end of the match to mark a hard-earned victory.
Frustrations had threatened to spill into our game when we went a goal down. Yet the passionate fervor and utter determination of the team's response was a credit to us. The team, despite missing some regular players, called upon an impressive reserve set of players today. We also managed to retain our fair share of possession, especially in our last few games, and will now need to work on creating more goalscoring chances which we have shown recently; Omar's goal last week and Farhan's goal this week fresh in the mind showing proof we can do so.
We have now started the 2nd half of the league season with a win. The next two weeks may mean a break for us with the Chinese New Year festive period coming up next week and a day of celebration the week after. I can only hope that it does not disrupt the momentum that we may have gained from this match. Then again, if the apprehension come next game is anything like how I felt before this last game, I would welcome it with a good KFC team performance.
Our team in D2D league
Rest of results
Akim