Scorers (assists)
Muhammad (Rahman)
Omar (-)
Danial (Farhan)
Yellow card:
Omar 2nd half
Danial (GK)
Imran - Amin (d) - Rashid - Mubarak
Farhan - Shiva - Rahman - Omar
Muhammad
Rafeeq
Subs:
Farid
Amin
Akim
Karim
Coming back to Yishun brings back a nostalgic feel for many of our players, in particular the ones whom have been sharing a long history with us. There was only one entrance to the field, and walking the path towards the pitch reminds me of the many times thread then, often accompanied by ecstasy after a good result, or a sense of dejectedness after a bad game.
It was like welcoming an old friend, and to add on to that, we saw an old 'villain' of ours whom have become a black sheep of many of our old boys. Malek was our referee.
It was Chinese New Year, and many people have somewhat expressed a holiday mood to coming to the game. Though Kambing FC has always emphasised a good sportsmanship ethic in giving our very best for each and every one of our games, our performance on the pitch summarised the holiday mood (its really a long weekend).
As I reconstruct what i overheard from one of our players,
"Well I relax today because its a friendly, unlike in the league games"
After all, its a good break for many of us from the usual hustle and bustle of league games.
We faced familiar opponents too, whom if I can recall correctly resulted in a draw game in our last encounter. They were a team comprising of POLICE personnel if im not mistaken, and they proved to be tough, quick and skilful players as well.
In the early exchanges of the first half, they showed their quality, controlling the game well as well as winning a lot of loose balls in midfield. However, the KFC defence did well to limit the POLIC team to only half chances, though they showed that they can get very close to converting their half chances with good controlled long range shots at goal. We can count ourselves lucky for having their stinging volley from a loose ball outside the box to blaze over the bar. A pot shot at goal on the edge of our box saw it curl out and away from the keeper's far post.
On the other hand, our attack showed very little menace up front, save for a few measured passes to put the ball behind their defence which at best got us corner kicks that which we poorly executed. It seemed that KFC was trying to accustom ourselves to the pitch after so many times playing for smaller or narrower pitches in the league. Though their attack proved to be dangerous and quick in moving the ball around, their defence was not water tight.
They conceded a throw-in by making a foul throw after being awarded a throw in for our foul throw (now thats complicated right??) and furthermore to add on to their woes, their marking to defend on their throw was slack. They had the chance to clear a square ball but on the stretch the defender could only manage a wild touch which sent the ball loose before i cut back to a gleeful Muhd to put it past the keeper.
It was a stroke of luck to capitalise on poor defending to put us a goal to the good and it would be another stroke of bad luck that cancelled out our advantage. a misjudgement of a bounced ball fooled many defenders but not the onrushing POLIC striker who drew out Daniel to no-man's land before lobbing the ball sweetly beyond the keeper's reach and into the goal. 1-1 was the scoreline.
After the break, the POLICE team got themselves a penalty, and i was unsure of how accurate the decision was, having not witnessed the incident (like how Wenger always answers when being interviewed). This time Farid was the one conceding the penalty, but i somehow didnt care much a bout it, because I had the feeling that it would not convert. Daniel saved it in the end, proving my hunch, when he dived outstretched to his left to palm out the ball out of danger. However, the Police team was not to be denied later, and in a move similar to the one that led to our first goal, they forced it down to the bottom of Daniel's post and into the net to take the lead. Omar almost instantaneously equalised for KFC with a good looping ball which crept in under the keeper's bar. Daniel had a stint in attack, and had, in the dying minutes, finished his quest to 'avenge' the first goal conceded by heading home from a good corner this time around.
In the end, we won 3-2 in a very close game, but im sure players from both sides as well as the referee had fun, right?
Rahman
When you have moved on far in life, never forget the roots whence you came from, because returning to the roots should ideally make you see how much progress you have made over the days, months and years. The Chinese New Year holidays last Sunday provided KFC such an opportunity as we took a break from the D2D league to play this friendly on the field where we built up KFC (no, not the restaurant) just over 3 years ago to the day. Our opponents were a police combined team from Ang Mo Kio and Tanglin Police Division, according to Rafeeq's enquiry.
In a pre-dominantly Malay team apart from Rahman (French), Akim (Italian), Shiva (Indian), Imran (Nepalese), Mubarak (Guardsman) and Rashid (Malay mat rep), a host of players were missing, including our Chinese players of course. A last-minute attempt (I apologize!) to call Fazli down earlier that morning bore no fruit as Fazli was sleeping like a log, it seems. At the field before the match, Firdaus Masdar 'bubbled' and Yazier was attired in civilian with an injured knee, but we were still able to call upon Karim and his younger brother Farid. Shiva also made the squad to start the match after impressing on his debut last week. My aim pre-match was for Danial to keep a clean sheet to carry over into the next league game. After all, it has been about 4 months since we succeeded in keeping any of our opponents from scoring.
Things look as though they were going to plan when Muhammad gave us the lead about midway into the match. We were awarded a throw after the opponents were penalized for a foul throw on the right flank. Imran's throw in was in the path of Rahman. The ball took a fortunate bobble off the defender into Rahman's path again and he did well to send the ball back across goal and Muhammad had the easy task of scoring from 6 yards with the GK helpless in his goal.
Till that goal, both teams did not really look like scoring. At times, it was scrappy with the opponents seeing a lot of the ball but restricted to mostly long-range and wayward efforts. KFC was defending well with Amin (d) and Rashid combining with timely interceptions with Imran and Mubarak supporting the attack well too. Omar was holding back on the left flank due to his ongoing knee injury while Farhan missed a great chance to extend our lead following good work from Muhammad down the left. The partnership of Rahman and Shiva in central midfield helped to balance between creativity and industry as Rafeeq held up well on his own up front.
Our opponents managed to draw the score level when a clearance inside the opponents' half saw the ball took a nasty bounce over Rashid, who had attempted to head it away. The ball continued its way inside the penalty box into the path of an opponent, and as Danial came out of his line to challenge, the opponent lobbed it over into goal as we went into the break one goal apiece.
Before the 2nd half began, with the pressure of failing to keep a clean sheet off the table, I decided to relieve Danial in goal midway into that half as Danial wanted a runout outfield. The second half was a much more exciting affair and produced three more goals, Danial saved a penalty, our opponents took the lead for the first time in the match, KFC fought back to stay in the game and ultimately, Danial scored the match winner.
Sensing Farid's young age, who started the 2nd half at left-back, the opponents measured our defence down his flank. Unfortunately, Farid conceded a penalty kick with a tackle from behind on the opponent just at the top corner of our penalty box. Danial was not to be denied the spotlight when he saved the spot-kick, although a poorly-taken one perhaps which was almost shot straight down the middle.
Apart from that tackle, Farid was acquitting himself wonderfully as his performance became noticeably impressive the more the game went on. We were not so lucky with the next crucial piece of play. After we lost the ball on the left flank, the opponents launched a quick counter attack. A sudden through ball caught out our defence and Danial and Imran were unable to stop the recipient from slotting the ball into the net. Our opponents now have the lead and I came off to don the GK's jersey.
When I came on again, I had a comfortable game in goal for the rest of the match. Such was the lack of chances coming from our opponents that surely no one would begrudge us the equalizer, as fortuitous as it was. After sustaining pressure around and inside the opponents' penalty box, Omar pounced on a loose ball to score his 2nd goal in three games. Let us not begrudge him his questionable execution, seemingly miscued as it was. Omar took his shot well and a looping goal over a GK, just underneath the crossbar at that, is always pleasing to see. We were now tied at 2-2.
Shiva came on for Omar and took his place on the left flank. With plenty of tricks in his bag, he was pulling out all the stops throughout. On one occasion, he was in full flight with a wonderful run with the ball from inside our half towards the other that saw him passed at least two players. When he was nearing the penalty box, the GK, already out from his goal-line, did just enough to perturb our own V Sundramoorthy from scoring a memorable goal as the ball spun away from Shiva's control.
There was nothing to stop another memorable goal however when Danial, in his first outfield appearance for KFC, scored his first goal for the team to head in at the near post from Farhan's corner.
The final whistle came shortly after though we were marginally fortunate to be on the winning end. In an entertaining friendly, it was scrappy but there were plenty of action from both teams that took turns to take the lead. We even saw Danial saved a penalty to further enhance his reputation.
On a side note, it was great to see a familiar face refereeing the game. Malik did not entertain us like before with his peculiar way of calling those offside calls but on the whole, he had a decent match and I am sure he was happy to see us too.
It may also appear to have gone unnoticed but our resolve from coming back from goals down in a match has been evident lately. There has been a sense of belief, unconsciously or otherwise, that we have armored ourselves with and needless to say, I hope it puts us in good stead to finish the current D2D league season as strongly as we could. Strong opponents lie await for us, as we discovered in the first half of the season, but with that belief, a purple patch for the team would hopefully come along with it.
Akim