Match Report - Jan 01, 2005

Final Score:
1-2
Tony, Jufri, Yew Min

Players:
Peter cannot make it, new year party. Boon Huat came late, as a result, Johnny played for the blacks. We have to depend on Chee Hua being our keeper for most of first half. Hamdan came only for the second half. It was an 11 aside game.

Punctuality is STILL a problem. We have to work more in this area.

We have Chai Liang, Daniel, Chee Hua (Keeper 1st half) and Steven as defenders. Midfielders Hai Yee, Ajis, Hamdan (David Ong 1st half), and Choong Wei. Striker Tony, David. Keeper Boon Huat.

The Game:

The opposition is as strong as previous week. Almost the same players, except Peng Siu (not Peng Siong as I previously wrote) did not make it. Instead Han came. Tough game ..

As Boon Huat came late, we were left with no choice but to get Chee Hua to play keeper.

First goal from Jufri was a header. A 50-50 ball between keeper and Jufri, somehow Jufri made it. Second goal was from Yew Min, who shot it after a through pass into the goal box. Nice goal.

Our side largely miss the the midfield strength we need to match up to the black. We ended first half with 2-0 down.

Second half saw Hamdan patching up our midfield. We put up a very good game for the second half. There was a good communication between Hamdan and Ajis in the midfield, and between Steven and Choong Wei in the right wing.

We had many missed chances. Tony missed a couple of shot at goal. Some of them were good passes from Hai Yee, from Hamdan and from Choong Wei. Somehow the ball end up outside the box. Johnny made a magnificent save from Hamdan's shot that would make Roy Caroll envious.

One header from Tony did went in though. With 1-2 down, this somehow, got our motivation up. But then time is almost up, there were not many scoring chances after that.

We somehow fix the midfield blackhole, I mentioned last week. One improvement. The defence moved up a lot, to the midfield level.

Our attack lacked finishing. Next game, I suggest we have practice of crossing-shooting before the game start. Then I need most of you around early to practice. Buck up Tony.. Practice shooting at home if you must.

We did what we can, but I think we really miss Rudy's and Alvin's midfield presence. We need to feed and finish.

Personally I felt the strain. I was catching my breath most of the time. I do not have the fitness level to run up and down. Improvement expected.

About goal keeping, it is a touchy issue. Should we have our own goal keeping? I felt that we are dependent on their keeper. And each time, their keeper late or absence, we suffer. Isn't better we train one of us to be keeper permanently? At least we get to train as we go along, rather than ad-hoc.

Goal keeper need games to improve.. It takes a while to learn the keeper-player understanding, the Do's and Don't, etc. At our stage, we cannot wait for their keeper's absence to train our keeper. I would like to do that once my little finger heals.

Overall I am less than happy with the things going on - my performance, the goal keeping issue, the rain and worst of all, the lost....

Perhaps I sound too pessimistic this time. David, shall I join with the Friday nite boozing? Maybe that will help. Nah just kidding.... We will revenge next week.

What do you think?

Casualty:
none

Prepayment Accounting (this part for my own note):
just in case you curious, i am deducting our appearance fees from the field booking i paid.
10 - 22 = -12