TDEML Report [14th July]

The TRAC District East Mini-League (TDEML) resumed on Saturday 14th July 2007 with our final away match against familiar opponents Christ Methodist Church. We were placed bottom of the league before the match and really needed a good result to finish strongly in the league. For this match, Captains Glenn & Sheldon started a call-up system to add some stability to the team. 18 players were called up.

The match kicked off without PMC's full squad as some players were held up with other appointments. The captains had to abandon their original line-up and make do with whoever was available. As such, utility players Kevin & Samuel Eyo were both deployed as forwards for the 1st half. Though very willing and full of effort, there were few clear cut chances for them to put the ball into the net. There was nothing much to show for either team in the first 20 minutes of the match. Both teams tried to control play and move the ball up the field. CMC looked more intent on using the wings while PMC applied a more direct central approach. The complexion of the game turned when out of what seemed like a harmless ball in the box, CMC scored their first goal through an audacious bicycle kick. Some called it a fluke while others applauded the sheer attempt of trying one of the most difficult moves in soccer. Either way, CMC was up 1-0 and PMC tried to get themselves back into the match. It helped that Daniel & JZ arrived to add some speed to the team. There were a couple of good chances to draw level but headers just went narrowly wide.

Changes were made to the team at the start of the second half, with the notable addition of the speedy and skillful Rusydi to the team. However, his twists, turns and runs into the CMC box did not bear much fruit as chance after chance either went begging or shots were saved by the keeper. An audacious chip by Damien even hit the crossbar. It was unfortunate that through one of the few CMC advances in the 2nd half, a deflected shot crept into the corner of the PMC net to put CMC up 2-0. Try as PMC did, they could not find a way to breach the CMC defence to score and the match ended 2-0.

The match saw PMC making some good in-roads in teamwork, communication and control, but it was worrying that the team failed to score for the 1st time in 2007. There will be more work to do and hopefully the team will finish the league respectably with the final match against BMC.

Christ Methodist 2

Pentecost Methodist 0

Pentecost Team

1. Jeremy Tan 2. Sheldon Liew 3. Tay Hong Yee 4. Kevin Ang 12. John Chia 13. Samuel Eyo 14. Glenn See Toh 16. James Lee 19. Adrian Phuah 20. Michael Chua 25. Choo Jingzhong 26. Rusydi 27.Daniel Low 28.Ronnie Liew 34.David Teong -Peh Choon Heng -Damien Chua -Joel Tan