Agape Cup Match Report #4 [25th May]

The weather was great initially- the hot morning was cooled by a cloudy sky and intermittent rain showers. This however was replaced later in the game by a much warmer afternoon as the showers dried up and the sun peeped out.

Due to a variety of reasons, the turn up for this game was not as 'strong' as before. Certainly, have 4 central midfielders out for the day gave Ronnie a challenge in fielding a balanced starting line-up but having said that, everyone present was certainly enthused to start the game, and gave their best for day!

Playing a 4-4-2 formation, FMC's midfield and forwards were pretty much encamped in our half for the first quater of the game. Individually, we defended well, but were unable to string together passes that would have led us out of trouble. With only 1 true central midfielder in the form of Kevin, there was a lack of compactness and cohesion in the middle of the park to take possession of the ball and keep it, allowing FMC to press wave after waves of attack. Passing between the midfield 4 of Kevin, Damien, Justin and Jingzhong was nondescript and up front, Samuel and Joel had few touches. After a succession of corners against us, one in-swinger saw Jeremy unable to hold the ball due to the wet conditions and we were 0-1 down.

Buzzed by the goal, PMC tried hard to counter the offensive but a quick ball through the middle saw their #8 cut through our backline. James tried his best to hold off the #8, who managed to fizzle a stinging shot into our goal. 0-2 down and we were starting to look a little more than rattled.

Having said that, we played better (decent) and kept the game pretty evenly matched for the remainder of the half. Andy and Daniel and fullbacks started to find their feet and wing play was better. A golden opportunity to score from a cross (or was it a corner) was unfortunately headed over the post from 3 yards out by Joel, who was left completely left unmarked by the FMC defence. Another well taken quick free kick by Damien was bound for goal from more than 30 yards out, but the crossbar prevented us from clawing our way back into the match. Like Ronnie mentioned later in the post mortem, perhaps it was not meant to be our day. These 2 opportunities would have clearly turned the match on its head and the momentum in our favour, on another day.

This was made worse in the last minute of the half when the defence was caught ball watching over an apparent off-side player- which saw another opponent make a dash from the midfield to slot coolly into our net from our left side, despite the best intent of James to cover the angle. 0-3 at half time to FMC and another tough job on our hands.

Substitutions were made at half time, with Glenn coming on for Samuel and Maurice coming on for Jingzhong to start the game afresh. The second half was a comedy of errors on our part. 2 yellow cards for James meant that we will miss him in the next game- 1 for a mistimed challenge, and 1 for an apparent 'block' at the half way line. There were another 2 goals from our opponents to add to the misery- One a misplaced pass/shot which slipped through Jeremy's gloves due to a bad bounce and another a super stinger from outside the box which went into the net, due mainly to the shot, and the fact that Jeremy's view could have been obstructed. We didn't have too many chances in the 2nd half. Ronnie's dribbling lent us a bit more control in the middle of the park but some 'squabbling' between our players and theirs due to some overly 'physical' play (use of arms, shirt-pulling and pushing from behind) from FMC players meant that the match was losing its flow. 3 attempted shots and crosses from distance by Glenn which sailed wide and long summed up the the kind of day that PMC was having- wasting possession and lack of teamwork.

In summary, this seemed to be a poor game on our part- defensively lacking cohesion, failure to control the middle and hence hold the ball. It was a pathetic result for us, but definitely a game our opponents deserved to win. Morally defeated, and physically, we could have done more to win the game. But again, being 1st time participants in the Agape Cup, it was a great learning experience on how we need to maintain the right attitude/mentality over the course of 90 minutes and improve from here. The next game against The Hiding Place will be another good challenge for us. Final score:

Faith Methodist Church 5

Pentecost Methodist Church 0

- Reported by: Mark Leong