Soccer Fellowship Report 12/10

Saturday started off quite sunny, with some cloud cover, and a bit of thunder, thanks to God for holding back the rain, and letting us enjoy a good game of soccer.

Bangshi led us in a time of devotion. He talked about the importance of keeping a cheerful spirit and merry countenance despite our many troubles, not to complain but instead give thanks to the Lord for all He has done for you.

The game started with 11 reds and 11 blues, each team having an equal distribution of possession, many loose passes and interceptions. Both teams tried hard to penetrate, but eventually the blues broke the deadlock and the floodgates burst open with Samuel scoring a cracker. The blues earned a corner, and with david being the only one around, crossed it into the box. Marcus rose the highest to loop a header into the far side of the net.
After conceding 2 quick goals the reds started to look more aggressive with many searching balls towards the wings with felipe and daniel rushing to meet the ball on the left and right wings respectively to bring the ball into the penalty area. Apparently, a lack of support caused the reds to loose the ball quite often in the final third of the pitch. Kevin and Daniel did well to maintain possession around the halfway line to initiate another attack. But it was not to be for the reds, as a few minutes after that, there was some neat passing between Samuel and JZ before the loose ball fell to david and he fed it back for Samuel slide it into the net, putting it past the keeper at the near post. The fourth goal came not too long after, with a sneaky ball crossed by JZ and a defensive mix up to let david get by the near post before the ball cannoned off my shin into the net. Half-time score, 4-0.

As the second half started, most of us were quite refreshed. Samuel was a major force to be reckoned with in midfield, and he proved his worth when he saw david making a run, weighted the ball perfectly for him to take one touch and pass it off to Bang Shi, who took a first-time shot. It cannoned off Maurice back into his path, and he made no mistake the second time, scrambling it into goal. By this time the morale of the Reds wasn't that great, and they made several defensive errors. Another corner was conceded, and david took it with a low flighted ball into the box which was miscued by Andy and Samuel leaving Joel with the simple ball of side footing it home. David's brace came soon after that, with Andy playing a pass across the face of his defence to Maurice. He didn't see david nip in around him, and left with the easy task of passing the ball into goal. By this time, the reds were getting slightly discouraged, but managed to grind out some good plays through the middle and left wing on the counter-attack, Felipe, Justin and Daniel seemed to be rather influential in the midfield feeding balls the the strikers, on one occasion even setting up Jonathan one on one with the keeper only to be dispossessed by Adrian. The reds soon had a series of corners taken by daniel, with kevin and justin waiting on the edge of the box to pounce. On the counter, sandwiched in between these two goals was an amazing half-volley by Samuel from outside the box, which the keeper could only just manage to push over the crossbar. Final score, 7-0 to the Blues.

It was a great day of running and passing, albeit marred just slightly with the appearance of four cramps to David, Marcus, Daniel and Justin. We must remember to warm up properly before we play! x) Youths aren't that invincible, after all, haha. Everyone was joking about how we should rename it the Fellowship of Cramps. Lol!