Soccer Fellowship Report [18th Apr]

It was the 2nd derby friendly in as many weeks between the Pandas and Panthers and the wounded Panthers look to avenge their earlier loss to the arch-rivals 2 weeks ago. Putting on opposite colours this time round, the Blue Panthers aim to instill back confidence into the team following their season opening 1-3 loss to COA. The Red Pandas on the other hand was on the back of a 3-2 friendly home win last week, look to finish off the pre-season with another win before their season opener next week against COA.

Observing a minute silence for the Hillsborough incident, Kevin opened the session with a devotion, about how our perspective on life and situations are limited, compared to the unlimited knowledge and perception of God. He used the illustration of how a baseball player acted on his own impulses during a match, against his coach's instructions, leading to the opponents taking advantage of what happened. He encouraged us to be led by the Holy Spirit and be mindful of simply acting on our own understanding of what is happening around us.

It was a scorchingly hot afternoon, with temperatures hitting 36degrees on the pitch as the players throt onto the field. The Blues kickoff the first half trying to dictate play with the midfield triangle of Ronnie, Keemin and Rusydi passing the ball around and linking with striker Tim. Afew drap passing allow the Pandas to come into the game more and it was the Reds who were more threatening infront of goal, especially speedy gonzalez Darren. So it came to a no surprise as the reds got the lead early in the 15th minute when Darren fire the ball past Joel. Pandas have afew more chances after that, with Jem striking the ball just wide from a corner and darren almost reaching a through pass only for Joel to come out early to collect. As the halftime approaches, the Pandas started to slacken and lose concentration caused by the hot weather. Panthers step up their pressure and Choon Heng managed to intercept a loose pass of leftback Nigel and slotted it past Michael. Afew more random passing and referee blew for the end of the firsthalf. Everyone was relieved as they head to the coolers and shade to cool off abit.

Panthers tinkerman must have given a great speech during halftime as the blues look to continue where they left off in the first half. Pandas kickoff the second half with the same gameplay, winning all the 50-50balls having collected all the second balls. Unfortunately mistakes once again by the reds gave the Panthers 2 quick successive goals. An inswinging corner in the 60th minute from the right was volleyed home by Kevin as he shake off Daniel easily. 5 minutes later, Daniel attempted to dribble up from the right and was robbed by Timothy and he shake off any challenge to lob it past the helpless Michael once again. With that the Blues began to sit deep and allow the Pandas to attack at them but they were well contained until the 75th minute. Once again it was the preseason top scorer Darren who manage to get the ball down the right before unleashing a ferocious drive past Choon Heng. Sensing a comeback, the Reds kept trying but were letdown by too many individual plays. The final whistle finally came as the burntout players head back into the tunnels.

Final score: Panthers 3 Pandas 2.