Friendly match .vs. CMC report [2nd Jan]

The 2010 competitive soccer season began with 23 players turning up for the 1st friendly of the year, again hosted by Christ Methodist Church. Their new home ground at St Patrick's School was recently re-turfed and the artificial playing surface was looking good for a run-out.

Wei En, Jingzhong, Nigel and Jeremy arrive early to kit-up

Andy shows us how to warm-up properly

After the usual warm-up and catch up after not having seen one another for quite a while, Kevin welcomed new members to the team - Neil Smith and Timothy Cheong - and gave a very brief team talk to explain how playing time would be distributed, especially with so many players present. The emphasis was to give everyone a run-out and get back into shape, both physically and technically and there would be 2 teams, each playing about 20 mins per half.

The 'younger' of the 2 teams started the 1st half well. There seemed to be quite a lot of good passing and the intent to keep the ball and use the flanks was quite evident, with both David Lim (RM) and Jingzhong (LM) seeing quite a lot of the ball. Darren (CF) also had a never of chances to run at the defence and PMC was dominating most of the play in the lst half. Kee Min (CM) and Damian (CM) were also controlling things from the middle of the park, with Jeremy (CB) and Marcus (CB) assured at the back. It was usually a stray pass that led to the breakdown of play for PMC. When CMC did have a chance to attack, the defenders dealt with the danger well. Nigel (LB) looked especially sharp in defence. It wasn't long before PMC took the lead. Daniel (RB) played a good through ball to David on the right flank. He took it past the defender, cut-in to go one-on-one with the CMC keeper and finished off with his left foot. 1 - 0 to PMC! A well-deserved lead.

It was a couple more minutes before the slightly 'older' team took the field to press PMC's advantage. The only remaining players from the 1st 25 mins was Kee Min and Felipe (GK), who up to this point was untroubled. The older legs tried to play a more passing game, with Yi Jun (LM) looking lively down the flanks and Neil (CB) and Mark (CB) easily repelling any CMC attacks. There were no clear cut chances for both teams up to half-time.

After a brief rest and team talk, the 2nd half started with the 'younger' team again taking the field 1st. Some changes included Rusydi (CM) and Bevan (AM) slotting into midfield, with Mike Chua as GK. CMC also changed almost their entire team, with some pacy players in attack. The 1st 5 mins of the match was quite even and then a flare-up took place in the middle of the field involving Bevan and a CMC player. The referee and team-mates pulled the 2 players apart, with Felipe (AM) coming on for Bevan to calm the situation. However, much to the shock of all players (both PMC and CMC), the CMC player followed Bevan off the field and attempted to assault him. More than 2 CMC players were needed to hold him back, but no one could stop him from rattling off expletives and curses at Bevan. Credit must be given to Bevan for keeping his cool and volunteering to sit out the rest of the match to try to restore calm. The match, which had been played in good spirits, was jarred by this incident.

As match got underway and the half wore on, PMC found more chances coming its way. Rusydi (CM) made some nice moves from the middle of the park and most notably, Darren (CF), Felipe (AM) and David Lim (AM) worked well together to create chances, with the CMC keeper having to pull off a wonderful save to prevent Darren from scoring. As a result of his heroics, the keeper injured himself and was substituted. PMC took the opportunity to give Marcus a run-out as keeper, with Mike Chua slotting in at RB and Daniel moving in as CB. However, this switch led to 'disaster'. A mix-up between Mike and Daniel saw Mike play the ball short to a CMC forward, who waltzed past the shocked PMC defence and easily slotted the ball into the net.

With the score at 1 - 1, the older legs once again came on, this time to try and restore PMC's lead. However, positional discipline was slightly poorer this time round and even as David Sng (CF) tried to hold up the ball in the final third, there were few options to create genuine chances. On the part of CMC, they had a number of chances which could have given them the lead, but some nice saves by Marcus (GK) and with some help from his right-hand post, PMC did not concede any more goals and the match ended 1 - 1.

Regardless of what happens on the pitch (defensive mix-up, ugly confrontation etc...) we can still sit down and have a laugh after the match. A testimony to our friendship and common goals!

Mark Leong showing us that his suspected 'permanently damaged' groin is ok!

After a brief team-talk to point out good performances and areas for improvement, all the players gathered for a short time of sharing by CMC's Pastor David Gwee. A self-professed Liverpool fan, he used the example of poor season, depression and bad things happening to illustrate the need for God to have hope in our lives. After the sharing, players had some food and drinks (thanks CMC!), fellowshipped and left for home. Overall, it was a good run-out to start the 2010 season!