Soccer Fellowship Report [20th Feb]

It was a nice cool afternoon as players gathered for this session. It wasn't as hot as previous weeks, but the field looked like the lack of rain had taken its toll on it. Players kitted up and got ready before John ushered us in for devotion. We welcomed Dave from the UK, who has only been in Singapore for 4 weeks. John shared on the topic of carrying one another's burdens, using a number of illustrations to show how helping one another can encourage people and also please God. This is so true on the soccer field, when all of us have different strengths, weaknesses, experience and fitness levels. Working together as a team helps make us all stronger!

As everyone who turned up would be involved in this year's Agape Cup, the Galacticos in Red/White faced off against the Veterans in Blue. The match started quite evenly but soon, the pace of the Galacticos' counter-attacking game caught the Veterans out on a number of occasions, although no goals were scored yet. During this time, the clear-cut chances actually fell at the feet of the Veterans but neither Steve, Andy or Kevin was able to break the deadlock. This wastefulness on goal was to frustrate the Veterans as the Galacticos were 3-0 up in no time, with only 3 shots on goal. All goals came from counter-attacks when the Veterans committed too many players forward. Yi Jun, Timothy and Marcus were the gleeful scorers of the goals. It was only after some tactical re-organisation and the arrival of Yuen Wai and Justin that the Veterans scored their first goal. A neat move saw the ball move from Andy to Justin before Steve scored from the right of the 18-yard box. It was surprising that the Veterans did not capitalise on this change of fortunes, again allowing the Galacticos to spring a quick counter-attack where Damien (who had come on mid-way through the 1st half) to blast a left-foot shot pass Michael Chua in goal. It was 4-1 to the Galacticos at the half!

The Veterans did more re-organisation after the break, most notably moving Ronnie further upfield, after he had spent the 1st half as right-back. This paid dividends immediately as he orchestrated a number of moves which pushed the Veterans goalwards. A number of these resulted in offside decisions, but the intent was clear. The breakthrough finally came when a one-two found Ronnie spring the offside trap to slot the ball pass Joel in goal. A few more good moves saw Justin and Dave score to level the match at 4-4. It was all to play for at this stage, and the Veterans turned out to be the hungrier ones. Ronnie led the charge with a slalom run through the Galacticos' defence, faking the last defender Marcus before slotting the ball pass Joel. In a few minutes, Ronnie completed his hat-trick when he showed good close control in the box to fire the Veterans up 6-4. The Galacticos had lost control of the match in midfield and many of their chances were hopeful punts. It was only at the last kick of the game when they managed to capitalise on the complacency of the Veterans to break through on goal and have Jingzhong score by lobbing Yuen Wai in goal. It was a most entertaining goal-ful session.

Ronnie gave the post-match de-brief and encouraged all to work on their fitness, first-touch and composure. He and Steve also encouraged the Galacticos to work on their team-work, instead of playing individually, and to not be discouraged when things don't go their way. Yuen Wai closed us in prayer and thanked God for keeping all of us injury-free.