Soccer Fellowship Report [26th March]

Really fine weather greeted the 18 players that arrived on time for kick-off. Before that, we welcomed Jacob's colleague Auric, who was joining us for the 1st time. Yuen Wai (safely back from Japan!) led us in a time of devotion, focusing on why God allows suffering in our world, using the current Japan disaster and Jimmy's fight with Leukemia as examples. After closing his devotion in prayer, the players grouped up for kick-off.

Trying to push down the wall helps us to warm-up

Yuen Wai sharing devotion

The players grouped themselves into 2 teams of 9 - Reds .vs. Blue/Whites (BW). It was evident from the start that the teams were evenly matched in all areas of the field and the first half played out that fact. Even though ball movement was good and there were many probing moves into each other's penalty areas, both GKs had a solid game, along with their defenders. Sean, Jeremy Sin and Marcus for the BW and Kelvin, Weijie and Yuen Wai held their ground well through the whole half. Even when Dominic (Red) did put the ball in the back of the BW net, it was a result of a prior offside decision, and waived. When more players arrived to bolster each team to 12 players, space became a premium on the field on this decreased the chances of any free-flowing moves and the ball ending up in any net. The half ended at 0-0, possibly the 1st time a goal-less half was experienced at Soccer Fellowship.

After some brief team-talks led by David (BW) and Ronnie (Red), the teams trudged on the field to resume battle. Clearly both teams were out to find goals as there was much ball movement and attacking intent. Ronnie was the 1st to have a few chances fall to him, then Weijie and Daniel for the Reds, but all were not capitalised upon. For the BW, Marcus and Jingzhong drove deep into Red territory numerous times, and newcomer Benny seemed to have the ball stick at his feet when he waltzed through the defence. All these produced no goals. The breakthrough finally came when a good move between Jeremy Tan and Ronnie allowed Ronnie to find space on the left of the box and fire the ball into the bottom corner of the net. 1-0 to the Reds! As play resumed, an unfortunate incident took place when Viji (back after a 2-year break as a result of a knee problem) challenged for the ball with Jacob and injured his knee again. After a short break to attend to Viji, the BW searched for their equaliser and this came when the Red defence couldn't clear their lines, allowing Jingzhong to send a low cross into the box for Benny to stab home. It was 1-1 and game on. With the Red a man down, the BW proceeded to apply tons of pressure and were rewarded when Jacob slalomed through the defence to curl a low shot into goal. Not long after, a loose pass from Yuen Wai was pounced upon by Marcus, who had the simplest of tasks to score. With the score at 3-1, the Red tried to comeback and even things, and were able to do so, again with Ronnie and Jeremy Tan involved. It was Ronnie the provider this time as he laid on a sweet low cross for Jeremy to fire into the net. As much as the Red tried to press for the equalizer, it did not come and things finished 3-2 to BW. It was indeed a good workout for everyone.

In closing, Kevin reminded everyone to remember Viji and Jimmy in prayer. Yuen Wai closed the session with a word of prayer.