PMC 11-a-side Invitational League: PMC vs RLC (25th September)

Excellent weather greeted both teams as players started to arrive at the 'neutral' ground of Junyuan Secondary School. The field looked very level and had mostly green on it, seemingly ideal for the game to follow. Once most of the players arrived, devotion time started with Samuel Eyo reading scripture (on the good Samaritan) and Maurice sharing on how we can be good 'neighbours' to one another.

Kee Min arriving with Red Bull in hand!

The PMC players warming up

Maurice leading the time of devotion

Players from both teams listening to devotion

Players from both teams listening to devotion

After devotion, RLC only had 9 players present, and so David Sng joined them, since he had been playing for the RLC Seniors during the recently concluded Caleb Cup. Both teams spent about 3min for a team talk before kickoff. We welcomed back Martin from injury, and also Daniel, joining us for the 1st time since his enlistment. PMC's teamtalk focused on remembering what we did well in the previous games, like playing a passing game, keeping possession and keeping it safe on defence. The following 11 started the match in the usual 4-4-2 formation:

Jeremy Tan - Martin

Jingzhong - Kevin - Kee Min - Jacob

Damien - Dominic - Jeremy Sin - Daniel

Sean

The earlier stages of the match saw PMC having the lion's share of possession, having 1 more player on the park. Ball movement was good, especially down the left flank where Jingzhong and Damien combined to win a number of throw-ins. Sometimes possession was lost in the middle of the park, but RLC wasn't able to fashion anything positive. Before long, a neat ball was played to Martin up front and he turned his defender before firing a low shot straight into the left hand corner of RLC's goal. It was 1-0 to PMC. As play re-started RLC's 11th player arrived and things started to get much tighter on the field, with possession even. Maurice made a couple of substitutions at this time, bringing on Samuel for Jeremy Tan and Lincoln for Jingzhong. Possession was still much in PMC's favour, with a few corners being one. However, on an offensive throw-in, the ball was lost and a swift counter-attack from RLC led to their equalizer. With the score at 1-1, both teams tried hard to take a lead into half-time, but to no avail.

The start of the 2nd half saw some changes being made with Kevin moving into defence, and Dominic pushing up to midfield. Weijie also came on for Kee Min, Michael for Sean and Yi Jun for Martin. Shortly after half-time, John also came on for Jacob and Maurice for Daniel. The much changed team did well with keeping possession and repelling the attacks of RLC by playing a high line. Most of the time, RLC's long balls were either too long, or too short, allowing PMC to clear the danger comfortably. When their balls did lead to dangerous situations, Michael was there to keep his clean sheet. Yi Jun and Samuel worked well to put the ball into the net, but it was waived off for offside. Maurice, after going in hard on a challenge, had to limp off with Daniel coming back on. With more changes being made, it was challenging to build an offensive rhythm, but Jingzhong (back on the field again) and Dominic did well to string some good moves, with Weijie and Martin (also back on the field) involved. In the final moments of the match, Jingzhong drove directly into the heart of the RLC defence and although the GK saved at his feet, the ball rolled nicely for Lincoln to finish from a tight angle. It was a less than a couple of minutes before the referee blew for full-time.

The post-match team talk focused on the good things that were done, especially the determination and teamwork. Maurice closed in prayer, afterwhich everyone warmed down and left.