PMC 11-a-side Invitational League: PMC vs CMC (23rd October)

Absolutely beautiful weather greeted both teams as they arrived at the 'tiny' Changkat Changi pitch for PMC's 'home' match against CMC. As players were kitting up, Michael started to call players in for devotion. As a gesture of goodwill and friendship, the CMC players went round shaking hands of the PMC players. Michael shared from this edition of the Daily Bread and encouraged all who had placed their hope in Jesus Christ. Michael closed devotion with a word of prayer.

PMC players kitting up for the match

Jacob getting the match ball ready

As the pitch was deemed 'tiny' enough to be unsustainable for an 11-a-side match, the match proceeded with 9-a-side, and no offside rule. The PMC team was set-up to dominate the midfield with a 3-4-1 formation like this:

Yi Jun

Rusydi - Kevin - Kee Min - Jacob

Damien - David - Jeremy Sin

Sean

The match started with the pitch feeling tight, even though there were only 8 outfield players on each side. Also, CMC seemed to be determined to bypass central midfield altogether, by either launching a few long balls directly into the box, or playing the ball quickly to the wings for immediate crosses. All these were warning signs that were not heeded by the PMC team and within 10min, PMC conceded the 1st goal. A high ball was not cleared first time by Damien, and when Sean came off his line, the CMC striker just needed to head the ball over Sean and into the net. The early setback caused PMC to play better, with 2 good chances. First, Jacob's good run down the right wing allowed him some space to shoot, but his drive hit the crossbar. Next, Kevin and Kee Min closed down the CMC defence leading to a loose ball picked up by Kevin, but his stiff shot was directly at the CMC keeper. Having chances but not converting them (sounds like Liverpool...) came back to haunt PMC when too much space was given to a CMC midfielder to run at the defence and unleash an unstoppable shot into Sean's right side of the goal. With the team being 2-0 down, Michael made some changes with Kee Min coming off replaced by Jingzhong (who arrived after kickoff). PMC started to keep the ball better and won a corner. The corner was cleared behind and from Rusydi's 2nd corner, Jacob rose highest to head the ball into goal to bring the score to 2-1. From there, CMC continued to pressure the PMC defence with high balls, which the defence did better to clear. Yi Jun also came off for Jeremy Tan in the closing stages of the 1st half, but the score stayed at 2-1 when the whistle blew for half time.

During the half time team talk, Kevin emphasized that it was exactly the same situation as the 1st match played against CMC at St Pat's and in order to win, PMC would need to concentrate as CMC would surely not let a 2-1 half time lead slip again. The instruction was to start the match with an attacking 3-3-2 line-up to go for the early goal and put pressure on CMC. Also, the defence was advised to clear all high balls first time, and not to let the ball bounce. PMC was also further strengthened with the arrival of Martin during the break and he entered the fray in the following line-up:

Martin - Rusydi

Jingzhong - Kee Min - Jacob

Damien - David - Jeremy Sin

Sean

Within a minute of the re-start, it seemed that PMC's tactics had collapsed. A loose ball picked up by CMC in midfield saw a repeat of CMC's 2nd goal when the exact same player ran at a static PMC defence and unleashed an unstoppable shot. It was 3-1 to CMC, again identical to the previous match. Credit to the PMC players that they did not let their heads drop. Instead, relying on more passing to feet and taking advantage of Martin's experience and skill, PMC clawed back into the match 1 goal at a time. First, good work down the right by Jacob saw him play a neat pass to Martin, who held up the ball, turn his defender, then cross for an onrushing Rusydi to sidefoot a shot past the GK. Although CMC threatened through a number of high balls again, it was all PMC from there. Martin's first goal came when he latched on to a pass from Kee Min down the left and before giving any chance for the defender or GK to react, he fired an unstoppable shot with his left foot into the bottom corner of the net. Within 5min, Martin grabbed his 2nd, only this time, he had received the pass on the edge of the box and swiveled before unleashing another unstoppable shot that had the GK baffled. Lightning had indeed struck twice with PMC again coming back from 3-1 down to lead 4-3. There was even time for PMC to attack further, with CMC seemingly taking their foot off the pedal. Jeremy Tan and Lincoln also came on for Jingzhong and Kee Min respectively. No further goals were scored and the match ended in favour of PMC 4-3, continuing an unbeaten run of 4 games.

During the post-match team talk, Kevin commended the good team work and determination. He also emphasised the need to build psychological resilience during tough matches so that as a team, every player would be at the same level of concentration and be able to play for one another and not have to carry any player who was 'switched off'. Kevin closed in prayer.