PMC 11-a-side Invitational League: RLC vs PMC (30th October)

The final match of the PMC 11-a-side Invitational League took us to St Patrick's School as no other fields were available on 30th Oct. For that, we must thank Mark Chan from CMC who made the arrangements. We were also blessed with very fine weather as we gathered at the field around 430pm. The only slight downer was that many players were unavailable either through work, family commitments, NS or illness, leaving us with a bare-bones squad. Nonetheless, the 12 players all arrived on time and had a good warm up before kick-off. Devotion was shared by Randolf from RLC, who encouraged all present to take the offer of salvation seriously.

Randolf sharing devotion

PMC players listening to devotion

Mark praying that his comeback would not end prematurely

With both GKs out, Jeremy Tan donned the gloves for the 1st half. Also Mark made an early comeback from injury to partner David in defence for the 1st time this season. The team lined up in a slightly altered 4-4-1-1 formation:

Yi Jun

Weijie

Jingzhong - Kevin - Dominic - Jacob

Damien - Mark - David - Nigel

Jeremy Tan

It took a while for the team to settle into the match, with the quick surface and speed of our opponents overwhelming us initially. The defence also was put under pressure by some quick through balls that required last minute interventions and clearances. On one of these, the ball was only cleared slightly out of the box where the RLC midfielder was able to steady himself and fire an unstoppable shot past Jeremy to put RLC 1-0. The early setback seemed to do PMC good as there was a lot more composure on the ball and nice moves down the right hand thereafter. Jacob, Weijie and Dominic were making some good forays down the right and one of these led to the equaliser when the ball found Yi Jun in the box. He turned and volleyed first time to fool the RLC GK to bring the score 1-1. The match was quite even at this stage, but a controversial moment led to the momentum shifting in RLC's favour. A long ball in the PMC box was not cleared first time and the high bouncing ball found its way in-between Mark and David, who both tried to clear with their heads. Inexplicably, the ball came off one of their bodies, but out of no where, the referee deemed that one of them had handled the ball intentionally, awarding RLC a penalty. The RLC players themselves were surprised, but their captain gladly stepped up and coolly slotted the penalty away to put RLC 2-1 up. From there, RLC took the wind in their sails and really stroked the ball aggressively to put further pressure on the PMC defence. Although some of their through passes saw their forwards caught offside, they were not to be denied, with 2 goals coming from identical circumstances. Cross-field balls were misjudged by the defenders (in part due to the evening sun shining right in the field of view of the defenders) and the RLC forward only had Jeremy to beat on both occasions to put RLC 4-1 up before the break. PMC tried to force their way back, but long shots from Dominic and a couple of free kicks barely threatened the RLC goal.

The half-time team talk by Kevin focused on keeping the ball better, involving Jingzhong more in attack and clearing the ball first time for the defence. Also, Kee Min had arrived to offer some extra legs for the 2nd half (even though he completed a 30km run earlier in the morning). The following re-jigged side took to the field for the 2nd half, with Nigel in goal:

Yi Jun

Lincoln

Jingzhong - Dominic - Kee Min - Jacob

Damien - Mark - David - Weijie

Nigel

As much as PMC tried to hold their ground in the 2nd half, RLC pretty much started where they left off, using their wingers to good effect, especially down PMC's right side. As much as the PMC defence tried, loose balls often found their way to the feet of the RLC players and their 5th goal soon arrived through much the same fashion as the 1st half, with a defence splitting pass finding a forward with only Nigel left to beat. PMC continued to try to fashion more goals, but to no avail. Things were made worse when the introduction of Jeremy as an outfield player saw it end prematurely when 2 fouls on RLC players saw him being given 2 yellow cards, and sent off. It was certainly not to be PMC's day, but that should not take anything away from a superb RLC performance of fast-paced attacking football.