It was a bright and sunny Sunday afternoon, only perhaps a tad too scorching. You could literally feel the heat rising up from the ground and beating down on your backs. However, that did not deter players from both teams to turn up in almost full strength. We hoped that the scorching sun would not contribute to any flaring tempers.
After a short warm-up, the teams gathered together for a word of prayer to commit the match to the Lord for His protection. The starting line-up for PMC kicked off the match in the familiar 4-4-2 formation:
Isaiah - Yijun
Jingzhong - Kevin - Kee Min - Rusdi
Damien - Dominic - Weijie - Jacob
Maurice
The first 20 minutes belonged to CMC as wave upon wave of attacks beat onto the shores of the PMC defence. However, the PMC defence held on resolutely with timely clearances and good saves from the goalie. This brought a sense of stability to the team as PMC pushed forward in the second half of the first half. After soaking most part of the pressure, it was good to give some. And from a well taken PMC corner, the ball bounced to Isaiah, who needed no invitation to smash the ball into goal with his outstretched right leg. PMC 1: CMC 0.
Within the next 10 minutes, PMC's second goal would come from a well floated-in free-kick from Rusdi, which found the head of Yijun (or the head found the ball, whichever) who guided it into goal. 2 : 0. CMC, however, was not going to take this lying down; from the team who appeared most likely to score first, they were now trailing by two goals. They got their just returns when a perfectly taken corner floated over Jacob at the near post, was too high for the onrushing Maurice to punch out and nestled into goal just before Damien at the far post could get to it. It was game on!
The second half saw quite a number of changes as both teams sought to give as many of their players a run-out as possible. It was evident that both teams 'suffered' from the changes as play became less fluid. However, it was PMC who had the better chances for the second half, missing at least 2 sitters. Would we rue the missed chances?
Jingzhong watches after coming off. Nigel waiting to come on.
Rusydi & Yi Jun chilling after a good performance.
With one last surge, CMC went all out in attack for the last ten minutes, setting up a nail-biting finish. Maurice was called upon a couple of times to palm the ball away to safety. PMC conceded around 2-3 corners in the last 5 minutes. In the final cornerkick of the game, CMC's corner was met with a strong header that was surely bound for goal except that the goalie's head was in the way and the ball deflected to safety.
Shortly after, the referee blew the whistle for full-time. PMC had emerged 2:1 victors in a game which was played in good spirit and sportsmanship. Three cheers for CMC!
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