A rescheduled match from 2 weeks ago due to
bad weather in unfamiliar Woodlands brought the team to another new ground in
SIA sports center at Changi, a full size astro pitch turf much bigger than the
typical MOE secondary school fields. As it’s the June school holidays now,
depth of the team is severely tested, coupled with last minute withdrawals on
matchday itself. A slight drizzle before the game was not enough to cool the
hot weather as the sun was blazing almost immediately.
PMC was assigned the ‘home team’ on a
ground that BFEC are definitely more familiar with. Being the home team,
Maurice led the singspiration followed by a short devotion by Jacob. With the
World Cup around the corner, Jacob begin by sharing the infamous goal from
Maradonna when he scored with his hands. Scripture from Ecclesiastes 10:1, As
dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and
honour. As good as Maradona was with his skills, that ‘handball’ brought labels
like ‘cheater’ to his reputation. It is easy for each of us to be tempted and succumb
to sin in our everyday life. We should always stay guarded and on the contrary,
every little good things we do will actually bring much hope and happiness to
the people around us. Sunday was also PMC anniversary, and as Jocob shared, church
members went around Pasir Ris to give residents little gifts, smiles reciprocating
from the residents are definitely a heartening thing to be felt. BFEC close the
sharing with an opening prayer and both teams got together for a photo taking
session.
Much adjustments were made to the team as a
couple of players could not make it. PMC started a strong team as always:
Joel
Damien - WeiJie - Jem Sin - Daniel
Sheldon - KeeMin
Issac - Tim - JingZhong
Jem Tan
BFEC kick-off the first-half as PMC chose the side without facing the glaring sun. PMC was able to get into game very fast, dominating the opening 10 minutes and pushing BFEC in their half. The midfield 5 won their individual battle and press BFEC hard, attacking down BFEC on either flanks and exposing BFEC fullbacks weakness. JZ easily outpace BFEC leftback on many occasion and combine well with Jem Tan to manage a couple of early shots. On the other end, Issac is able to twist and turn BFEC's right back, and combining with Damien, they both whip in many early crosses, one of which JZ is able to arrive late at the far post but failed to find the net. Hence it is no surprise that all this pressure and dominance soon brought PMC the first goal. Winning the ball in the middle, Sheldon sent an early ball down the right flank for JZ to latch on. A good first touch and a burst of pace brought JZ into the penalty box as BFEC leftback was left for dead. JZ's cutback managed to find Jem Tan, who sidefooted low and hard into the bottom left corner.
BFEC seemed to have woken up and got into their rhythm of passing play. Their key strength lies in the captain who played on the left flank. Everytime BFEC win back the ball, they would spread the ball down BFEC left flank to find their pacy captain. Long diagonal balls soon became the norm of play for BFEC as they try to play the ball between PMC back line, but PMC defence stood firm and covered all possible angle. Dan was always adequately covered by Jem should BFEC captain sprint past him, and equally on the other side when the long diagonal ball beat Damien, WJ was there to cover. BFEC started to become frustrated and attempted to enrage PMC players on any possible fouls and subsequent stoppages, they would snap at the referees for any decisions gone against them. PMC held off the late surges from BFEC to halftime.
HT: PMC 1 BFEC 0.
BFEC's big squad allow them to make a couple of changes while PMC begin the second half with the same team. It is PMC's turn to face the blazing sun and abit of a relief for BFEC to have the sun on their backs. PMC kickoff and straight away BFEC were closing down very quickly. They managed to intercept and very quickly before PMC could recover, BFEC had a 2 v 2 scenerio down the middle. Jem attempted to rush out to close the angle but was too late in stopping the through ball from BFEC captain that split PMC defence. The ball reached the mobile BFEC striker who calmly slot it past Joel. BFEC continue the high tempo start to the second half, dominating PMC tired midfield and sending splitting balls through the defence. Another such ball found the captain who sprinted past from the back of Jem to collect the ball. WJ make a last ditch tackle to block the shot and clear the ball. Unfortunately the clearance hit a clueless Jem from close and it rebounded nicely to the path of a stalking BFEC striker to put their team 2-1 up. PMC begin the substitution to give some much needed legs in the middle, as Eddie and WeiEn came on for Sheldon and Tim. An injury to Isaac brought injury plagued Jacob, who is still suffering from chest pain in the last game, onto the field moments later. JZ came out for Felix as well as his knees can no longer last the intensity of the game. Soon after, a heavy challenge on Jacob had Jacob sprawling on the floor clutching his chest and medic was rushed onto the field. Thankfully, Jacob is able to shake off the pain after catching his breathe again on the ground.
BFEC continue to make their changes as the heat wear off their players and they were now content to sit back and simply launch counter attacks via their pacy captain. PMC tried to launch attacks on BFEC goal but nothing productive can be make of the front players now. The best effort came from a free kick earned on the right corner outside of the box. It was a territory perfect for a left-footed strike and Damien delivered the free-kick to perfection. Almost too perfect that it beat everyone as well as the goal keeper but hit the underside of the bar. All of us thought for a moment that it was definitely going in, awwed by the flight of the free-kick. BFEC held out the last minutes and referee soon brought an end to a very hot afternoon.
FT: PMC 1 BFEC 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment