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Sunday, September 21, 2008

Woo the match against the sec 3's was a blast!!! Just like what i had predicted. Heres how the day went-- starting from after school.

Well, firstly directly after school, me, matthew, ben and chun kit took a cab to safra cause it was already 2.15pm and that the match would be commencing at 3pm. We thought that most of the players would already be there therefore were willing to part with our money. But, upon reaching the field, NO ONE WAS THERE!! Wah wasted 5 dollars altogether man. Even the sec 3's were not there yet. while waiting Matt and i did some warm ups first such as jogging and stretching while Ben and Chun Kit went to get some food due to them not having eaten their recess. We thought that after 10 mins or so, the rest would start to come in but we were wrong. After 20 mins, not a single soul had arrived yet, with the exception of Ben and Chun Kit coming back from their meal. Matthew was like super pissed man, kept looking out and grumbling constantly.

After listening to his grumbling and complaining for 15 mins or so, everyone started to arrive. By then, my body was already warmed down but who cares, i just went for some drills before the game.

After the short drills, consisting of passing, shooting and crossing, our captain( Keane) grouped our team together and discussed the formation with us. He told us that we would be trying out with a 3-4-3 formation. At first, many of the players started protesting against the positions that they were given and told him what positions that they wanted to play. This left Keane in a dilemna and sent him deep into his own thoughts. After a few minutes of silence from him, he finally resuggested a formation and assign the players to it. Still it drew a few complaints but when it was known that we were only going to test it in the first half, everyone accepted it. Phew! The formation would be still be 3-1-3-3 and the players were--Gk: Chun Kit,Defenders:Mandel,Nick,Wei Bin, Defensive midfielder: Keane, Midfielders: Cher Yong, Zi Jie, Ben and Attackers: Me, Matt and Kevin. We had one sub, Jing Lu, who would play a crucial role later on. Well, now lets move on to the actual match itself. Actually im not too sure about the timeline and the actual happenings of the whole match, so forgive me for missing out on some stuff guys. I'll just explain the match in point form.

1st Half

1) The sec 3's dominated in the middle while we threatened from the wings.

2)After some good movement and shuffling in the sec 3's penalty area, Ben made a created a superb chance for me but my shot just came off the top post.Argh!! So close for my 1st goal!!!!

3)From a corner, the sec's floated a corner into the edge of the penalty area,to Chi Min who was unmarked. with a single touch of the ball and a shot,the ball sailed into the net. 0-1.

4)Again, i think it was another 2 more corners where where the sec 3's scored 2 more goals. 3-0.

5) Tension was starting to rise among our team and more and more mistakes were being made, both in attack and defence. The fluidity in our play was gone and allowing the sec 3's to put their swift counter-attacking style to good effect. Luckily for us, they failed to capitalise on their chances.

6) Then, just before half time against the flow of play,with jing Lu brought in, a sudden back pass to the sec 3 keeper, Zhou Yang, caused him to miskick the ball backwards, towards his own net, with Matthew, our main strikercto make sure of the goal, whacked the ball in.So Matthew *Ahem* scored a goal finally after a drought.

HALF TIME
The team talk was great, with all of us expressing our frustrations to our calm captain about the match, and discussing ways to improve our performance in the second half, especially with our team trailing by 2 goals. Although the atmospere was a bit tense, we did not let the tension to get the better of us but instead, motivated each other to improve our performances. In summary of the half time pep talk, we were told that our wing play was not working as the service provided by the wingers were ineffective with no one willing to throw their bodies to divert the ball in goal. The defence also had to be reshuffled and asked to concentrate and focus while the midfield had to close the opponents down so as to provide as little space as possible for the opponents, with their goals all coming from long ranged efforts.

Hence, our formation was changed to 4-3-1-2.The goalkeeper remained the same, defenders(from right)-Nick,wei Bin, Keane,Mandel.Centre Midfielders-Cheryong, Ben and Matthew( out of position), Attacking midfielder-ME!!! and strikers- Zi Jie and Kevin. We were abandoning our Wing play to try to dominate the centre of the field and stop their attacks from building up.

2nd Half

7)We started playing like a team as we started to dominate in attack, constantly hogging most of the possesion in the midfield area, thanks to our 3 defensive midfielders.

8)After quite a long build up from midfield, the ball somehow fell to my feet. I tried to look for options around and saw Cher Yong, Ben and Matthew unmarked at left , centre and right respectively.But because their defender was charging towards me, i had no time and choice to think but to pass to Ben who was the nearest and directly in front of me. Ben, with a feint and turn, shot the ball towards the goal, and thanks to a slight deflection from a defender, the ball floated comfortably into the net. 3-2.

9) The sec 3's constantly attacked through the left through chi Min. He was fast and his large amount of stamina never ceases to amaze me. Luckily Nick's stamina matched his 1 for 1 and nick won most of the battles from the left. However, as Nick's pace was no match for Chi Min's speed, Chi Min occasionally got the better of Nick and was able to send in brilliant crosses and clever passes into the box. This was the closest times that the sec 3's threatened us the most.

10) A nice through pass from the outstanding Ben found me at the half way line unmarked. I dribbled to find the angle and space before sending another through ball to Cher yong.He found kevin at the penalty area and directed a pass towards him. Kevin controlled the ball well, swivelled and shot the ball hard towards goal. However, the ball did not even manage to get 1 metre due to it hitting a defender on the hand. Penalty!At first we did not even bother about the penalty call as most of us were too busy laughing. This was because Kevin was lying on the floor clutching his leg. He had suffered from leg cramps-yet again.LOL. While he was being carried off the field, Zi Jie kept saying my name and asking me to take the penalty, so pressurising lor. As i placed the ball on the spot, nervousness crept into me.I thought-this could decide the game. If i scored, the the score would be level and a huge burden would be lifted off the teams shoulders but if i missed, well, lets not talk about it.I chose my spot-bottom right. I kicked the ball with a controlled amount of power afraid that too much would cause it to fly over the bar. As the ball flew towards goal, i shiver went down my spine. The ball did not move towards the location that i had intended it too but was much closer to the keeper. Closer and closer the ball flew towards the goalmouth before touching the keepers leg and
DEFLECTED INTO THE GOAL!!!! WOOO!!! FIRST GOAL IN SAFRA FOR ME!!! 3-3

11)From then on, we were the better team all the way. However, it was still thanks to our defence, with keane lunging at the feet of a striker to deny him from point blank range and Nick's airtight marking of Chi Min prevented him space to trouble us much. However i would like to compliment Wei Bin especially as he dealt with the pressure he recieved by teammates from the 1st half well. He denied the opponents many 1 on 1 chances against our keeper with his discipline at the back and strong defending. Ben's comment best described him:'' He was like Bramble turning into Vidic in the 2nd half." Nice one Wei Bin!!!

12)After that, there were 2 goals from Zi jie from the same situation and position. From corners taken by me, with the ball swerving outwards, controlled by Zi Jie before unleashing a shot.Goal!! 5-3

13) Zi Jie was denied a hat trick just before the final whistle, with his long range effort hitting the crossbar and back. Soon after, his day ended with him getting his 1st leg cramps in a soccer match. Nice one ZJ.

Yeah, and thats the end of the match.Cool Huh. Sorry that im unable to fully express the details well cause my english is not that good you see. Ta-Ta.

5:10 PM

Thursday, September 18, 2008

I wonder why im still awake and writing on this blog. There is a big event going on tommorow which requires alot of my energy and concentration to be put into. The event im referring to is a soccer match between the sec 3's. The reason why this match is so significant is because due to the o'levels looming closer and closer, this would be the final soccer match that we would be playing till the end of the mind-boggling exam. This match is also kind of nerve wrecking as ever since our club was founded by our captain Keane, we have yet to win a single match so far. Hence, it would be great to finally win a match and go into the examination theatre without any regrets.

The reason why this match was organised even though it is so close to the 'os' was because of the constant bugging of the team members wanting to have a final match before the exams to act as a motivation to work harder. After thorough planning and much postponing, the match was finally "officially" set for tommorow. Even though there was much argument on the dates and venues for the match, a conscences was finally reached, thanks to Keanes leadership. Now, the next part would be to finally win our fiirst game. Wish us luck!! And if possible, come and support us at Safra at 3!! although it should already be too late..haha.

11:31 PM

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Its September 17th and 3.35am in the morning. Im sitting on th sofa of my house waiting for the Chelsea match to resume. The opponents being Bordeux. Its half time with Chelsea leading 2-0.
Sometimes i would wonder why im doing this, this year being the O' levels year and all, and that i should be catching up some sleep and stay up till the wee hours at night to prepare for the o's instead of watching tv. However it is because of matches like this that makes me cast aside any thoughts about the exam and just relax. Actually, my main purpose for watching the game was because i wanted to catch a glimpse of 1 player in action instead of my favourite team,Chelsea, play. That player is Gourcuff,the young french playmaker which i've heard so much about. However, i did not manage to access his abilities much due to Chelsea hogging most of the possesion as usual hence not letting him have much of the ball to play with.Instead, im watching a Chelsea side playing back the kind of attractive football again which was lost after the 4 nil demolition of Portsmouth. It is this kind of matches which makes me feel that i have not wasted my time.

Well thats it,the match is starting soon. Cya!!

3:35 AM

Monday, September 15, 2008

Today was a great day!!! We had 4G outing to Sentosa to celebrate the end of our prelims. It was like totally awesome man!!Because i didn't take physics,which was the last paper of the prelims, i did not have to go to school the whole day. However,despite me having so much fun, the day did not seem to start of well. When i woke up in the morning and opened the windows of my bedroom, a cold breeze smacked right at my face.Yes, it was raining. Upon feeling this chill in my face, a worried thought filled my mind. Could such a wonderful and much anticipated day go to waste just like this? As i was still a bit blur due to having just woken up, i decided on taking a bath first before pondering on the issue.

Well, if u want to know, the bath was great and very refreshing and i felt like i never wanted to get out.Well, partly because it was freezing outside too.

However, after the bath and stepping out of the bathroom, i almost screamed for joy! It had stopped raining and the sun had almost broken through the thick clouds surrounding it. YAY!! Praise the lord!! I quickly packed my stuff for the trip and rushed against time to meet my friends at harbourfront.

I arrived at my destination at 1010, 10 mins late(Dang!). Luckily almost all my friends were very nice and tolerable and welcomed me with open arms even though i was the only latecomer. Its nice to have friends like them=). Well we ate our breakfast at subway and chatted for an hour or so before heading for SENTOSA!!!

Sentosa had really changed a lot since i last went there as a kid. It looked very much more cleaner and advanced than a few years back. The view of the beach was also much more refreshing and also had a therepeutic feel to it. For today, we only went to the beach.

As it was still very early and also a weeday, there were only very few ppl there, the majority being the tourists. Hence, we found a spot for our bags quite effortlessly and with ease. After settling down, the boys went for some beach soccer!! It was really fun!! Although it was my first time and my skills were substandard, i still found it very fun and hilarious as many of us kept falling down due to the uneven sloping of the sand. Eventually, my team lost to the better team.After the match, we went for a short break. The looming clouds were all gone and now the sun was shining down on us, drawing curses and complains from my classmates. The constant beating of the suns rays on us caused many to dip into the sea to cool themselves down, while the others just went about doing their own stuff( Most of them went to buy drinks as the heat was almost intolerable).

After the refreshing rest, we went to play frisbee, but instead of using a frisbee, we used a ball. It sure was fun. There was just the right number of people playing, 8 a side i think,therefore not making the space too cramp or too expansive. Although it was fun, it was tiring as well, coupled with the sun shining brighter than ever which contrasted by what it was in the morning, our energy was drained away faster than ever and there was a constant need to quench our thirst with one of Gods greatest creation- Water.

We stayed at the beach for a really long time and by around 3 plus, the beach was filled with many people. We also found out that there were other classes from our school that came to Sentosa for a break.By 5.30, we were all changed and prepared to bid our farewells to Sentosa and leave for our class dinner.

Yeah!! Thats it, the end of such a superb and fantastic day.Although all of us got sunburnt, no one could complain that this trip was a waste of time. How i had hoped that the time did not have to pass so fast and make us leave the place so quickly.
At least we had many of the memories kept through the photographs we took during the outing.But most of all, Its all thanks to our monitor and monitress Liang Kai and Ci Hui for letting us have such a great day.

11:21 PM

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Hi all!! Thanks for visiting my blog and reading my first post. Well, to start of my blogging life, i will only post a short post about myself such as hobbies favourite subjects and food. Hope it doesn't bore you to death.

First of all lets start of with my hobbies. Like an average person, i love to play computer games, sports and hate to study. However, i would prefer sports games, especially soccer ones, to the other kinds. Why soccer and not tennis, rugby, basketball, etc? Well, im not sure why either, maybe its because i got to know the Beautiful Game at quite a young age. The fact that the sport requires us to master the control of our legs to be able to play makes it really unique and appealing to me. However i only got to know about soccer during the 2002 world cup. It was really by coincidence really and i really must thank GOd to let me stumble upon this wonderful sport. I remember the day really clearly as if it only happened yesterday. It was raining on that day and i could not go out to play. So, being a typical small kid, i turned on the tv and started browsing the channels. As the shows being broadcasted on tv looked boring, i kept switching channels till i was blinded by a green light. I blinked and immediately saw someone kicking the ball and blasting it past the corner post. If i am not wrong, it was Paul Scholes(Still playing for England at that time) . I was very curious on what the people on the green stuff were doing. But after watching the match for 10 minutes or so, i started to get more and more into the game and my heart raced when a player approached the goal and shooting. Hence, this match was the one that made me fall in love with soccer.

However soccer is not my only hobby, the others include tennis, table tennis swimming and jogging. As you can see, most of my hobbies are sports and not from any other categories. Im not sure why myself either, so dont ask.

Secondly, my favourite subjects. I like english but am not very good at it, hate humanities and suck at it even more. So yeah, from inference, u can see that im not a studying person.

Lastly,my favourite food. Hmm..i dont think that i have any favourite food cause i eat practically everything. Im also not really sure that i hate any kind of food except for tomatoes and the school's western stall.

Well, and thats the end of my first post. Sorry that its kinda boring cause i was rushing to post it. Hopefully my next post will be better. Cya soon!!

9:17 PM