Update 7 July 2009

Hello,
An update on 2 matches played in the last 2 weeks.
As posted earlier, we got a good trashing of 9-2 the week before, the score was 3-0 to them at half time. The unfortunate keeper to have 9 goals conceded to his name would be yours truly, even Jeremy Chua our resident no.1 hasnt let in that many goals in 4 games. Speaking of which and side tracking alittle, we want to thank Jeremy for his many contributions, without whom we might not be in the position we are in today. We also want to wish him well and send him off as he begins his journey to serve our country. We will see him soon, and if can somehow get fitter than he already is, WOW haha, thats how fit he is. Anyway yes he will sorely be missed, and in the mean-time, not any less of a keeper, we will have Benjamin Fong, who's been working tirelessly in defense for us for most of our games to take over the GK reins. I have no doubts of his abilities and I look forward to helping him build a wall in defense. Back to the match report, the opponents were very much the better team, more well organized, fitter, and they have probably played with each other for a long time based on their really fluent passing. We can argue that we could've matched them if we had a proper keeper and more key players present, but fact is that at the end of the day we got beat. From day 1, my philosophy for the team is, who-ever we can get in the team, we'll make do, there are obvious players we seem to depend on, if they can play great, but if not we'll still go on and do our best. Credit to the opponents though, their goals arent sloppy ones. There were 2 I distinctively remember, because they were rocketed from just outside the penalty box, and as tall as I am, couldn't reach up to parry it over, maybe I jumped too late I guess. But they were pretty well struck. There were mis-communications in defense which led to afew goals as well, and it didn't help that they split our defense with really well laid through balls.
It wasn't all glum for team SSC. We actually managed to threaten and hold the opponents for a good 15-20mins in the first half. It wasn't until the first goal that the flood gates opened and the team found it difficult to recover. I can't remember at which point we pulled back a goal, but it was somewhere in the 2nd half, Dinesh helped pulled a goal back, and we all hoped it would somehow jolt us all into pressing them back. But I remember it wasn't before long that they scored at least 1 or 2 more, before Dinesh scored another to try to salvage the situation. All in all, it was a match many of us want to forget, at least I do haha. But it also serves as a reminder that the league has teams that are pretty good, and we have not even played the top 2 teams. I'm not saying we will definately lose, but I will also say, we shouldnt get scared or complacent no matter who we play. I'm proud of where we've come, I see certain changes in team attitude, we work hard and we encourage, wouldn't want it any other way. I think we're off to a good start in terms of laying the foundations of how we want to build our team, we're still very unpolished, and still very raw in terms of being a team to be reckoned with, but we're getting there, we're doing good :)
The team for that week was:
1. Chao
2. Sebastian Soh
3. Simon Lim
4. Jason Wong
5. Lionel Ngooi
6. Derek Ong
7. Jurgen Ho
8. Jeremy Kowk
9. Dinesh
10. Kang Yang Yu
11. Shawn Kong
12. Hilmann
13. Ian Tan
14. Ken Phua
15. Sean Tan
Want to thank them all for their hard work and despite the loss, we tried and we pushed but, we really lost to a good team. Special thanks to Jeremy Kwok and Derek Ong to come help us out in our lack of players. They really put in their all and I sincerely appreciate it, hopefully they'll play for us again hahaha.

Just this past sunday, we played another match, with a very different outcome, and with a proper keeper this time, in fact we had all 3 available keepers turn up, 4 if you include the poor soul who let in 9 goals the previous week, HAHAHA!! Jeremy was in goal, Ben Fong was in defense and Edward was our winger. The day did not start off too well however. Because of the AYG or some other reason, the Singapore Sports Council, also known as SSC (but not saturday soccer club hahaha) took back the fields originally used for our matches, thus we played at a normal field which is not astro turf. We played at Blk 367 Yishun Ring road, which we played before against, co-incidentally, one of the teams thats also in the league we're in, the Sabah team A.K.A. KK United. That friendly match ended in our loss of 4-2. I remember that that pitch was really bad as it had rained heavily and it was a mud bath. So bearing that bad memory, I was alittle worried about the pitch conditions. But I was re-assured by some players who played on the same pitch on saturday that the field is actually quite good and well taken care of by groundsmen, as long as it did not rain. Well, what would you know, on sunday, it didn't just rain, it POURED!! It was so heavy that on our way over driving on the CTE, I could barely see 200m ahead of me. Many players called to see if the game was still on, and I also called the organisers to see if the game will be called, of course remembering the last time we played on the field, we ALL wanted the game called haha. But as the official couldn't be reached, probably because he was refereeing a game currently going on, the organisers replied that the game should still go on until the official says otherwise. Thus we made our way down.
Once at the venue, the referee actually mentioned he would probably call the game off as the pitch was sorta water-logged, imagine our joy. However, the other team actually mentioned they did not mind playing, since they've already been warming up and they were all suited up and all. I seriously thought they must be crazy to want to play on a muddy water-logged pitch. Some of our players went on the field to check it out, and in the end, even up till now, I dont know how we came to the conclusion to play the game -.-"
So game on, we had 12 players who came down for the game.
1. Jeremy Chua
2. Jason Wong
3. Chao
4. Jared Wu Jiancong
5. Benjamin Fong
6. Hilmann
7. Ian Tan
8. Ken Phua
9. Edward Zeng
10. Jurgen Ho
11. Dinesh
12. Luke Tang
Its kinda funny because I remember how everyone was dreading playing on that field, and how we were skeptical that the game would continue, we joked and laughed at the void deck where we were thinking the match would be called eventually. Alas, for some strange mysterious reason we went on to play the game. It was difficult to play on the pitch, because of the water-logging situation. I remember Edward's comments after the game, how he waited for the ball when it was crossed to him, but bounced on the water and skidded away from him, so the next time he got smart and ran to anticipate the ball skidding, but instead the ball stopped dead as it landed, causing significant misery to Eddie's day hahaha. We managed to control most of the first half, and we capped it off with a goal from Jurgen who took a well placed shot to the corner of the goal from just inside the penalty box.
The 2nd half wasn't as clear cut as the first as many players started to tire, and with the lack of substitutes, we were all pushing our limits. 1 more so than others was Jared Wu, better known to us as Cong. He used to be our 30min man, first 15mins of the first half and last 15mins of the 2nd half. But in this game, he lasted the entire game. And his determination to keep to his post as a centre-back and help the team achieve its goal was apparent in his war-cry exclamations through-out the 2nd half, many would think it was to scare the opponents (and it could probably have been too), in the end it was his way of pushing himself, when he felt he couldn't run anymore. He shrugged off players like they were a fly waiting to be swatted, he was someone you did not want to mess with. But it wasn't just Cong, every single player on that pitch that day gave their all, and on a muddy, soggy, water-logged pitch, it takes twice as much energy to play in. Even our goal-keeper pulled out all stops to keep the opponents out, and he did tremendously well, I think majority of the team would agree that every game he played in, he would be a nominee for man of the match. If anyone reading this gets "bored" of how I always praise the team for how they pushed themselves to their fullest and gave it their all and think I'm just repeating myself, well, I am because its true, and if you don't believe, come see for yourself. Every player, no matter how fit or unfit gave 150% effort. You can argue that all teams do that, and I sorta agree, but I'm looking at THIS team, SaturdaySoccerClub (SSC). I'm proud of the players and their commitment, however little the contribution I appreciate because in that little bit I see more than 100% effort. Anyway, pardon the digression, back to the match report hehe. Edward got injuried early to mid-way through the 2nd half, so we had to play with exactly 11men for the rest of the match. Jurgen then extended our lead with another goal, and with quite alot of luck. Not many people know the exact sequence of events that led to the goal. Jurgen took a chance at a long range shot from outside the penalty box, it appeared that the keeper had a good clean grasp of the ball, so majority of us turned around, and just as we turned back we suddenly see the keeper scrambling to keep the ball out of the goal. It appeared that the keeper had not gotten a clean grasp of the ball, but instead caught but let the ball slip and it somehow bounced into the goal, and like I said I don't know how it happened, but 22 stunned players looked at the referee to see what the decision was, GOAL!!!!!! Hahaha, imagine our surprise, but we'll take it anyhow. The last 15mins or so was quite a test for the defense as everyone was tired, and the opponents still seem to be able to push forward, with 1 of the strikers an obvious danger-man because of his speed. It was in the last 10mins that the opponents had a foul given to them at the edge of SSC's penalty box, by this time, the field was almost in darkness with little bits of light coming from nearby HDBs and whatever little ray of sunlight that was left. The opponents took a direct driver into the bottom corner of the net and scored the goal, Jeremy was finally beaten. But SSC held on till the end to take the 2-1 win. Great game guys.

Sorry for the extremely long post, especially since its 2 match reports haha, and also seemed very EMO, but I really am proud and thankful for all the players, friend's of players who've come to help us out and not forgetting the girls who've come to support us and tolerate our soccer talk haha. Lastly I don't want to forget KumYan Methodist Church, they've graciously let us use the church van and let us go back to church to bathe after the game and all. I am really hoping that we can grow to become better players and also to be able to bring our friends and even train younger ones soon in the future, in the meantime, we need training ourselves hahahaha!!! Thanks for tuning in :)

Cheers
~chao (",)