Goals and Visions for SSC

Something I shared about at a meeting on sunday.
From my understanding, Saturdaysoccerclub (SSC) was formed because a group of guys from KumYan really loves to play soccer, and opportunities after everyone graduated from school are limited because there's no more "school team". And in KY, we always had a group of guys playing soccer anyways, so afew guys came together and formed this team. Over the years, we've had players come and go, be it because of overseas studies or players going back to their home country etc. Leadership of the team has also been handed over afew times, and most recently to me from Bas and Shawn Kong, both of whom went to Australia for studies and army respectively, that was somewhere mid of 2008.

At the beginning of 2009, I talked to Jurgen Ho about helping me out in 'running' SSC. Since then we've been constantly talking about the team and how we can improve. Recently, I talked to a good friend and I got this insight from him, that to really enjoy a good game of soccer, tactics and trainning are important, and that coming together to just play friendlies and making the same 'mistakes'/errors for every game is frustrating for many. Of course on the "good" days when we play weaker opponents, we can boast of our win, but when we play teams like the one we played last saturday against the Sabah team (who probably plays regularly on sundays), we get humbled.

Thus, I thought about it and came up with some goals and visions for SSC. Things I am hoping that we can achieve, also something we can strive for perhaps?
I love the fact that we can always invite friends, classmates, relatives, colleges etc to come join us in a friendly game. But at the same time, some players have reflected to me, and I see it too, that we are mostly at the age where players peak in their playing, which is around 26-28, and many of us want to improve and play better football. There is also a group of players who would like to keep soccer as a casual sport.
Therefore, I'm currently asking and looking for players who wish to improve their game by becoming "core" players of the team. These players are required to commit their saturday mornings to games/trainings etc. Of course when circumstances arise where they aren't able to come down, all they need to do on their part is inform Jurgen or myself. As of now, there are no fines or any forms of "punishment" and I really hope we do not need to do so, we will see as we go along. These "core" players will of course get priority to play games, however there may be some games they'll sit out to rest or give other people a chance to play. Trainings will also be a requirement to attend, and though we do not have professional coaches, many of us do come from teams previously and have some sort of training knowledge, so whatever we know, we'll share and train together. I do not foresee many people being able to commit to being a "core" member, especially at this early stage, but with whatever numbers we get, we will work with and hopefully all learn together and share with one another our experiences!
I have not forgotten about casual players and friends, relatives, colleges etc of players who would like to come join us for some friendly fun. Jurgen and myself will still continue to contact everyone whenever there is a match to play or tournament that comes up. And I do hope to have all your support in building this team to not just become better soccer players, but that this will be a team where we can all have fun and have fellowship with one another.

The goals and visions may not be the clearest or to some it may be alittle short-sighted (or lack of long-term goals), but I hope this is a start we can all work towards, and hopefully soon we can have more goals and in-depth visions. Hope to have your support!! Thanks and God Bless!!

~chao (",)

Updates!!

Hello!
Just wanted to give some updates since my last one.
We've played 2 matches since then. One against some old boys of Ang Mo Kio Sec I believe, or so I was told. That game ended 0-0. A game we probably should've won, but poor finishing was our weakness for that game. Tany had several first time shots but they all went wide, but kudos for trying, good efforts. Defensively we managed to limit them to afew long shots, and having Ben Fong as our shot stopper helped alot. I can't really remember much of that game however, but I do remember we did well despite the lack of goals.
The other match we played was just the weekend that passed. Incidently also a team joining the Sporting Light League that we're participating. They are a relatively strong team in terms of their passing, shooting and speed, in short, they're pretty good haha. We played on one of the worst pitches I've played on thus far, one of them at least. Apparently it rained earlier in the day or the day before. The centre area from one side to the other side was like a mud pool, I was soooo afraid I'd twist my ankle (which I almost did). But credit to the other team, their passing was really defense spliting and they were really fast which gave the defense and midfielders a real headache. By the end of the first half we were down 3-0. We knew we had to play higher up to minimize their midfielders control and giving them less time on the ball, but our defense lacked the speed and stamina. On came Ben Fong who volunteered the central defender's role. That marked a significant change to the game. We played a high line and when they used the long ball tactic, we had Ben chase and slow the player down while the rest of us try to get back. Ben's energy and encouragement really pushed the team to work harder. The difference in energy in the team was evident. Everyone worked hard, ran hard and kept them from shooting as much as they did in the first half. I firmly believe this team we played opened our eyes to see the difference in standard of football at different levels. To be honest, if we played the way we did in the 2nd half for the entire game, I do believe we could've actually won it, provided we don't faint by then haha! But that really tells you how hard the team worked in the 2nd half, we scored 2 and they scored 1, final score for the day was 4-2, another defeat. It has been awhile since we last won a game, but I don't think its because we aren't good enough, in fact we could've been winning, but as far as I remember, we lost afew due to lack of players in a game and missed opportunities. This last game we played has for me at least, opened my eyes to another tactic of playing the game, they were quick, had lots of off-the-ball movement, the game required a fast centre back, which we kinda never had to use before. Good experience for me. I believe many of the players learnt new things too, like spreading out and using the flanks, pressuring the opposition and not giving them time and space to look up etc.
That last game also saw the welcoming of Uncle Keith to the team, debut and he did tremendously well at right back, with 100% commitment in his sliding tackles. Also Uncle Dennis who played his debut at the Ang Mo Kio match. I want to mention everyone who played in the last game because I believe they should all be recognised for the tremendous effort running around and playing with such tenacity, a different level of play then we've ever played before in my honest opinion.
Hope I do not miss out anyone:
Edward
Alvin Hoi
Ben Fong
Jason Wong
Uncle Keith
Lionel Ngooi
Marvin
Jiahao
James
Eduard
Sean Tan
Ian Tan
Simon Lim
Jared Wu (Cong)
Uncle Dennis
Ken Phua
Good job guys, even though we lost, but I think in the 2nd half we came back strong and we took the game to them, gave them little time on the ball, they couldnt hold on to the ball as much and were pressured all the way through. Well done everyone!!

Just an update on Sporting Light League. League will commence this weekend, but we postponed our match because its YC 10th Anniversary!! YAY!! We welcome one and all to come join us to celebrate and see the faithfulness of God in the lives of the ministry we call Youth Connection! Therefore, our first match will be on 26th April 2009, 5pm at Temasek Sec!! We will be getting a new set of jerseys as many do not have the red set we are currently wearing. Numbers and names are to be printed on the jersey as well. Thus players numbers are being chosen at the moment. Our dear players overseas, I do need you to let me know what numbers you guys would like, UNFORTUNATELY though, some numbers have already been taken because we held a meeting last sunday, and priority was given to them to choose their numbers. However, no number is set as yet, except for number 14, which many of us agreed to let Kang Yang take over his brother's old number. Therefore other than 14, please let me know, either by email or by the chatbox on this webbie which numbers you'd like, please state your top 4 choices. If you really really really want a number that has already been taken, I'll let you know who asked for that number and you can discuss with that player, just let me know what the agreement is afterwards.

~chao (",)