Match Report for 3rd May 2009

Heyo!!
We played against Jubilee, a team thought to be relatively weak, due to their position on the league table, and their scores from 2 previous matches.
Players selected for the match were:
1. Jeremy Chua
2. Mervyn Soon
3. Jason Wong
4. Chao
5. Benjamin Fong
6. Hilmann
7. Ian Tan
8. Sam Cho
9. Ken Phua
10. Shawn Kong
11. Dinesh
12. Marvin
13. Sean Tan
14. Kang Yang
15. Jared Wu JianCong
Playing a hard fought match, and with pressure to win our first match of the league, the players tried hard, and were rewarded for their efforts after SSC were awarded a penalty mid-way through the 1st half. Dinesh calmly and cooly converted the spot kick. However, the celebrations were short-lived, as the opponents pulled 1 back within 5mins. Seen by many as an attempted cross, the ball managed to catch the keeper off his line and dipped behind him into the goal, although many would call it a fluke, but a fluke goal is still a goal unfortunately, 1-1. The score stood at half time.
SSC began the 2nd half searching for the elusive 2nd goal to take the lead again, however it did not come, but instead SSC found themselves under pressure many-a-times and were finally caught on a counter-attack, committing players forward, and the back-line tiring with each chase, the opponents strikers took advantage of the fitness and speed to score not 1, but 2 goals in the 2nd half. It could well have been more, if not for the ever-present Jeremy in goal and some good interceptions by left back Jason. Captain Ian Tan tried to motivate the team and push them, he tried to lead by example, pushing through his exhaustion, he chased down every ball and went in hard for tackles. The team tried to respond but were beaten by the sheer fitness of the other team. SSC did come close to pulling 1 back, a cross goal effort by Dinesh saw the ball hit the post but the ball did not go into the net.
The team tried their hardest and was apparent as many bemoaned their missed opportunities. But as with most football matches, you win some and you lose some, just hope that we win some soon :) hahaha. Keep your heads up SSC, take off the pressure and enjoy the game!! Seems like every match we're learning something, and I think its great. Lets keep striving to improve our game. The refereeing of the match was left wanting once again, many questionable calls in many areas, but SSC managed to keep their head in the game and played on as best as they could and not calling against the referee. The captain and manager did go over to talk to the referee and the league's representative, who was present at the match, after the game ended, to point out that our players do not seem to get enough protection, among other things. In any case, we'll leave the decisions up to the committee to decide, and we'll continue to play our game.
After scaring the league with our 4 yellow cards and 1 red card in the first match, we actually managed to keep a relatively clean game and ended with no cards at all after the 2nd game.

Our next match is at First Toa Payoh Secondary School once again, also at 5pm. This time we're playing against Teban Thunder. Lets keep focus and push on to try and win the match! Cya Sunday!

~chao (",)

P.s.
By the way, there will be a break of 3 weeks in June, because a good majority are church teams and many churches will be having camps and stuff in June, therefore there will be a break from 6th June till 21st June. Games will resume on 27th June. Also there is a captains ball friendly at KumYan Methodist Church on the 26th of May, so there will not be a match on the 26th of May either. Have a good break/rest!