Saturday, March 14, 2009

Season Opener - JAFC 0-2 Prisons

The season's first game took place at the new Prisons sports complex. The field was decent and even had quite an impressive drainage system.

The match went underway with long balls from the Prisons team aimed at their left winger, the one whom they called "Sir". Sir proved to be quite the tricky customer, able to retain the ball well, and threatened with his pace and crossing. However, that was as far as he got in the first half as Nadeem and Andrew teamed up well to dispel any potential danger.

The first half drew to close with JAFC giving away a couple of unnecessary free-kicks at the edge of the box as Prisons started to keep some decent possession and committed more men forward. JAFC were almost punished when a shot from just inside the box from Prisons was palmed away excellently by Aziz for a corner.

In the 2nd half, Prisons started to rely less on the long ball and instead started to look for short passes towards their mobile strikers. This mobility was also ably provided by Sir. When on one of his runs, he turned up on the opposite flank and managed to dig out a delicate cross beyond Aaron's outstretched legs to the far post. The excellent ball did not go to waste as the striker steadied himself to head the ball past Tianci for the opener.

Undaunted, JAFC began to instill some urgency into their play, with the coach opting for a more adventurous  3-5-2 system. JAFC began pinning Prions in their own half but were let down by the final ball. 

This new formation had its risks and was susceptible to the counter-attack. Alas, on one such counter, the brave men from JAFC were undone when Sir cut in from the left flank past Junrong and Jerry, and placed a right-footed shot past the keeper.

In the closing moments of the match, Jerome found himself free in the box after a quick free-kick from Zul. Faced with a tight angle, Jerome opted to shoot instead of squaring the ball into the middle for Pramod. The Prisons keeper dived low to his right and made a great save, consequently drawing a scream of despair from Pramod.

Final Score: 2-0 to Prisons.

Lineup: Aziz (Tianci), Jerome, Aaron, Jerry, Andrew, Feroz, Fuhang, Zul, Nadeem (Junrong), Weiming, Victor (Pramod)

Post-Match Comments 
Coach: I thought we had a good game today. We need to learn, and we will only get better. Some of us looked a bit tired, and knowing that we can only make 3 subs per game, it will be useful for us to not only turn up for training, but to do our own fitness training as well.

Coach to Zul: Today OT ah. (Pointing to the fact that Zul never plays a full game)

Coach to Jerome: I wanna know what you are thinking when you are running with the ball.

Reporter's afterthought: We controlled the game but weren't incisive in the final third. Prison's had 3 shots on goal, with 2 going in. This shows you that not only mistakes cost goals, but the inability to take our chances as well. This is only the first game and we can definitely get better with more training and playing time. Unlike Vidic, who had a shocking game. Lesson #1 for defenders - NEVER let the ball bounce!

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