Sweet Victory

gosh i'm still addicted to the billy joel song...

anyway, we won! finally after four matches into the ntu-organized futsal tournement (read john's take of it cuz i'm too lazy to recall - the bend it like john entries), we won our first match. and against the team at the top of the table (hall 2) somemore!

i've always said we play much better when we don't substitute players in and out so much. and sadly, no offence to some of those in the team, but they really can't cut it lah, once they come into the game i'd get demoralised. anyway without erm, some of them being substituted in today, we actually held out really well against a top-ranked team.

we started with paul as 'keeper, john and sundar as defenders and myself and zhikun as strikers, which, in my opinion is probably the best line-up anyway. i learnt that ben kuah has quit the team liaoz so that explains zhikun's inclusion in our side.

the game started like most other games when hall 2 scored first because of a fumble by paul. i dunno why he always makes wrong decisions at the wrong time and i feel damn bad for always shouting so angrily at him when we play, but deep inside i know he's really been a great keeper for us this whole tournement.

the inclusion of zhikun in the team really did wonders even though he was still quite green to the team. his eager first time tonjo of an equaliser was a rocket that could have ripped the net and i was damn relieved we equalised (like we could start from level again). i think that was quite decisive because it lifted our spirits ( for a moment i thought we were gonna be in for a thrashing).

the second goal was courtesy of yours trully, a simple kick-back after zhikun (again!) tested their keeper with another rocket. it's all about being at the right place at the right time.

the third goal was a brilliant exhibition of the kind of chemistry that john and i really have (i wish the whole team was lidat), he took the ball down the court, got double teamed and gave it to me and i dribbled down and knew he would be running down the flank and thats where i left it from an acute angle on the left side. kudos to him for latching on to my pass so well and scoring from the acute angle.

half-time 3-1 we were up.

the second half they came back really strongly and tested paul quite a few times (told you he was good). they scored the second goal (i think it was the ex-ivp eddie who scored) from the left corner at a really acute angle, so acute we all thought we shot into the side netting and even the referee wasn't sure if it were a goal (but he gave it after consulting the largely hall 2 crowd).

it is interesting to know that by this time a bunch of supporters had gathered around the blocks surrounding the hall 2 futsal court (it was their homeground indeed) and were screaming for their players to jiayou and crap. but i think that motivated us all the more.

our fourth goal was once again by me, this time our pressing paid off and they fumbled on a backpass which no one wanted to run for and i latched on really quickly. the goalkeeper was out of the zone to take me on but i managed to shoot a cheeky shot through his legs. haha. poor sod. the goal came out of nowhere but it proved to be the decider.

they came on to us really strongly and had quite alot of good attempts wasted by poor finishing (i thought we were damn lucky), and even managed to scored a last-gasp goal due to a defensive mix-up. in the end we held on still and managed to keep them away from goal. a win thats really sweet indeed! final score: 4-3 to us.

i'm aching all over now though. think i must be getting really unfit.