~Where Emotions Are Expressed...~

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Today was the second round of the prestigious Nike Cup. And our team may already look like contenders. Today's group consists of us, Tanglin, Serangoon, Regent and Bartley. All of them are B-Div Teams.

Our first match was against Serangoon, the team that we hate the most. Some players from Serangoon have really bad attitudes. Especially their number 7 right winger. Last year during the C-Div nationals, we had a match against Serangoon, the number 7 was playing. I went in for our left winger during the first half. I was slotted into the left-back position and the current left-back,our vice-captain, was pushed up to the left wing. At that point of time i did not know the number 7 style of play. Soon enough, i did. I was elbowed, tripped and kicked intentionally by that idiot of a soccer player. Our vice-capt, was also harassed by him. Both of us really felt like giving him a piece of our mind. As though the foul play was not enough, he spat at our vice-capt and tried to look for a fight after the match.

During the Nike Cup match against Serangoon, i played at right-back, not facing their right winger. I had a bad game, much worse than usual for my timing to go in for the header was off. Though i made countless mistakes, the game ended in a draw where both us and Serangoon could have won. They drew first blood in the second half when our stopper misjudged the bounce of the ball resulting in the ball bouncing over him. Their striker capitalized on the mistake an released a left foot shot that was just out of reach of our keeper. The ball went into the goal just below the crossbar. After the goal, we pressured them with all out heart. Our hard work paid off with our striker equalizing in the second half.

After the disappointing draw, we resolved to win the rest of our games. Lady Luck was with us during the win against Bartley(And i had a good game against them). After we scored, our keeper made a mistake which almost resulted in a goal. The ball was bouncing at the penalty area with the goal at his mercy, but the Bartley striker completely missed the ball, allowing our last man to put in a tackle. Even before we had time to breathe out a sigh of relief, the loose ball fell to their other striker which proceeded to guide the ball towards goal with his left foot, but our stopper was at the right position at the right time. The shot went straight to him, which he cleared. BUT, the loose ball went to their midfielder who shot straight and true. Fortunately, our keeper managed to get a hand on it and put it out for a corner. I finally managed to breathe out after half a minute of holding my breath in. Another instance of close call was when it was their corner. Their huge striker got a touch on the ball with his head which headed towards the corner of the goal with our keeper beaten. Fortunately, i was at the right place at the right time. I managed to get my knee to the ball and cleared it away. We managed to hold on for a 1-0 win.

We could have scored more during the 1-0 win against Tanglin, but seems that Lady Luck loosened her hold on us. A wins a wins though. The game against Regent however, was a challenge for they had good wingers in the number 18 and 11. I was facing the number 11, but i felt strangely at ease when facing him. I had a particularly good game against them. I managed to contain the number 11, but i had to say that he was a handful. I faced the number 18 once, during the dying seconds of the game. Our cleared corner fell to him, who dribbled past our midfielder, but i was on hand to get the ball away from him. After the throw-in, the final whistle echoed in our ears. We had managed to snatch the top spot in our group with 10 points out of a possible 12. And we had qualified! From what i heard, we are the first batch of Victorian soccer players to get through the second stage of the Nike Cup. That is some feat. I would be overjoyed if we reach the semis.

This Monday, we have a Nationals B-Div match against Ang Mo Kio. This match is important if we want to fortify our spot for the quarter-finals. Wish us the best of luck!

Thanks...

Izz left at 4:04 AM

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