The 16 teams were divided into 4 groups of 4 teams with the round robin matches in the first round with the top 2 teams in each group proceeding to the knockout phase. Very world cup like format. My team is called Starlite something (i forget the exact name) and we're in Group B with Whampoa CSC Team A, Soldiers and Namly. We arrived ontime & register our team promptly before proceeding for a very important pre-match preparation. That is breakfast time. Need to fill our empty stomach with some fuel. Our first game is schedule at 9.15am, so we went to the nearest kopitiam. I had a plate of vegetarian beehoon while YQ & HY took a bowl of prawn noodle each and Arab & Christian ate big bao. Unique kind of tournament preparation from the Singaporean amateur football team. We're still missing two players who hasn't turn up and HY's friend presumably just woke up and another fellow was uncontactable. We guess he must be in World Cup dreamland.
When we return to the fulsal football pitch for our first game, we were informed that the Whampoa CSC Team A has not turn up and all the teams in our group will get a walkover with a 3-0 win over Whampoa CSC. What the fish, we're actually not happy to get a walkover because we really wanted to play all three games in our Group. So, Soldiers and Namly in our group play their game first instead of us. Soldiers is a red colour team and made up of Indian boys (look around 18 to 22 years old) while Namly is a black & white stripes team made up of chinese players (look in their 20s). Namly beat Soldiers 2-1 in the first game and from what we seen, it doesn't seem that they're strong team. They can run, pass a bit but nothing too scary to worry us. The disadvantage on our side is that many of us have not play together for many years and this is our 1st game together after such a long time. Our team captain HY has earlier informed us to wear white shirts but stressed that no England jersey allow. We all know what happen ^_^. So we're due to play Namly first and here's our team lineup:
1) Goalie: WT , Age: 35
2)Defender 1: Christian , Age: 38
3) Defender 2: Arab , Age: 35
4) Midfielder: YQ , Age : 35
5) Striker: HY's friend, Age: 30
Supersub cum manager: HY , Age: 35
The game starts and we played like England. No style, no slick passing but with lots of passion. We did well to contain the Namly players though I had to make a few saves from their forwards.Nothing too serious but there are some wild shot efforts that skyrocketed above my post. Upfront, we huff and puff like England and the match was evenly contested. Finally, it took a defensive error from our defender to let in the black & white stripes striker to finally beat this 35 year old goalie from Starlite. HY came in for Christian and we tried hard for the equaliser. YQ managed to snatch the ball from the Namly player in their area , cut back and was ready to let fly at the opposition goal. It was a powerful left footer that unfortunately skewed off its trajectory & hit our striker HY's friend who fell to teh ground. Credit to him , he didn't give up and jostle the ball on the ground but it was soon recovered by their goalie. That's was the closest attempt that we have in scoring. Not long after, the whistle blew and we have lost our first game 1-0 to Namly. We felt we deserved a draw. We play with lots of English passion and our gameplan is definitely England style. Pump and try, not much coordination or passing.
Game 2. The only way to advance to the next round is to beat Soldiers in our final group game. If its draw, we're out as they have scored one goal more than us. Here's the team lineup for this game:
1) Goalie: WT
2) Defender: HY
3) Defender: Christian
4) Midfielder: HY's friend
5) Striker : YQ
Sub: Arab
We started very well as Yongquan robbed the Soldier defender of the ball and shoot at the goal. Unfortunately, it struck the upright. But it certainly boost our confidence. Very soon, the soldier striker got free one on one with me but I manage to divert away the danger in getting to the ball before him but he's still stuck in his foot into me which causes the ball to spill. Many shouted for foul and the referee protected me by awarding a freekick. As the match progresses, the soldiers were attacking in numbers in our area and its inevitable that the first goal has to come. I can't really remember how it happen because I conceded another goal. It was 2-0 down but our veteran team still try very hard to get back into the game. HY tried with a left footed effort but it went wide of goal. The Soldier striker was not contented with a 2-0 lead and continue to launch attack on the 35 year old goalie from Sembawang. One of the shot went underneath my hands and I had to do a "Robert Green & German Keeper" stunt to pull back the goal from the goal-line. The refeere did not award a goal and I'm also not sure whether did it went over the line. It matter little as Soldiers went on to win the match with 2 further goals that ended our tournament. We did an Argentina in this game with a 4-0 loss.
We enjoyed both games as the pitch was good and we had a good workout on Sunday morning. Only blemish is the other team which did not turn out, which mean we play one game less. 3 games would have been the perfect workout for this veteran team. We are also happy to go home early at around 11am ++ as some of us are still recovering from the world cup last night. Football coming home again. Its been such a long time since I played with these old mates.
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