I did indicate my surprise to their team Captain Ronald; I told him that it was a veteran's team that we were expecting to play against ............. however the explanation given is that the team of veterans has undergone so much changes recently that they are now called NEXT FC.
Anyway, itu semua tidak mendatangkan apa-apa masa'alah kepada pemain UKRV betul tak? Kita masih mampu mempersembahkan permainan yang sungguh mantap & bermutu tingggi sehingga goalkeeper kita complained yang dia orang kena bayar RM10 match fee tapi tak dapat banyak peluang pegang bola (bukan tangkap ya!) in the 2nd and 3rd half. Tak apa, nanti masa hari practise kita bagi dia orang tangkap & kutip bola banyak2 bila kita practise shooting goals.
Tapi yang pastinya, kesemua pemain kita yang lama tak main football at this competitive level tu telah mula sedikit demi sedikit meningkatkan level of confidence mereka dan "mendisplaykan' (ma'af ya Bentara Guru, betul tak pengunaan bahasa tu?) sekali sekala football skills mereka yang terpendam selama ini seperti body swerve & turn, block and sliding tackle, ball control skills, floating the ball into the 18 yard area from the corner kick etc etc ..................... overhead bicycle kick aje yang belum! Ini Azrin kena cuba dulu. Malaysia boleh bang! Azrin pun boleh! Below is the group photo who played that night. Some are missing though, kerana datang lambat.
Walaubagaimana pun kita perlu stay clean walaupun beberapa kali kita di "ganasi" (especially StevenG, Shah & Amin). It shows you guys are good and the only way they can keep you in check are with all those "dirty tricks". We must stay calm and "toy" around with them. Tapi kita kena juga bermain aggressive jika situation memerlukan kita berbuat demikian. Aggressive does not mean kita main jahat/kotor ....... aggressive means we keep winning the loose and 50/50 ball dan committed to keeping posession of the ball. Body tackle tu biasalahkan, but rampant and tackle with bad intention to hurt should not be tolerated. Let the your Captain take it up with the referee. Kalau it is too much and the referee is "one-sided", we just need to walk off the pitch. No point getting ourselves hurt and in turn trying hard to hurt them. In the end tak jadi main bola nanti.
Coming back to the game; our "hard & tough" Fauzi captained the side in the first half. He commanded play from the back with Mohd, "Bentara Guru" Shariff and Chris forming the back four and Rustam keeping check in goal. And as usual, the 1st half was fast and furious. Ball possession was about equal on both sides. But I personally feel that our midfield was a bit too crowded. We could have spread play a bit more. Murti, Azhar, StevenG and Bab "Veron" was dictating play in the middle with Shah "Rooney" and Azmi providing the "fire power" upfront.
We could have done much better if we have covered both the right and left flanks well and fly in the crosses into their 18 yards box for the forwards to come in from behind and try to score. They did not have tall defenders like when we faced ISKL, so I feel the strategy might have worked well in our favour. We could have StevenG and Bab "Veron" providing the crosses in from the left and right side of the field. They were "holding" tight to Shah and the only way to get them out of that position would be to spread the ball play and lure them to the flanks. Well!, those are my thoughts ................
We finally scored a goal through Bab "Veron", Man!!!!!! what a thumping header. It was a well struck header from a well taken corner kick by "StevenG". The goal came half way through the first half. It was a 'beaut", well done Bab (luckily you cukur sebelum the match lah brother!, kalau ada rambut walaupun 1/2 inchi, the ball might have been deflected above the goal post!). A very well taken header and their goalkeeper was "temporarily blinded" by the reflection of the floodlight on your ........ tolong habiskan sentence ni ya. Tapi malang sekali, gambar tak menjadi, sekali lagi disebabkan light reflection from the stadium floodlight. Anyway it happened at the other end. Next time kena bawa tele lens lah pulak!
Tapi, apa pasal kita punya goal celebration seems to be a very "muted" affair bro??? (maybe dah jadi otai sekarang ni dan setelah score banyak sangat goal pada masa muda dulu ....... dah tak enjoy celebrating the goal yang kita score lagi ke?). Larilah macam kapal terbang lepas score goal tu! Buat "John Travolta" punya stance ke ......... kena createlah goal celebration, bolehlah teman-teman yang kat luar padang ni tumpang sekaki masa celebration tu!
............ boringlah, they had to equalise about 5 minutes later through their "fast" right winger. Itu pun kira "fluke" goal ..... the ball floated into the 6 yard box from the right hand side of the field by their winger; somehow it glanced the back of the head of one of our defender and went into the back of the goal. Our keeper was somewhat out of position, otherwise it should have been an easy pick by our keeper.
The second half saw a new set of players taking the field led by our ever present and reliable "Maestro" Mizi. He did well to organise play in the second half, putting the available players in their right position of play. We spread out the ball play and had several opportunities after breaking through their defence with through balls to Amin ................. had the timing of the through ball been better, we might have score a couple more goals in the second half.
With our backline comprising of OM, Mizi, Nik "Messi" Aziz and Kamil commanding play from the back, we took possession of the ball most of the time, switching play from left to right and vice versa. Raja Radzmi, Karu, Black and Azrin covered the midfield well, while Amin and Azrul provided the forward drive.
The second half saw our second goal scored through a free kick. I knew OM was going to take the kick as it is his favourite distance to shoot for goals (I had the unfortunate experience of facing his kick as a goalkeeper from that distance during the a Parents Team match against UKRC (dia main untuk UKRC masa tu) ................ OM is so precise and accurate from that distance (just outside the penalty box) and angle walaupun ada wall in front of him.
Kita combined the 2 sets of players from the 1st and 2nd half untuk bermain in the 3rd half and made some substitution half way through the 3rd half. In this way we were able give every player ample opportunities to "exhibit" their footballing skills and get use to match play football. Abdah stood in as goal keeper in the 3rd half and Hashim was given a position at the front. Play was mostly done in their half during the 3rd half. Again, we created quite a few chances and came close to scoring a third goal if not for the goal post.
Did you notice that UKRV has slowly turn to becoming a close knit group that can totally espouses camadarie that will forge bonds between the players. The bond among the players has been cleary demonstrated and shown on the field, for example, when a player makes a mistake, macam passing tak berapa betul, saya tak nampak yang lain bising atau menyumpah; sebaliknya saya nampak everybody tolong each other and I sincerely hope this will carry on .......... tapi yang buat mistake tu kenalah belajar tak buat selalu sangat, penat kawan tu bang nak cover!.
It was a good turnout by the team members. Kesemuanya 26 orang turn-up (yang main dan yang tak main oleh sebab yang tertentu). Thank you for your support to UKRV.
Congratulation to all players for the fine display of footballing skills and good sportmanship. I would also like to welcome Kamil (our son's under-11 coach) to the team. Terima kasih saya ucapkan kepada the ever present Abang Jo and Rashidi for assisting me and their invaluable services to the team off the field. Besides Abang Jo and Rashidi, I have decided to rope in the services and Raja Radzmi and Black to help organise and manage the Team. I hope this arrangement is ok with the team players.
Many thanks also to the spouses and their children that were present that night and who has given their undying support they gave to the team and to their beloved other half. Their support has given their other half the passion to play well last night.
Thank you also to you Aidit for your support ........ mana lagu kita? kalau dah ada, boleh bicang dengan Azrin. Azrin penyayi utama kita ....... selain dari bermain di padang, Azrin akan lead the chorus support semasa permainan berlansung.
Some of us stopped at Kinrara/Puchong R&R and had some makan and drinks while reflecting on the game we had. The group includes Mizi & Fauzi with their families; Hashim, Shah, Azrin, Azmi, Black and their kids, Amin, Rashidi, Azhar & me
Meanwhile, you can browse through the photos taken during the game here (just click on the line below):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sallahudinar/sets/72157619351111455/
Gambar tak berapa menjadi kerana tak berhati-hati dengan "exposure" rate malam hari. Kamera tak boleh bergegar, kalau tidak gambar tak focus ..... jadi blurr. Kena pakai tele lens untuk aksi padang under floodlight conditions. Gambar yang dipaparkan disini boleh di save dalam thumb drive and gi "cuci" di kedai. Tapi kalau ada photo printer sendiri, boleh lah cetak banyak2 and distribute kat kawan2. amal jariah.
We hope to have the next game on Sunday 21st June 2009 di padang UKRC. I will update you on that as we get closer to the date. Till the next match have fun playing the game.
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