Syukur alhamudillah, it did not rain yesterday when we played away against UNIKES UTM at their field in Jalan Semarak, Kuala Lumpur. Oleh yang demikian, kita dapat bermain tiga half didalam keadaan relatively dry conditions walaupun ada area of the field yang "lembut" tapi very playable.
Syabas kepada pemain yang telah turun padang dan beraksi untuk UKRV hari ini. We had a couple of new parents playing for the first time for UKRV. The team memperolehi kemenangan yang membanggakan dengan jaringan 6 gol berbalas 3. The goals were scored by Nor Amin (2), Kubad (1), Azhar (1) in the second half of the match and the other two goals were scored by Ali and Karuna in the 3rd half. However, there were at least 3 to 4 clear chances at goal that we had that should have been converted into goals for the team.
Nor Amin scoring his 16th goal for UKRVThe match saw the opposing team lost 2 players due to injury; one dislocated his elbow when he fell awkwardly after executing a tackle and the other suffered a hamstring injury after he attempted to head the ball a from a cross made by his team mate.
Unlike in the beginning of the season, our players have not been experiencing hamstring injury, muscle pull or tear or the dreaded torn ligaments lately. Even Garrett seems to have recovered from his nagging back injury and played well today.
In today's match, we were up against mostly youngsters. In the first half we were clearly unsettled. This could be due to the fact that we were playing with a new combination of players for the first time. Play was well balanced with both side attacking and defending. However our defense was quite susceptible and several times they were caught on the wrong foot. However the players managed to gel together towards the end of the 1st half and held the opposing team to a goalless draw.
Azhar blasting in his 4th goal of the season for UKRVFauzi, our Captain deployed an entirely new set of players in the second half. We finally broke the goal deadlocked 5 minutes into the second half with a header scored by Nor Amin from a cross by Azhar from the right flank before Kubad scored on his debut for UKRV the 5 minutes later.
UNIKES scored an equaliser a few minutes after we scored our second goal. An attempt at goal by their left flanker rebounded from our goalkeeper Abdah and their forward latched onto the rebound to score their first goal.
Azhar added another goal for our team from a well placed kick to the right hand side corner of the goal mouth. It was his 4th goal of the season. Thereafter Amin scored the fourth goal. Our forwards than took a breather from launching attacks into the opposing half. UNIKES took this opportunity to score their second and third goal. Our defense were caught square at the back this time around. Their relatively younger and faster forwards were able to twist and turn around our defense to score their second goal and third goal before we tighten our back-line. The match ended 4-3 in the second half.
Kubad about to score his first goal for UKRV on his debut.The players who played in the 1st half kicked-off the match in the 3rd half. This time around they played with a better understanding of each other movement and holding the ball well and we were able to increase our goal tally with goals from Ali & Karuna. Midway through the 3rd half, the players were replaced by the team that played in the second half before the referee finally blew the whistle at 7.15pm to end the match.
We had a good turnout of 25 players turning up to play for the team today. Saya rasa ada players yang tak berapa puas bermain. Apakan daya, cuma ada 1 1/2 hours of play time. Maybe we need to organise more games so that our players dapat bermain dengan sepuas-puasnya. I will try to organise another 4 friendly matches before my term as the Team Manager ends at the end of February 2010.
Karu heading the ball into the goal mouthTill the next game, stay healthy and enjoy the photos (sorry, some photos are blur .... I am still learning how to shoot sharp & clear images)at the following link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sallahudinar/sets/72157623056118453/I hope ada gambar saudara yang beraksi hari itu dalam album ni (at least 1). Kalau tak ada gambar saudara langsung, saya minta ma'af. Saudara boleh buat protest kepada saya & saya akan cuba "tangkap" gambar anda sebanyak mungkin during the next game.
