MiB drew 1-1 in a hard fought match at St Wilfred's on National Day. The 3pm kickoff brought with it the blazing sun, but the weather got better as the game wore on. MiB started with Harvey in goal, Harish at right-back, Prak and Harry in the centre of defence, and PP on the left. We played with 2 defensive anchors in the shape of Puvan and Faizal. On the wings were Kevin and Maran. Sat partnered Philbert in attack while Riz was on the touchline at the start.
The match started in typical MiB fashion. All out attack without saving anything for the tank. The opponents kept playing us offside and although we got better with this as the game wore on, it is still something we need to work on.
About 15mins into the game, a long clearance from Harry was headed on by Sat and the ball fell into Kevin's path. He coolly lifted it over the onrushing keeper, with Philbert chasing after the ball trying his best to get the goal ruled out for offside. Luckily the goal stood and MiB's early pressure bore fruit.
The opponents started to make their way back into the game and had a free header shortly after. Harvey managed to parry and Prak cleared the danger. A couple of half-chances followed for them again as they grew confident from MiB's constant offside calls. MiB tried to hit them on the counter with Maran, Kevin and Faizal's pace, but did not register too many shots on goal.
To their credit, the opponents had a pretty safe keeper. His kicks were massive and on one such long punt, caught Riz out, who had come on for Prak at this point. The ball sailed over his head and as he was backtracking, the opponents striker pounced on the ball and volleyed it past Harvey. A bit hard done by but it was 1-1.
The first half was soured by an incident involving some MiB players and the opponents. Rizvi's searching ball was chased by Sat who collided with the keeper, who upon which reacted as though he was hit by the Batmobile. He said some unncecessary things, and that caused Bert to run 20yards to confront him and that led to some pushing and shoving. Luckily common sense prevailed and half time ensued.
Some tactical changes were made at half time. Harvey came on for Puvan at the centre of midfield. PP stepped into goal while Harry covered left back. We started off well and Harvey and Faizal had 2 decent opportunites capitalizing on some poor marking but their long range efforts went just pass the post. Harvey had the ball in the back of the net but the goal was ruled out as Bert was in an offisde position then, eventhough he never touched the ball.
Our defence was being stretched by the opponents, who to their credit were much better in the second half too. PP was outstanding saving a couple of one on ones and how we did not concede was quite amazing. We came close with a couple of free kicks from Prak and Riz and some lung-bursting runs from Maran and Zal, but alas, it was not to be and the game ended in stalemate.
Kevin picked up a yellow card for dissent. Hopefully he would have learnt something from that incident.
We proceeded to Yassin for tea and pratas. And then to Yishun to watch Batman again. It was Rizvi's 5th time in the cinema.
Vote for your man of the match at the bottom of this blog.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment