Our First Late Afternoon game of the League. We are expected to play well and not to leave Katong empty handed. Any neutrals would have said that we played well today but eventually have to share the spoils .
But the Day belong to a Man (HP11 Keeper) whose job was to use his HANDS & LEGS to do the job and he almost shut us out.Credit to him
The turnout was much better than last week . Almost all arrive early for the titantic clash except for some “Superstars” , even our ardent supporters (Mac , ChewYang & Ah Goh) are earlier in bid not to miss the football. Tusser ranger was still understrength (Yeow still cant kick a ball), but with news of Jerald & Suria coming down , the team received a huge boost. And with news that Tembusu lost their 3pm tie against Real Ale Madrid . Tusser Rangers know they have a chance to stretch their lead in the league with this remaining tie of the 1st round.
We started with a defensive formation in bid not to concede an early goal and keep the game tight. However , the formation chose to deceive. The 1st 25 mins see Tusser Rangers pressuring HP11. Most of the play was in their half. HP11 chose to pack their defense and was restricted to playing long balls. However their nippy wingers on both flank looks threatening. HP11 was awarded a free kick 5 metres outside the penalty box. Tusser's 2 man wall chose to ignore the shout from the keeper oblivious of the danger of the free kick. The free kick taker seeing Wenjie out of position still wanting to organize the wall , placed a accurate shot in the bottom left post and take the lead. With this ,Tusser have a mountain to climb and clearly needed to equalize before the half ends.In one instances, Peng with a wonderful dribble down the wing managed to nip past to have a one on one with the keeper but the keeper managed to spread his body and block the ball and peng fumble on the rebound. Fatt also have another good chance in the 10 yard box but he rattle the crossbar with a smashing shot. Royston then replaced the tired Lanxer and Tusser finished the half with very attacking formation.
The second half started with Suria in the left flank. The tactic was to crowd their defense and finish off some the chances with those accurate pin point crossing from Suria. Again the action was only confined to the HP11 half. Clearly Tusser dominated the 2nd half and made lots scoring chances. Lots of crosses were being shutout. And with HP11 keepr in terrific form ,every cross or shot was easily dealt by him , you will wonder where the equalizer going to come from. The occasional long balls were easily dealt with MOM Weida. Jose “The One” Murinho once quote that “ I think the opponent parked their BUS in front of the goal post”. I think this really reflect our sentiment today. The save of the day came when Daniel pounced of the line of denfence. Facing the keeper , he tried a lob over him but the keeper anticipated it and got a slight touch , Daniel tried to placed the rebound but the magnificent keeper managed to save the shot. Tusser rangers looks desperate but kept on the pressure. With only 10 mins left in the game , another wonderful cross from Suria met the head of our Top scorer Fatt. He powered in the header past the dejected keeper .Tusser got the breakthrough and this even urge them to nip one more but I think that almost the end of the whole game’s highlight. Tusser was bit disappointed with only a point but at least we know that if we keep playing the way like we did , its going to be very positive.
Three Cheers for HP11 for putting a good fight.
A point to note : Players are needed to arrive on time especially for the next 2 games.. by 830am.
