Club M 3-0 Nippon Changi : FT Report

 

 

Goolaup's fury leads to havoc!

Clementi – For their second league outing, the dodos were without their current top goalscorer, Charles Yew. His absence was made up for by a comeback from our No. 9 striker, after a very long absence. The opposition looked very young and appeared to be a ‘piece of cake' type of game for Club M. Appearance can sometimes be misleading and it proved so. After successfully guarding themselves against the initial assaults of the dodos, the opposition finally succumbed to the pressure late midway in the first half.

Everything was going the dodo's way until the unthinkable happened with 15 minutes left on the clock. The culprit came from a very unlikely source by the name of Vikram Goolaup, who was brought down by an opposition player at the centre of the field and overreacted in an aggressive fashion to the challenge. He totally lost his cool, after being on the field for just 5 minutes, and it was a very unusual reaction from a player who normally does not show aggressive behaviours. This led to a chain reaction of violent retaliation from the opposition players, who let go of their frustration after their team was down 3-0. Punches were thrown at random and one of Club M's players received a knock on the head, which fortunately was not too serious.

The referee was powerless in front of overwhelming high spirits clouding the soccer field. The dodos did their best to calm the enraged Nippon Changi players and shielded Goolaup from a sea of over-excited and brainless lads. It was a deplorable and disgraceful scene, indeed, for the beautiful game. After several minutes of struggle, the violence was finally contained and the referee, together with the two captains decided to bring the match to a premature end. The police was also called upon to prevent a possible bloodshed. A police report was made against a few opposition players found guilty of violent act, which led to a dodo's player being injured.

The match started with more than half an hour delay as the referee was nowhere to be seen. The dodos started the game knowing that a victory was imperative. Club M was the dominant team from the kick-off exerting immense pressure on the opposition. The first scoring chance fell to Ashvin in the 10 th minute. He was fast enough to beat the central defender in order to intercept a pass from Ravi from the left wing and managed a shot directly aimed at the keeper. His shot was blocked and ricocheted off his chest to head for goal only to roll off target at the last minute for a goal kick. The dodo midfielders – Dickson, Rishi, Nicolas and Ravi all had a few shooting chances but somehow missed the target.

The first goal finally came in the 20 th minute when Ravi was sent clear of the defence and left his marker in his trail to send in a looping ball over the keeper. The ball, however, brushed against the bar and fell in Ashvin's path, who headed the ball in for the first goal. It was joy and relief for the dodos. Alwyn had a great chance to increase the dodo's lead minutes later when he cleverly escaped his marker to intercept a through ball from Nicolas and found himself with only the keeper to beat. He tried to squeeze the ball between the keeper and the near post but his shot was well saved by the keeper for a corner.

Nippon Changi was unable to create a clear scoring chance in the first half an hour but their little attacker, standing at only chest level with the dodo's twin towers – Alister and Brian, was menacing at times with his quick and tricky footwork. He managed to earn a couple of free-kicks near the penalty area but luckily for the dodos, their free-kick specialist was miles away from being David Beckham-like and posed no real danger to the dodos' goal.

Club M's relentless pressure finally paid off in the 30 th minute with their second goal of the afternoon scored by Ravi after a swift and well constructed counter-attack which started from the defence. Djamil's clearance found Alwyn on the right flank, who instinctively sent in a pass over the defence towards Ravi, who was roaming freely in the centre of the field. His first touch almost let him down but he managed to slide the ball past the rushing out keeper to add to Club M's tally.

The goal alleviated some pressure off the dodo defenders' shoulders who were very effective in stopping all the opposition's attacking play. The dodo's keeper was practically a spectator in the match until the 35 th minute when he was called into action for only the second time in the match to intervene following a dangerous free-kick near the corner flag on the left side. On that occasion he was fouled while trying to catch the ball and this was the only scoring chance for Nippon Changi in the whole game.

At half-time, the score stayed at 2-0 in favour of the dodos and under the blazing sun, fatigue had started to creep in the opposition. The second half was an even more one sided affair for Club M who were literally camping in the opponent's half. Fresh legs were introduced at half-time with Fardin coming in to replace Rishi on the right flank. His introduction added more width to the dodo's play and his crosses on the right were hard to deal with at times.

Ashvin and Alwyn both had great chances to kill off the opponents at the beginning stages of the second half. The dodo's No. 9 striker missed three blatant scoring chances when he found himself with only the keeper to beat in all three occasions and was unable to score. Alwyn also missed a golden opportunity to score when he intercepted a miskick by the keeper and with an open goal infront of him, he chose to beat the keeper at his near post instead and his shot was again saved . The opposition keeper had a very hard time in goal throughout the match but he produced some crucial saves, which unfortunately were not enough to save his team's blemishes.

Alwyn made amends to the numerous misses in the 60 th minute as he scored the third goal for Club M. He was at the receiving end of a through ball from Nicolas and sprinted past the central defenders to easily send the ball beyond the keeper's reach. After the third goal, the captain decided to make some changes introducing Goolaup in place of Alister. Five minutes later, he triggered a chain reaction, which forced the match to an abrupt end.

After discussion with the referee and Goal Arena Football League officials, it was agreed that there will be no re-match and Club M was declared the winner of the game against Nippon Changi. This was, indeed, a wise decision as carrying on with the game or having a re-match could turn into bloodshed.

On a more positive note, Club M played very well collectively and the defence was unbreakable. The midfield and attack did a great job creating numerous scoring chances. Everybody seemed geared up for the next encounter against Royal Sporting House, which could be the climax of the League. The comeback of Ashvin also proved to be a bonus for the dodos coupled with the return of Ravi on the left flank. However, the dodo's still can't find their killer instincts from last year's RS League.

 

Thierry

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