Can't believe it's the last game already...
The last league game against Superstar was the last chance for some of us to achieve personal goals.
Badar, Bangkai and Matad have yet to score in the league. (Wafi as well, but he is still out injured.) It was also the last chance for me to get my clean sheet and I too had not scored in the league, but goalie ok laa… For the team, we had a chance to climb up the table from 6th to possibly 4th, but it would depend on the result of the game preceding ours. We had 14 points, 2 points less ACR 2 and Rojak FC, but Rojak had already played their last game the week before. Meanwhile ACR 2‘s last game was against MIC Subang, who won, which meant it was entirely up to us to finish 4th.
However, things were not going according to plan. I was able to bring my family because we had relatives over but in the rush, I forgot to bring my gloves and “little brother protector”. There was an instant in the game where I especially regretted forgetting the latter…owww…
Also, not many players turned up. When the game started, we only had 4 players, Badar, Bangkai, Bob and myself. The referee allowed/suggested that we asked one of the kids who was outside to play for us.
This kid we imported scored the first goal. Then Pakcik arrived and went in. Matad came early in the second half. Talking about Matad, when he came in, he immediately went up, looking to break his duck, leaving me alone and it resulted in a goal against me, and there goes my clean sheet. Heheh…
We won 8-3. The kid scored the first goal while the other scorers were Bob (2), Pakcik (3), Bangkai and Badar. So Bangkai and Badar finally scored. 8 goals was also the most we’ve scored in the league. We also finished 4th. So all in all, it was a good nite.
Dentum FC was missing for the second week, conceding their 2nd walkover, this time against Balitongs (more on this later), so we volunteered to play in their absence, sort of like an exhibition match. Matad and I realized this was our very last chance to score and guess wat, we did. 1 each…hehehe..Bangkai scored a hat-trick and I’m sure the others found the back of the net as well. Goalkeeping duties were rotated.
Coming back to Dentum FC’s absence for 2 straight weeks. I first tot it was purely due to the fact that they could not finish higher than 3rd and no one could overtake them. I later found out that they still owed the organisers some money. It’s a small possibility that their entry will be disqualified and Tok Jinjang upgraded to 3rd. Wow.
In all the games, there was only 1 official clean sheet (excluding the walkovers and the “real” result of MIC Subang beating Tok Jinjang 8-0), achieved by MIC Subang.
Summary:
We were very inconsistent in the league. Narrowly losing to ACR 1 and beating Dentum FC, who finished higher than us, showed we were capable of playing well, but we also failed miserably in some games. Getting only 1 point from a possible 6 against both Rojak FC and ACR 2, both who finished lower than us, was frustrating. Mebbe dat game we narrowly lost to ACR 1 was the turning point. It was demoralising to lose a game like dat and I feel it affected us for several weeks after.
I have to say our team’s finishing is less than satisfactory. Before our last game, only Superstar has scored less goals than us. Our defending was also poor, which I put down mostly to lack of stamina. We also were inconsistent with our passing. At times, the passing was great, even ppl watching outside applauded us, but at other times, our passing was atrocious.
I have to admit I too was inconsistent. I feel my best performances was against Dentum FC (the one we won 4-3, Bidin said I was “cemerlang”) and in the narrow loss against ACR 1, esp the first half. However, I had nightmare games as well and mebbe, this too disrupted the team. There were times when I felt pressured and I’m pretty sure this affected the team. Heck, you could have seen both sides (the “cemerlang” and the “poor” Embi) in the same game. Taking part in this league made me understand just how important the goalie is, I mean more than I did before. I need to learn to cope with the pressure.
Hopefully, we would have learnt a few things by having taken part in the Liga Premier NPNG. At the very least, we made a lot of new friends and had fun. Congrats to Champs MIC Subang (100% record) and runners-up ACR 1.
Pakcik : 19 goals Yot : 11 goals Wan : 7 goals Bidin, Bob : 5 goals Badar, Bangkai, Imported Kid : 1 goal
Embi : No clean sheet...adoi...
Wan, Yot : 1 own goal
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