Chinese League 2008 Updates: Oops, We Did It Again!

It sure sounds like that hit single by the infamous Britney but, here it goes: Oops, we did it again. And boy, we sure did! Two wins out of two and we woke up this morning to the fact that we're now in control of Group A with a maximum six points! Unbelievable...!

Yesterday's match was played in pouring rain and when we arrived, Song Boon SC were in high spirits while some of our players were stuck in traffic. All the hype surrounding this match was of Jimmy, Song Boon SC's key marksman and skipper. We've seen him play a few times and knew he could be a threat with his nippy runs off the ball as well as his pace and power on it. So management handed Adrian the task of shackling him while Chard and Alex formed the centre-back pairing with Keong on the left and Max on the right. Siang teamed up with Pei in the center of midfield, leaving Min to “fly” down the left channel and handing a much awaited debut to Ah Or on the right. Leading us up front was no other than Khang Heng who has been experiencing a kind of rennaisance of late.

When the match started, Ramblers were quicker off the blocks. We continuously pressed them down the flanks, sending in cross after cross to Heng. And in one of these raids, we managed to get our noses in front. The ball floated in from the right and in the middle of a goalmouth melee – BANG! Before anyone knew what happened, Heng had put us in front with an opportunistic strike that had a striker's instinct written all over it. But although we were controlling the game, our central midfield looked a little vulnerable and exposed and Chard, our captain, wasn't too impressed as he let them know with an earful Sir Alex Ferguson would have been proud of.

Anyways, Jimmy, the opposing striker was having a hard time with Adrian keeping a close tab on him wherever he went. But in a rare Titus Bramble moment, Adrian lost his concentration and allowed Jimmy to sprint pass him to get to the end of a floated ball first. And although Chard made a covering tackle, Jimmy was just too fast and he shot the ball low under the advancing Chris (our GK). 1-1 and we adjourned for a half-time break soon after.

Song Boon SC came back for the second half looking revitalized after that goal by Jimmy and they looked to have found some belief that they could actually pull off a win. But as they say, form is temporary, class is permanent. Ramblers decided to batten down the hatches with Adrian giving not even a sniff of the ball to Jimmy while Chard and Alex reorganized the defensive line. Brown and Heng continued to batter down their defenses with their pace and power while Pei started to regain control of the midfield with the introduction of the industrious Jason in place for our Riquelme-like Siang. Keon was also brought in for Ah Or on the right hand side and Ramblers were soon in front thanks to a Pei goal, his second of the league so far. A bone-crunching tackle by the Dani Alves version that is Max left a Song Boon SC player sprawling to the ground and the ball rolled onto the path of Pei who held off a defender to fire a shot pass the keeper. At that moment, we were cruising, a win was inevitable, and we knew it! But Song Boon did have their chance when a long-range shot was acrobatically parried away by a full-stretched Chris. What a remarkable save!

The best, however, was yet to come. Minutes later, a determined Brown took a pass on the right, dribbled past two defenders, held off the third, and fired in an amazing goal no. 3 from just out of the box past the despairing keeper. It was a goal oozing with class and finesse! And Song Boon were dead and buried...

Final score – 3-1, and Ramblers find themselves in the driver's seat knowing that a win against our next opponents, Youngster United, would virtually put us through to the Quarter-finals.

Scorers:
Heng
Pei
Brown

Cards:
Chard - Yellow
Adrian – Yellow

Substitutions:
Brown for Min
Keon for Ah Or
Jason for Siang
Eu Sin for Max