Ramblers Edge Youngsters... AGAIN!

It was suppose to be a routine friendly game but Ramblers had to pick themselves up after last week's shock lost to Uplands. And based on reputation and records, the opposition wasn't an easy one either. But we dug deep and came away with a 2-0 victory helped by one goal a piece by Siang and Seng. There wasn't much to comment on the game as Ramblers had the bulk of possession and continued to pressure the opposition in both halves. In fact, our keeper had only two routine saves the entire game! Well, Heng did clip the crossbar from a free-kick in the second-half and Ming rose above their defender to power a header just over. But other than that, it was a typical Ramblers performance... workmanlike, determined and opportunistic. However, after taking a grip on the game early on, Ramblers could have opted to develop their gameplay. Despite our win, the team looked disjointed at times and there were too many stray passes.

Ramblers 2 – Youngsters 0

Thanks Derek! A Free Lesson in Football.

I learned something on Friday that I felt is worth sharing. And I would say "learning" was far from what I experienced. I was amazed as well. KDU went up against Traders Hotel that day in a friendly match, and Heng, Keong and I filled-in for the absent players. The KDU team, I felt, was not the strongest team Derek had that day. They were missing Kugan and Fajar, two stalwarts, and a host of other first-teamers.

Anyway, before the match started, Derek gave very clear instructions: "Listen everyone, this is just a friendly. I'm not bothered about the score and the goals. I just want everyone to pass the ball around. Just pass it." Simple, concise and effective. And KDU did just that. Traders Hotel were being pulled apart by simple, two-to-three touch passing. (KDU won 5-0 by the way)

It hit me then; with limited resources, and up against a slightly more physically-superior team, KDU played beautiful football. At one moment, it seemed that we were the perfect exponents of the Spanish team at Euro 2008! We were organized and rarely gave the ball away. Our opponents on the other hand were getting tired fast, what with all that ball chasing. Now, with more experienced players, a technically gifted midfield, power-packed strikers and fleet-footed defenders, why can't Ramblers emulate that? I'm not taking anything away from Ramblers as a team - we are fantastic. But we owe our success more to dogged determination than anything else. I just feel that, maybe, we could play smarter by first keeping things simple; just like Derek did with KDU. We have no plans when we go out and play friendlies either. The closest we've ever come to a tactical strategy was against CRC... probably our BEST game this year despite the lost. But for the most part, it's “Pump the ball to Vespa”. That seems to be our mantra. Our midfield is under-utilized because we're PUMPING the ball forward most of the time. Therefore, when we lose the ball upfront, we're exposed on the wings because our wingers have sprinted forward in support of “Vespa”. And then they're supposed to sprint back alllllll the way down in support of our full-backs. I don't think any team in the world has such dynamic wingers... not for 90 minutes! Football isn't just about winning and tackling and all that hurly-burly masculine stuff. It's also about learning and growing. Simple question: what have we learn when we're playing a friendly? I know we've got loads of opinions after. But what have we taken out from the game? Ask yourselves that... honestly! I'm even wondering, is more training sessions gonna help? Yeah, it gives us a chance to gel as a team but is it really enough? Is this a mental problem, a tactical puzzle or is it more of a trust issue? We've got to develop a style of play, an identity, and it starts from our friendly games. Maybe Derek should just drop by.

Ramblers Go Down To Uplands

Ramblers, missing several key players and short on back-up, went down fighting to a youthful Uplands team. Despite starting with 10 men in each half, Ramblers managed to match the eagerness of the youngsters and the substituting players gave a really commendable performance. Unfortunately quantity does play a part and Uplands took advantage of that to knock 2 past Michael to send Ramblers into a lost.

Ramblers 1 - Uplands 2

What Now?

I'm sure everyone feels disappointed with our semi-final exit at the hands of CRC... especially more so when we dominated a large part of the match. But that was in the past (1 week ago, actually) and now we have to look to the future.

So, my question would be... where do we go from here? We've had a terrific season by any standards. We were quarter-finalists for the Merdeka Cup (SG2 League), we qualified for a Chinese League semi-finals, and until we're told otherwise, we're still in with a shout in the DTL Div.3 League. But every team needs to re-inforce their resources and I'm sure all our players have an idea or two on where we need to improve in order for us to go further (and win something) next year. Is it the defence? Do we need a playmaker? Does Heng and Brown need more cover? Should we change formations? Maybe we just need a bit more training?

So, go ahead... feel free to give us your input.

Ramblers at PFS

A Word From The Captain

Guys,
thanks for the effort. We've tried our best. I've never wanted this journey to end so fast. Nevertheless, I hope there's more to come. I also hope that we'll continue to stick together as a team and try again next year. I am sure that we'll be a better team by then.

I would also like to take this opportunity to apologise if I've said or done anything that might have been hurtful in the past. I really appreciate all the hardwork and commitment shown by everybody. Go Ramblers!

Chard_5

End of A Fairy Tale

Unseeded. Unheralded. Barely known.

But after today's match, Ramblers would be anything but the above. The stage was set for a David vs. Goliath meeting. The tournament's underdogs up against the defending champions in a game that was 1 step away from a final at City Stadium. It couldn't get better than this. But it did.

If CRC thought that Ramblers would buckle under pressure and just roll over, they were sadly mistaken. For the first time, Ramblers played not only with their hearts on their sleeves, but they played with their heads as well; moving the ball around smartly, getting into good positions and closing down the opponents rapidly. It was football at the highest level that would have left the purists beaming. Heng and Brown were their usual powerful selves, Poay was wizardry personified, Max covered every inch of grass, Siang looked possessed, Derek bamboozled their right-back into substitution, Keong and Sin were solid, Adrian reliable and Chard made his presence felt at the back. The big blue machine had rolled into town.

With a 4-2-3-1 formation, Ramblers drew first blood when Poay sent in a low shot inside off the right post to give Ramblers the lead. But a 15 minute blitz saw our efforts short-lived. Two corners, and CRC got their 2 goals. Their first corner saw an unmarked Ah Han rising above our defenders at the far post to head in the equalizer. Their second came courtesy of Eng Hock who made a speculative shot from the edge of the box that saw the ball bounce fortuitously out of the reach of Chris and into the net. Those were the only notable efforts CRC had besides a long range Wai Loon lob that Chris did well to tip over the bar. But they were to prove enough.

Despite the 1 goal deficit, Ramblers continued pressing for the equalizer without compromising our gameplay. The second-half saw Ramblers wasting very good opportunities to tie the game with Brown and Max missing two very good chances. The introduction of the ever industrious Jason midway through the half strengthen our midfield. But ladyluck didn't smile on us and in the end we lost the game to two well-taken goals. Their experience had carried them through to the final. With so much pre-match hype regarding Wai Loon and Ah Han, they were kept on a short leash and had very little impact on the game with our midfield and defenders magnificent through and through.

Although we lost, we showed that we could compete at the highest level. On the evidence of today's performance, the team has the potential to go really far. But we have to build on this success or else it'll remain just that... potential. However, let no one take it away from us, that we were definitely the better team today. To put it into perspective... Ramblers Rocked!

Ramblers in limbo despite draw

It was a game Ramblers knew they had to win. Sri Mersing had already beaten De' Butterfly by 3 goals to nil and the advantage was with them with a better goal difference of just 1 goal. But with a vague understanding of what the DTL League administrative body wanted, we couldn't risk eking a draw.

Even with regular starters Chard and Keon out due to injury and chicken-pox respectively, the mood in the squad was optimistic prior to kick-off. Management fielded the attacking duo of Heng and Brown supported by the midfield quartet of Benni, Jason, Siang and Ming. It was a line-up fusing experience in the centre with raw, young talent flanking the attack. As usual, Sin, Kugan, Adrian and Max made up the back-four combo whom were yet to concede a goal in this league.

Ramblers started the match rather nervously as we sought to string together a couple of attacks in vain. Siang and the indefatigueable Jason were doing their best to control the midfield with the effervescent Ming scurrying up and down the right wing, supporting both the attack and the defence. The first-half saw very little action with Ramblers limiting the Sri Mersing attack to a few long shots which our keeper, Lan, managed to deal with quite comfortably.

Probably sensing that a draw could be catastrophic to our season, we upped the ante in the second half, but with very little creativity or spark, failed to break down a very determined Sri Mersing defence. Brown, never giving anything less than 300% for every game, was frustrated time and time again from getting caught off-side. His determination was exceptional, his timing was, well, off. With time ticking away, Siang and Jason were also starting to lose their cool. Ramblers, it seems, were too focused on searching for that elusive goal without calming ourselves down and trying to figure out a way around the opponents back-four. We kept up the pressure like we always did, hoping that our never-say-die attitude would bring us through as it had always done, without really using our heads. This time, it just didn't work. The game finally ended all square.

Now, as we await the results from the DTL League administrators, we have to pick ourselves up for a semi-final match against CRC in the Chinese League. This match hopefully, if anything, has taught us that we need a lot more than just attitude and commitment to get us through. We really need to bring our game up another level and to start playing a lot smarter, especially against a tougher, more experienced side like CRC.