Missed Chances Haunts Orange!

On the day Team Orange was playing their first away match of the year to Synergy FC's home ground near the airport, we arrived to find that the field had more cows on it than we had players! Manager Michael had a healthy pre-match team-sheet of 14 men. But at the last minute, 3 inadvertently pulled out. So it was left to the 11 would-be heroes to push on in spite of the late, late predicament.

The match started with Chris in goal, Chard and Kugan as the central-defensive pair flanked by Adrian on the left and Max on the right. Au and Shukor were the midfield duo with Ming and Michael (Yes, that would be Manager Michael) errmm.. flying?.. down the wings. Seng and Brown spearheaded the attack.

The game started frantically with the battle concentrated mostly in the centre of the park. Brown and Seng had a couple of opportunities while Au and Shukor were doing their best to contain and control our midfield. Whilst Michael was easily tiring out on the right, he held his position admirably well. Meanwhile, Ming was also probing down the left channel but the opposition defenders were proving to be quite a stubborn unit... and not to mention physically intimidating as well; it was no surprise at all as the referee seemed rather one-sided with foul after foul going against us. Chris had nothing to do except on one occasion when he brilliantly palmed away a goal-bound effort from nearly 6 yards out!!!

Adrian was pushed into midfield duty as Aik took over at leftback in the second half, linking up with Au in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Shukor was deployed just behind Brown while Ming and Seng was supporting him on the wings. The opposition was trying to dictate the game with their Japanese player and their number 10 pulling the strings in midfield while we decided to sit-back and try to plug the gaps in the centre, cutting off any dangerous through balls and forcing them to play the ball out wide. But then tragedy struck! Adrian played a routine ball back to Chard who attempted to pump the ball upfield but instead saw his clearance charged down by the opposing striker and rebounding over Chris into the net. Their second goal came shortly after. From a resulting cornerkick, a deft flick by their player in our penalty area ended with them taking a 2 goal lead. But they were not done yet. Another poor defensive error allowed their striker to lurk behind at the far post to send a header past Chris who was obviously starting to look annoyed.

Shukor was replaced soon after with Shan because he had a slight knock and the young Indian player, though gifted, was running around like a headless chicken. The result of a lack of direction from the bench? Anyways, we tried our best to come back strongly and Brown missed a hatful of opportunities. He rounded the keeper and placed his shot just wide from one of the best chances he will ever get. Then Ming ballooned a sitter over the bar from barely 3 yards out and saw himself bundled into the net instead. And then to top it off, he somehow managed to send a penalty kick flying pass the wrong side of the post after Brown was tripped in the area. Next up was Au who tried a stinging first-timer from out of the box after being set-up by Shan that flew inches wide. However, a clever through ball caught their defenders flat-footed as Shan raced clear to tuck the ball into the net to reduce the deficit. Unfortunately that was all Team Orange could muster in a match littered with errors, tough tackles, bias refereeing and a boatload of missed opportunities.