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