Soccer v Hall 16 (Semi-final)
WIN 3-2
WIN 3-2
Friday, 21 February 2014
SRC MAIN FIELD
Farhan Azmi slotted home late into the 2nd half to propel Hall 2 into the Final for the second year running.
After some neat interplay down the left, the ball was set up for Yong Geng Tan to let fly from range. It was blocked by the Hall 16 defender, but the loose ball broke free to Farhan, who outmuscled his marker, held him off, and retained his composure to seal the win.
It was a fitting conclusion to a game in which Hall 2 always had the edge. The close scoreline does not reflect this superiority, but it does reflect the tension present in this make-or-break semi-final.
Hall 2 had got off to a flying start when an inswinging freekick from the left by Wong Zi Hao Billy found the Hall 16 defence all at sea, and Brendan Liang was left all alone to head Hall 2 into the lead.
This lead, however, was to last a mere 1 minute. Soon after the restart, an attempted sliding clearance by Captain Kenneth Gan was alleged by the referee to have deflected off his hand. A penalty was awarded to Hall 16, leading to voracious and heated protests by the Hall 2 players. Anders Aplin converted the resulting penalty, despite goalkeeper Arun Vinoth guessing the direction correctly.
Our players, however did not let this unjustified setback get to them. They continued to press the Hall 16 players, never letting them have an easy time. This was best exemplified by Nicholas Tai, who despite getting his first yellow card of the season for a late challenge, enjoyed his most effective game by far. "Neymar" Tai, who was more Dirk Kuyt on this occasion, completely ran himself into the ground, continuously protecting his right-back Blven Chan and helping Yong Geng double-up on Anders. The fatigue that was so evident on Nic's face led the watching ex-Captain Chai Ming Long to comment that "Nic looks like he badly needs a stick now."
Their tenacity and doggedness was reward at the stroke of half-time when Billy won a free-kick just outside the area. He got up, dusted himself, and stepped up to send the free-kick curling into the top corner. The keeper managed to get a hand to it, but it was not enough. Hall 2 were in the lead again, and rightly so.
After the restart, Hall 2 sought to slow the game down and just let the game petter out. This was fairly successful; though we only had 2 shots from Billy to show for, Hall 16 were also not getting any change off Vinoth.
Completely against the run of play, however, Hall 16 equalised. In a display of breathtaking speed, Anders picked up the ball in the centre circle, and went racing towards the left touchline, with Yong Geng in hot pursuit. Anders managed to outrun both Yong Geng and Blven, the covering right-back, before squaring the ball for their forward to tap home. Hall 2 was stunned.
The tension went up another notch when Brendan was booked for a slightly cynical trip on Anders after he had the beating of Brendan down the right. Anders obviously did not take too kindly to the foul and immediately squared up to Brendan, but the intervention of Kenneth Gan meant that any potential fisticuffs were nipped in the bud.
Then the timely intervention from Farhan occured. After that Hall 2 really sought to close the shop and hold out for the win, a move best embodied by the deployment of Satyajeet Akhilesh, a right-back by trade, at centre-forward for the last few minutes.
As a bonus, the Hall 2 supporters were treated to the amusing sight of Sat singlehandedly striking fear into the hearts of the Hall 16 defenders by harassing one of them all the way to the corner flag from the halfway line, with the supporters willing Sat to knock the poor fella over and score a dream goal. The term "wrecking ball" was created to describe this phenomenon.
After that minor filler episode, the referee finally decided that enough's enough, and blew the final whistle that signaled our passage into the finals, to the sheer delight of all supporters present.
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