The pre-match worries that we would have insufficient players were uncalled for as there was a healthy turn up of 17 players. Alex came out of retirement to start in goal and Zhiyang, James, Jiesheng and David started as the back 4, with Collin Daniel Chun Xiang and guest John starting in midfield. Jevon and Zhongliang started in attack, with James seemingly giving in to Jevon's whining to play him as striker. Hongming, Kelson, Jiahong, Vinson, Eddy and Ken Boo started on the bench.
We started the match well and dominated the game. Daniel, Collin and John were pulling the strings in the midfield, the back 4 looked solid and the strikers looked lively and hungry for goals too. The first 20 minutes was a joy to watch as H4 strung together many passes, with the highlight being 5 or 6 one touch passes to pass the ball out from defence to attack. From that good bit of play, Collin crossed the ball from the left with the outside of his right foot for Chun Xiang to tap in. A deserved lead for H4! However, as the game wore on, Jotos fought back and started stringing together passes of their own. They had a couple of long range shots which failed to trouble Alex in goal. However, against the run of play, Jotos scored 2 'weird' goals to go into half time with the lead. The first was when Alex thought we were awarded a free kick for offside when the referee had allowed play to carry on. The Jotos striker happily tapped the ball into the unguarded net. Even they did not celebrate that one. The second goal they scored was when a mix-up between Alex and David at the back again resulted in a soft goal for Jotos. Despite going into HT behind, James was pleased with the overall play and he again emphasized the importance of our good passing play rather than the scoreline. The 2nd half commenced with the match very much up for grabs with both teams playing good passing football. Jevon won a penalty from a swift counter attack after he was barged off the ball from behind when through on goal. Regular penalty taker for H4, James, stepped up to coolly slam home the equaliser with the help of the crossbar. A few minutes later from a corner, James almost had his second of the day. However he was unable to connect with the ball cleanly after it fell to him unmarked. From the resulting drop kick from Jotos' keeper, they scored when our defenders misjudged the flight of the ball, thus allowing the Jotos striker to get through on goal to score. After that, there were chances for both teams as we continued our good passing football. Hong Ming had 2 absolute sitters which he somehow missed. Despite the loss, there were alot of positives to take out of the game. The greatest one being our passing, impressing James so much that he commented 'this is the best game Hall 4 has ever played!'. The other positives being having 2 decent keepers to rely on and the subs doing well when they came on. Let's learn from our mistakes this game and continue the good passing game we played today! 1, 2, 3, 4.. HALL 4!
Thanks to the supporters for coming too! ( Jieying, Yan Yin and Yi Xuan) Although they didn't exactly use pom poms to cheer for us or something, but we still appreciate your presence and for being 'water-girls' =) A big thank you goes out to John for coming down too as James thought there would be insufficient players.
