MOE I (Senior Team)

REPORTED BY KEN WONG

Full Time: ODS 1 - 1 MOE I(Half time: 0 - 0)
Scorers: Kiran
Man Of Match: Mark Teo
Yellow Card: Mark Penu

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Starting Line-Up
GK: Kee Yong
Def [L-R]: Hairy, Mark Penu, Rosk, Ken Wong
Mid [L-R]: Osman, Mark Teo, Gary, Irwin
Striker: Liang Han, Elango

ODS kicked off season 2009 against "arch rival" MOE (Senior Team), a team which features many past teammates, friends and colleagues of ODS.

MOE (Senior Team) seemed to have came with a mission, to exact revenge for MOE (Junior Team) which was thrashed by ODS 5-1 last sat in the pre-season warm-up friendly match.

ODS was not going to allow that to happen of course. ODS started the game on a fairly fast pace. But strikers Liang Han and Elango wasted a couple of chances, shooting wide from far. Our first clear chance came when Elango took an early shot that caught MOE keeper by surprise, but he was able to palm the ball into the air. The ball fell in front of Liang Han who took a first time volley with his left foot, but mis-cued his shot, and the shot went wide from 8yards out. But credits to Liang Han for reaching the ball first despite fierce pressure from his marker who was almost twice his size.

ODS subsequently won a few corners but was to no avail, as the keeper was called upon to perform his best on this date, punching the ball away on many occasions.

ODS had a few scares at their back, when the defence was caught flat-footed and a clever through ball was played between the defenders and released their striker but his shot was inches wide of the far post.

MOE then made a tactical switch, bringing off their captain who was yellow-carded for losing his temper with the not-so-popular referee. In came their speed demon who was placed on the left wing.

The winger proved too much for both Irwin and Ken Wong, who had problems closing this gap, and definitely having problems catching up with him. Fortunately for ODS, the winger was not wearing his scoring boots.

Mark Penu was yellow-carded for his first challenge, a foul that looked like a slap to the face when he was turning away from the striker.

Since both ends were not able to convert their chances, the real battle was in midfield, with Mark Teo and Gary working well together to string the passes and cutting out the attack from the opposite end. Mark Teo saw a few of his clever passes releasing both Osman and Liang Han on the run, but the final ball into the danger zone was not met with, resulting in easy collection for the keeper.

ODS control of the midfield left MOE frustrated. A cut back from Gary to Ken Wong saw a swift cross to Osman, who got ahead of his marker and went straight into the penalty area. On normal days, this would be an easy task, or rather a routine for Osman to put it past the keeper into the back of the net. However, the keeper came out fast, big and strong, and denied Osman the chance of being the first scorer of 2009.

Irwin was then burnt out due to lack of match fitness and came out for Yang Song.
A few shots that went horribly wide on both ends sumed up the rest of the action for the first half.

2nd Half Line-Up
GK: Kee Yong
Def[L-R]: Tony, Mark Penu, Rosk, Hans
Mid[L-R]: Yang Song, Aidil, Vincent, Chee Mun
Striker: Kim Chuan, Kiran

Second half started with almost the whole of ODS changed. And the line-up definitely was much more defensive.
ODS was defending from deep for most of the time in the second half, resulting in shots from far that hardly troubled "safe hands" Kee Yong.

ODS attack was relied heavily on tricky Kim Chuan, who used this speed well to beat his marker and sending the cross in. But again, the clinical finish was missing.

Tony was perhaps back to his younger days, chasing Faisal (who also play for ODS... sometimes only...) and making Faisal wonder if he made the right choice playing for MOE instead. Faisal who was much younger and faster had problems getting past Tony who was solid as a rock. Aidil would then drift to the left and rob Faisal of his ball before releasing Tony on a run. Tony showed off his world-class dribbling skills, beating a defenders who stood in his way, and finally a witty back heel to Kim Chuan left the defender for dead. Kim Chuan then sent in a cross, but there was no dangerman in the zone who could finish what would have been a brilliant counter-attack.

ODS would finally get their goal, when a long clearance from Rosk found Kiran. MOE was frantically calling for offside as Kiran was, by now, meters ahead of them. Kiran repaid the faith in playing him as a striker, and scored the first goal of 2009 by slotting the ball past the keeper.

1-0

There was a moment of madness and wild celebrations both on and off the field.

Tony then decided he had enough, and came off for Kiam Meng who was missing for quite some time due to his wedding preparations.

Before the celebration even died down, MOE replied immediately. Less than five passes after the restart, a cross came in from nowhere, and ODS defenders, perhaps still celebrating the goal, was caught napping, and an almost free header was allowed inside the penalty area. And Kee Yong was beaten.

1-1

Off the field, the plot thickens. And plans were made to throw in a few attacking options to try to win the game.
Osman and Liang Han went in for Mark Penu and Rosk.
Vincent and Kiran would assume the roles of central defenders.

With Liang Han back in the equation, there proved to be a bit more muscling up front, shoving and pushing his weight around, shielding the ball and playing the wall pass for Osman.
Having contested with each other countless of times, MOE had identified Osman as our key man, thus allocating two markers on him, giving him hardly any space to breathe.

At certain point of time, the referee was somewhat more entertaining to watch than the game itself, as he would shout and scold the players for questioning his decisions.

In the last throw of the dice, Mark Teo was called upon again to try to control the midfield in a bid to win our first game of the new year. With limited time left, and MOE keeper at his best today, the game ended in a 1-1 draw.

[Additional comments from the editor]: Also to note, there was a few interesting moments in second half when we saw Principals challenging for balls, colleagues from Sports School battling out in the middle of the park! Even Gary was busy making "notes" from the sideline. But the best got to be from our Captain Mr Sng's comment (please ask him for more details) about the "Got time! Got time!" comments shouted from the bench! ahah
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At the request of our team's discipline master, i hereby have to emphasize that

LIANG HAN still owes his fine of $30