Unknown Family

Full Time: ODS 1 - 0 Unknown Family(Half time: 1 - 0)
Scorers: Elango
Man Of Match: Fred

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Starting Line-Up
GK: Kumar
Def[L-R]: Hairy, Rosk, Fred, Tony
Mid[L-R]: Irwin, Yang Song, Dennis, Ken Wong
Striker: Elango, Liang Han

Today ODS had just one substitute (what a difference from a few weeks back) for this game, a few key men (due to injury, new born child, CNY's preparation) were missing from this game.

ODS struggled initially to get into the game, often rushing their passes or giving the ball away too easily.

Both side though didn't managed to really test the keeper. Keeper had a few catches which were relatively harmless. The opponents best chance was from a corner with the direct ball taken heading towards the far post only for Tony to head it out for another corner which came to nothing.

ODS first real threat came when Hairy released Liang Han (who always make this intelligent cross field run) down the left with a precise though ball, he got the ball under control, beat one defender who managed to catch up and slide the teasing ball across the goal mouth for Elango to tap in from close range! [1-0]

After this, the actions were more or less monotonous with both sides struggling to find the final killer ball.

Dennis and Yang Song both seem comfortable in their central mid position. Irwin too impressed on the left , often running around their players with the ball in control.

Rosk and Fred clicked well on their first partnership. Though Fred was pretty quiet, he was an excellent reader of the game :)

Tony though was consistently more busy with reminding Ken Wong to help out for defence...

Today the defence communication with the keeper seem to be more in frequency as there was a couple of times whereby the keeper was protected from the strikers and Kumar made his call for the ball with authority.

2nd Half Line-Up
GK: Kumar
Def[L-R]: Hairy, Rosk, Fred, Tony
Mid[L-R]: Elango, Irwin, Yang Song, Liang Han, Ken Wong
Striker: Mr Sng

Today we saw Mr Sng playing his first full half of 2009. Again showing his silky touches although playing as a lone striker, the link up was not as promising as it should have been.

Unknown family started to press harder looking for the equalizer although they were very much limited to try their shots from outside the box due to ODS's tight defence.

Kumar therefore was kept pretty much busy, with more shots that he collected comforably. A couple of dives which pushed the ball out for corners.

Although there was one shot that was on a definitely goal-bound path, but somehow Kumar miraculously "spring" his palm like an extension to save the ball at the very last moment. After this "trick", he was though pretty much exhausted as he had quite a fair bit to do in this half.

As Hairy was picking up balls that went out of play for Kumar, he caught Kumar from the side of his eyes that he was resting on the goalpost. Also when he talked to Kumar, he was panting quite a bit.

Fred was still reading and marshaling the defence well with the support of Rosk and Tony - who was still urging Ken to come back to help out with the defence.

Dennis soon came in for Elango, Yang Song was pushed up to striker and Dennis moved to take Left back position pushing the left back up to left mid.

Yang Song somehow managed to outpace the right back as he found the long ball down from the left from Hairy. He sent a good cross into the penalty box but unfortunately Mr Sng was unable to keep it under control on this occasion perhaps he was not expecting the ball to come in.

Soon Yang Song had a good shot from outside the box that beat the defenders and the keeper only to be deny by the cross bar. Before long, the opponent also experienced the same denial from our cross bar.

The long awaited final whistle came as a relief for ODS as they held on to the marginal lead for ODS's first win of 2009. Let's keep it up!