the pudding is done!

finally, i've ported everything over and more. the website for my soccer team has been more than created and i only hope it'll be a fun playground for the guys. perhaps i'll just slack off for a while on this blog and think abt its future direction. simple simon's stories' a nice name, so i hope to carry on fr here something meaningful :)

Match Report #5: 4-2 win over CoolJoes

Sometimes, things confound me! CoolJoes had home ground advantage, some youngsters that could run us ragged and we had trouble filling the first 11 right until friday. and we do not hv some of our top players of 2007, looks like the slide's gonna continue along with the dow. and so it seemed. CoolJoes punted a ball into the penalty, their striker turned our last man and cracked one home. that's just 7 minutes of play. nevertheless, we held our nerve, rode our luck and fr a corner, CoolJoes cleared the ball as far as ng who shinned a stiff grounder for our equalizer. still more heartache was to come as despite some assured play from us, CoolJoes took the lead. A high ball punted from right to left found our guys ball-watching but even then, the bullet that the striker unleashed was too hot to handle for any keeper we've met. 2-1 at half time.

We came out believing we can win. st controlled a ball in the middle of the park and as they closed in, he lobbed a ball into space. CoolJoes had pressed forward, leaving Leo to nip in and nicked the ball past the keeper and walked it into the net. Game on and now with lak in the middle holding well, we had more of attacking play. chiang playing in left mid ran on to a through ball fr lak and harassed the defender and keeper, stuck his foot out and left the 2 bemused. wah had the easiest of task to tap it home. then as we weathered some attacks, we found space on the right with some lovely short passes. Chye strode towards goal and let fly one heading for the back of the net. keeper got a hand to it but mike was at the far corner to nod it home. 4-2, a grinding come-from-behind win. and the manner in which it was won was what pleases!

Match Report #4 (12 Jan 08): 2-3 defeat to SOFA

what a yr or rather a fortnight can do to a team! 4 matches, 3 losses 1 win, 11 goals conceded, 11 scored. spurs/magpies in the making? then again, this match we have to rely on 3 players from opposing team (luckily, its lakesh's other team) when our own who responded to come decided to stay comfy at home due to the rain. needs more than a red carpet perhaps. we're in control in the first half as SOFA with personnel enough to field 2 teams, played a weaker eleven. we kept the ball well, spread it around and pressed as a team. then 2 miskicks creates 1 goal. chiang had first bite outside the box and it went sideways to st who did similar but with better direction. ball was rolling to keeper and all would have thought the danger's over. keeper then reenact a massimo taibi to perfection and the mizuno turf boots open accounts. our second goal came from a superb cross whipped in front lakesh on the right. 4 of our players made the same mistake of dashing too far into the box past the trajectory of the cross. it hit a player and the ball bounce into space where our guest player siddish slammed it home.

second half turned out disastrously similar to last week where we could not get the ball into the final third. perhaps that 5 of our players played for nuss the prev night was telling. whatever the reasons, the new look SOFA team came in with pace and urgency and did their job. strange that previously, we were stronger in the second half. these days, we've let slipped leads where previously we would have built upon.

time for a committed response!

Match Report #3 (5 Jan 08): 1-2 defeat to Galacticos

Are we the victims of our own success? match coordinators seem hell-bent on giving us the toughest of matches! these days there are a new breed of challengers the likes of babylon and galacticos. young at mid twenties, all full of attitude and confidence, and play good football, hardly a weak link in those teams. we, a bunch of 40 overs which such teams would love dearly to humiliate. no chance, we lost today but scored all the goals. first half was evenly played, we had our share of possession playing a neat passing game. mel soldiered on bravely with his thorougly ravaged feet, kept a clean sheet at half time. we also took the lead through a well placed free kick from wah (chye giving way to brotherly love). 1 nil at half time and the lousiest player no. 16 of galacticos was starting to feel pissed and made silly noises.

mel's ankle was now making noises of a different type. bravery must be tempered by sensibility. gan took to goal in the provocative no.69 keeper jersey. chye was somewhat right we didn't cross our half in the second period. galacticos brought in their no.29, who previous led their comeback in their 3-4 loss to us in nov at st wilfrid. we're under sieged most of the time but held well until late on. they had a corner kick and even their keeper went up for it. and it was he, formerly a singapore youth team defender that leapt the highest and nodded the ball towards goal. kwan was having it covered but it took a deflection from hleong and they equalised. more pressure followed as we couldn't string passes together and they had a break down their left. a low cross into the danger area and as ng tried to cover, he did better than hleong with an attempt that bear more conviction that the earlier one. gan stood no chance.

so that's a good night's sleep for galacticos. if they had lost, they'd be walking zombies tmr. and no.16 would be heard all over pasir ris.

the taste of the pudding ........

after 2 match post and tinkering with the site, its time for the test. this site is build under my own id, but if the design concept makes sense, it can be done for marinesunday (with its own address, title, pics, color scheme, etc etc). the idea of a blog for marinesunday is founded on the basis of a home for the team, not just for information access, but to partake in the content (match reports) and make it a one-stop shop for all matters relating to the team, i.e. next match notification, attendance update, etc.

The 2 content matters of weekly reports (via initiating postings and comments) and attendance update (via the google sheet link) are in place. there are other things that can be done. i've inserted the poll as an exple of fun things which individuals can set up. i also like the blinking notice of next match.

so, feel free to explore, update the sheet, vote and comment! we'll discuss on sat.

Match #2 (31 Dec 07): 6-3 win over mosque team

the start of a new run? after a tumultuous nov/dec, this win is welcomed relieve. the scoreline and the manner of which makes it reassuring. we overcome them, 3pm heat and a malay team with the 'gelek' with an average age younger than us. it started evenly but once their defence took an early nap. 2 nil up and we thought we were crusing. then 1-2, then 3-1 and 3-2 at half time. we knew we needed to keep our lead better. so second half went 4-2, 4-3, 5-3 and 6-3. some very good goals and hleong has his view of the goal of the year (for the time being).

some comments from the scorers and team to spice up this post.

Match #1 (29 Dec 07): 2-3 loss to babylon

this is considered the first match of season 2008 since we cut off early for today's 'agm'. thanks mike sim, you gave us babylon when we were having a dreadful run following what had been a fantastic yr. still, it could have turned in our favor, if not for a moment's loss of discipline. 1 nil up thanks to mike lim's cool finish, babylon came at us with greater urgency and benefitted from a stiff grounder from out of the box which seah spilled. Despite seah's brave dive, the lurking striker promptly tucked in the rebound, injuring seah in the process. then from a diagonal pass that eluded our defence, babylon scored their second. in the second half, we didn't panicked and played steadily, slowly taking control of the game. we had our chances and when lakesh drilled in a superb cross fr the right, wah calmly slotted it home. 2-2 and wind on our sails. babylon felt shaken and stirred. but ladyluck shone on them. with 5 minutes to go, fr a corner, our guy allowed lefty to break free and slam a shot home. marinesunday pressed till the end but final result 2-3.

bottomline: they took the few chances that came their way, we didn't take enough of those we created.