Going into the Raya break, there was a break in the Maniam League too. With that, RMM played a hastily arranged friendly instead to keep fitness levels up.
Playing the All Whites for the first time and with no points at stake, RMM experimented with a 4-3-3 formation.
With a paper thin squad, lifetime president Guvnor decided to rest the 103 year old Speedy and played him in goal for this game to allow the geriactic winger some rest between league games.
The backline was somewhat unchanged with JASON (apologies from writer for earlier ommission!) , Meng, Danny and Snake strung across the back lending some consistency to the team.
In the middle of the park, the trio of Guvnor, Hardman Joe and Iceman controlled the traffic whilst the frontline consisted of Superstar Batigol, Mat Burit and Shark.
The game proved to be an exciting one with RMM signaling their intent early on when Mat Burit and Guvnor combined well to put RMM ahead but the goal was harshly adjudged to be offside.
That didn’t stop RMM from taking the lead thru Superstar Batigol and it looked like just a matter of time before RMM was going to rack up a cricket score.
Then against the run of play, the All Whites equalized via what looked like a fluke cross that ended up at the top corner of Speedy’s goal.
RMM then seized control of the game again with goals from Guvnor and Hardman Joe to end the half 3-1 up and in cruise control. The experimental 4-3-3 formation looked like it was working and with a bit of luck and better finishing, RMM could have had an even bigger lead before the break.
The All Whites started the second half more aggressively and managed to pull a goal back at the restart to make the score 3-2 and that signaled the start of a see saw battle that saw both teams attack end to end with great aplomb.
RMM then restored the 2 goal lead with Superstar Batigol once again showing great speed and power to score his second of the day.
The 2 goal lead didn’t last long as All White’s once again pulled a goal back making the score 4-3. Suddenly, it didn’t look like such as cruise for RMM anymore.
The game was still played at a frenetic pace and finally settled when RMM managed a fifth goal thru the woefully off form Shark. Played in by a recovering Partyman Eddie, the all time RMM goal scoring record holder managed to pull off a rare goal from outside the box.
The goal finally ended the All White’s resistance and the game ended as a contest then. There was time however for Hardman Joe to show off his hard side when he was sent off for his part in an altercation with an All White player.
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5 comments:
u forgot Jason Yap, d 4th man in defence la... yea, overall we didn't perform as a team as too many players were pushing forward n looking to add to their goal tally n left the midfield outnumbered on numerous occasions.
Guvnor Chen shocked everyone later in the week when he revealed that it was indeed a league game!
It's called man-management! Against teams of these ilk, if I were to present it as a "league game", we generally perform a little too uptight, because we are expected to win against teams like these. So by disguising it as a friendly, we played with total abandonment (which can also be a bad thing sometimes) which resulted in the win.
1) l think we should make it interesting by only announcing AFTER each match whether it's a league or friendly game !! And keep everyone in suspense (or not so tensed !)
2) This blog is under-utilised. Come on guys, let's support the blog or at least show some appreciation to our match reporters by writing a line or two...
3) May l suggest each match report comes out by thur-fri to allow enough time for comments before the next sunday match. Hope l am not imposing too much on our match reporters...
Ok guys....chipping in now with a bit of correction....
It was 4-1 then 4-2 and not 3-2 then 4-2.
Hope this helps.
Well done RMMers!
Very impressive indeed! Have strung a few victories already! Keep it up!
Again well done to the reporting skills shown by the Shark!
The Coach
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