Tuesday Night At East Coast (3) - 21 February 2012

On the thread for the Thursday game:

Feb 22, 2012 9:55:50 GMT 8 Chen Hong said:

pulling out after last night's bruising game at East Coast ....

....

The reference to "bruising" got me worried, so I made some enquiries. From what I understand, demanding and perhaps robust, but not necessarily "bruising". A couple of knee injuries, to Steve F and Chih Seng, but I understand more from the strains of the game, rather than from bad tackles.

Anyway, I'm putting the report thread up earlier, so those who played can give their own take on the game.

Feb 21, 2012 18:11:36 GMT 8 Rajiv said:

I suggest:

Whites: Justin (captain), Glenn F, Chih Seng, Shawn Lee, Melvin L, Steve F, Benny H
Reds: Kenny Aw, Jeff S (captain), Zhichun, Chin Hee, Chen Hong, Srini, Neil M

Any comments? As there are a few new players, and several other players haven't played together before, I've appointed captains.

Everyone, please bring both a white top and a red top in any event.

....

I understand that with two injured players, Reds won comfortably, even with Chen Hong stepped out for his regular Tuesday night telecon.

Chih Seng's injury sounds bad. I hope it's nothing more than a sprained knee.

Whites: Justin (captain), Glenn F, Chih Seng, Shawn Lee, Melvin L, Steve F, Benny H
Reds: Kenny Aw, Jeff S (captain), Zhichun, Chin Hee, Chen Hong, Srini, Neil M

Game started evenly.

Perhaps Srini's presence galvanised the Reds who managed to settled down quickly despite having 2 new players (skillful). Reds played a good passing game with Kenny marshalling the defence & pulled up 3-0 rather quickly.

However as soon as Reds slackened, Whites pulled back 2 beautiful goals which both went in courtesy of the upright with the 2nd particulary spectacular from Justin as it came from just 2 metres from the centre of the pitch & went through a sea of bodies before hitting the left upright then into the net.

Reds Captain Jeff got upset with his players for letting a 3-0 lead evaporate to 3-2 & took matters upon himself to play midfield. Coupled this with Srini's lone slalom runs upfield even while playing keeper Reds pulled in another 2 goals. It was as if Reds had 8 players on the field.

Whites stalwart Chih Seng put in an extra shift & started making runs upfield. It was during on of those runs that a collision took place & left him grimanacing near the Reds D. At the point he retired into goal & play slowed down. Perhaps Whites knew they were playing against a team with one of their major players injured & we could see the extent of his injury as he couldnt stop 2 more goals from slipping pass him.

At that point i chose to retire early to try & even out the playing field.

Thanks Chen Hong. Sounds a better game than just "bruising".

Anyway, I've asked Chih Seng to let me know how is knee gets. For now, he's using a brace to support his knee.

The game started about 5 mins pass 9 when everyone started to trickle in. Both teams had new players and some had not played with each other.

Reds opened the scoring with a Neil putting the ball in the net from the right. It then doubled its tally to 2-0. Reds settled down pretty quickly with kenny, hee and ch in defence and was very disciplined in their positioning all night while neil, srini and peter led the attack.

Whites didn't sort out the position and did not have much communication on the ground in the beginning and conceded the goals. Very unsettled with a few people playing in position they don't usually play. I think chih seng was in defence, melvin out right and glenn right up front when the first few goals were conceded by the whites. They did make a few changes and settled the defense and got a few goals back with a nice placing shot from Justin and Glenn. Setback happened when CS injured his knee with no fault of any other players. With that whites lost one of their runners and outlet for their team.

Reds tightened the grip with the drive of kenny, peter and hee. All three are very industrious and never stopped running throughout the game which makes it very difficult for the whites. Very good debut for peter and hee (kudos kenny for introducing exciting players to the group). I believe Benny is new too and not to shabby last night.

It was a good workout throughout the night leaving a few feeling flat at the end. No malice in challenges just good hard running with nothing over the top in terms of tackles.

Think the game was fast and frenetic probably because the play was stretched and play went end to end like a Cup game. Wave after wave of attack and counter attacking gave us all a good work out. Despite having new players I think the passing and team work of the reds was good and I appreciated the coordination amongst the group.

My friends Chin Hee (Hee) and Zhichun (Peter) enjoyed the game lots as it was played at a good pace and good spirit. Anyway, Jeff mixed up the 2 names above, Hee was the attacker and Peter in defence.

LOL!

Rajiv: Just getting nitpicky arent we? How about Chen Hong left after his ego suffered a bruising?

As for the game; there were plenty of unknown entities in the form of Peter, Shawn, Benny and Hee...

Agreed with the rest of the comments where Reds settled in alot quicker, giving them the advantage of stronger coverage. The white's defensive line suffered due to the lack of understanding in each other's play. This got compounded by Srini's "behind-the-defense" runs which saw White defenders misunderstanding who's job was it to keep Srini in check.

As the hour panned out, we found out a few things:
-great new "kakis" in the 4 new chaps.
-Benny has nuts of steel when he got hit by a nut-cracker in the beginning of the match. He didnt even wince!!
-It's a bad idea to turn your body one way, and send your feet the other as Chih Seng found out...
-Jeff still needs to wear proper shorts...

I understand from Chih Seng he was taken by surprise by the greater traction of his new astro shoes.

Feb 22, 2012 13:04:29 GMT 8 Justin R said:

....

Rajiv: Just getting nitpicky arent we? How about Chen Hong left after his ego suffered a bruising?

....

It wasn't me being nitpicky, it was me getting worried!

And I'm sure we've had withdrawal from a subsequent game for a bruised ego before, just not very often.

Feb 22, 2012 13:03:53 GMT 8 Kenny Aw said:

....

My friends Chin Hee (Hee) and Zhichun (Peter) enjoyed the game lots as it was played at a good pace and good spirit. ....

Kenny, if you provide me with their e-mail addresses, I will add them to the mailing list.

Feb 22, 2012 13:04:29 GMT 8 Justin R said:

LOL!

Rajiv: Just getting nitpicky arent we? How about Chen Hong left after his ego suffered a bruising?

As for the game; there were plenty of unknown entities in the form of Peter, Shawn, Benny and Hee...

Agreed with the rest of the comments where Reds settled in alot quicker, giving them the advantage of stronger coverage. The white's defensive line suffered due to the lack of understanding in each other's play. This got compounded by Srini's "behind-the-defense" runs which saw White defenders misunderstanding who's job was it to keep Srini in check.

As the hour panned out, we found out a few things:
-great new "kakis" in the 4 new chaps.
-Benny has nuts of steel when he got hit by a nut-cracker in the beginning of the match. He didnt even wince!!
-It's a bad idea to turn your body one way, and send your feet the other as Chih Seng found out...
-Jeff still needs to wear proper shorts...

no short shorts when CH is around. Those are only for matches..

apologize for getting the two mixed up.

i am speechless ....

I noticed Chih Seng was wearing Adidas Kaiser5 astro shoes? Is that right? Actully I used a pair of those for 3 weeks and felt my knees were suffering from too much grip of the soles and inflexibility of the shoes. Changed after I could not take it to another Lotto pair and it was much better. Heads up for anyone buying them . May not be suitable for everyone.

Kenny u are spot-on abt my new astro turf boots. it was indeed too good (too gripy) as u hv rightly highlighted , that while i tried to turn , the boot is still stuck in the turf such that i twisted my knee. Tks for confirming the weakness of these boots. they are going straight into the bin. Tks again Kenny.