The third match of Liga-A 2005 season. Though, in reality, it's our first match since the first two were walkover wins. It's the first round of Ansara Cup (FA Cup). Our opponent - SMSAH. It's also a match between the current top two teams in Div 2. So, how did we fare against them? Read on.
My initial fear of not having enough players for the match turned out to be a false alarm. About fourteen of us (yes, including me - I'm a registered player too) turned up for the match. Good enough for me. However, since none of our goal keepers were available, I had to wear the gloves for this game. Oh well..
Just before the game, I received an interesting news. We're getting a new set of jerseys. So, I hereby would like to extend my thank you to the kind hearted sponsor for the jerseys. Thus, we got into the game suited in the new set of jerseys - Red top, black shorts, and white sox. With the word "Ansara" on the front.
Ok, enough of the small talk. Let's get to the game itself.
We went into the match with a 4-5-1 formation. The game plan was to not allow SMSAH any room in midfield to launch an attack. We managed to execute the game plan for most part of the match. SMSAH managed only to create a small number of chances on goal. The defence also did a great job in executing the offside trap. They did, however, made a few long distance attempt on goal. These long shots bothered me a bit. It's been a while since I put on the gloves. Thus, through out the match, my attempts to safely catch these long shots would spill out from my hands. However, since I've anticipated such spill outs, I managed to recover them almost immediately.
The most dangerous situation arising from the spill outs was when the ball spilled out right in front of their striker. Lucky for me, I managed to kick the ball away just as it fell to the legs of the striker. Phew!!. SMSAH managed to put the ball into the net at one point. However, it didn't count, as their striker was ruled offside by the linesman.
In short, the first half and the second half ended in a draw. Both teams didn't see much action in front of either goal. The few chances both teams had either ended up in near misses or were way off targets.
Since it's a knock out tournament, we had to play in a silver goal extra time of five minutes per half. 3 minutes into the first half of extra time, SMSAH were awarded a corner. From the corner, which we were unable to safely clear the ball from the penalty box. A SMSAH player managed to drive the ball past all the moving bodies and feet in the box into the net. I saw the ball late, dived and were not able to reach it in time. Thus, with only two minutes remaining, it was Muar 0 - SMSAH 1.
After the goal, I realized, I failed to direct anyone to stand at the post during the corner. A basic mistake which costs us the match and sent us out of the Ansara Cup.
The game also saw Muar losing another player to a knee injury. Our right winger, suffered a knee injury in the second half. He will be out for some time now. All I can do, pray that it's not really bad and for his speedy recovery. That's two players from my first eleven, down with injuries. Oh well.. Right now, I'm really waiting for the transfer window. Need to register a few new players into the team. Remind me to ask the organizer about the transfer window.
Next up, League Match 3. We're up against ASAS in match 3. According to the schedule, the match will be played on June 11th. However, ASAS have requested that the match be postponed to a later date. Thus, tentatively, it will be played on June 18th. This gives us a couple of weeks with no scheduled match.
Hmmmmmm.. a friendly perhaps? Gives me a chance to try out those who have submitted their interest in joining the team. Hmmmmm... interesting.. interesting.. So, to those who're interested to join and have not sent me your details, please do so now. To those who've sent me your details, I'll get in touch with you soon.
If you're interested in the results of other matches in Liga-A, check it out here.
