Playouts vs Gogooryo (Div 6 Match 3) Win 5-0

Written by Tan Boon Hai

The blue skies and the cool breeze were signs of the match to come. After an ill-fated start to the league, Playouts bounced back with a valiant performance to win their second match and in this third match, the guys were all ready to gain another 3 points in the bag.

Due to the Ulu-ness of Punggol, a number of teammates threatened to live up to our team’s name by arriving late; in fact there was a particular man who refused to check his street directory even when he got lost!! Talk about stubbornness… But in the end, the referee gave us a favor by coming late too, but guess what? That was the only favor we got from him that day, if you know what I mean.

Finally the match got it started. Maybe due to early match jitters, the team was engaging in largely scrappy play. Names were called, commands were given from almost everyone, but nothing seemed to work. We were largely camped in our own half during the first 15 minutes, but in true ACSian spirit, an opportunistic pass led to Edwin being freed to roam in the left flank. Our captain then brought the ball to the edge of penalty and whipped a low, menacing cross across the goal; and there arrives our top marksman, Isa, who coolly slotted the ball in mid-air to the bottom right hand corner of our opponent’s net, classic pass, classic finish, classic goal!!!

Apart from sub-standard refereeing, nothing much can be said till around the 40^th minute, Playouts gained a corner. The ball was floated to the far post, and due to some professional ‘harassing’ of the goalkeeper in the six yard box, confusion reigned among our opponents and everyone missed the ball! And just as the ball was headed toward goal, the last man of Gogooryo attempted a ‘Maradona aka hand of god’ move to palm the ball away! A penalty definitely, and of course, any self-respecting footballer would know that was a red card offence committed by the defender but just when the whole team was expecting the player to be sent off, the referee dished out a yellow card!!! Incredible or I would say, incredulous, decision!!!

But as true sportsmen, the team kept our cool, and Mr Jonathan Kong stepped up to take the penalty. The whistle blew and as expected, our midfield maestro sent the goalkeeper the wrong direction and we got our second goal!

The first half ended shortly after and we went back to our dressing room. Captain Edwin lashed at the team to remind us not to lose our cool at the decisions made by the referee and his lashing worked wonders.

Playouts went into the second half, focused on keeping our cool and to increase our goal average, uhhhumm, difference, I mean. And in a matter of minutes, a superb play involving a long floating pass from Jonathan found Dunstan at the right flank. Superb first touch and speed displayed by our right winger enabled him to have the time and space to find Renhan sneaking at the other side of the penalty box. A pinpoint cross was delivered to him and our ever reliable striker trapped it down, and with eagle’s eye vision, saw an opening and slotted the ball beyond the goalkeeper’s reach and we had our third goal!!! We were up 3-0, now playouts were on a roll.

But the best was yet to be! It was in this match we found our Ronaldhino when in the 60^th minute, we had a free kick about 40 metres away from our opponents’ goal. And never in our wildest minds would we expect the next thing happen. Captain Edwin, with his lethal left foot, struck a powerful cross, oops I wanted to say shot, towards the top right corner of the net. The ball eluded every single person and we got our fourth goal!!! Edwin, our Ronaldhino!

Now everyone was enjoying the action, and of course, our star winger Dunstan refused to be left out of the party. In about the 70^th minute, Darryl got the ball in the opponents’ half, he passed the ball to Dunstan, who was lurking around the edge of the penalty box. With the goal in his mind, Dynamite Dunstan was focused. He trapped the ball, lifted it up the ground and with his eyes fixed on the ball, coupled with his superb goal instinct, he volleyed the ball. The ball went over the goalkeeper, dipped down and we got our icing on the cake, our fifth goal!

All it needed now was the referee to blow the whistle and he promptly did that 10 minutes later and our opponents’ misery ended. Playouts once again lived up to their fearsome reputation with our task accomplished, 3 more points in the bag and goal average pulled up and goal difference increased. Good job, guys!