• Date: 22 Aug 1999 Sunday SundayTime: 1500 pm
• Place: RJC
• Duration: 40 mins per half
• Crowd: nil (Where's our capacity crowd?? Our adoring fans??The screaming girls??? All our sexy football wasted.)

Well, our third successive defeat. But a decent performance from Dasch though the scoreline seems to indicate otherwise. Only a late late defensive collapse made us look bad. First, a few words of praise... as requested by our ever-modest editor/captain, Kenneth "Give-us-some-credit" Wong.

Rui Bin played well as keeper, being alert enough to go off his line for the long/high balls, and with very assured handling of the ball, the only blemish in the1st half was the goal he let in, but one which he didn't have much of a chance to save anyway. It was an own-goal. More of it later...

As usual, central defenders Eng Kiat (back from injury), Stanley plus Stopper/defensive mid Chek Keng, were their usual efficient selves, supporting the midfield & picking up the opponents which got past our defence ie. clearing up the mess our players made, especially from right back Alvan, who was clearly lacking in match fitness/sharpness, and who was struggling to keep up throughout the game (he was only supposed to be a late sub but was fielded due to the irresponsibility of Lester not turning up after saying that he would.). The defending by Tianrui, & the central midfielders were our typical Dasch hard-tackling, persistent shadowing and mostly intelligent clearing style (as opposed to the stupid into-the-clouds clearing style we employed in our younger, more foolish days). Left back Tianrui was as consistent as ever, considering many of the Prima attacks came via the left flank, and also often down the middle.

In midfield, our ultra-tough central midfielders, the solid Kenneth & the always reliable Desmond, were busy breaking legs, running non-stop, winning the loose balls, initiating the attacks, harassing the opponents, surging dangerously forward as well as helping out defensively, though one wishes they track back more to cover the defence. And let's not forget their many neat touches on the ball too. Indeed our indispensable all-rounders.

Our creative sparks came, as expected, from our dashing wingers, Mingheng & Raymond who troubled the opponents with their nifty footwork, one-twos with the rest, & got past the Prima players time & again with their ball control, dribbling skills and crosses. Prima had a real rough ride coping with them, esp. in the first half & the early stages of the second half of the match. Perhaps they could have tried more long-range shots from way out (the entire team as well). Also, the long experience of playing together with the central midfield players showed in their coordinated teamwork with Desmond & Kenneth.

Striker Cheng Cai ran hard, held up the ball & linked well with the midfield, though the Prima defence managed to contain him for most of the match. He also did his share of harassing the opponents (together with the hard running Chek Keng), with great success, in front & midfield. Applause for their hardwork and dedication which is a fine example for the rest of the players to follow.

And hey those of you who were not present... cut out those disbelieving looks ok. We really did play ok. So what went wrong? How come we lost again?

It helped that our opponents, Prima was also not that strong, though keeping in mind they were fielding their reserve team. But Dasch was playing with a big disadvantage as well; there were just 11 Dasch players who turned up, which means we lack substitutes & everyone had to play the whole match. Our line-up for this match was also not our first choice XI, as some of our...ahem... star players were AWOL. Prima, in contrast, had reserves on the bench to sub in (which they did).

The match kicked off with Dasch dominating the game in terms of ball possession, most of the time restricting Prima to their half, thanks to some determined defending by our team. We hit their cross bar in the 1st 3 minutes. They had to depend on counter-attacks as a result (but got close a few times). Dasch had the chances to score first, with our rather fluent play & passing down the middle & flanks, but the final pass and finishing touch were lacking. Most of the time the approach work by Raymond & Mingheng was highly promising until we got near the opponents' box, & then the necessary last pass let us down - ball too fast, misplaced or player out of position. For all our industry & tireless running, we didn't do enough to convert the chances. Maybe a midfield playmaker who can slow down/control the pace of the game for us can be useful, as we tended to play that bit too fast, which results in more errors, as well as not giving sufficient time for the players to move into position.

The first half ended with Prima leading 1-0. Kick off 2nd half...

The first goal came when a Prima cross from the right hit Alvan on the shoulder, and from the resulting free kick, an in-rushing Prima player together with the shadowy Tianrui managed to squeezed one pass Ruibin as everyone else stood rooted. It was credited as an own goal by Tianrui. (I dunno why.. true, there were some cute girls playing netball nearby, but I swear that was not the reason we failed to clear... we were watching the ball all the time. Really.)

Then Mingheng nearly got one from a pass by Kenneth with a close, fierce shot which bounced off the crossbar, down and away from goal. It seemed to inspire us, and later, Dasch pulled one back when a fast break down the right by Mingheng and some really SUPERB DRIBBLING & TEASING of their left back resulted in a pinpoint cross from the byline which our leading striker Cheng Cai cooly headed in at the near post, before the opposing keeper could react. It was one good play which we finally converted. It could easily have been the goal of the season.1-1 ... & we had a chance to win.

Midway through the 2nd half, Alvan suffered a pulled leg muscle, which restricted his mobility even more. Strangely enough, Prima did not exploit our very vulnerable right flank as often as they should have, luckily for us. The times they did, they were particularly menacing, with our slow limping right back & lack of cover on our side. There was a real close shave for us as one move by Prima left their player in lots of space right in front of goal, & as 2 Dasch players desperately moved in (too late) to block, he hit it low just past the right post and out, to our relief. Another 'goal' by Prima was disallowed for offside. Rui Bin took care of the rest of their on-target shots comfortably.

Mid-way through the 2nd half, Chek Keng switched to goalkeeping duties for Rui Bin who moved up front. As Dasch started to tire & eased off (without any subs to come in), Prima scored twice in quick succession in the very last minutes of the game. The first conceded by Chek Keng was one he should have saved, but instead he allowed the low cross from the right to slip under his body & Prima had the easiest of all tap-ins. Rustiness on the part of Chek? The second not long after was a close-range shot by Prima which a defender was too slow to block, and though Chek Keng got his hand to the ball, it went into the back of the net anyway.

There was a prolonged injury time-out when one Prima player had the misfortune to experience a first-hand taste of Dasch's uncompromising tackling, which left him with both legs sprained (and he was out of action thereafter). The last stages of the game was marked by sustained pressure from Prima as we faded away due to lack of fresh legs & ideas.

In the end, the final score read 4-1 to Prima, as Dasch crashed to a 3rd loss in a row (and an aggregate score of 16-3 against, for those who care about such inspiring statistics). But there's the promise of better results in our future matches, assuming we play an equal-standard opponent & with our first XI available. Our manager & captain should go all out for a victory or a draw in the next game, else we're on our way to breaking some unwanted record as the team with the longest losing streak. So.. let's act smart for once, guys & hope for the best.