we expected to struggle in today's game. but after kickoff, we didn't touch the ball for the first 20 minutes because our opponent were passing like barcelona, our 9 game winning streak looked threatened...
but for those who missed today's game, our opponent was the strongest we met as far as i can remember. but machiam chelsea beat barcelona, we thrashed the sorry buggers 3-2 from being down 0-1... but richard thought it was more like burnley beat arsenal...
anyway our unbeaten streak is still intact...
an excerpt taken from henry's email which i found funny.
but our opponents today were indeed strong, some of them comparable to my teamates in the sp team.
yet beat them we did, and as henry so aptly described, we beat them by being water-tight at the back, industrious in midfield, clinical upfront, and so very organised as a unit.
burnley? richard's being a little too harsh on us. chealsea's more fair a comparison, and we deserved our hard-fought win.
i played in my most favored central midfield berth, after being played out on the left (our star japanese winger returned to japan for the past two weeks) and both full-back positions because of the shortage of personals, and worked my socks off, tracking back, closing down, getting stuck in, breaking play and supporting the attack whenever i could.
as you could tell, we were on the back foot throughout the game with our opponents controlling possession.
and early in the first half, their pressure told, and we crumbled after some intricate passing, and some comical defending from us.
that seemed to spur me on more, and with possibly our first real attack and chance of the game, i got the game level with a left footed finish inside the box after a swift counter attack. 1-1 and game on.
for all the possesion that out opponents had, they rarely troubled our keeper, who was outstanding, confidently dealing with the crosses whipped on occasion.
we went into the break level, and within minutes, after some brilliant one-touch exchanging of passes we scored on the break again.
then a corner won on the break (again) was converted and we were cruising at 3-1, with our opponents hardly getting a sniff on goal despite their time on the ball, and we were increasingly able to unsettle them with our direct and potent breaks. mel was colossal up front, holding up the ball ably, tak (out japanese winger) was a menace, and i (if i may say so myself), was bombing in from deep.
they got a goal back from a soft penalty after one of the tallest and biggest (big, not fat - big as in muscular big) went down in the box à la drogba.
3-2 the final score.
fun fun fun game, great entertainment, though we nearly clashed on more than a few occasions, with words exchanged.
but hey, i'm not one who shirks from a challenge (at least i don't think so), nor one who gives up easily, nor one who gladly accepts defeat on the chin.
i was never a good loser, and just because i don't act like a kid and throw tantrums whenever defeats inevitably comes around now - i learnt the hard way - doesn't mean that i enjoy it any more than i did, and my friends and teamates know me well enough to steer clear whenever i'm fuming.