Goal!

Saturday, February 02, 2008

A PUSH A LITTLE TOO LATE

Munjens were looking to extend their winning form from last game's 13-2 thrashing of their oppositions at Ammo-kyo Community Stadia. A late push by Munjens in the second half proved futile. Also, with key midfielder Nallu still serving his match ban, one can only hope Munjens will not rueing his loss.

It was bad news for Munjens as they arrived at the Ammo-kyo Stadia greeted again by showers which postponed their match earlier this month. It was however a promising return to the arena this time facing UniGrad FC.

The game started off to a rousing start as both sides wasted no time in trying to get the ball on each other's third half of the pitch with UGFC seemingly to be giving Munjens the early scare.

Munjens however found their feet and slowly took possession of the game albeit poor communication. Munjens found it hard to play on the wet pitch as they lost control of the ball repeatedly to UGFC.

The ball was relatively stuck in midfield for most of the game and with Munjens keeping their back four tight, caused many problems for UGFC as they were ruled offside time and again.

The lack of shots on goals in the first half sums up what was probably the tightest game ever with a win coming either from a magical touch or even a defensive blunder.

Half time, 0-0.

Munjens changed their game plan reverting from a 4-4-2 system to a 4-5-1 formation with Haris the sole forward and Sanjay to support him.

It wasn't long before UGFC punished Munjens for a defensive lap on the left with a superb out sole swinger from 25 yards down low to the left of goalkeeper Wee Yang who was at full stretch. UGFC deservedly took the lead.

It was only then that Munjens stepped up a gear and played some nice flowing football with at times intricate passes that only made their work harder.

It wasn't until the 60th minute that Munjens had their first real chance on goal. A nice one two play between Sanjay and Firdaus saw Sanjay on target with a nice lobbing effort on goal, only for the keeper to parry it away for a corner.

As Munjens pushed their way through for an equaliser the game seemed to stall itself yet again in midfield.

However, Munjens should thank their goalie Wee Yang for had it not been for some splendid point blank saves, Munjens would have had their own taste of the medicine they gave out last week.

Munjens only really found their footing in the last 10 minutes when on the 86th, a high through ball put through by Jie Wei to Haris saw him superbly control the ball with his head before making his usual dash to the goal. A sliding tackle by UGFC's last defender proved useless as Haris easily skipped past him, and only for his shot to be saved with only the keeper to beat.

The miss proved costly as UGFC hit them on the counter attack and on 88 minutes, managed to win a corner which was duly converted and proved to be the sucker punch for MPFC.

"We played badly in the first half. We couldn't find our footing. It wasn't that good either in the second although we did caused them some problems at the back," quoted MPFC's Darius.

On his miss, Haris was utterly disappointed about it as had it gone in, the game play would have had a huge turnaround. He was however surprised at his match fitness considering he has not played a game for quite a long time.

All in all, it was a pretty much evenly played match which could have gone either way but sadly, a loss that could spell trouble for MPFC as they had only managed a win out of four games this season.

-MPOM/haris

10:07 PM