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Found this pic while browsing through my old albums. It’s from the street soccer competition when we were in JC. He’s our very own CAPTAIN MARVEL!

soccer

Look at how he gek seh! Haha

This is dated, but it’s still pretty amazing.

The floor was wet from the rain so we spread newspapers around the court. Nothing can stop die hard soccer nuts like us I guess. Haha. It was quite disgusting to pick up the soggy newspaper from the ground but I guess I must be too used to sai kang already. Thanks to 2 years in army, I’m no longer the pussy who doesn’t dare to get his hands dirty (cos I’m a clean freak and can be quite anal about it). Of course, although it’s only 3 weeks away, I still wish I could ORD sooner. But I don’t think that army was a waste of time. Not if you look at the bigger picture. I learned a lot about myself in army. But I digress.

Nearly did a Paul Scholes. James flicked on a pass which I volleyed with my left foot. It was about 30cm higher than it should have been but I’m pretty happy with the technique. It was perfect form. Haha. Reminds me of my dad when he started playing golf. Always obsessing over his swing even though the balls were flying in all sorts of directions =) Scored only two goals today. The first one was sort of like a fluke. Found myself in a bit of space and did a toe poke. Actually I thought it wouldn’t go in cos I was a bit kanchiong already. Haha. But it settled into the right corner so… *shrug* They all count in the end. But it was damn ugly lah. The second goal was better. Played a one-two with Ryan, who layed the ball for me to shoot with my left foot. The form was good. Lol. It went in low into the near post.

I noticed that today I keep asking for the ball. That’s surprising because I thought I’d lose my hunger sooner or later. Anyway, passing rocks lah. I just enjoy stroking the ball around to others so much. Haha. It makes me high or something. Woohoo. There are so many permutations, so many ways, so many challenges every time you get the ball. I guess it’s because I’m someone who thrives on change. I get a bit uncomfortable when there’s a bit of montony.

One word to describe my game today: impetus.

Today’s soccer didn’t start off very well. I was just feeling fucking lethargic. Maybe I was just too tired after yesterday’s ice skating. Really like no energy at all lah, lose ball also never go chase. Three times my team lost because of my mistakes. Sigh. It was really disappointing. It’s fucking demoralizing lah. I really shouldn’t give any excuses, but maybe it was due to a lack of motivation as there wasn’t any next team at the offset.

But it’s alright, I managed to psyche myself up after a while to almost reach the standard of last week. I was still making a lot of stray passes, but I became very tenacious in the tackle and was determined to get the ball no matter what. I mean, even if you’re not playing well you should still do your job properly. Once again, it’s due to good attitude – the small thing that makes a big difference Quite proud of myself for winning this small mental struggle.

Better yet, to further feed my bloodlust, this bunch of jokers came in and declared that they wanted to change the rules once it was their team’s turn. The usual street soccer etiquette is to follow whatever rules the rest of the teams have been playing with so far. These buggers came in and wanted to play 2 goals (to win) and enlarge the boundaries. Everyone was like stunned lah. Haha. The audacity! I was damn pissed. We were playing 1 goal and the reason for that was because of them! When they came we thought we should play 1 goal because we didn’t want them to wait to long. They even wanted us to shift our bags out. That was the last straw I think. I made known my feelings, which resulted in a silent compromise of sorts. The 1 goal rule was kept while the boundaries were shifted.

As Ryan put it, “they came in thinking they were the kings”. Ha. That made it all the more satisfying when we sent them out of the court. Must have wiped the smirk off their faces. Hehe. It felt FUCKING GOOD LAH! Woohoo! They didn’t win a single game. Take that, losers.

Marvin had a good game today. Could see that he was extra motivated. Maybe he’s been doing some secret training on his own? =) He was more mobile, more vocal. A change to a more positive mind-set I guess.

It’s also good to see Ryan regaining his sharpness in front of goal. His finishing today was something we all haven’t seen for a long time. Or maybe it’s just because we all haven’t seen him for a long time. Haha. It’s damn satisfying when your striker scores because your hard work is rewarded. Actually I find it even more rewarding than scoring myself.

Eugene made a lot of match-winning saves today. Don’t think he even conceded a single goal today. Good stuff. It gives you a lot of confidence as a defender if you know your back is covered by a safe pair of hands. Too bad he broke his specs whilst making a spectacular save with his head. Fucking brave. But it’s time to get contacts lah, Eugene =D

Detong needs to get fit again. I think being a CQ’s really making him very ‘nua’.

James is gay and guai lan as usual. But it’s entertaining lah =)

[ DISCLAIMER: the following blog entry should be skipped if you are adverse to soccer or ego trips, or both. Or if you’re pregnant. (I’ve no idea why I added that last bit, disclaimers always have that *shrug*) ]

Oh yeah. There’re a some things I left out just now. We lost one of the games because Detong scored an own goal in a comical fashion. It wasn’t really his fault as his pass was supposed to reach James, who was the goalie at that time. It was just that at the moment that James was supposed to trap the ball, his foot got entangled in the folds of the net! Astonishing. Stupid. Hilarious. Even though we lost that game, we all couldn’t stop laughing =D

When we were on the sidelines Detong, James and I were sitting down and chatting about the Good Old Days. We found it hard to believe that it’s been 7 or 8 years since we first kicked ball together. It’s like, wow. And we all agreed that if it wasn’t for soccer, we’d all have lost contact by now. So, thank you, Ball, for bringing the few of us together in a lifetime of friendship. Shit I can’t believe it’s been so many years already.

Like I said before, it’s my dream to get into the NUS team, and James has been really supportive. A week ago he told me I was almost there. Today he said I stood a very good chance of getting in because the NUS coach was also his NJ coach and he would like my style of playing. Wow. I mean, you can’t imagine how encouraging it is lah. The past two months I’ve been working really hard on my game - going for jogs, asking advice from Weilin and James, secret training, evolving my mentality, studying tactics from Winning Eleven and manga – and it is deeply satisfying to see some marked improvement in my own performance as well as receiving some affirmation from someone who has “been there, done that”. James has played at JC level so I trust his judgement.

I’ve never felt fitter in my life. It used to be that if I went up to support the attack then run back to defend a few times, I’d be out of breath quickly. Now I can do it for almost the entire match without needing to catch my breath. It feels amazing I tell you. Weilin used to kb me about giving up when the guy went past me. After some thinking, I made a promise to myself not to let it happen again. It was hard to adjust the first few times, because it’s become a habit, but I’d always end up kicking myself for breaking my own pledge. Now I’ve discovered that actually sometimes even if it’s a lost cause, even if I can’t get there in time to block the shot, there’s still a small chance the guy might be ruffled by the pressure. This feels like how I defended in Sec 1 and 2. Whoa. It’s been so long since I recaptured the form of those yesteryears. I’ve been making more blocks and last ditch tackles. I feel so well balanced when I’m marking a dribble. Everything just feels so… right.

I’ve decided to quit my midfield “aspirations” nonsense and concentrate on being a good centre-back. We should specialize in the things we are good at, right? I may not be the best in the business in individual defending but I have yet to meet anyone who’s better at organizing a defense. That’s the only statement I can boldly make without any fear of dispute when it comes to soccer.

Reality check: let’s not forget that the Arts Fac alone has a whopping 1600 seats. Assuming a male to female ratio of 2:3, and that 10% of the guys want to join soccer, that’s 64 people to compete with in Arts alone. That’s if they even hold open trials.

There’s no way I can be happy at my current level. I have to keep improving.

Ok, well technically it’s a Monday not a Sunday. But anyway, what better way is there to herald the coming of the new year but by playing football with your friends? This morning was a good kick-off for 2007. It was deliriously enjoyable.

We discovered this 14 year old young talent (also) called Eugene when we arrived at the court earlier than the others. He played keeper for us but later did pretty well as a left-footed striker. My team, consisting of James, Ivan, Eugene(big-size), Eugene(small-size), and yours truly put in a fine series of displays to stay in the court. James opened the scoring in an explosive display of speed and unruffled finishing, netting the first few goals before Eugene(small) came on to make his mark on the score sheet. We had a good system going, with Ivan and Eugene(big) as defenders while I dropped back when we had the ball to facilitate passing. I liked how we were very organized. We were solid at the back, covered each other well, and played like a team. That really felt good. We were also very verbal. We were positive and kept encouraging each other.

Detong finally made his local comeback after being stranded on a certain nearby island for one month. He can win the sibei suay award man. Broke his specs. Then score goal celebrate also can slip and fall down. Haha. It was damn fun to act angry and pretend to give him hairdryer treatment after he lost the ball in his own area. Just like EPL like that. Haha. Comical way to rile your team up. Lol.