Weilin organised this match between my camp mates and Ser Hwee’s team. I was looking quite forward to the match because I’d be on opposing teams with James, Felix and Marvin.
The day didnt’ start off very well because our left back Ian was late and the keeper went MIA. The groundskeeper didn’t let us in without seeing the receipt, which was with the ref who came in late. Fucking hell. Anyway in the end we had no choice but to borrow Marvin as our keeper and Felix as our left back. When Ian arrived Felix complained he wasn’t feeling well so the substitution was made. Haha. Then the joker went on to score against us in the second half. Chao geng!
When the match started I was feeling all weird. Like there were too many people and my brain couldn’t process it. It just felt so confusing. I was caught napping a few times in defence so I thought, fuck, there’s no way I can do this. Switched Jeremy to CB in my place and Mushun to right back. That seemed to settle the defence down and they became more stable. Ian was especially impressive, doing his best impression of Gabriel Heinze. His tenacity was something I should have possessed for the game but unfortunately I couldn’t raise myself up to scratch. I’ve been kinda sick for the past 2 weeks and I went into the game with a cough. So after a while I created a new position for myself. I call it the Loudhailer. Haha. Yeah, so throughout the game I just kept shouting encouragement to my teammates lor. Nothing more I could do I guess because I couldn’t jolly well sub myself off because we only had 10 men. Haha. There were a few people in dire need of substitution but there was no choice.
In the end we succumbed 1-3 to the opposition but not without an attempted fightback. I caught Dave’s throw in on the fight flank and crossed it. The defender opted to slap the ball away with his hands, which was pure stupidity. The ref caught sight of the violation and rightly awarded a penalty. Terrence stepped up to take it. At first no one wanted to take the penalty like that so I asked him whether he was sure. He said “anything”. Like so nonchalantly. But I looked at his face and could tell he really wanted to take it! Haha. Then the opposing team did some thrash-talking, saying stuff like “don’t worry got NJ best keeper” and “sure got rebound one”, which really irked me so when Terrence calmly whack the ball down the middle I couldn’t help it but taunt them by mocking “wha! NJ best keeper ah!” Haha. It felt shiok lah. Haha. Like I was the one who scored. On hindsight I must have seemed like an idiot. Lol. But like I said, that day I was the Loudhailer so that was my best contribution of the game. Haha.
We also had a goal ruled out from a Dave shot which cannoned off the crossbar and bounced inside the goal. Even the opposing players later admitted it was a goal. Ah well. Screw the ref.
Really quite disgusted at myself for the recent string of bad performances for the past few weeks. Even thought twice about the school team thing. But oh well. Then again you’re only young once right? Don’t give up because you’ve given in to your fears. I don’t want it to become like it was for me in basketball. It’s only after I quit so long that I think back and realise actually I was quite a decent player. But sadly now it’s too late to pick it up once again. So I should just concentrate on getting rid of this fucking tekong cough and go for it again.
Gambatte. Keep your chin up.
[Name] チェン・ユ