Vs SinCheng's Bro Team ( Chao Recruits)

Date: 16- March 2006
Venue: Former Braddell- Westlake Sec Sch Field
Opponent: SinCheng's Bro Team
Attendance: Waifu ( keeper), WeiDe, ChunWei, EeYang, Rayner, BingDe, SiuChun, SinCheng, Edwin, JiHui, Kenny, Darren.

Match Report:
Braddell- Westlake Sec Sch. A place the team is so familiar with. With the nightmares of the thrashing by SAFTI MI HQ team fresh in our minds, we took this opportunity to redeem ourselves from our past failure. As usual, it is an opponent we knew little of, but looking at their shaven heads, it certainly invoked a mixtures of emotions. Happy. We were, as most of us had just collected our Pink ICs. Victorious. We were, as the feeling of ORD unquestionably overwhelmed that of mere POP. Sardonic. We were, as we cheered " ORD LOH!" in front the botaks who have to wait for 2 years more till the day.

However there was a tinge of worry inside us for it is tested and proven that recruits are generally fitter than ORD personnels.

The match began with the team adopting the 4-4-2 formation. It seems to have worked well against a technically skilful SAFTI MI team, it should operate against a bunch of recruits without much problems. Some changes in the positions were made from our last match. WeiDe decided to ditch his dreams of playing in the midfield and paired up with his TJ soccer team-mate, EeYang, as centre backs. Darren left and BingDe right. For midfield, we had Rayner and SIU in centre mid. SinCheng left and ChunWei ( not surprisingly) right. Upfront was our favourite long-lost partnership of JiHui and Kenny. Last but not least, McLucky FC had the tough and steady WaiFu between the goalposts.

First half went on and within the first few minutes, we were already dominating. The ball was played mostly in their half, allowing us to play with more adventure and creativity. Yet, there were times when the midfield and defense were switched off, letting our opponent to start a few counter attacks. Luckily no potent threat was made. In the middle of first half, Darren felt an intolerable strain in his tighs and had to substitute for Edwin. Then, BingDe shifted to DL, Edwin to MR and ChunWei is being experimented as DR.

Though the opponent was played under our pace of game, there were still numerous frustating moments. We simply could not convert our chances at all. Kenny caught offside a few times. JiHui was passing the ball when he could have tried shooting. There was a hilarious moment when SIU screaming viscerally at Kenny to lay-off to him and Kenny just looked confused at SIU. The first half ended at a disappointing 0-0.

During the break, everyone knows this is a game that we could not afford to lose. No changes were made for the second half. WeiDe urged everyone to be more confident in front of the opponent's goal mouth. That's all we need to complete our victory. Also, SIU took the opportunity to explain to Kenny the meaning of "lay-off", a term that is rarely used in a softball game.

Second half started. We, as expected, kept the gameplay at their territory. WaiFu was literally having a morning stoll in the park. Nevertheless, we still missed some sitters. Many chances created yet only to result to nothing. When the strikers weren't effective in shooting, SIU decided to try some on his own and only to be denied by the bar twice. If only he can hit the bar two more times, he could be our next Ronaldinhno. The next highlight came when EeYang received a ball from SIU 30 yards from goal and tried his luck. "Bong!" The ball rattled the bar again, bounced on their keeper and went in. GOAL! Our dominance finally paid off. It certainly sent a surge of relief to all of us. By then, 80 minutes had already gone by.

Our second goal came went right-back ChunWei made a jinking run down his most familiar flank, dribbled past 2 defenders and sent a pin-point pass to Kenny. Kenny, with his striker instincts, with one touch, put the ball past their helpless keeper. GOAL! Elation written all over Kenny's face for he was able to maintain his one goal per game record.

The opponent never gave up and pressed harder. Our defense was threatened at times. Midfield and full backs were too absorbed in attacking, sub-consiously neglecting their defending responsibilities. Our opponent managed to penetrate into our half and test our keeper. Yet, their shots were all wide. It was already too late for them. The final whistle was blown. Final score was 2-0.

SIU, undisputedly, deserves the Man of the Match award (MOM). His vision and decisive passing were consistent throughout the match. He was also involved in creating chances up front. Keep it up SIU! You could be the missing link we are looking for.

Kudos also to Edwin and ChunWei for their tireless runs down the right flank, tormenting the opponent's defense with their speed and crosses. JiHui, for showing composure upfront, but you could have tried more shoots.

Some points to take note of. Try to cross in the ball early instead of making short passes along the flanks. As usual, full backs to give more options to the keeper during goal kicks by moving down the flanks.

Yes, it was a mediocre team we are playing with. Deep down in our hearts, we knew we could have won by a larger margin. It is still a commendable effort though. Putting memories of our last game away, we fought and won our next fixture. Still, we shall not be complacent for the team needs fine-tuning in many areas to play against stronger and more aggressive opponents.

A bright future is imminent, McLucky FC.


-doubleU

Use your eyes

Gerrard receives the ball. He controls it and looks around for options. Everyone is marked so tightly that he cannot decide where to pass. The score is now 1-1. Steveie G knows he has to make a difference. He wants to win. Now with the ball under his feet, it's all in his hands.

Gerrard spins around and suddenly he saw his chance! Within split second, he made the pass. What a defence-splitting pass that is!! All the defenders look baffled.

And the ball reached Henry! No! No offside. The flag is down! Henry can make no mistake. Round the keeper and scores! GOAL!

What an assist!! Even Gerrard cannot believe it himself. Henry celebrates with the home crowd and gives a thumbs-up to his accomplice. It's a partnership made in heaven.

As if.

Pleading for a move?: "I think that pass should give Wenger a hint."

To all soccer players out there reading this, remember this. " Look before you make the pass"

PS: Thanks Gerrard. And thanks Ramage too.


-doubleU

Happy 21st Birthday WeiWei!!!!

He puts in 100% of his efforts, if not more, in everymatch. Not a single blade of grass on the right flank is spared by him. He runs like nobody's business. And all of us have seen him improve day by day, game by game. Yes, he is ChunWei. Our incumbent Right Winger.

The first time i saw ChunWei join us in our usual saturday football games at Andy Kong's field, I was surprised. I didn't know my Chess Club member then, who irritates people around him with his constant singing, would know how to play soccer. I was proven wrong on the spot. ChunWei, someone blessed with both speed and stamina, was all about on the pitch chasing ball after ball relentlessly. This trait still lies in him now. And he is a much better player today.

During our first few matches when McLucky FC was still an infant, ChunWei never fails to piss me off on the pitch. " Hey better first touch la!", " Oei don't let the ball fly over you!", " What? Cramp again? WaiChong! Sub!". Obviously not all of them were contributed by me. " Hey! Use your body!"

However, as we played against more teams, it is obvious that ChunWei has shown signs of improvement. His touches were better. He dares to head any ball fired at him. He can even wrestle off a bigger-size player for the ball. Crossing a ball is not a problem now. His cramps per match rate has decreased too. But even if he gets cramps, we can all understand it for he is one of the most hardworking player on the pitch.

Now he may want to work on his temper which frightens me at times. " Hey, ENOUGH la!". His pet phrase when an opponent underestimates him and starts kicking his legs. There were times, when someone ripped the ball off from him, he fired up and charged back at the thief. Any time ChunWei could give a nasty tackle which can result to a furore on the pitch.

Today, he is part of the core of the team. Once in a while, he even organises matches for the team. His commitment to the team is second to none and a role model for other players as well. Still, somethings just don't change; there's only one position for him to play in.

Happy Birthday to you, WeiWei.


-doubleU

Life After Sentosa

After the euphoria of qualifying for the 2nd round of the Sentosa Football competition and eventually being kicked out, the Marist Brothers thought that McLucky FC would go on to achieve greater heights.

How wrong were they!

In fact, after the Sentosa Football competition, McLucky FC went into a self-imposed exile. No follow-on football competitions; No 11-aside matches being organised; No challengers for 7-aside matches; No nothing...
Perhaps 1 reason for our inactivity was that our so called team manager Muthu Pang was busy expanding his lucrative curry business, leaving no time to manage his amateur bunch of kachang putih footballers...

But make no mistake, the Marist Brothers were not short of football action. It was just that they took a step back instead of moving forward.

Void deck football; More void deck football, Somemore void deck football; Saturday Football at Andy Kong's field; Saturday Football at Waichong's house field, Football at the Multi-purpose court in Maris Stella; Football on the basketball courts in Maris Stella High; Football with Alvin Lee's brother's friends at GreenHall.... And more football at some ulu ulu venues playing with ulu ulu opponents...

Though the quality was amiss in these football encounters, there was no shortage of drama mama moments...

Some of the strange experiences that you might be interested in...

- There was no lack of disapproving looks from bypassing aunties whenever we had a kickabout in the void decks of any HDB flats that we terrorised. However, things reached a boil when we clashed with one Garang(Pun intended) Guni Uncle who stored his cardboards in the same void deck that we ply our footballing trade in. In previous games, there were a few occasions that our ball interfered with his passion of collecting used cardboards. The Uncle showed us a black face and uttered some crude sentences that none of the Marist Brothers could understand and nothing more. However, 1 fateful saturday afternoon, we inccurred a greater wrath from this Garang Uncle. It seemed that his patience ran out when once again our ball collided into his precious pile of cupboards. With anger written all over his face, and a pair of scissors in his hand, he proceeded to grab the ball and punched a hole in it with his weapon. The Marist Brothers were flabbergasted! It signalled the end of our footballing exploits that day. And it was a long time before we played at that particular void deck again.

-This incident occurred in another void deck as well. This time, under AlvinLee's HDB flat. The weather looked uninviting that particular afternoon. It seemed that the skies were about to open their flood gates soon. So after attempting to play a game on the ultra tiny weenie outdoor Sepak Tekraw court beside AlvinLee's house, we gave up and moved indoor to the void deck. After kicking a few balls to warm ourselves up, we saw the famous (some say infamous) Andy Kong (or some say Andy Diouf) walking towards us. He had joined us late as he had some personal issues to attend to. We were happy to have an extra player joining us. However, something else put a worried look to our faces- we saw what looked like a police car passing by. Police Car = Policeman= Trouble! Within minutes, we saw Andy Diouf making a run for his life... Some other Marist Brothers managed a feeble attempt to conceal themselves. But it was too little too late, 2 police officers emerged out of nowhere. 1 a senior looking Malay man and the other a Garang young chinese man with an AH BENG look.
'Stop! Don't run!' the chinese man shouted! 'All come here! Playing football in the void deck huh!' he continued.
At this point, all of us surrendered. We gathered around the 2 civil servants who proceeded to give us a longwinded lecture about the inconsiderateness of plying our professional trade in the void deck. At points and junctures, one of the more vocal Brothers who harboured hopes of being a lawyer, intercepted the 2 of them with arguments and counter arguments that we had just moved into the void deck because it was going to rain soon and we had not actually started to play.
To add to the drama of the afternoon, Waichong (once well-known for his surging runs down the flanks and his KUNGFU kicks but has been MIA in recent years) suffered a cramp in his legs. Showing great sympathy that his young colleague obviously lacked, the Malay officer persuaded Waiching to sit down and rest. What happened next was routine - The police officers proceeded to take our names down and gave us a stern warning... That was it. But this incident was to put us off playing at that void deck for some time 2. One more playing arena down...

-This frustrating incident occurred at the action-packed field near Andy Kong's house. It was a hot, humid and sunny afternoon in the middle of our school holidays. The Marist Brothers gathered to play 5 or 6-aside among themselves. It was a usual practice that we used our bags to construct goalposts in the past. However, on this occassion, a certain Smart Alec (think it's the same as the 1 who thought of the team name) suggested using the public dustbins as goalposts. This would eradicate the controversy that often surrounds a goal when the ball seems to roll past a bag or bounce off it. The dustbins were much more sturdy and looked more similar to a real goalpost.
The Marist Brothers were happily engaged in their mini-game with both sides evenly matched and plenty of goalmouth action when once again a couple of police officers marched onto the field and ordered us to stop the game.
'What?! Play on field also cannot?!' the MArist Brothers thought...
We obediently gathered around the 2 policemen grudgingly.
'You think the public dustbin is a goalpost is it? Why don't you bring the dustbin from your house to use as a goalpost?!' (I would if i could. Just that it's 2 troublesome taking the bus and carrying a huge dustbin) 1 of the policeman started in his macho-sounding voices... And then proceeded in his longwinded lectures about damaging public property... (seems that the police force trains their officers in lecturing. They're all pro at it!)
Anyway, after the macho man had said his fill, his colleague(who remained mum uptill this point) started to demand our ICs from us. It was then that we discovered that he was a faggot! His voice was so high-pitched, it sounded like Liang SiMei! We struggled to contain our laughter while handing him our ICs...
After the 2 policemen were satisfied with taking down our names, they left. And we started bursting out in laughter.
* It seems like the police force is more interested in disrupting young boys enjoying a game of football than spending more time on more serious cases like theft, murder or rape cases? Hmmm, I'm not sure. Just an afterthought.

- Once again, this occurred on Andy Kong's field. The Brothers were happily playing a mini-game among themselves with some guest appearances (jianhong!? WeePing?!) by their classmates when a group of Mats came to challenge us. Having itchy backsides, they eagerly accepted their challenge. The game started on a rough note as the Mats committed a few rough tackles that ruffled the Brothers' feathers. This continued until it threatened to boil over. The straw that broke the Mats' back occurred when they scored a goal from a long distance out and one of the Brothers, a certain ChunHan (famous for playing volleyball in the penalty box) shouted, 'Not counted! Half-court?!'
1 of the Mats, a big burly centre forward was clearly pissed off by ChunHan's snide remarks. He attempted to get into a fight with 1 of the Marist Brothers, Waifu, who was no slouch himself. Waifu, showing his typical strongheadedness stood up to the Mat taunts, adding oil to the flames of anger.
'Come la! Scared ah?! Where's your gang? Put time and place! We go settle outside!' the Mat yelled.
'Come la! Think I scared ah?!' Waifu rebutted.
This confrontation swinged to and fro until the Mat flew into a rage and executed a flying kick towards Waifu. Fortunately, the rest of the Brothers managed to separate the 2 together avoiding the kick from landing on Waifu's face. Special mention must go to AlvinLee, who showed tremendous bravery when he took the initiative to stand in between the Mat and Waifu. However, he accidentally incurred tha wrath of the Mat when he kept touching the Mat's chest with his hands... 'Hey! don't touch me! you better don't touch me!' cried the Mat.
With time, the confrontation fizzled out and the 2 groups of people began to separate and leave the field. What drama! What controversy! As if we were playing for the world cup!
Anyway, further controversy erupted as Alvin Lee, the hero of the afternoon questioned the whereabouts of AndyDiouf during the confrontation. (Hamm?!)
It remains a mystery uptill this day.

-The short temper of AlvinLee... When the brothers were still in their adolescent years, AlvinLee had a streak of shocking and infamously short temper that used to erupt during games of football with little significance. There was 1 time when even our captain marvel was not spared. AlvinLee seemed to be frustrated that his team wasn't performing well in 1 of the void deck clashes. He took it out at captain marvel, Ong, and it seemed that the 2 would clash. Luckily, Ong showed amazing composure and a clash was avoided. AlvinLee also had the tendency to pack his bags and leave a football match whenever his team wasn't performing up to his high standards, leaving a trail of confused and frustrated team-mates behind him, who upon discovering what was happening, quickly packed their stuff as well and chase after the big man. Fortunately, AlvinLee is now a changed man. His temper has improved considerably and he now shows good composure on the field. Long may this continue Alvin!

There are so much more incidents to relate to... But I guess these are the 1s that stand out most.

Anyway, as these dramas unfolded, the key personnel of the team began to evolved as well.

Gone was our team manager Muthu Pang, who decided to concentrate full-time on his curry business. Joining him was Mark Koh, who decided to leave for greener pastures. Chayuit left for Japan as well, taking away our only foreign import.

In the opposite direction, there was an influx of new players... Kenny Kenny Goh, an ultra-competitive competitor (use your BODY!), Alex Cheng (our no1 goalkeeper), Dominic Maximillian Foong (our no1A goalkeeper, whenever he doesn't pang seh us), Michael Chan (a dependable defender), Lee Ee Yang (a rock in defence! Famous for his huge forearms), Rayner Tan (the GREATEST player ever to don the McLucky jersy), WeiWei (our No.1 right Winger who can't use his left leg), ChunHan (favourite past-time is to play volleyball in the penalty box), Leong Wai Chong (lightning quick full back and amazing KUNGFU kicks!) and Ang Yao Zong (decent defender when called upon)...
Many others joined us as well... Most came in a huff and left equally fast...

Eventually a core group was formed... That would continue to spread the team's name...



some of the core members of the team

And So It Began - SentosaFootball

Our Maiden Competition

And so on one early Sunday morining, the founding group of Marist Brothers eagerly made their way to the sunny resort island that is Sentosa. The Brothers were understandably excited. It was the first time that they had took part in such a large scale competition. Thoughts raced through their minds... Will we emerge champions? (fat hope!) Will we kena thrash? (definitely!) Will we malu ourselves? (upperden?) Can we make it to the next round? (hmmm... Maybe?)

So it was with these thoughts that they boarded the shuttle bus from World Trade Centre Bus Interchange to Sentosa Football field.

Once they alighted from the bus, my memory gets a bit blurred... It has been a long time since that fateful sunday (I think we were in secondary3 at that time?) so most of the events that unfolded somehow got erased from my brain. Anyway, there were several drama-mama-type of events that stuck with me through these years. Please pardon me if I recalled anything wrongly...

10 THINGS that I REMEMBERED about SENTOSA:

1) Chern (Myself!) scored a goal in 1 of the matches! (of course I would remember that! Zai crite! How many goals have I scored only? Tai ko 1 la?! Did I hear you shout that out? Don't jealous la. When were my goals not taiko goals?! =P)

2) The MC had a hard time pronouncing our team name. ' Is it MAC Lucky FC or just M C Lucky FC or is it just a TYPO error cos who the hell would have a team name like that?!!' He didn't actually say these but it was something along those lines.

3) Alex Loon had a guest appearance as our goalkeeper (unwillingly though).

4) Muthu Pang (who shot to fame with his delicious curry) was our team manager cum coach cum player.

5) Chayuit, our foreign star from Thailand, the land of Surachais and Kiatisuks, played for us. He is best known for his 180 degree turns on the ball, tricking first-timer defenders and no one else. A pity he left for Japan to further his studies. If not can have some TomYam flavour to the team.

6) Foo JiHui (who's that?!) played as our striker. Famous for his turn-shoot-goal! s...
Jihui is a class act. If only he can turn out more often.

7) Alvin Lee got a YELLOW card! He tried to kar chiao the opponents when they were about to take a free kick, tapping the ball away from where they had placed it. Typical Alvin Lee squareface! Provided some entertainment though...

8) Mark Koh, the muscular skillful player who likes to use his muscles to push his opponents during a game and shout foul when you barely touch him, played in the centre of the park for us. Mark was a class above most of us and he later moved on to greater heights in the VJC soccer team.

9) The organisers made an administrative mistake and sent us a letter inviting us for the second round the following week. We didn't actually qualify but they had a BIG cock-up. Not that we were complaining! Anyway, we still got eliminated eventually. But talk about being LUCKY! Taiko! Taiko! Chao Taiko! Told you the name has its magic!

10) We went to Burger King at Tiong Bahru Plaza to eat after we got kicked out and had a good laugh at Alvin Lee's yellow card.

Well, that's all folks! That's all I can squeeze out of my brain cells. If you remember anything else, please don't be shy to share it with all of us.

Anyway, taking part in the competition really opened up our eyes. Made us realise what our standards were and what we needed to improve on.

And it was the start of many more matches to come...

Mc Lucky FC

Well, what can I say about this little, cosy, chapalang football team that was created out of the blue by a bunch of innocent Marist brothers who just wanted to play football.The first question that comes to everyone must be - How the hell did the name come about? Hmmm, actually that's a very good question. Just that I don't really have a good answer to that question. The origins of the name of this team is somewhat dubious.

The founders of the team were frantically trying to organise themselves for what would be their first forray into competitve football.One of the founding brothers, a certain Andy Kong who rose to fame for his ability to dribble the ball to the far corners of the pitch (in a Diouf-like style) to gain a corner kick as well as his knack of scoring goals from his heroic slides, discovered that a football competition was to be held in Sentosa. Andy had an easy time convincing the rest of the Marist brothers to sign up for the competition. So on 1 sunny sunday, the whole gin gang met at world trade centre to sign up for the competition.

The Marist Brothers thought that they had everything they needed. But wait a minute, they did not actually have a name for their team. So the brothers made their way to the nearest McDonalds where they started to engage in an animated discussion. Many names were thrown into the ring. I really cannot remember what the hell those names were now. They were that crappy. Not to say that the final name wasn't crappy. Just that it was the least crappy of the lot.Anyway, names after names came and went. But none received a unanimous agreement from the brothers.

Out of the blue, a certain smart Alec, affected by scenes of people munching on their delicious Mc Chicken, Big Mc, Mc Nuggets, and god-knows-wat Mcs and slurping on their Mc FLurry, threw out an extremely dubious and absolutely crappy name - Mc Lucky Football Club.And surprise surprise, no one had any violent objections to the bloody dubious name.
Perhaps everyone was just exhausted by the discussion and wanted to get it over and done with.
Mc was added to the name just because the Marist Brothers happened to be in a bloody MacDonalds restaurant. And Lucky was added in to add an element of luck to the team. Since the Marist Brothers were not really blessed with Ronaldo-like skills or Steven Gerrad-like tenacity, they reckon that a little bit of luck wouldn't do any harm. The smart Alec was pleased with himself.
And so it happened. Our captain- the legendary Ong Wei De put pen to paper- Mc Lucky Football Club.

A chapalang team was born.

Aftermath

No prizes for guessing who's on the losing side.

Vs SAFTI MI HQ team

Date: 04- March 2006
Venue: Former Westlake-Braddell Sec Sch field
Opponent: SAFTI MI HQ team
Attendance: Huzer (keeper), Wei De, Alvin, Chun Wei, Rayner, Ee Yang, Bing De, Darren, Sin Cheng, Siu Chun, Wang, Lionel, Jin Yuan ( Don Yeo)

Match Report:
It’s been 3 months since McLucky FC has played a match together. There was significantly something missing in the team. That is the presence of Wei Chern, who like most Singapore soccer players, had gone overseas to seek for more illustrious clubs to play in. We all wish him the best. However, we must go on without him. Like Man U losing Roy Keane, we are sure we can still function as a team.

We knew nothing of our opponent, except that they comprised of mainly SARTI MI clerks, who comprised of mainly OCS OOCs, who comprised of mainly very fit JC soccer team players. The team, missing a few key players, namely Wei Chern, Kenny and Wai Fu, we could only hope to enjoy this game and take this chance to experiment new players.

The match began with the team playing their usual 3-5-2 formation. It started horribly. Everything was in disarray. From defence to attack, we were totally dominated by them. Within the first 15 minutes, we were down by 3 goals already. Most of the faults lie in the defense. The defenders were prone to make simple mistakes, such as dallying with the ball, the usual poor first touch and letting the ball bounce before you. Our keeper, Huzer, was like training with one on ones. McLucky FC transformed quickly to a 4-4-2 formation to counter their tireless overlapping wingers. Thankfully, with the inclusion of Eeyang’s friend, Wang (pronounced as Wank), our defense seems much more stabilized until the half time whistle. Nevertheless, we managed to let in 2 more goals. As we plodded with our heads low, the second half can only get better.

And surely it was better. Plenty of changes were made for the 2nd half. Alvin was pushed to a striker position. Rayner paired up with Wei De in central midfield. Bing De shifted to left mid. Taking Wei De’s instruction as to take the whole 2nd half as a totally new game, we put the embarrassing flops of the 1st half at the back of our minds and played with for zest. Our game was smoother than before. In no time, we scored 2 goals, both from the towering Alvin Lee. We also have to give to credits for Rayner, Siu Chun and Chun Wei for the 2 goals. With 2 goals down in the 2nd half, SAFTI MI HQ fought back furiously. Their skilful Indian striker was put right back into the game. McLucky could not withstand the continuous assault and let in 2 goals. The 1st goal is let in due to a poor first touch from Ee Yang. The 2nd goal could have been stopped if the running in striker was marked. In the end, the final score line read. 7-2.

The team who played on Saturday looked like a completely new team. Ironically, we cheered “CHAPALAN” before kickoff. With a handful of key players missing, a restructuring of the team is inevitable if we want to win games. For those of you reading this, if you are an ardent McLucky player/fan and you know of people who can at least kick the ball, hardworking and committed to turning up for games, please bring him/her to the next game. And for those by-passers of this blog, you know you can at least kick the ball, hardworking and committed to turning up for games, just leave your contacts to ongweide@hotmail.com.

This team can only get better from here.