Mandai United Sports Club

Match Report 11/2/2007 - Yung Ho Field

Starting Lineup
Yasir – Keeper
Back Four – Saw& Remi , Hafiz , Fariq
Midfield – Fuad & Wan , Wahid , Zam
Forwards – Cheang & Botak

Mandai FC started well in the first half. The back four led by Remi & Saw played extremely comfortably and this gave the midfield players much confidence. We had more than 75% of the ball possession throughout the game. Many opportunities were created by the hardworking midfield , ably managed by Fuad and Wan. Despite the absence of Tomy , Zam & Wahid played extremely well , providing good long balls for the forwards. Poor finishing by Cheang ( he missed about 5 sitters!!) made the team look poor. Botak had several good chances as well but the hard ground provided much bad bounce of the ball.

Three of Fuad’s friends joined us for the game. Though young in age, these players demonstrate good potential.
Second half replacements Sham for Botak , Mat Nor at right back for Hafiz & Adi for Wan gave Mandai added speed & urgency. The players showed good understanding with sharp off the ball runs and Fuad continued to win much of the midfield loose balls.

Sham rocked the opposition posts twice and one of Fuad’s young friends playing on right midfield also had two good tries.

With 10 minutes of play left , a call for off side against the opponents were not picked up by the referee. Saw tried to cover up with a chase but the opponent side stepped both keeper and last man to slot home the one and only goal for the game.

With 5 minutes left , Cheang came back on to defy Nature’s regression on the old and tired legs. He almost scored with only keeper to beat after being let loose by Botak’s brilliant through ball. Keeper got the better of the situation with his body and the following lob back into the six yard box by Sham was headed off target by Cheang. One last minute attempt at goal by Fariq’s direct run at goal were thwarted again by the on rushing keeper. The loose ball came back to Cheang with only an open goal to tap in. However , he over ran and by the time he turned back, the opponent fullbacks were on to him.

Overall the team enjoyed the game and good weather despite the score line. The team work and light hearted jokes were great at keeping the friendly game atmosphere.

Adi , Sham & Mat Nor shows good potential. Excellent individual skills and also very cool playing as a team.

Final Score: Mandai United 0 Opponents 1
Keep up the momentum and lets look forward to more friendlies.

The Return of Rafiano

Hi guys. I am back and have already arranged a match. I hope to see you guys soon.

Date: 4 February 2007

Time: 5.00 pm (please be there latest by 4.30pm)

Venue: Cantonment Heights.

Bring your own drinks for refreshments.

Friendly Match - 2 July 2006

Dear all

As discussed, I have managed to arrange a friendly
match against a formidable opponents, Redbacks. This
match has been arranged a month before and just for
the record, there have been many requests from other
teams, especially those arranged by Malik and Khamsani
(both referees), for a friendly. However, the matches
were on Saturdays and those that were on Sundays
clashed with our scheduled tournament.

Redbacks have requested us to put up our strongest
team as they wanted to avenge their defeat recently
(8-3 by us if im not mistaken)

Venue: Admiralty Sec. Sch
Time: 4.30 pm

I may not be available for the match ( KL trip) on
that day and I hope that the the committee would make
arrangements to collect the jerseys on Friday and send
the jerseys for laundry after that.

I will not attempt to arrange any more friendly
matches and hope the committee will take the
initiative to arrange for future friendly matches. If
I'm not mistaken, Sham had said that he would be able
to arrange for friendlies. Any requests from other
teams will be forwarded to the committee for a
decision.

Thanks and good luck..

Important Notice

Dear friends

We won our first match, 3-2 against a formidable opponent. The tide seems to have changed. And there is a need for a change if we want to achieve success and be fair to the players.

WEF from Thursday, 22 June 2006, I have decided to step down as the President of the Club and remain only as a player if I am needed. Wak will no longer be in charge of the team and the line up will be decided by the remaining Committee members.

I hope the remaining comittee members can continue to emulate our past success with their leadership and enthusiasm. As such, this blog will therefore be a personal blog and no longer be related to the club. Nevertheless the team will continue to have my support and hope that the other players will support the team and the new leadership as well.

Thank you

Yours sincerely

Rafi

Important notice.

Dear All

I truly apologised regarding the late sms to inform you of the cancellation of the training session. I hope I can make it clear as to the reasons why the trainings have been cancelled so often recently.

As everybody is well aware, the club has been successful in the previous tournament (ESPZEN Weekend Morning League). This was due to partly the training sessions conducted by Wak Ansari. To those whom are new to the team, Wak is an accomplished coach in the local soccer scene and have brought many local clubs to experience progress and success. He is a qualified AFC 'B'Licence Coach and for many years was involved in the National Youth Squad. Players that had been under his charge ranged from current national players like Aide Iskandar and former Singapore stars like Fandi and V. Sundramoorthy (in SAFSA). Due to his experience, we now see players like Fuad, Fariq and Raimi maturing as players and the team gelling to become a squad to be reckoned with. (in the amateur scene of cos)

Unfortunately, we have been seeing a dip in the attendance during trainings lately. Most of the players cited work commitments. To have an effective training session, we need to have the majority of players attending. You cant have a training session when there is only 5 or 6 players attending only. We are not competing in a 5 aside tournament here.

Do take note that Wak is not paid a single cent. He is just doing it as a social responsibility to the development of local soccer. You can just put it as for the love of the game. For an AFC B Licence coach, the rate would be about $50 per training session. Therefore, please imagine this scenario:

Wak, who is about 60 years of age, wakes up in the morning at 6 a.m. and reaches work by 7 a.m. He is retired and works as a stall helper. He reaches home at 3 p.m. and rests for about 2 hours. He then rides on his old scooter to Farrer Park which is about 30 minutes journey. He then sees 5 players on the field, half of whom are not in the first eleven. He sees no reason to train as there is no way he could show set plays and movement and positioning. The time and journey is wasted.

That goes to the other players as well, who have made the journey to Farrer Park only to see a few players attending the training sessions. I understand that we are not a professional club. The players are not paid, and therefore there is no contractual obligation to the club to attend training. However, there is a moral obligation to attend as at Mandai United, respect is one of the values that the Club upholds. Respect the team, respect fthe coach, respect fthe players, respect our opponents ...respect feveryone.

Due to the circumstances, the training during weekdays are cancelled. We will therefore train on Saturdays, 5 pm to 7 pm at the open field near Khatib MRT. Hopefully, I can get my school field for the training sessions in the future.

I hope we can see an increase in the attendance and also team morale.

Sincerely

Rafiano
El Presidente
Mandai United Sports Club

Silat FC Friendly Soccer League 2006 match report..26/2/2006 vs France F.C.

Dear All

Just wish to put on record the Club's deepest appreciation to the following members for sharing in the contributions to make our participation in the league possible. Sham, Guy and Cheang each have made a contribution of $50 towards the payment of the Registration Fee. Richard and Peter have also agreed to co-share the payment and I will be collecting the balance in good time.

Mandai started the first of their 14 matches with a convincing win over France F.C. The score was 3-0 in the first half and ended at 7-0. The scorers were Sazali (4), Richard (1), Nik (1) and Zahari (1).

The $100 match fees were borne by the players. 14 players each contributed to the pool. There was a shortfall of $30 which was prepaid by Cheang.

Therefore I hope we can request some of us to defray the shorfall. Cheang has already volunteered to pay another $5. Kindly respond to this appeal if you can assist.

Finally let us continue to remind ourselves not to place too much pressure on those that are unable to contribute to the pool -especially those that are facing financial difficulties and those that are schooling.

Btw..enjoy the pictures...courtesy of Khairul...and fyi...I spent 3 hrs uploading it.

Cheers and have a nice day...

P.S. Please attend the training on Thursday and Saturdays...

Yours truly

Alfredo de Rafiano
El Presidente
Mandai United Sports Club