Story by REDintern Christy. Pictures by REDintern Vanessa
Republic Polytechnic Sports Complex, Thursday, July 10, 2008 – It was the first A Division floorball season for both teams with their schools having only started floorball this year. Both wanted to prove their worth by winning their first-ever competitive floorball match. Ultimately, it was Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) who won through their strong offensive attack and accurate finishing with a 6-3 victory over Temasek Junior College (TJC). Yet, my heart goes out to TJC, who scored their first goal of the season and showed their strong passion for floorball throughout the match.
For the first few minutes of the match, it seemed as though TJC had the upper hand as they had more scoring chances that were either foiled by the ACJC goalkeeper or near-misses. In the end it was the ACJC Baoren (#15) who scored first, tapping in the ball during a goal melee at the 06:49 mark. Not giving up, TJC applied half-court pressure on their opponents. While it was successful in keeping the ball in the attacking half, it also exposed gaping holes in their defense because once an ACJC player get hold of the ball at mid-court, it was a clear run at goal for him.
Indeed, the ACJC Zul (#2) would send hard and fast balls at the goal whenever he had a chance to and at 13:49, he whacked in an unstoppable goal from mid-court to make it a 2-0 ACJC lead. The first period even had to be extended by a few seconds for TJC to have a free-hit which unfortunately, they did not capitalize on.
Although the first period ended with two goals in ACJC’s favour, credit must be given for TJC for never backing down. In the second half, ACJC scored first again at 02:22 when an assisted pass by ACJC Baoren (#15) allowed ACJC #7 to slot the ball into goal for a 3-0 lead. This time round, TJC found their footing a mere 21 seconds later as TJC #20 scored a stunning goal after successfully getting the ball. Emotions ran high in the TJC team as it was their very first goal in the competition and it was evident on their faces. The goal raised the morale of the TJC team and they fought harder than before to improve on the 1-3 scoreline.
At 10:53, the TJC #7 found himself right in front of the goal after receiving the goal and promptly whacked the ball in to make it just 2-3 and raise TJC hopes even further. However, the next goal by ACJC was a lucky shot from a rebound by the ACJC #4 at the 13:08 mark.
Again, seven minutes into the third quarter, TJC managed to close the gap with their #73 scoring to make it 3-4. TJC believed they now had a real chance of winning as this was their best showing in the competition. Alas, two accurate shots by the ACJC goalscorer Baoren (#15) flew straight into the net, effectively sealing a 6-3 victory for his team.
Both young teams demonstrated potential during the match and will be forces to be reckoned with in the future. With the experience from this competition, they will evolve into stronger teams in the future. All the best for the rest of the championship.
Editors note: If you recognise yourself or your team mates in any of the photos, feel free to leave the names behind in the comments section and we will update the captions accordingly. Names for the ACJC and TJC players mentioned in the story will also be much appreciated.Thanks!
to acjc, celebrating only on your side of court is basic courtesy(:so please try to put yourself in other people’s shoes. u will feel bad if your team is the one experiencing this right, agree?
to acjc#14: i agree that thr is nothing inherently wrong about your celebration style.. jst that it is not respectful. besides, the floorball court is kinda small compared to a soccer court and blah. would it cost alot of effort going back to celebrate?
mj may be the champions but even their coach also asks them to celebrate in their own half. which i really respect.
some things are not written explicitly in the rules, so there is nothing wrong about your celebration style. its a floorball culture to have the whole team go up to celebrate aft someone scores, its also basic respect to celebrate in your own half, which, in my opinion, is what good teams do.
passions may run high during the game, and its easy to forget the presence of others, but i guess a good sportsman is not one who wants to appear to be gloating at other people’s loss.
and if others want to make sweeping statements about acjc’s lousy sportmanship, show them otherwise then. rather than argue and debate abt what is right and what is wrong and whether the other party minds. even if tjc doesnt mind, the fact that your team did not show good sportsmanship will stay. (if u didnt show good sportsmanship that is)
sports doesnt exactly build one’s character, it reveals their true character.
btw, i m a floorball player too.
Yeap, it was #77 not number #7.
Anyway, we at TJ don’t hold any anger toward anyone at AC don’t worry 🙂
In fact, I went over to AC #7 after the match (as in after the three cheers thing) and we shook hands 🙂
He knocked me over in the first period and I guess we were not too happy about it during the match, but what can I say? Its over and alls well and good. No grudges held or anything of the sort
Well done to both teams and as all here agree, Baoren is a good player 🙂
Oh, and he smiles on court too 😛 Very plesant player he is 🙂
ac number 2 the hottest mat in the whole tournament!
oops acjc 4 is mirza..7 is jonah..sorry took so long..
oh.that guy is wilson..he is in switzerland for a band trip..hahha weird eh? my name is Nicholas ..but i still stick by my notion that we like tjc are a new team..and dont know the rules of celebrating or playing floorball.But even after my coach checked with the referees after the tjc coach complained to them, they said nothing was wrong with our celebration style and flashing of the badge.Passions run high during a game if you guys play sports you all would realise that. However, it is not right to make sweeping statements about my players or my school’s sportsmen that we have no sportsmanship.I will not argue because it is your own view and i cant do anything about it. I don’t see why people are making a fuss when even TJC players don’t make a single noise about this.All these nitty gritty stuff is just to blaspheme ac players and make them look bad? i don’t know
First of all,
to ‘audience’, you said “@acjc, all this argument about sportsmanship wouldn’t even be here if you HAD displayed your sportsmanship.” Well, that is obvious isn’t it? Adding on, I shared the same sentiments as you that TJC displayed strong fighting spirits. They are indeed a young team and i’d expect more from them next year given their positive attitude in sports.
Secondly, I hope ACJC shows better sportsmanship next time. I guess it is pretty common sense not to celebrate in front of your opponents. Lesson learnt and i hope TJC will not hold any anger towards ACJC.
To acjc#14, may i know your name please?
To ACJC, I noticed that one of your players, who was your Capitano for the match ACJC against YJC，actually didn’t show up in the subsequent matches. I‘d like to ask what happened to him? He was rather big size so i took notice of him. No offence though.
Just a note, in case you are wondering, I’m a RP student.
error in the article, tjc#7 didnt score
wow the world really has a an issue with every single ac boy.im in a very perilous situation..
oh yea..hope you all liked the dance..lol..and ‘audience’ in hockey, soccer and rugby we dont run to our own half to celebrate like kevin said (thank you)..doesnt really make sense to waste more stamina just to traverse back and celebrate? oh yea..in those sports their benches are along the field..so go figure..
someone speaks of me..hahha..thanks TJC im big i know..eh the push on mjc was cause i tripped on his teammate’s ankle..hello when you fall you use your hands to cushion it eh? just so happens the #7 was there. sorry bout it mate!
wa lao.audience in love with baoren.sorry hes taken
Haha this is funny.i do not condone acjc’s behaviour but relax la..passions run high during the game and ‘audience’ if you really play a sport you would know. well actually, i saw the acjc #7 doing the dance? pretty hilarious and he did not celebrate towards the tjc’s bench but in the half. hello if you watch soccer do you see teams running all the way to the other side of the field to celebrate.LOL. both teams new to the sport..so chill man. all i can say well done to tjc and acjc, thrilling game.
P.S: its all over.get over it and move on.
to audience: um if memory serves me right it wasnt no.2 that shouted that, it was his other team mate he was super silent la during the game. cant blame no.14, he’s a rather big and intimidating guy!
anw, we were quite entertained by the game. good stuff from both teams. mjc was mega awesome though