By REDintern Horatio Ho. Photos by REDinterns Jason Koh and Benjamin Kang
VJC substitute Shen Hao (on ground) sees his scissor kick volley go past the HCI goalkeeper for the third and final VJC goal. (Photo 1 © Benjamin Kuah/Red Sports)
Victoria Junior College, Thursday, March 31, 2011 — Victoria Junior College (VJC) extended their winning streak to two matches with a 3-1 win over Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) in Group C of the National A Division Football Championship.
HCI took a shock lead very early on in the game against the run of play, before VJC reasserted their presence in the game and recovered to put three goals past their disciplined opponents.
The first five minutes saw a very high tempo game, with VJC trying to play balls through the centre into the blind spots behind the HCI defense. However, HCI stayed disciplined, sat deep and managed to clear the danger, before swiftly counterattacking. It took six minutes before the deadlock was broken, and to the surprise of the home crowd, it did not go the way of VJC.
Another VJC attack broke down, and Hwa Chong played the ball beautifully behind the VJC defense. A Hwa Chong player capitalized on a lapse in communication between VJC goalkeeper Raj Tilwa (#1) and Khairul Anwar (#16) to aim a shot at goal, but the VJC keeper dived low to his right and managed to get a hand on it. However, the ball rolled forward and Arivan (HCI #19) made no mistake, poking it into the bottom left corner of the net to give HCI an unexpected lead.
Upon scoring, HCI looked happy to sit back and defend their lead, sitting deep and waiting for the home side to bring the game to them.
However, with the home crowd spurring them on, VJC soon equalized. A Dilip Thapa (#10) free kick from the right side of the field flew into the path of Santosh Magar (#11), who blasted it into the net with a wonderfully timed first-time volley to send the home crowd into raptures.
The VJC coach also made two changes, with Tan Zheng Yee (#19) replacing Jaren Thun (#2) and Shen Hao (#7) coming in for Nguyen (#9).
However, with the Hwa Chong coach also reshuffling his tactics, and the defence playing with determination and spirit, the closest VJC came to another goal in the first half was when Shuvod Rai (#6) sent a looping header against the crossbar from an Anuruddhan (#15) corner. At half time, the score was 1-1.
The action at the start of the second half was a continuum to the end of the first half, with VJC attacking all out and Hwa Chong happy to keep things the way they were. Another corner kick, this time from Santosh Magar (#11), was met by fellow Nepalese Dilip Thapa (#10), but it bounced off the crossbar amid loud groans from the home fans.
However, soon after, a brilliant through ball down the centre by Dilip Thapa (#10) saw Santosh Magar (#11) sprinting to the byeline. Santosh weaved past three HCI defenders who were unable to halt his run, and he squared it across the face of goal unselfishly for Anuruddhan (#15) to tap into the net for a 2-1 VJC lead.
VJC were still looking for more goals and Hwa Chong started playing their dangerous counterattacking football again, causing the game to open up more. VJC were denied two more times by the goalpost, with Khairul Anwar (#16) heading against the crossbar, before a Dilip Thapa (#10) direct free kick beat the wall but thudded against the right hand post. This would be the fourth time in the game that the goalposts had denied VJC a goal.
HCI did extremely well in closing the VJC players down quickly and not allowing them time on the ball and the intensity of the game saw Malcolm (HCI #7) and Khairul Anwar (VJC #16) picking up yellow cards, Malcolm for a challenge on Hieng PK (VJC #18) and Khairul for a foul on the Hwa Chong keeper.
However, a third VJC goal did come. Substitute Shen Hao took full advantage of a goalmouth scramble to blast a scissor kick volley past the HCI defense and into the back of the net to establish a two-goal safety cushion.
HCI teacher-in-charge, Mr Tan, was pleased with his side’s performance even though they had lost.
“I am very happy, they kept to the game plan” he said. “Credit to them, as they followed the tactics well and played their hearts out.”
“It gives us confidence that we are able to score against superior teams like VJC, and if we keep up this level of play, we will definitely be able to win against weaker sides.,” said the HCI captain. “We were ecstatic (on taking the lead). No one saw it coming. Though we kept focused, they outplayed us.”
However, VJC coach Azrulnizam Shah was disappointed with his team’s performance, and felt that individual performances were not up to par. Though the second half was better, he still felt that there was much to be improved on. However, he credited the HCI players, saying, “They did what they had to do, were tactically sound, and hard to break down. Credit to them.”
VJC next take on Tampines Junior College on Monday, April 4th, while HCI look to bounce back from defeat against NUS High, who are also looking to recover from a 2-1 loss to Anglo-Chinese Junior College on the same day.
National A Division Football Championship — Full fixtures and results
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so far, who is the strongest team?
VJC were honestly, quite rubbish yesterday. They were careless with their passing and they failed to make things happen in the first half. But I still think that they can take away more positives from this game compared to their previous game. They showed good grit and determination to break down a very disciplined hwa chong side and for that, I applaud them. It’s obvious that they have quality written all over their side. & I for one agree with VJ’s coach, individual performances were not up to par but sitting in the stands, I was impressed with VJ’s #5, #18, #11. I believe 3 of them had good games. But I still believe the best is yet to come from this VJC side. I hope to see more from them and will be following them closely.