Week 9 Tables & Statistics - Tampines East Knights Match

RESULT
NUS Saints 3 Tampines East Knights 2

SCORER (ASSIST)
Period 1 (0-0)
Period 2 (2-0)
23:45 Zhao Hui
28:40 Veera
Period 3 (1-2)
55:19 Jirong

MAN OF THE MATCH
Ji Rong
- match winner plus man of the match. He deserved every bit of credit. From the moment the whistle went off, Ji rong was fully focused on the game. He was rock hard in defence by keeping things simple. Like How Chong said, he wants effective players. Ji Rong does’nt have the flare of many other players however he stuck closely to the game plan, releasing the ball quickly down the boards, tightly marking the forwards and holding the ball against the boards when he gets gang banged by opponents. This is something that we as defenders should do more often. Finally scored his first goal of the season and what a way to score it! FYI for those who don’t already know, he has been practicing those same shots before each training and after putting in so much work. wa la! match winner. see coming down early for training pays off.

MATCH DEBRIEF - BY TIMOTHY
Forwards
Had a generally good game. Kept up the pressure on the defenders of the opponents. However, the forwards tend to delay when making shots. ie even when there is a clear chance at goal, they will choose to pass. Thus forwards need to train more on their awareness in game play. Congratulations to Viera ( hope I got his name right) for scoring his first goal. His dog style of play with that mighty stick of his, paired with his relentless never ending hustling of opponents resulted in his virgin goal of the season.

Centers
Relatively good holding and passing of the ball. However there were a couple of goals whereby the centers were caught off guard, ie not marking the opponent at the top D. Also, there were intermittent times that the centers were slow in recovering hence resulted in a 3 on 2 situation with our defenders. Special mention to Edwin the General, played with all his heart. People block shots by putting their body between the ball and goal , he block shots by putting his leg between the opponent’s stick and the ball. Respect. If you think the ball always fly past you, then prevent the stick from even making contact with the ball, use your leg like Edwin does. This resulted in him having several bumps of stick marks on his leg. Commitment guys, commitment. This is commitment.

Defenders
Had several ups and downs during the game. When getting the ball behind our goal post there is a tendency to dribble the ball down the centre. How Chong detests that. Recall a specific someone who was threatened by him that if this was to ever happen again “ u can bring comfortable pillow and put on the bench liao, then u can sit there and watch the rest of the game” this statement scarred him for the rest of his life, thus this someone swore never to do it again. To my fellow defenders please do no repeat this mistake. On a positive note, one on one marking was good. There was also a good stepping up of defenders to block shots.