Written By: Liang Shu-Jing Edited By: Valerie Chua, Jolene Wong & Ong Jia Jie Photographs By: Eusoffworks
On the last Sunday of IHG, Eusoff trailed Temasek Hall (TH) in the IHG tally by a considerable 11 point deficit. The Floorballers (M) prepared themselves to face favourites TH who had a roster of IVP players (9 to be exact). Following the victory of the girls’ team, the guys stepped onto the court, eager to win the title which had eluded them time after time.
PERIOD 1
Jerrell (#56) stepped up to take the first face-off of the match but the ball quickly ended up in TH’s possession. The opposing players immediately struck hard at our defences and threatened our goal a number of times within the first few minutes of the game. Our floorballers quickly found their footing and launched a counterattack, leading to one of the TH players committing a foul which sent him off the court for 2 minutes – a mistake he would quickly learn to regret! Our floorballers toyed with their defence during the power play before Jaypy (#48) found an opening with a fantastic drag shot from the half court line! Simply amaaaaaaaazing! The TH goalkeeper found it hard to see with an amazing screen set up by the Eusoffians and it was 1-0 to Eusoff.
TH were still shookethed by the first goal and our floorballers quickly capitalised on it as Edwin (#72) sent a rocket from a tight angle which deflected off the TH goalkeeper into the waiting arms of Floorball God Hao Yuan (#71). We all know what happened next. 2-0 Eusoff.
With such an unexpected early lead, our floorballers hustled hard and everyone pulled their weight. Many great attempts were made on both sides of the court but ours was guarded by the one and only Ardy Shaqeal (#90). With his god-given jazz hands, he repelled TH’s advances like a thousand armed Buddha. Slowly but surely, a mistake made by TH saw JJ (#76) seizing the opportunity to bury the ball in the back of their net, ending the first period on a high note.
Superstar Lloyd (#44) dribbling the ball past his defenders, leaving them in the dust!
PERIOD 2
Riding on the momentum of the 3-0 lead, our floorballers came back onto the court, determined to defend their lead. They started off hot, with captain Terry PuPu (#61) leading the way. Driving the ball deep into the enemy’s half, he passed the ball on to pretty white boy Jerrell a little off-aim. Amazingly, pretty white boy Jerrell managed to deflect the ball upwards and volleyed it into the other side of the TH goal. The only thing louder than the crowd’s cheers in response to the sick goal was the referee’s whistle, waiving the goal off due to a supposed high-stick violation.
Less than a minute after Jerrell’s questionably disallowed goal, superstar Lllllloyd (#44) received yet another PooPoo pass from Terry PuPu, which he amazingly volleyed into the top corner of the TH net. “BALL DON’T LIE”. Eusoff was now up 4-0, with victory definitely within reach.
Our floorballers then conceded a free hit to TH and 7-lungs Jonathan (#91) was a tad bit too eager to give our TH rivals the ball, sending it to the other corner of the court. The referee deemed this to be an act of time-wasting and sent poor ol’ Jonny to sit at the naughty corner for 2 minutes. Eusoff had to defend the goal with only 4 men on the court and fatigue was setting in, especially after a second 2-minute foul committed by daddy long legs Wei Boon (#63) just shortly after Jonathan was released from the naughty corner. Capitalizing on our lapse in concentration, TH managed to squeeze a tight angle shot past Ardy. 4-1 to Eusoff still.
As if things couldn’t get any worse, a high-stick foul on Hao Yuan was called as he volleyed the ball out of our half of the court. A penalty shot was given to TH for the denial of a “goal scoring opportunity”. The TH captain bested Ardy in this 1v1 showdown. 4-2 to Eusoff.
Our boys setting up some super tight defence as TH’s #90 prepares for a free hit.
PERIOD 3
Despite being somewhat rattled by the unfortunate turn of events in the second period, our floorballers rallied together to try to fend off the TH assault – swatting away player after player. The floorballers managed to hold onto the lead by making quick, clean passes and tightening their defence. However, the lead was not theirs to hold forever – two inopportune passes nearing the end of the game led to the demise of the Eusoff defence, tying the game at 4-4. We were going to a penalty shootout.
The atmosphere was tense to say the least; Eusoff had not scored a single goal in the third period and LYLC foreign talent K-Pop star Yun Sol (#11) knelt down in the middle of the court as if in prayer. Was this too good to be true all along? TH’s stacked team of 9 IVP players had always been favoured to win. Eusoff’s coach Aldric discussed the lineup for the penalty and the Floorballers prepared themselves for a trial like no other.
Haoyuan, Edwin, Joshua, JJ, Terry. These were the five that were tasked with bringing the Gold back home. Ardy swept his hair back and donned his mask rider helmet to transform into the demi-human goalkeeper that he is and sauntered into the court – it was his time to shine and he knew it.
Ardy’s first adversary stepped up to the faceoff line and the whistle went off. Left, right, left right, the TH player inched ever so closely to Ardy’s goal, threatening a shot with every step. With a push to the left, and faking a move to the right, the TH shooter pulled to the corner for a shot but big boy Ardy swiftly blocked off the angle and swallowed the chances of TH scoring.
It was Hao Yuan’s turn to step up to the plate next. Pushing the ball forward and testing the goalkeeper’s reactions with a series of feints, the Floorball God was ready to smite the poor TH goalkeeper. Unfortunately, Hao Yuan’s shot was denied by the TH keeper.
It was TH’s turn to run right into the great wall that is our goalkeeper, Ardy. The shooter stood no chance against Ardy, who read his moves like a book, preventing the TH shooter from scoring.
Eusoff’s second shooter was Edwin, who made swift touches left and right, looking for an opening in the TH goalkeeper’s defence. Unfortunately, he made one too many touches and the TH goalkeeper nimbly sliding-kicked the ball out of Edwin’s blade before he could get his shot off, tying the penalty shootout at 0-0.
TH 0 – 0 EH
The third TH shooter stepped forward; the Eusoff supporters started mummurring to each other “it’s that guy”, “not him again”. #10, the TH captain, was easy to recognise with the captain’s armband around his right sleeve. He was the one who broke through Ardy’s defence the first time during the penalty shot awarded during the game – now he’s back for round two. The TH captain approached the goal, pushing the ball forward with the backhand side of his blade. With a flurry of quick feints, the shooter sent Ardy in different directions before finally pulling away to the side and slotting the ball into the corner of net.
Before any sort of tension could creep in from the last bout, LYLC Zorro master Joshua (#19) confidently sauntered on to the court and just began dribbling the ball down casually towards the TH goal. He made a beeline towards the goal and without giving away the slightest hint of his intentions, he performed an airhook/zorro move and flung the ball into the top left corner of the goal, leaving the TH goalkeeper dumbfounded. The Eusoff crowd erupted into cheer, ecstatic by what they have just witnessed – the goal was clearly a crowd favourite!
TH 1 – EH 1
The fourth TH shooter was left to take his penalty in the wake of the amazing goal by Joshua. Perhaps the next contender felt like he had to take things up a notch following Josh’s airhook, and he proceeded to up the pace, dancing around the ball and pulling it left and right as he went. This proved to be his downfall as he pulled the ball too far to the corner, leaving him with too tight an angle to shoot, and Ardy made quick work of TH’s shot.
And then it was JJ’s turn to take the penalty shot. He had no goals to his name this season until earlier in that game, and was eager to put his name on the scoresheet. After the whistle, JJ approached the goal, moving the ball left and right to look for an opening. He took a few shuffle steps to test the goalkeeper’s reactions and saw an opening which he quickly capitalized on, firing the ball into the top right corner of the net.
TH 1 – EH 2
JJ (#76) scoring the second penalty for Eusoff!
With Eusoff in the lead, the final TH shooter had to score in order to keep TH’s IHG dreams alive. The TH player wasted no time in bringing the ball up to Ardy’s goal and with two big pulls, he slots the ball under Ardy and into the back of the net.
Requiring just one final goal, captain Terry stepped over the boards and flexed his ball control in the middle of the court. Terry moved the ball down the court confidently and hit the TH goalkeeper with a series of fakes and pulls, trying to catch the goalkeeper out of position. However, the TH goalkeeper read through Terry’s moves and quickly blocked off Terry’s lane of attack, forcing Terry to lose control of the ball.
TH 2 – EH 2
With the penalty shootout ending in a tie, sudden death rules kicks in: each team sends out 1 player per round, and if one team scores and the other doesn’t, the scoring team immediately wins. At that point, it was hard to even remember that Eusoff had a 4-0 lead on TH – everything was down to the wire; one mistake was all it took to send the boys back to another year without the gold.
Uneasy mummering started rising from the Eusoff crowd as the next TH shooter stepped forward – it’s THAT armband guy again. He’d already won two penalty shots against Ardy, maybe he’s just too fast for Ardy to handle. Unsurprisingly, the shooter adopted the same approach he used previously, opting to inch closer to the goalpost with his backhand. However, this time he pulled the ball in the opposite direction, opting for a more difficult backhand shot at Ardy – a decision he will be regretting for a long time, as Ardy blocked the ball with ease.
Now all Eusoff needed was for Joshua to score – easier said than done. The deafening cheers from the crowd died almost suddenly as Joshua readied himself to attack. This time, he moved further to the sides and threatened a shot, something slightly different from his previous move. The keeper tried to capitalize on this and tried a sliding-tackle to kick the ball away from Joshua, which he deftly avoided with yet another amazing airhook, burying the ball in the TH goalpost. GOALLLLLLLLLLLL from Joshua the hero!!!!
In an instant, the court was flooded with yellow shirts as both players and supporters alike rushed to the court to join in the celebration. The Eusoff boys did it, edging out TH with just one goal and are this year’s IHG 18/19 Floorball (M) Champions!
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