Written by: Izzat Rashad B Rosazizi Edited by: Leung Lok Heng & Choa Zhao Xiang Photos by: EusoffWorks
A long and arduous campaign of football finally came to a close last night for EUnited. The day of reckoning was finally here, a mere two days after edging out perennial rivals TH by a 1-0 scoreline. Eusoff’s footballing kings were set to go up against hot favourites SH in a rematch of last year’s IHG final; a match which our boys narrowly lost on penalties. The pain of that defeat seemed to lurk in the minds of the senior players, who were determined not to let history repeat itself for the worst.
For the freshman players, this was a big opportunity for them to experience the thrill of playing in an IHG final, albeit a rather muted one with the Wuhan quarantine exclusions enforced just moments before the game. The lack of deafening support from both sides commonplace in IHG finals year after year evidently took some shine off what would have been an enthralling contest. Despite this unfortunate supervening event, the show went on as planned with the blow of the referee’s whistle.
From the get-go, it was clear that our boys had adopted a rather defensive style of play, with almost all our players being lodged firmly in our own half, bar one Jo Kagitani who was our sole striking option. A surprising volte-face from coach Billy, considering that our boys had success venturing higher up the pitch throughout the competition. As a result, SH had higher quality possession of the ball and were able to create threatening chances from both the aerial route as well as through slick passes on the ground. Apart from a great Ashwin attempt to recreate his TH heroics from midfield, there was not much to cheer about as SH enjoyed the better periods of play throughout the first few minutes of gameplay.
SH were duly rewarded as early as the sixth minute; a fantastic corner was headed in sweetly by a towering SH player past the outstretched arms of our goalie Ethan, putting the Shearites ahead at 1-0. Not the best of starts, but the match was far from over. EUnited were still in with a shout.
Bolstered by the confidence of scoring an early goal, SH turned up the heat as they moved the ball from touchline to touchline with pinpoint accuracy. Not knowing the definition of giving up, our yellow boys sprinted everywhere the ball went, pressing and pushing each SH player to his limit. Despite this increased urgency from us, the overall shape of Eusoff was still rather defensive. As a result, SH were still able to string good passes together and therefore constantly threaten Ethan in goal. There were also multiple occasions where SH would definitely have doubled their advantage, if not for some clinical last-ditch defending from LYLC Wei Shien, who put his heart and soul on the line last night in what could be his EUnited swansong match.
Unfortunately, our defensive barrier leaked in another goal in the 35th minute of play. A slick passage of play from SH caught our defense off guard, and the resulting shot hit both goalposts before innocently rolling in the net as Sheares finally got the goal they were hunting for. The SH goalscorer was rightfully booked for the resulting jersey-removing celebration. Not long after the goal, the referee blew for half time with Eusoff now having a mountain to climb as the deficit doubled to 0-2.
The second half saw our boys utilize a much improved style of gameplay, constantly asking questions of Sheares’ ability to deal with incisive midfield passes from our dynamic duo Kay Shin and Ashwin. The first real chance for us came almost immediately, with Hongsheng sending a shot just over the crossbar.
Hong Sheng nearly caught the Sheares players by surprise as narrowly missed.
It seemed like the tide was finally turning in our favour as more shots came raining down on the Sheares goal, aided by both Dylan’s and interim captain Marcus’ expert crosses into the penalty box. Many second half chances were also provided by point man Jo Kagitani, whose dazzling dribbling skills unfortunately could not hold up to multiple SH defenders hacking and chopping mercilessly at his heels.
Despite Leow’s teeming crosses, Sheares seemed to constantly avert the danger time and time again.
While Jo tried his utmost to stay on his feet, SH players took full advantage of our aggressive tackles to slow the pace of the game down, in an attempt to break any sort of momentum our boys had going. The Sheares goalie also had a commendable day out, successfully saving every shot within his reach. In sum, it was a frustrating outing for our boys who improved drastically in the second half, and a consolation goal would have been a minimally fair representation of this improvement. Though we came close through Kagitani and substitutes Jonny Long and Dominicus “fresh cuts” Bimaputra, there was eventually no cigar for our boys as lady luck frowned on them for the night. The referee called a halt to proceedings, with SH taking the win against Eusoff by two goals to nil.
In retrospect, it has been a great season for the boys who can definitely look to the future with multiple promising first-year players coming through the IHG ranks, and who will be fired up come IHG 20/21. Though supporters were few and far between last night due to the Wuhan fiasco, the boys can rest assured that the entire hall is proud of them for coming this far and putting up a fight against a highly skilled SH team. It was a spirited showing from the Eusoff lads, who in no way should hang their heads in shame or disappointment for missing out on top spot. It has been my personal privilege and honour to cover Eusoff football for this IHG, and I sign off by wishing them all the best for next season.
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