Syam On His Way To Scoring MyRAWK's Opener. Pic By Pei Ru

MyRAWK’s 10th Garden Social League game in the 09/10 season was played under a hot and humid afternoon on the  GIS field in Sri Hartamas. This was a must win game for us as we run the risk of dropping from 6th all the way to the bottom of the league should we loose.  With the recent luckless run of 2 straight defeats, we were determined to break the loosing streak and get our season back on line – top 4 position is our aim.

The match started with both teams playing rather cautiously to test out each other’s game plan with the ball being played between both teams’ midfield area. As the match progress, both sides begun to find their feet and started to attack each other. DJ were dangerous with  their accurate long passing and free kicks. Fortunately for us, our defensive line was up for the challenge and managed to mitigate their attacks with a well marshaled back line led by Aaron. DJ nearly had an opportunity to open the scoring but their forward was stop right before he took a shot in the penalty box by Jon who managed cut him off and shadow him shoulder to shoulder away from the ball. The forward fell but the ref waved play on and deemed the challenge legal . However, DJ did took the lead half way through the 1st third after a defensive mixed up between Ryan Lai and Steven while dealing with a corner kick, gifted them an own goal.  They could have doubled their lead and if not for some poor finishing when their forwards got into dangerous positions.  Jon, the right back gave everyone a scare while challenging for a 50-50 ball after he had got passed 2 opponents but played the ball a touch too far when he tried to taken on the third. A loud clash of leg was heard, but he escape unhurt and won the ball. The 1st third ended with both team struggling in the late afternoon heat and with MyRAWK a goal down.

The 2nd third started with MyRAWK working hard to look for the equaliser. We used our speed down the flank through Syam and Syaz  take on DJ’s defender and drag them wide to create space for our strikers – Allan Loh and Allan Lee.  10 minutes in, Syam managed to beat 2 defenders on the right before unleashing a fierce shot that was slightly deflected by their defender pass the wrong footed keeper. 1-1 and it’s game on! We pressed hard for a second goal but was caught out when DJ’s midfielder floated a beautiful ball over our defenders who had momentarily lost focus and discipline, to their fast running striker. Ryan Lai, our keeper was beaten with a low drive to his far post in a one-on-one situation. Minutes later, Hans managed to caught the DJ keeper off the line when he lobbed the ball over him while attempting to cross the ball into the 6 yard box from the right, outside the penalty box. The match came alive with both teams working hard to score the next goal to retake the lead again.  DJ was the closes to scoring when our keeper was forced to make a diving save to deflect a shot away deep into the 2nd third, and luckily our defenders were on hand to help clear the ball away.

We could sense that DJ is tiring and struggling, so we sent in all our fast runners to run at their defense. Khai, now playing as a forward was working hard to hustle their defenders and could have scored 2 if not for their keeper who managed to make 2 finger tip saves to deny him . DJ was also working hard, trying to look for their 3 goal to go in front again. But they were caught out when our midfield won the ball and sent in a perfect through ball to Allan Loh who dully took on their defenders before unleashing a low powerful shot to beat the keeper at his far post – off the upright! It’s now 2-3 and we are finally in front! Knowing our tendencies to loose our focus before the end of a game and conceding silly last minute goals, we reorganised ourselves to be more defensive with the midfield dropping deep to cover DJ’s attacks. They nearly had an opportunity when Aaron was penalised for a high foot – in the box! Luckily the  ref gave a direct free kick instead of a penalty. In the ensuing melee, our defenders managed to clear the ball to a waiting Allan Loh who was perfectly positioned on the half way line to counter attack DJ. He took the ball pass their last man and placed it perfectly between the legs of the charging keeper to score MyRAWK’s 4th goal of the match. The match ended 2-4 to MyRAWK.

We are now on 13 points and in 5th position, level with 4th placed Predators who are ahead on goal difference.  Our next opponents will be Barcode who stunned us with a 5-1 victory against us in our 4th game in the league. We will be looking for revenge and a good result against them who have been struggling lately with 3 straight defeats. Knowing how tricky they are, we will not be taking anything for granted this time round.  However, the grudge match will have to wait till next week as the game will be postponed due to the Thaipusam and Federal Territory Day celebrations over the weekend.  Until then, enjoy coming long weekend and have a safe trip to those who are going outstation.

Allan Loh Bearing Down Towards Midah's Goal! Pic By Pei Ru.

In what was a hugely disappointing and shocking result, MyRAWK fell to our second straight defeat after the Garden Social League resumed from a month long “winter” break. Having previously won against Midah – the bottom positioned side, we were quietly confident of a good result as the team had grew by leaps and bound after 3 full months of playing together. Faith, lady luck and the gods of football had other plans for us.

With virtually a full squad to choose from, bar our utility man, Mike who was away on an overseas trip, Captain Adrian sent out a side with ample of speed and determination. From the kick-off, we controlled the game and was using our pace upfront to great effect. A perfect through ball sent Mufleh charging towards goal, only for the defender to bring him down in the peno box. Some how, the ref waved played on even though the tackler got no where near the ball.

Numerous chances came our way but somehow we missed them all.  Sitters were missed, posts were hit and certain goals were saved of the line by the finger tips of Midah’s keeper. The moment we dreaded the most came when in only their second serious attack of the 1st third, Midah scored with a long range shot from outside our peno box. Ryan Lai, our keeper dived to his right to stop the shot but unfortunately the ball bounced just in front of him and went over his out stretch  hands. Just before the break, Oscar attempted a spectacular half volley after he caught hold of the ball from a corner but his fierce shot flew wide off the goal.

The 2nd third started as the first, MyRAWK controlled the proceeding and was hell-bent on scoring the equaliser and more goals to win the game. Unfortunately, luck was not on our side and we continued to miss chances after chances. Allan Lee was left frustrated as he missed numerous sitters that only need a slight touch to head into goal.  Allan Loh hit the post with a header. Jaz and Syam had chances to score but some how with luck deserting them, all had their shots saved, blocked or just went a whisker wide.

It was all the same again in the last third of the game. Midah was fully pinned back and frantically trying to defend their slim one goal lead. MyRAWK managed to open up their defenses numerous time, only for last ditch tackles and blocks to deny us the goals. With time running out, the boys got frustrated and the challenges got more robust – Bai was booked  for excessive body contact. At virtually the last attack of the game, Rizal was left unmarked on the near post and managed to sneak in a shot across goal that was heading in, until the keeper somehow managed to tip the ball wide.

We have now dropped a spot to 6th on the league table and is equal on points with Predator and Midah and will be playing bottom-side DJ this Sunday. MyRAWK can ill afford to loose this match as we need to ensure our goal of achieving a top-4 finish is achieved. Let’s hope that lady luck and the gods of football will be on our side this time and we can score a few goals this time round.

Zhun getting stuck in! Picture By Pei Ru

MyRAWK played the Garden Social League leader,  Farm in our 8th game on Sunday at a rather stinky DBKL field at Brickfield. In our previous few matches against them prior to this, we have been soundly beaten with an average of 3 goals winning margin. Irregardless, we we quietly confident of nicking the game or at-least getting a draw in this match.

Things started pretty badly for both team the moment we were at the pitch, we realised that it was in pretty  bad shaped – muddy and stinky!  The management had allowed games to go on under heavy rain conditions and the turf was teared up pretty badly, exposing mud and earth underneath that smelled like cow dung! There was a lot of unhappy faces pitch side!

The match started with pretty much MyRAWK controlling the game and tempo. We were winning the midfield battle and attacking non-stop for the first 5 minutes. However, FARM counter-attacked us and caught us on the break with a high defensive line and scored the opener – it was only the 2nd time they managed to attack us in the early exchanges. We got stucked in and continued to challenged for the 50-50 and 2nd balls. Our strong play resulted in Bai scoring the equaliser on the 15th minute through a low drive that the keeper fumbled over the line.

Unfortunately, it all went down hill for us as Farm had found a chink in our armour – they had fast running forwards and wingers against our slower high defensive line. We caved in to their speed and conceded 3 goals in the last 10 minutes. All of us were asking, how on earth did we go 4-1 down in the 1st third that we were controlling. We got really frustrated and worked up. Our keeper, Ryan was dumbfounded as he hardly had anything to do except picking the ball up from the back of the net after he was left with 4 one-on-one situations that resulted in the 4 goals.

We reorganised the team and brought in a faster defender, Ray to counter the speed of FARM and it worked in the 2nd third. We also brought in our fast running forwards – Allan Loh and Syaz to give the Farm defence a new problem to deal with.  All the changes resulted in us winning a penalty through Syaz who harassed the opponent’s left back into handling the ball in the box after chasing him down our right flank. Captain Adrian, dully broke the penalty kick jinx and slotted the ball home pass the keeper into the lower right corner. Our self belief grew as we sense a shock result is in the cards.  We kept working hard to control the midfield and got into a few scoring positions only for the pitch condition to screw up our shots or our forwards felled into Farm’s off-side trap.

In the final third, we went all out to grab the 2 goals to at-least draw the match. We played with 3 center-backs and put an extra man upfront to pick up long balls from the back. By now, we’re basically camped in the FARM half.  Allan Loh managed to pick up a beautifully floated ball from our midfield and charged towards the FARM goal, before putting in a drive that beat their keeper on the near post. It’s now 4-3, with about 10 minutes to go. Jonno hit a fierce drive that beat the keeper but missed the top corner by a whisker 5 minutes later. We could sense the chance to draw level and continued to pile the pressure on FARM. Kelvin, now playing as center-forward instead of his usual center-back role,  got into a good goal scoring position but with lady luck not on his side, he fired the ball past the upright. Just before the final whistle, we got a free kick from just outside the penalty box but the resulting kick was cleared by the defenders and that was it. Final score: 4-3 and MyRAWK’s 4th loss in the league.

Irregardless of the disappointing loss, we actually played one of our best game. Team spirit was strong and we never gave up. We got more physical and definitely showed our opponents we’re not “soft” anymore.  However, this new found physical prowess came with 2 injuries to our no.7 Oscar and our new center-back, Ray. We are beginning to play as a team and really start to communicate with each other. Harsh words were exchanged in the heat of the battle but it was all good as it showed that we are playing hard and fighting.  3-points lost but we gained better team and fighting spirit which will be priceless come end of the season. Well done boys! Now let’s repeat the same performance against Midah this weekend!

MyRAWK Team, courtesy of SSPKD website

MyRAWK finally picked up our first 3 points in the Garden Social League in the match against the table toppers, SSPKD that was played during a tropical storm at GIS, Bukit Kiara on Sunday. After throwing away a 2 goal lead and drawing against Predator in our first match, and loosing 4-2 to RDL in a hard second match, this win is a vital morale booster for the boys!

Even before the match got underway, all of us were worried about the dark sky and expected it to rain heavy. True to our predictions, the sky opened up at about 15 minutes before the scheduled kick-off and never relented for over an hour.  The match had to be played irregardless of the weather and once the lightning had slowed down (but not the torrential rain), the match started in difficult conditions. Imagine playing in heavy rain soaked jerseys and running in heavy water clogged boots! Due to the unfortunate delay and the fact that we have to complete the match by 5pm, both teams agreed to play a shortened match of about 70 minutes as there was another match scheduled after ours.

True to our perennial late starter form, we went down early on in the game due to a defensive mix-up and error. Our initial disorganisation was laid bare as we defended for our dear life after that goal. Irregardless, we’re not going to go down like the way we did against RDL (we were 2 goals down in the first period in that match). With the guidance of our skipper – Adrian, all of us settled down and started to imposed our game onto our opponents. With about 1 minute to go before half-time, Allan Loh broke free from our left flank and managed to slot the ball home from a tight angle across SSPKD’s keeper for our equaliser. Our opponents had their chances but could not take advantage of them. Their wingers were tightly marked – Ryan C did a stellar of a job marking their left winger and one of their most influential play maker!

Second half started with a fury of attacks from SSPKD and we conceded a second goal to them due to another defensive mix-up from their corner kick. All of us were thinking: “Here we go again!”  We had to regroup and settle ourselves down again. Slowly but surely, we managed to find our rhythm and started to make use of our speedy forwards who were using their pace to great effect. Our back-line and midfielders  started to distribute the ball better and started pumping the ball to them to chase.  We won a lot of free kicks as a result of them being fouled while charging towards our opponent’s goal.  Up came our towering defensive midfielder, Oscar to take charge of the dead ball situation and he floated in a beautiful ball for Bai to head in our second equaliser. It’s 2-2 and it sent us into a frenzy and we  started thinking we might just be able to do a Fulham or a Burnley (reference to how the smaller teams beat LFC and Man Utd of course)!

We got our second wind after that goal and started to dictate play more. About 10 minutes before the end of the game, we took advantage of another forward surge, deep from our own half to score our 3rd and the winner. Oscar sent in dangerous floated pass to our top scorer Syam, who chested the ball down and turned his marker before firing a fierce shot that beat the keeper but cannoned off the up right! Lady luck was on our side as the ball deflected to Jaz, who followed up on the initial shot and managed to bundle the ball into an empty goal.  We hunkered down after that and managed to keep SSPKD’s attacks at bay to grab our first 3 points.

It was a tough match under tough circumstances. Credits must be given to our opponents SSPKD who pushed us all the way. We must also be thankful that we played in GIS, as the astro turf pitch there had excellent drainage and the pitch was completely dried and had no water patches within about 10 minutes after the rain stopped!

Finally, our rag-a-tag team of players from different fans of BPL clubs are looking like a proper team! We might support rival clubs but are bound together by our love and enjoyment of playing the beautiful game. Thanks for the great effort guys, and lets build it up from here onwards.

MyRAWK Team: Howard (GK), Adrian (Captain), Jonno, Hans, Oscar, Syam, Jaz, Bai, Allan Loh, Allan Lee, JonC, Ryan C, Khai and Steven.

Man-of-the-match: Ryan C (Oscar played his best game yet for us too and deserved a mention)

Scorers: Allan Loh, Bai and Jaz

Final score: MyRAWK 3 – 2 SSPKD

- Jon “Aquaman”  Cheah

MyRAWK staged a late comeback but it was not enough to prevent a 4-2 defeat against RDL FC in the Garden Social League today.

RDL FC were on the receiving end of an 8-0 drubbing against SSPKD in the previous week, but showcased their full line-up of main players against MyRAWK.

RDL’s dominance in the game resulted in 3 goals in each period. MyRAWK scored its first through Azreen Hisyam, and a few minutes later Allan Lee ran through the heart of RDL’s defence to score the second with a brilliant solo effort.

With the scoreline at 3-2 late in the game, MyRAWK threw players forward in search of an equalizer. RDL then capitalized off a counter attack to seal the game at 4-2.

Sorry about the butt shot. It's Pei Ru's fav! Photo © Pei Ru. Arse © JonC.

11 October 2009 – MyRAWK made its league debut today and missed the opportunity to chalk up a win against Predator FC despite a 2-0 lead against 10 men. Pint-sized Mohd Azreen Hisyam scored both well-taken goals in the 2nd period.

Predator then pulled a goal back, before having one of their players red-carded. Unfortunately, MyRAWK failed to capitalize on the advantage. The team conceded the equalizer in the 3rd period and could not find the winning goal. Both sides missed several open chances during the game.

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By the way, a Happy Birthday to our no-nonsense, hard-tackling  defender, JonC! If you had told us earlier we would’ve given you a swim in the pool.