Analysis of friendly match on 20 September'09

20 September 2009

Social Frees 5-2 Dalat

It was a game which started with a slim 1-0 first half in favour Social Frees (captained by Lee Eu Beng). However, the second half was an explosive and exciting period with half-a-dozen goals scored. Everything favoured the Social Frees, the fact that the team was 26 years old, playing on its own home turf and most importantly fielding nearly 2 teams as it had a complement of 20 players. Dalat played well considering it had for a long time not played competitively on a grass turf (more of a futsal team). The Social Frees strategy was straightforward, when playing a team more attuned to the short pass system of the futsal game, play long passes and utilise the full length and width of the field. As futsal teams are quite good at proximity defending, the best scoring option was to place "rocket launchers or mortars" at the rim of the penalty box about 10 m away from the goal posts and 4 goals were scored from that distance. This distance is the traditional weak point of most futsal teams attempting to play on the grass court. The Dalat team will be a force to be reckoned with in the future as it continues to build its experience on the grass court. It has players who were better built whom I believe some to be capable of faster sprints but had yet to be able to master the long overhead pass presumably because such a pass is absent from a futsal game. The game was a "social" success as both teams started and ended the match on very friendly terms. Other than unintentional fouls, there were no other serious incidents occurring during the game.

Analysis of friendly matches on 15 August'09 and 29 August'09

15 August 2009

Social Frees 1-3 Sparrow

Sparrow achieved its first win over Social Frees in the 5th edition of the Social Frees-Sparrow series thus enabling its outgoing manager, Chan Howe Whye, to salvage some measure of pride. Sparrow had been improving rapidly under Chan who had diligently arranged for them to have a constant stream of matches translating to a match nearly every alternate Saturday. In fact, it would have been a professional injustice if Sparrow hadn't won as they were already more organised and stronger, and should have won an earlier 4th match up if luck had not deserted them in favour of the Social Frees.

There was no shame in defeat as the Social Frees continues its policy of promoting equality among players with no distinction between the more skillful and the lesser skilled players. Despite having drawn level at 1-1 with Sparrow at one stage, player changes which weakened the team strategically but strengthened it socially were unreservedly implemented to ensure everyone including players like Andy Chew and certain players still recovering from injury to have adequate play time. Social Frees will continue to pursue its objective to be a pure social fellowship of football enthusiasts with no discrimination in terms of race, colour, creed or skill.

29 August 2009

Social Frees 1-2 A-Line

For the first time in its history, the Social Frees hosted a "foreign" club. The A-Line Club was a club that played in the 2nd Div. of the KL Social League. It made a journey north to Penang to have 2 friendly games, with the Social Frees (29 Aug) and Chung Ling'97 (30 Aug). It was a revealing and wonderful experience to play the KL team and the Social Frees will look to reciprocate their visit in the near future. Chung Ling'97 which drew 1-1 with them, has already arranged to play them in KL in October.