070809

1st match:
Izhaq;
syariff,hanafi,(ian),khabir;
ammar;
melson,shakur;
shafie;
haikal->(luqman),charles 1.
[leon,izzudin,hakim]

2nd match:
Izhaq->(chang sheng);
lut 1,hanafi,haikal 1,hanif,melson 1,charles 2,ammar,zhairi,taufiq,syariff.
[rizwan,kori]

3rd match:
Amir 1;
taufiq,ammar,kayum,sharul->(izzudin);
khabir 2,adam->shafie,shakur;
zahiri,sabri,haikal 2.
[izhaq,charles,hanafi,rizwan]

4th match:
izhaq;
syariff,amir,shakur->hanafi;
melson,shafie 1,ammar->taufiq;
charles,haikal 1.

5th match:
izhaq:
syariff,justin,amir,shakur;
nasrul;
melson,ammar;
shafie;
charles 1,haikal.

6th match:
izhaq 1;
syariff,hanafi,eugene,(ameer)->shakur;
ammar;
charles,zahiri 1,sabri;
shafie 1;
haikal 1.

7th match:
izhaq;
hanafi->taufiq,justin,eugene,shakur;
melson 1,shafie 1,ammar,sabri->amir;
charles,haikal.

8th match:
izhaq;
syariff,justin,eugene,shakur->hafiz;
melson 1,charles,shafie,ammar;
zahiri,haikal 3.

9th match:
eugene;
zahiri 1;
syariff,ammar,shakur;
melson,shafie 1,charles 1,faizal 2;
haikal 2,khabir 1.
[qashidi]

10th match:
rizwan;
syariff,amir,shakur;
ammar;
faizal,shafie 1,khabir;
haikal 3,sabri.

11th match:
farshad;
taufiq,syariff,eugene,shakur;
ammar;
hafiz->faizal,shafie,khabir 2;
charles,haikal 1.

12th match:

izhaq;

amir,justin,eugene,shakur;

ammar;

nasrul,charles 2;

shafie 1;

haikal.

13th match:

izhaq;

syariff,amir,nasrul,shakur;

melson 1,shafie 1,ammar,charles 1;

adam,haikal 1.

Winning the season opener just feels great!

Started off with one costly mistake from our team causing the opponents to lead 1-0.
Our team had never play together for quite a long time, so no surprises for our errors.
But the fact that we still got the touch and can play quite well is a a deserving surprise.
Minutes after we had went down, shafie who played as a right-mid then, gave our team a hope as he equalized.
Subsequent attacks saw shakur connecting well with charles in the left wing, whom released a low cross straight to haikal's feet.
Haikal then made no mistake and tap in an easy goal for us to lead 2-1.
However when we thought we could hold to the lead, the opponents scored from a long shot giving them a 2-2 scoreline.
It was attacks after attacks, corners after corners and eventually goals after goals.
Charles and hazim claimed the next 2 goals, giving a 4-2 lead to ashburton.
Just before the interval, the opponents once again tried to score pass izhaq.

HALF TIME: 4-3 to us.
During the break, syafiq gave a very good motivational talk to the team.
He was rumoured to be our new captain as he has the best and most experience coming from a TKSS and MJC school team background.
He told us that we can trash the opponent as the defence didn't have much to do in first half.
It all depends on the forwards to make something magical out of it.

So the 2ND half starts with the opponents handing a long shot over to izhaq.
Luckily izhaq made no mistakes and saved it comfortably.
Second half saw more attacks from the opponents and that make our goal area vulnerable.
They kept taking shots from afar and eventually 3 to 4 goals went in.
However we were determined to win and did not wish to let our team down.
So we fought back from losing 7-6 to winning 9-6.
The earlier two goals after first half was scored by haikal and hafiz.
Haikal as usual tapped in an easy goal and hafiz scored as he went up for corners.
It was quite tyco.
And one of the opponents goal was quite controversial as the ball had actually went over the bar, but they assumed it went pass the hole at the top left hand corner of the net.
The other three goals contributed by hanif and charles was brilliant if not marvelous.
Both players took their chances as they just try to shoot from afar.
Hanif scored two goals through long-shots from the middle of the pitch.
Charles however made a lob from the left wing side of the field.
Their goals had save the team from shame and brought us to glory.

FULL TIME:9-7
We are currently top of the new 2008 season table, with likes of Manchester United, ac Milan and Barcelona below us.
HAHA. JUST JOKING.
That's quite all for now.
See you guys around next time for more heart-thumping action in our matches.

PS: Sorry for poor usage of English. The writer have not been updating this blog for quite a long time and had lost all his writing skills.

1st half formation: 4-4-2
Izhaq;
Kushank, Hafiz, Syafiq('Ammar), Shakur;
Shafie(Syafiq), Hanif, Fitri?, Charles;
Hazim, Haikal.

2nd half formation: 4-1-3-1
Izhaq;
Kushank, Syafiq, Hafiz, Shakur;
Hazim;
Fikri, Hanif, Shafie, Charles;
Haikal.

The great revival?

"Guys, I intend to make new jerseys for Ashburton(preferably nike) in order to revive this team of ours; which would be followed by a match at safra against I don't know who. I need your feedback on this a.s.a.p." - Haikal

Ashburton FC 5 - Zenith Wanderers 6

" We'd rather lose a game 5-6 than to produce a boring game of football that ends up with us at the receiving end of a one nil victory."

That consensus was shared between that of the Ashburton players as they watched themselves crumble to their first defeat in pre-season after producing a performance that was filled with characteristic aplomb which resulted in the 8-0 victory against Ngee Ann FC heretofore.

The match was delayed by an hour and a half due to the irresponsible act of Shafie, the Captain of Ashburton FC, who overslept and made the team wait for his arrival. Tan Fark Me, currently the caretaker manager of AFC, was peeved at what he felt was not a good example shown by the Captain and has released a statement saying that Shafie will be fined two weeks wages and will be given 4 strokes of the cane due to his negligent act. As the players of AFC proceeded to the field, St. Yishun Park, they were surprised to see players from Zenith Wanderers busy training and getting ready for the match. Even more surprised was Haikal, who spotted his cousin, Danial, playing at the other end. Greetings were exchanged and that was followed by the start of the match.

Zenith Wanderers got off to a brilliant start, with a goal coming from their forward. Not wanting to be sucked into a predicament, AFC fought back and equalised through Shafie, who wanted to make ammends for his late arrival earlier on. ZWFC then took the lead again, before Adam capitalised on a mistake from their goalkeeper to even out the score at two a piece. Haikal then scored a typical poacher goal making it 3-2, to bring his goal scoring tally to 23 goals in 19 appearances for the club. This was followed by a quick equaliser from ZWFC, capping off an entertaining half of football.

There was some reshuffling back at AFC with Amir taking his position between the posts as the goalkeeper and his cousin, Hafi, replacing him at the centre of midfield. Ten minutes into the half and there Amir was, feigning injury before going berserk. An act similar to that of someone who is in his/her inebriated state, Amir foamed at his mouth and charged forward with the ball at his feet, only to be robbed by ZWFC's striker and for him to net another goal. An act which left his team mates cursing under their breaths and shouting incendiary remarks at him. A low cross from Haikal was met with a superb shot from Charles, making the scoreline 4-4. This was followed by out of the world celebrations from both players, with Haikal jumping at Charles and then both players making the " Rock Never Dies " hand signs with their tongues out. ZWFC then made it 6-4, scoring two goals in quick succesions.

A late rally from AFC was followed by a goal from Adam, his second of the game. A moment of magic from the boy wonder Shafie almost made it six all but his shot from the corner flag hit the upright. The final whistle was then blown, with both sets of players congratulating each other on what was definitely an entertaining game.

" Rock Never Dies " ?

At the post match press conference, Haikal was there to justify his actions for the " Rock Never Dies " celebrations that he shared with Charles after Charles scored what could definitely be a contender for Goal of the Week.

" It was the kind of moment where we were trailing by a goal and yeah, to just see the ball at the back of the net after a cross from myself was a relieving moment. The celebrations had nothing to do with the current reports in the papers, with Shafie claiming that I am a son of the devil. Total bull. We were just very happy with the way the goal came about you see. "

Haikal also revealed that a few words were said to him before the last attack of the game.

" Well Shafie came up to me and was like, " I'm gonna try something I've never tried before ". I was totally taken aback with what he said, I thought it was another one of his egoistic moments where he felt he was far better than Superman * laughs * but he really delivered that corner well. We would have mobbed him if that went in, especially at such a crucial time. I came up to him after the match and hailed him as the Brazillian Wonder Kid. * laughs * ".

AFC's Player of the Year last season, Shakur also had this to say.

" It's nice to see both teams giving their all, and to see us putting another improved display is definitely satisfying. Perhaps a sign of good things to come ".

AFC's captain, Shafie, summed up the mood at the club.

" We're very happy with how the club is progressing. From days when our league matches were filled with back to back defeats, and now look, we're improving. We played well in the last game, and today I felt we gave our best performance, especially in the first half where we never gave up. We switched off in the second half, and that was mainly due to us being complacent. We have to avoid complacency and be more focused on and off the pitch. "

When questioned about his performance today, this was what he had to say.

" Oh I felt I did great today. I'm getting more confident in the way I play and to hit the crossbar twice, well, lady luck was not with me for sure. "

Shafie was then presented with the Man of the Match award.

AFC: ( 4-4-2 )
Hafi/Amir; Merlvin, Kenny, Maxwell?, Shakur; 'Ammar, Amir/Hafee, Adam, Charles; Shafie ( c ), Haikal.

Kit: Red shirts, white shorts, and red socks.

Environment:Hot and windy.


- AFC.

Record win!!!

8-0 and the results speaks for itself.
And there were many incidents, good and bad.
The game was full filled with fun, joy, laughter and excitement that there are too just too many things to write.
So just a quick sum up here.
Just minutes after kick-off, we scored our first goal from Haikal.
We thought the match would be tough since the opponents are all big-sized.
However, right after the first goal, we scored another, this time through Shafie.
3-0 next and Shafie scored his second.
4-0, Haikal scored again.
So both our strikers for that day scored at least 2 goals.
Great achievement there.
We brought quite a number of subs too, at least 2 we supposed.
So there were many unofficial sub-ins and sub-outs.
Then Shakur's boot was torn apart.
So he lend 'Ammar's boot since he was benched for a moment.
Charles, our left winger, made it 5-0.
& just when the "officials" said "last attack" for the stoppage time, Ámmar came back to the pitch, bootless, with only socks.
We were not expacting much from him though.
But nevertheless he went on to attack for a goal to pay back his own goal in the previous match.
His goal was so unbelievable because he just toe-poked it into the empty net since the on-rushing goalkeeper collided with him.
He was dame tyco/ lucky there.
HAHA.

So 1st-half:6-0

There was nothing much left to play for since we were sure we're gonna win it.
It's not complacency or over-confident but the score tells it all.
So the next half we played a little more relaxed, not serious at all.
As in we played our sipmle game of one touch passes and nice shots.
It was all out attack.
There were only two men or rather three men at the back and they were left-back Aman and right-back Syariff.
The comical part is that Shakur is playing as a keeper.
HAHA.
Is it some kind of mockery, I don't know.
So the center are being left out empty most of the time but still the opponents could not get past any of us.
Not a single shot.
Only twice attack from them.
And our player were dominating the play and more then 70% of us were at the opponent's side and penalty box.
So the beautiful game has brought to an end as most of the opponents start to play rough in defending their goal.
And once our player was being challenged, brought down and fouled inside their penalty box.
So we cried for "PENALTY"!
And eventually we got it.
Shafie took it.
However he didn't finished it cleanly.
His first shot had sent the keeper at the right direction forcing to save it.
However Shafie took the rebound and scored into the empty right side of the net.
7-0.
In the dying minutes of the game, Amir solo-ed his way past many defenders to score his 2nd goal for ashburton.
So the match went clean sheet for both Nazri and Shakur.

FINAL SCORE:8-0!

Starting Line-up:
Nazri;
Syariff, Amir, Hafi, Shakur;
'Ammar, Adam, Hanif, Charles;
Shafie, Haikal.
Subs: Aman, Johnathan.

6th WIN.. Come one ashburton.. We can do it!!!

The game started pretty late then supposed time..
Nearing 4pm, the opponent kicked off with 10 men, while we were with 11 men.
Its not our fault as normal field play is understood 11-a-side.

The game started off quite weak at the attack and the defence work more then the forwards.
It was quite a boring goaless first half.
There were many corners won by us but we failed to capatilize on any.
Johnathan once hit the post and Nazri's brilliant freekick was just too high.
And then Ámmar accidentally blocked a shot from and Shakur and so forth.
The match went evenly in both ways, but our team had more chances, opportunities to score with 1 man advantage.

Syafiq was bored at the back then and he said something like this:
"2ND half the attackers go defend, the defenders go attack."
HAHA
That was quiet funny with the fact that could be possible as the attackers and midfielders were not doing their work well at first.
Then Syafiq came with a brilliant idea with Nazri.
Our players were attacking from the right and the opponents had hard time defending their left side.
Then both Syafiq and Nazri saw an opening on the left of our side.
Within seconds, they were already on the opponents penalty box, coming from thier own penalty box.
How did they do it?
Nice attacking play that moment and Syafiq saw himself on the scorer list for the first time in his ashburton career.

However throughout the first half, Syafiq was quite unproductive in his clearings and stuffs as he was joking around with Hafiz and Nazri.
Hafiz, our keeper for the match was lucky enough not to concede any early goals, seeing Syafiq was caught off guard.
Once the opponents corner hit Syafiq's throat and it went into loose ball, before
Hafiz pushed it away.
It could have gone either ways for the first half.

HALF-TIME...
Our players were seen having good buzz of team talk in the changing room.

Then 2nd half started with ashburton leading a goal to nil.
And ended with a 5-1 trashing after being trashed 1-7 to ryan's team last week.
Incredible huh?

So Haikal merely found his scoring boots back, after a goal-draught, as he netted two goals to make it 3-0.

Then Ámmar said he wanted to score one goal too.
And surprisingly he did.
An own goal.
OMG, could you believe it.
And Hafiz was like quite upset because his clean sheet was spoilt due to that costly mistake.
3-1.

Shafie were on his scoring form too.
He then scored a brilliant tyco shot from the right side of their penalty box and hit top left corner post before it went over the line for a goal.

There were a few drama where the opponents were quite unhappy with us especially when there was an argument whether it was a penalty or free kick to them due to syafiq's hand ball, near our own box.
As everyone agreed it was a free kick then, the game was again disrupted while we were arranging our wall for it.
One of the opponent said you all don't know how to play soccer isit.
However, he's the one who could not wait for our wall to organize.
Look who's talking man.

That same guy then tripped Hafiz shortly after their freekick and Hafiz went down to the ground flat, face down.
Luckily he did not hit any rocks that was near where he fell.
Or else he would be bleeding profusely then.
Everytime he played for us, bad luck was on his side.
Maybe that's why he was absent from the team for so long.
INJURY WOES.

Finally, Nazri then tapped home an easy goal just before the match ended.
Actually Hafiz was the one who had the ball in the first place, but he passed to Nazri hoping that Nazri would pass back to him and made him appear at the score sheet for the first time too.
But Nazri was abit selfish to do that and instead Nazri scored his first goal for us after only one game.

FINAL SCORE: 5-1

1st half FORMATION:(4-5-1)
Hafiz;
Aqil, Haziq, Syafiq, Shakur, Nazri;
Zairil, Shafie, Ammar, Johnathan;
Haikal
2nd half FORMATION:(4-4-2)
Hafiz-><-Ammar
Syafiq, Aqil, Haziq, Shakur;
Zairil, Shafie, Hafiz-><-Ammar, Nazri;
Haikal, Johnathan

5TH win.. 1st 07/08 pre season match

After a long break for members of ashburton fc,(mostly due to the majority who's taking o/a levels) we kicked the new pre-season friendly with a 5-o win over skills that kills.(tkss np sec3)
Ashburton fc has made a slight improvement and progress in the futebol world.

The match started out evenly and there was a tough fight and competition from both teams..
The referee however was abit kayu..
The 1st half seems like it will b a goalless encounter..
However in the dying minutes of the first half, Johnathan Kum, our new loan signing, shot for the goal..
Despite using a weaker left foot, the ball deflected our opponents defender and it went in the net, sending their goalie the wrong direction..

HALF-TIME BREAK!..

And then the 2ND half begins..
Things are getting much more exciting then..
This was due to majority of our players getting cramps on the pitch and had to be stretched out of the field occasionally..
However, although we were cramping, we managed to score much more goals this half.
Haikal, our star striker and maybe the lone striker for that day made it 2-0, 3-0,
4-0..
Making him our evergreen top scorer as he made his hat-trick this time round..
Shafie, our "captain" attacking mid then scored another goal to make it 5-0 to ashburton..
His goal was fabulous as he shot from the edge of the penalty box from the right..
Following the shot, he shouted "cramp". Oh what an example for a celebration.
HAHA.
Charles played left wing this game and he contributed much to haikal's goals due to his superb accurate crosses.
However he did not help the left back and he needs to improve on that.
Other new on loan signings such as RAUNAQ and Zairil played quite well too.
And our stand-in keeper, Farshad was fortunate enough not to let in any goals this time round..
His first clean sheet perhaps.

After the final whistle was blown, we shook hands with the opposition and the referee too, before paying the sum we had to pay for winning the match..
Here was the lineup for ashfc:

Farshad;
Syafiq, Raunaq, Syariff, Shakur;
'Ammar;
Zairil, Charles;
Shafie, Johnathan;
Haikal.

More update on ashburton futebol next time round.
Goodbye!