THE TEAM
We went up for a 9-a-side game with only 5 players, and no coach. The Malaysians, having about 17 players in their squad (mainly from Penang), agreed to make it 7-a-side instead. We went in search of a few more girls from the Law Soc contingent willing (ability was a bonus at this stage!) to play for us. Our makeshift team comprised:
Constance Mah (Convenor), Hur Yuin, Gillian, Harvinder, Jeyanthi, Joanne from Law Soc Organising Committee (who had never played before but agreed in Penang to join us because we were short of players), and [one more player whom I cannot recall]
Special mention to Lina Ong (squash player who rushed from her game to join us in the dying minutes when we were literally dropping from exhaustion).
THE SCORE
0 (Singapore) : 1 (Malaysia)
Surprisingly, we dominated from the starting whistle, but could not score despite many chances. Then, as our stamina and energy levels began to flag (we had no subs), the Malaysians began making many substitutions to bring in fresh and fast legs, to stretch us more and more. Our players kept asking our supporters if there were any replacements willing to come into the game, but there were none. Finally, the inevitable happened. There was a loose ball, their striker broke with it past our very tired defenders into space, and then it was just the striker versus our goalie (Hur). The striker then proceeded to mishit the ball, so that it unexpectedly hit Hur on the knee, and deflected spinning into goal.
Nearing the end of the game, Lina, who had told us earlier that she would join us as soon as her squash game was over, rushed from the squash courts to take the place of one of our tired players. Her energy encouraged the team to press on for an equaliser, and she and Jeyanthi came very close to scoring on a few occasions. The closest chance was the final play of the match, which led to a goalmouth scramble with their goalie finally smothering the ball practically on the goal-line. Credit to the Malaysian goalie from Penang (who was also their singing diva at the D&D that night!), who made many brave saves to stop our players from scoring.
This was the last time the ladies' game was non-competitive.
THE ALBUM
[To add]
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