CMC Hit Hapless Sapphire FC For Six

Last Sunday, CMC FC travelled cross-country to the small village of Yio Chu Kang for their match against Sapphire FC. It was an extremely wet day in the Singaporean countryside, which had led to fears that the match would be postponed due to inclement weather. Fortunately, the heavy rains eventually subsided and the match went on as planned to the relief of the numerous CMC supporters who had braved the rain and travelled all of 20km just to support their beloved club.

Perhaps unaccustomed to the rituals of away matches, several CMC players discovered that they were severely underequipped once they stepped into the changing rooms at Fernvale Stadium, provoking the ire of their manager. Striker Nigel Koh had forgotten to bring his Red away jersey, thus forcing CMC to change hurriedly into their famous Green strip just as they were about to walk out of the tunnel and onto the pitch. Jarvin Lim and Marcus Low had forgotten to bring plastic bags for dirty clothes, and were seen scrounging for used ones in dustbins and dumpsters. Jonathan Lew had forgotten to bring his sunblock, Timothy Seow forgot to bring his confidence in front of goal, Ashok Palaniappan had left his scoring touch at home and, as usual, defender Keith Lim had forgotten to bring himself to the match.

Despite these pre-match distractions, CMC started the match at a blistering pace and were 3-0 up within the first 20 minutes. Nigel Koh, perhaps eager to avoid the hairdryer treatment from his manager (the feared and formidable Mr Jacob, sometimes referred to as Judgeking-JJ-no-mercy) after bringing the wrong jersey, was involved in all 3 goals. 10 minutes into the game, he threaded a through ball behind the Sapphire fullback into the path of right-winger Shannon Tan, who burst into the box and fired a shot across the keeper and into the bottom-left corner of the goal. The winger/part-time model then celebrated by ripping off his shirt and throwing himself into the crowd, much to the delight of all females in the stadium.

A few minutes later, Shannon turned provider as his pass found Nigel alone in the penalty box, who could make no mistake. Actually, he did make a mistake, scuffing his shot with the goal at his mercy but somehow, someway, the ball trickled slowly past the hapless keeper and into the net. A third CMC goal soon followed as Nigel played yet another through ball behind Sapphire’s static and aging defence, which was latched upon by CMC left-winger Eng Song Yun. Once upon a time, ‘The Only Song’ would’ve juggled the ball for twenty seconds and dribbled around an imaginary defender thrice instead of shooting when put through on goal, but this mercurial architect to-be has learnt to curb his well-chronicled attempts at Joga Bonito. Instead of attempting an ill-advised back-heel chip, as is (his) tradition, Song Yun restricted himself to a delicate left-footed shot which evaded the keeper and hit the back of the net, giving CMC a sizeable advantage after only a quarter of the match.

Content with protecting the lead or perhaps just wanting to avoid standing in the centre of the pitch, which had turned into a muddy quagmire, central midfielders Roy Chou and Mark Chiang decided to sit deeper and slow down the pace of the game. This allowed Sapphire FC to take the initiative and push further up the field, leading to some good chances. Firstly, a quick one-two released a Sapphire FC winger into the penalty area, but the chance went a-begging as he blazed his shot high and wide. The fact that he was being flattened from behind by the beast commonly referred to as Kah Chee had little to do with him missing the target, at least in the referee’s opinion. A little later, Roy scythed down another player just outside the CMC penalty box, as is (his) tradition. The resulting free kick skipped dangerously across the muddy surface but thankfully for CMC, keeper Chia Han Sheng was up to the task. Hans was called into action again a few minutes later when a through ball created half a yard of space in the penalty area for a Sapphire striker. His first-time shot seemed destined for the bottom corner until Hans stretched out a spindly leg and deflected the ball past the post, thereby preserving CMC’s three goal cushion into the break.

Unhappy with the way that the first half ended, Mr Jacob subbed on Ashok Palaniappan at the break in the hope that the striker’s talismanic presence would be able to motivate the rest of the team to reinstate their stranglehold on the game. Sure enough, CMC immediately started playing better and what little resistance Sapphire had left was quickly shattered by CMC’s fourth goal some 15 minutes into the second half. Song Yun’s delightful free kick from the left was met impressively by Roy, whose towering header left the keeper with absolutely no chance.

A few minutes later, the moment that all CMC fans had been waiting for came to pass; Tim Seow TS finally put the ball in the back of the net! Despite having just missed his 57th consecutive one-on-one a few minutes earlier, Seow was in the right position at the right time when the ball sprung loose in the Sapphire penalty book. With the goal at his mercy and the centre backs in no-mans land, Seow took aim… and then blasted the ball straight at the keeper! Thankfully, the keeper spilled the shot straight back to Seow, who then gleefully tapped the ball into the net for his first goal since October 2009. With the huge monkey off his back, Seow sprinted off and dove towards the corner flag on his knees, rupturing both his left and right ACLs in the process. It is now known when he will return.

Down 5-0 with only a quarter of the match remaining, the Sapphire FC left back decided to help his team by getting himself sent off. From this reporter’s perspective, it looked as if the fullback thought that constantly arguing with the referee and insulting his mother would be a smart and productive thing to do.

Unfortunately, he was mistaken; the ref lost patience and banished him from the pitch. With Sapphire FC self-destructing, Mr Jacob let left-back Jonathan Lew realize his life’s ambition by allowing him to replace Jarvin as CMC’s central attacking-midfielder for the final 10 minutes. Taking immense pride in displaying his attacking instincts against a fatigued, listless and depleted opponent that had little motivation to continue playing, Lew ran his heart out and chased down the Sapphire players like a man-possessed. He was eventually rewarded for his efforts when he latched onto a pass from Mark Chiang in the final minute, out-sprinted a 40-year old, rounded the keeper and rolled the ball into the empty Sapphire net. Lew’s goal made it 6-0 to CMC, and that was the way it stayed until the final whistle.

“We showed real quality out there,” said Mr Jacob after the game. “We kept our focus, kept a clean sheet, and accomplished what we set out to do”.

“To score 6 goals is one thing, but to have 6 different scorers really showed that we aren’t reliant on Ashok anymore to score goals, and I’m really happy about that. The lads did extremely well today”.