FLYBOYS vs PERTAHANAN

FLYBOYS 0 : 1 Pertahanan

The recent floods in the early months of 2009 has gone by and the dry season has arrived in Brunei. And it's been a dry spell too for Team Flyboys as we've lost the last 4 games.
Four games wearing the new red kit and it seems that maybe it's time to put the yellow strip back on and change our luck. I'm not superstitious but maybe going from Master Warning to Master Caution is a good thing. For those of you who've no idea what i mean, it's pilot talk.

Indeed our luck has changed ever since the 5 goal per game blitz which we enjoyed in March and April but like Hull City who started the season in such strong fashion, we seem to emulate them in the latter half of the season. Not that there's a season to play for as we're not in any league, we're amateurs and we don't get paid to play football.

Despite our poor form, we've shown good spirit and hunger in today's match at Old Trafford (Anfield if you're a Liverfool fan & Stamford Bridge if you support Chelski).
Before the match, it was encouraging to see everyone involved in the warm-up sessions and the shooting practice. Thank you to Julian who conducted the sessions(his experienced training and playing for AM Gunners FC in his pimply teenage years was put to good use today as we stretched ourselves silly).

Also a Big Big Thank You to FO Zul-Afiq for bringing the ice cool drinks and FO Aainaa for making the excellent punch in what's been an extremely hot day.

The match started with Flyboys keeping posession for a solid 2 minutes which is a lifetime in football. Imagine taking a pee for 2 minutes and tell me if that isn't long enough.
With our team captain, Effendy flying off on a longhaul and doing some real work for a change, we had to install a new formation of 4-5-1.
SFO Nasrul, FO Zul-Afiq, FO Zul-Amali & cadet in waiting Julian in defence, Capt Sofian & FO Syazwi S as wing backs and FO Azman & FO Shukrimin as central midfielders. Playing the Makelele role was FO Hafiz and leading the lone striker role was SFO Kenny.

There were plenty of chances in the first half from Flyboys. Kenny had a golden opportunity to score in his brand new adidas boots when faced one-on-one with the goalie but his shot was saved. Later his excuse for not scoring was that he forgot to take off the price tag on the laces.

The opposition who are from the other side of the runway ie civilian technicians from the Air Force hangar created only one chance and they took it. A misplaced pass from both midfield and defense allowed their pacy striker to capitalise on the mistake and shoot past our goalie, Capt Suhaini. Flyboys 0 - Pertahanan 1.

Our players were adapting well to the new Chelsea formation. We were crowding the midfield and intercepting a lot of passes but as always the formation is only as good as the personnel.

With Kenny alone up front it was difficult to break on the counter and after 30 minutes, there was a massive roster change. In came Capt Khalid, SFO Dzulfadli, Capt Sofian, Capt Clements, Dave Miller(Ismail) & FO Azmi to freshen up some legs. And all this still in the first half. How fit are we? No more kebabs in Perth and Nandos in Brissy for you fat buggers.

Immediately, the team started to create more chances. Dzul pulled his shot wide. There were a lot of good runs made by Sofian, Kenny, Dzul & Ismail but the experienced technicians held firm until half-time.

The downside to the first-half was the sight of a crazy DPMM fan shouting Soccer 101 instructions to anyone who could hear him from the touchline. On top of that, he was holding on to dear life a very dodgy-looking formations booklet which he must've bought in an also dodgy Indian sport shop somewhere. He finally stopped screaming his verbal abuse when his wife asked him to leave his screaming and whining in the privacy of their bedroom.
When interviewed by the media, the DPMM fan apologised to the team for his overly-enthusiastic demeanour and described himself as a passionate and caring die-hard FlyBoys fan.

The 2nd half saw Flyboys change to their familiar 4-4-2 formation with FO Hendra as left-back, Nasrul and Azmi as centre-backs, Clem Clements as left-back, FO Riduan as a self-proclaimed defensive midfielder, Ismail & Dzul as strikers and the crazy die-hard DPMM fan was let loose in central midfield with his minder, Sofian in tow.

The Flyboys fan in me would like to record a historic comeback win of 5-1 in this game but that would prove me to be temporarily insane.
Instead we pretty much played the same as we did in the first half. We harried and hassled them when they were in possession but their midfielders outpassed us. They had 70% of the possession and if my maths is right that would mean we had 30% of possession.
What was encouraging for us was Pertahanan had few shots at our goal in the 2nd half and those were all from long-range and usually landed in the RBA Golf Club parking area. This meant we weren't giving them space to play the ball into our penalty box.

What was disappointing was the shooting practice before the match was not put to good use. Our finishing has let us down these last few games. We get into good positions in the box but we don't convert our chances.
Hafiz had intercepted a misplaced pass and from 35 yards out, he curled a Rooney-like shot wide and missed by 2 yards and 17 inches.
Ismail pulled a shot wide in front of goal after a Torres-like run on the right side of the field where he beat a defender, the keeper but not the goal.
Riduan did his usual Ronaldo-like run from midfield and after amazing us with his dribbling plus holding off the defender and with only 6 yards left from goal, he shot straight at the goalie and the keeper parried it for a corner. Probably our best chance of the match.
Crazy DPMM fan also unleashed a screaming beast of a shot at goal with his brand-new authentic unpersonalised Nike Total90 Laser II Comet Black/Red UK size 7 boots. Unfortunately the writer was temporarily delusional.
The shot was actually as tame as Garfield. So tame, the goalie had time to tie his boots, text his wife he'd be home late for dinner and smoke a fag before the shot arrived at his gloves. Journalists reckoned that he must surely be a part-time auditor for the company.

More changes were made in the last 25 minutes of the match that i actually thought we were playing basketball. Kenny, Hafiz, Shuks, Jules & Zul-Amali were brought in to freshen up the team.
In the 69th minute, Flyboys unleashed their talisman. A subsitute who is widely known to be a student of Shaolin soccer, the one and only Capt Simon Newn. Despite his presence and their number of attempts on goal, Flyboys were unable to equalise and when the full-time whistle blew, it would be another gracious defeat at home.

Despite the defeat, i must say there is genuine camaraderie(look up the dictionary) in this team. Team Captain Effendy would be proud to see the formation was solid and everyone played to their best and gave 110%. We defended, we passed, we had shots on goal and most of all, we had fun.

Thanks to all who participated actively and passively. We were graced today with the presence of SFO Nurfaisal aka Bob who became acting treasurer and took our hard-earned $2 from us.

Next Match:
FLYBOYS vs Ex-S.P.A.
Wed, 20th May 2009
0430pm
RBA Football field.

Till then, Majulah Sukan, Go Flyboys and Brunei Yakin!!! Apakan.

- The Boston Globe Wannabe columnist, Amir aka Crazy Die-hard DPMM Fan.

ps. Apologies if i offended anyone today with my shouting and screaming. I am a totally different person in the flight deck. Honest!
To all those new FO's who've never flown with me, i don't bite. Much.