Story by REDintern Tan Jack Long. Pictures by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports.
Republic Polytechnic Sports Complex, Thursday, July 3, 2008 – Meridian Junior College (MJC) began their title defense in style as they cruised past Temasek Junior College (TJC) 12-0 in the opening match of the A Division Floorball Championship season.
For the first 7 minutes in the first period, TJC looked as though they could hold the defending champions to a draw with their tight defending and a string of spectacular saves by the TJC goalkeeper. TJC also started the game very well despite being the underdogs with the very first shot in the game.
However, with 7:41 remaining in the first period of the match, MJC broke the deadlock when Harold Lim (#14) took advantage of a goal mouth melee and slotted the ball into the net. The attack started with an MJC defender sending the ball up the left flank for their forward to cross it into the centre of the attacking semi-circle. The TJC defenders failed to clear the ball and Harold made them pay.
The second goal for MJC came just 2 minutes after their first and again, it was a result of slack defending from TJC. Yeow Di Qiang (#7) of MJC capitalised on the poor defending from TJC as he pounced on a loose ball which the TJC defenders failed to clear. Di Qiang showed composure as he calmly dribbled past a TJC defender before drilling the ball into the goal.
MJC players exploded into action right and scored just 46 seconds into the 2nd period. Winston Cheong (#21) of MJC scored from a Glendon Phua (#20) shot that was going wide. Winston was at the right place at the right time to deflect Glendon’s shot in to make it 3-0 in favour of MJC. About 4 minutes later, TJC again displayed their weakness in defense as Chong Shyang Long (#22) of MJC deflected a pass to push the scoreline to 4-0. TJC, on the other hand, were extremely quiet in attack.
In the last period of the game, MJC showed why they are the defending champions. The MJC players went into a goalscoring frenzy as they put 8 goals past the TJC goalkeeper. Glendon Phua (#20) of MJC finally scored his first goal of the game in the period and eventually went on to score a hat-trick after working tirelessly for his team the entire game. Glendon first sent a rocket into the top corner of the goal after a combination of slick moves and passes. The second was a solo effort when he stole the ball from a TJC player on the left flank and then dribbled skillfully past two TJC defenders before firmly slotting the ball into the goal. His third goal came in the dying seconds of the game with 0.03 left on the clock.
Lastly, credits must go to both MJC and TJC as both teams showed that in sports, winning and losing isn’t everything. They showed that sports is about respect and attitude. MJC never looked as though they would stop attacking because they were in a comfortable lead. Neither did TJC give up when they were down 5-0, 6-0 or even 10-0. They just kept playing, playing and playing.
Because this is sport, and this is our passion.
MJC Team Roster:
Lionel Boey (#30)
Alvin Chan (#12)
Calvin Chang (#17)
Cheng Zai Hui (#3)
Winston Cheong (#21)
Chong Shyang Long (#22)
Law Zhen Yuan (#15)
Harold Lim (#14)
Loh Li Wei (#33)
Jay Ng (#4)
Ng Zi Hao (#5)
Glendon Phua (#20) (Captain)
Toh Zuan Ming (#9)
Yeow Di Qiang (#7)
Abdul Adib (#10)
Bronson Cheng (#77)
Mohammad Azmeer (#99)
Tan Jian Wen (#16)
TJC Team Roster:
Liew Xun (#66)
Sean Teh (#77)
Daryl Ho (#21)
Benjamin Tan (#73)
Ivan Lee (#5)
Zhao Peng (#15)
Thaddeus Ng (#17)
Lenny Koh (#9)
Taufiq (#19)
Clarence Lim (#29)
Vincent Wu (#23)
Benjamin Chia (#12)
Charles Lee (#10)
Zhong Ting (#20)
Beale Liu (#7)
Hon Boon (#4)
Kenneth Fok (#11)
Lester Ho (#3) (Captain)
Results of other games played:
Yishun Junior College 12 Anglo Chinese Junior College 3
Raffles Junior College 6 National Junior College 2
Victoria Junior College 6 Millennia Institute 2
More pictures in the gallery.
Editor’s note: If you recognise yourself or your teammates in any of the photos, feel free to leave the names behind in the comments section and we will update the captions accordingly. Thanks!
da predictor is no predictor!!
its none other than MJC’s no.99, AZMEER!!
so dont be fooled by the comment people, its fake
MJC has been winning their matches with such dominance,12-0 wins in both matches played so far.But,I predict that the team that will be a thorn in their title defense would be none other than VJC.And the player who is gona make a major difference in the fate of the championships is not VJC’s captain,dennis.Everyone seems to pay attention to him,but VJC’s lesser known #2 proves to be a very special player.Teams tend to cast a shadow on him,only to be punished by him later in the game.
All eyes on VJC #2,MJC!
Your title is at stake.
im bringin hairyback…YEA!!!
AZMEER THE BEST IN THE WORLD!!
NUMBER 99 ROCKS MY SOCKS!!
HE OWNS FLOORBALL!!
EVERYBODY LOVES HIM!!
HE IS AZMEER!!!!! AKA GORILLA MAMA
The MJ-YJ match will be a close fight definitely. But no matter the outcome both teams are thru to the semis already.
Lol yea the MJ team is an assembly of some of the best players around… Who knows? Perhaps you all could form some Meridian Alumni team and play in the SFL next year. 🙂
Good luck to all teams, starting tomorrow, as the fight for top underdog begins!
haha, u might want to be more specific there..cuz at the moment, they seem to have more than one keeper who is capable of getting into the national team.
I believe the MJC floorball keeper is one of the best keepers around. Not only is he playing in A divs, he’s also playing in Div 2 and doing a good job out of it! Being a national floorball keeper may just be within his reach. You can do it! All the best! (:
well done mjc!!!….keep up the good work!!
hey all TJC floorball girls although we did not get into the semifinals i just want to say you all put up a good fight! i am proud of you girsl!
a big thank you to MJ,RJ and IJ for playing a good 3 games with us!
Better than having the ball in the net. Right?
In any sport, you wouldn’t care how you look like and approach something. As long that whatever you’re doing leads to a victory, no matter how funny or awkward it is (in this instance, the clearance) , it will amount to nothing in the end.
But the way he was trying to kick it away(he was about 3m away from his goalpost) was really quite funny. hahahaha. Oh i’m sure he won’t do that when he represents us right!
Anyway, quite obviously MJC trained really damn damn damn hard. Anyway, do you all have any DSA-ed players?
MJC goalkeeper was not at fault to leave his line and kick the ball. He had the right to do it as long as he does not pick the ball up with his hands. There was no reason to laugh at him. Mind you, he’s playing in the national division floorball league and he knows what he’s doing. He’s one of the most talented young keepers around and one of the most experienced one aorund so please, i demand respect to be given to him. I’ve played with him and I know how capable he is. Shine on keeper. Fulfill your dreams of playing for the National team in the future.
The YJC and the MJC should be a close game also and its myte be a interesting match too……..seeing both teams play in their previous matches…..
from the results, probably RJC. MI has 0 points and NJC has 3 points, I think. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the 4 semi-finalists are seemingly the same as last year: MJC, VJC, YJC, RJC.
Yes, a super close margins indeed. It was sad that IJC lost to YJC.
So YJC and most probably MJC are going to the semis for Group A.
And who will be in the semis for Group B? VJC and?
Day 3 of ‘A’ Division
YJC 3 – 2 IJC
ACJC 6 – 3 TJC
NYJC 4 – 6 VJC
NJC 5 -4 MI
Quite some close score margins today…
thank you for your encouragement TALKATIVE, much appreciated..
im actually an outfield player so my keeping skills are very very raw =X
and surely my team didnt just give our supporters disappointment yeah?any one on the losing end will feel disappointed, but i guess the manner in which we lost matters too?im proud of my team =D
A foul is committed only when the keeper picks the ball up outside the box kicking or hitting the ball away is allowed as long as its not a pass to his teammate. This has happened many times in many games even in last yr’s a divs and nvr was a foul called against the keeper leaving the box to clear the ball
I’m sorry but I do not necessarily think that Sportsmanship was flaming. No Flaming, the second source you quote is subtitled “Rules by IFF (the International Floorball Federation) modified for play WITHOUT goalies”. Ah yes – what some MJ players did was no doubt a foul; nevertheless it could be entertaining, at least? There’s nothing wrong with psychology unless you verbally insult or humiliate the other team, or beat them literally into submission. The MJ keeper rushing out to kick the floorball away was definitely a clear foul (I’m not sure how closely we are following the IFF rules, but AFAIK from the official 2006 IFF rulebook, Rule 303.2 states the keeper as becoming a field player temporarily as long as he leaves his box, and as such is subject to Rule 507.7 which is about kicking the ball more than once) but the audience could surely have some artistic license there to crack a joke or two about it? 🙂
In the earlier MI VS VJ match, there was an incident where a Victoria defender saw the Millenia forward charging into goal while the former team’s keeper was unprepared for the attack. What the defender seemingly did was to dive onto the Millenia striker from the side, before the MI player managed still to shoot and score – however after a quick discussion by the referees, they ruled the MI goal invalid and it was “two minutes” to the VJ player instead. On one hand while I was thinking that they were correct in doing so in sequence i.e. it was the foul first, then the goal, hence the game actually stopped play at the foul and the goal was out-of-play, on another I was thinking that since the whistle has heard only after the MI player shot it into goal (well light travels faster than sound at least), should MI deserve that goal actually because it was a case of advantage? Honestly, it is difficult to argue this kind of subjective judgement – maybe that’s why you have referees exist, to choose one best out of many possible conclusions of a certain action.
Do urself a favour and familiarise urself with the rules of the game… or even get more exposure by stepping out of ur comfort zone and look ard u… many of these players have played in the B divisions and singapore leagues probably longer than uve even picked up ur stick… getting hit by the ball is no big deal and has happened far too often. The intention of the ‘aimed’ throw was YOUR presumption so pls try not to get too carried away with it.
‘He didn’t even know about the “stepping-out-of-box" rule. It was very hilarious. We’re at the seats saying that he might as well walk to the other end of the court to catch the ball.’
the referees obviously retracted the 2 minute penalty due to a mistake on their part. Save urself the embarassment and master the rules b4 u play the game or even comment and try to ridicule others when ur green