Story by REDintern Christy. Pictures by REDintern Zhijia.
National Inter-School A Division Boys Floorball Championship: Semi-finals, Tampines Sports Complex, Monday, July 21, 2008 – Meridian Junior College (MJC) pulled off a stunning scoring raid with two goals in the last thirty seconds to secure a place on in the final. Victoria Junior College (VJC) played a mean and aggressive game which effectively riled up the MJC players and messed up their usually neat formations. MJC, not used to such a playing style, were at a disadvantage, with VJC leading for the majority of the game. This was the first time MJC had such a hard time winning a match this season but ultimately they held on and triumphed 4-3.
Spurred on by the large number of supporters, VJC’s energy was at an all-time high. VJC Captain Dennis Wong (#19) gave VJC a head start by scoring with a brilliant free-hit that flew straight into goal to huge cheers. Despite numerous tries by MJC to find an equalizer, the VJC goalkeeper Amos Nadan (#21) and defense thwarted MJC splendidly to ensure that the first period ended 1-0 in VJC’s favour.
Of course, having earned this lead, VJC were not going to relinquish it so easily. A rare penalty was given in the second period to provide MJC an opportunity to equalize. A hush of silence swept across the court as Glendon Phua (#20), MJC captain stepped up to take the penalty. Despite the fact that Glendon Phua was MJC’s scoring machine, the VJC goalkeeper Amos Nadan (#21) was unfazed and remained calm and collected. The mind games had started. As MJC Glendon Phua (#20) inched nearer to the goal, the VJC goalkeeper bellowed a “HEY YOU!” (or at least that was what I heard) and shook the nerves of Glendon Phua, resulting in a penalty miss. This penalty save gave VJC another morale boost and at the 07:31min mark, Derrick Tay (#18) of VJC widened the lead by scoring a goal after a melee in front of the penalty box. VJC were now 2-0 up.
It was a tough time for MJC as they have been in the lead for most of their games. Still, it was impressive to see how strong MJC were, not just physically, but also mentally. Despite the deficit, MJC ploughed on to find a chance to equalize. VJC’s hostile style of play soon came back to haunt them. A VJ player was sent out for 2 minutes which allowed MJC a power play chance. MJC took advantage of the opportunity and an own goal by VJC gave MJC their first goal of the game to make it 1-2.
Motivated by the goal, MJC searched relentlessly for a chance to equalize. That chance came at 13:15 when MJC captain Glendon Phua volleyed such a hard and fast shot that it bounced off the VJC keeper’s body and into the net. At the end of the second period, the score was now two-all.
VJC started strong at the beginning of the third period with VJC Jonathon Tan (#9) smacking in a unstoppable goal that eluded the usually vigilant MJC keeper Lionel Boey (#30) to make it a 3-2 VJC lead. Again in this period, MJC had two power play chances due to repeated offenses by the VJC players. MJC failed to take advantage of the first chance they had but they made up for it with their second chance.
With less than two minutes left on the clock, MJC embarked on a power play and gave teammate Toh Zuan Ming (#9) chances to score. The MJC team worked hard to send assisted passes not just once, nor twice or even thrice for him to score. Unfortunately for them, it was all near-misses. Nonetheless, the MJC team did not lose faith in him and gave him a fourth chance and this time round he did not disappoint as he whacked the ball into goal with precision. 3-3.
Just when everyone thought that the game would go into extra-time, MJC captain Glendon Phua (#20) snatched the ball in the face-off and breathtakingly sent the ball flying into the net with deadly flair at the very last second.
It was the most thrilling match all season with emotions flaring up and the referees’ whistles going off every few seconds due to the high number of fouls committed. Kudos go to VJC for managing to lead most of the game and firing three goals into MJC net, given the fact that before this match, MJC had only let in a total of three goals for the season. Still, the most impressive part of the match was the “never give up” mentality of the MJC players. Before this match, we have only seen them as leaders, but after this match, we will not just see them as leaders but also, fighters.
Victoria Junior College will meet Yishun Junior College tomorrow, Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at Tampines Sports Complex for the 3rd and 4th placing clash at 1530hrs and Meridian Junior College will meet Raffles Junior College on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at Tampines Sports Complex for the final at 1530hrs.
oh gosh, bet it was exciting! six degrees, thats another close match – I bet the VJCians were still tired today having played so fiercely yesterday…
Ah, I do agree that shouting does not exactly demonstrate sportsmanship but sometimes I guess its sportsmanship vs winning. Sometimes the desire to win is so strong that sportsmanship becomes second fiddle. Although his sportsmanship may have been lacking, I will have to say it was brilliant of him for thinking up this scare tactic in such an intense moment.
Nonetheless, of course the best teams are those which have won and played with sportsmanship.
oops. realised there were a couple of polls. was referring to the straits times one. lol. =)
lol @ the poll.
2 choices? now that doesn’t make a lot of sense when the qn is something with only 1 absolute answer.
ah well ill be glad to try,
yj took the early lead going up 2-0, we then equalised to bring it to 2-2 before yj scored two more making it 4-2. the game was then equalised yet again to bring it back to 4-4. However yj managed to grab a late goal to win 5-4.
it was closely fought with good plays on both sides.
the most surprising thing however was that the refrees chosen were 2 secondary school players who just got their coaching license. it was as though this match was used for practice?
today’s 3rd-4th placing match went in favour of yjc by a score of 5-4. no idea who the scorers were, got that score from the yjc floorball blog.
@passerby
zzz. shouting is unsporting play. you definitely don’t see that in soccer too often, as a matter of fact, in the last few penalty shootouts i have seen, no keeper has shouted. most juz wave their arms around. so yeah, if you think it’s ok to shout, you might want to rethink that.
and btw, playing fast and aggressive is a really good strategy against good technical teams, if you have got the stamina to maintain that throughout the match. if not, such a strategy can be counterproductive towards the end of the match when fatigue and foul calls set in, as proven here.
Okay. I am going to make a plea out – any kind souls that watched the YJC vs VJC match today out there? I didn’t have the luxury of time to go down. =( So I will appreciate it if someone send in a match report – and I will promptly post it up. Or simply just update the rest of us on how the match went – both girls and guys. Maybe dennis you can update the rest of us here? =)
haha viewer, its okay – I will take the non-constructive comments as amusement and the constructive ones to learn about floorball.
thank you ajani – I totally understand how is it like to miss an exciting match – wonder how today matches went.
ahh passerby, I guess its pretty impossible for the referees to be consistent – there are different referees for different matches. And they have different ways of thinking. I am no expert on floorball rules, so I will leave it for some expert to step in to explain the inconsistencies. All I can say about the VJC keeper is probably the referees for this match did not notice that fact.
To in awe: I agree that it was a magnificent goal but we will see whether any goal can surpass it tomorrow, alright? =)
had watched the match, read the article and comments. i thought that vj might have displayed their best performance in the entire competition so far. they had the burning desire to win and had been explosive throughout the match.
mj had played in vj’s half for most parts of the game but vj were quick on the counterattacks. and if you take a neutral stand, you could see that vjc players were going in for the mj players whenever they held the ball. there were pushes (deliberate or not) and slashes.
however, this is floorball and pushing and slashing are just part of the game. the refs protected players on both sides and blew as constantly as fouls were committed. the many 2-mins penalty on the vj side were definitely justified as fouls were committed by the same player several times and there were also some blatant pushing and tripping.
nonetheless, a great game. mj shld be commended for not giving up on their game and providing us with an excellent match to behold.
MJC’s last goal should be the goal of the tournament !!!!
oh yes, but nevertheless, i admit some of my teammates were clumsy and rough that day in committing fouls, and i in no way dispute those decisions.
And also, congratulations to MJ for never giving up and producing a shock comeback. All the best for tmr’s finals
to viewer:
sorry if i said it in a wrong way, and i take nothing away from the referees who did a good job this tournament. But i cannot agree with your comments about the refrees competence for this match because i have had club coaches, national coaches, and other teams captains including glendon come up to me and state their disappointment with the refereeing
i feel the referees are not really fair and are very inconsistent. In the Match AC VS TJ.TJ keeper had no number and was told to change. VJC keeper had no number?? nth was done. Sometimes there was no contact at all but the ref warn the player. also there must be a clear rule about the 2 min fouls. VJC vs NJC had so many 2 min calls but most were 1st time fouls shldnt there be warnings like in other matches? Ref need to be consistent in the way they conduct the game. I personally felt the shouting of Amos was ok. besides in soccer u can do that too. just to distract . Slapping is violence and its a 5 min so yea chill diqiang.
VJC and MJC both played well and put up a very good match.
Damm! Reading the article alone gave me such a fast heartbeat though I wasn’t there to see the game personally – wish I did now though.
Thanks Christy for the article!
christy i pity you that there’s the sudden influx of discussions regarding the referees decision and i salute you for the way you handle the comments – be it constructive or not!
@Lionel
OMG. THE VJC KEEPER DIDN’T HAVE A NUMBER? WHY KEEP QUIET? haha.
@dennis
you would HAVE to agree with me that your team mates are very aggresive and i don’t think you should express some sort of “disappointment” with the referees standard or something. suck it up suck it up. you guys played well and gave a good fight, so walk away with that, without even having the slightest thoughts abt how the game would have been different if the referees didn’t make certain calls. after all, you can’t expect Czech Republic Referees to come down to ref an A div match (if you want an extra professional referee).
@spectator
if you are the same person who were unhappy with the referees between the rj and vj match – why does it feel as though everything that you have to say would be about the referees?!?!
Yes thats the point! when u go in aggreasive and giving ur all be prepared to face the fouls thatll be called! give the refs a break… they dont have an apparent reason to be biased towards or against anyone
well spectator, I would say the referees weren’t the ones who staged a comeback – MJC did. And in style.
Referees are the ones that never win, aren’t they? How unlucky.
well.. the referee was definitely the man of the match today. he created countless chances for a comeback and finally managed to turn the game around. well done.
great game between the two schools anyway.
hey random,
you just distracted me. haha. Coming up, the article will be coming up!
everyone go and study la. dont distract christy or the article on the rjc match will never come out
lol. even if there’s a refereeing error, live with it guys.
it juz adds to the excitement of the game. c’mon, imagine a game where there isn’t controversy. do u remember it? no. same case here. this should be remembered as a classic for the passion and drive shown by both teams, if not for the ref decisions which were slightly contestable at best.
btw, for perfect refs, go create a bot. that might help.