By Kenneth Tan/Red Sports
SAJC playmaker Gregory Noah (white, #14) outwits a VJC opponent in the 8-7 semi-final penalty shootout win. Gregory pulls all the strings in midfield and his creativity, superb set-piece delivery and late runs into the box could prove crucial against MJC. (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
The eagerly anticipated A Division football final between Saint Andrew’s Junior College (SAJC) and Meridian Junior College (MJC) is just two days away and the question on the lips of every neutral is: Can SAJC beat MJC?
21 teams started the tournament back on March 22nd and the semi-finals saw SAJC beat defending champions Victoria Junior College on penalties while MJC saw off Raffles Institution 1-0.
Having covered the A Division football tournament right from the start of the first round, allow us to bring you as comprehensive a preview of the final as possible.
SAJC
SAJC exorcised the demons of exiting at the semi-final stage for four successive years after upsetting the defending champions VJC in a gruelling semi-final.
They have certainly impressed with their brand of attacking football which yielded seven wins and a draw in the first eight games although they are noticeably slow out off the blocks.
The team normally plays in a traditional 4-4-2 formation with forwards Pradeep (#11) and Tan Wei Zhen (#2) leading the line.
You can expect SAJC to rely on the link-up play between midfield playmaker Gregory Noah and Pradeep to crack the MJC defence with full back Cheng Guang Fu (#6) making marauding runs down the right flank. Centre back Darren Hedger (#13) will also make the occasional runs out of defence on the counter attack.
“We had to work very, very hard in the semi-final against VJC, and to stand a chance in the final, we have to do likewise against MJC. We are the underdogs, we have nothing to lose, we will play with everything that is left in us,” said SAJC captain Neville Chia.
“For the A Division football tournament, VJC and MJC have always been the favourites,” said SAJC teacher-in-charge Roland Lee. “We were fortunate to edge past VJC on penalties in the semi-final, and now we take on the other favourites, MJC.”
“Of course we are the underdogs again, no question about it. However, we have worked very hard to make the final and now that we have this opportunity, we will try our best to achieve what no previous Saints soccer team has done before,” added Roland.
MJC
In the case of MJC, this is their sixth successive final. MJC are no strangers to success as they finished thrice as runners-up and twice as champions in the last five years. They have caught the eye with their aggressive style of play that saw them win all their first eight matches and conceding only one goal so far.
With such pedigree and being coached by former S.League player Fabio Da Silva, they are the hot favourites to win the tournament this year.
Similar to SAJC, the team plays in a 4-4-2 formation with big forwards Khairul Azmi (#10) and Mohd Naufal Nur Hakim (#29) leading the line.
You can expect many high balls to be played into the area for both Khairul and Naufal to utilise their height and aerial ability. Also look out for MJC winger Mohd Khair (#7) to constantly switch flanks to confuse the SAJC defence and threaten with his trickery on the ball while midfielder Amsyar Omar (#8) is quite capable of shooting on sight.
“SAJC is certainly not an easy team to play against as they are very intelligent with their passing movement. I wish my boys good luck for the final and it will certainly be a good final this year,” said MJC coach Fabio Da Silva.
The final will be a match of flair vs brawn as SAJC’s attacking football will come face-to-face with MJC’s aggressive style of play. Both teams have shown a love of attacking football so far and neutrals will be hoping they keep the same approach to the game.
Expect nerves to play a part though, with the 6,000-seater Jalan Besar Stadium expected to be packed to the gills.
The longer the game stays 0-0, the more pressure there will be on MJC not to allow the game to go into extra-time and the dreaded penalty kicks.
Expect MJC to win by at least two clear goals in regulation time, but if it goes into extra-time, then anything can happen.
SAJC Probable Starting 11
Lee Shi Tong (GK), Cheng Guang Fu, Darren Hedger, Chow Jiachuan, Kang Yunyi, Muhammad Asyraf, Gregory Noah, Neville Chia (Capt), Foo Mingyi, Pradeep, Tan Wei Zhen
MJC Probable Starting 11
Daniel Adam Lightfoot (GK), Mohd Hafiz Bin Mystafa, Kenneth Kor, Cohen Tan (Capt), Ang Bin Quan, Mohd Khair Mohd Rizauddin, Mohd Farhan Bin Azmi, Ooi Jie Ren, Mohamed Amsyar B Omar, Khairul Azmi, Mohd Naufal Nur Hakim
Match Details
SAJC vs MJC
Jalan Besar Stadium
Thursday, May 20, 2010
4.15pm
SAJC goalkeeper Lee Shi Tong (#19) is not the tallest goalkeeper you can find in the A Division but he makes it up with his quick reflexes and superb anticipation of the ball. He made two crucial stops in the penalty shootout against VJC to help SAJC prevail. (Photo 2 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
To read about how the teams got to the final and who their key players are, go to next page
it was a win for mjc 😀
All the best to both teams in the Finals. The only school sports finals that generates greater interest and crowd than the S-League. FAS should support more by helping the organisers play it at night at Jalan Besar Stadium with all the same Fanfare that many boring S-Leagues matches get. The night game will allow parents relatives, friends and interested public come and watch. Definately Full-house.
haha, i believe MJC will progress and win the finals without conceeding any goals. afterall, they technically did not coz the 1 againest vjc was a accidental own goal. not conceeding any goals this season proves that they have defence of an iron wall. further more, they have good attackers and midfeliders to assist. hence, there will be higher chance for mjc to win sajc. however, they should not be complacent wiht their undefeated streak. complacency may cause them their finals. go mjc! bring home the victory! =)
Iron wall that has yet to be tested. Both vj mj played their second stringers in their game, confident of beating both sa ri perhaps? Well sa had other stories, kudos to them, unfortunately we couldn’t join them. But watching rj matches against both sa and mj, it is obvious that sa’s attack is quite deadly. It will be a good match in all parts of the field. Most importantly in the midfield.
in football,the ball is round.anything can happen.SA totally shut us out during the semis and credits to them for doing so.Although MJ has the talent and ability to win,SA is definitely the hungrier team with more desire and passion to win tmr’s match.Good luck to both teams tmr 🙂
I feel it’s unfair to predict that sajc will loss to two goals. It’s more like an even fight, the battle of the underdogs
Two clear goals? ONLY?! I think 5 goals would be more appropriate. Seriously. MJC’s attack is crazy wow. SAJC defence so shaky they were super lucky VJC were off that day, VJ could have scored 5 or more but couldn’t finish. Our meridian players will punish SAJC’s defence and do what VJC couldn’t.
hey meridian, it cheap talk to predict the scoreline… let the meridian soccer boys prove it by action tmr okay… no point thrashing SAJC with words now.
Time will tell the results.
u seem to have great confidence in the soccer boys and that is good. but to put others down and criticize SA is arrogance. It wouldn’t be nice if the SA players work so hard to put up a good fight and all you can say is they suck. Seriously.
I just noticed tht page 3 of the article has details about previous matches and how the 2 teams made it to the finals. However, end of page 1 says go to next page for more photos which kind of makes people think that next pages have only photos and no text because in most other articles subsequent pages only have photos. So, if possible, could you please move the interesting details about the 2 teams’ journey to the final to page 2 and say that more details follow.
Thank you for the suggestions. We’ve made it a lot clearer about what to expect on page 2 and 3.
I think parvesh didnt even know where the ball was when Noah changed his direction just too quickly. And you see parvesh’s legs sticking out like he was about to put in the tackle. I guess the referee saw parvesh ended up kicking noah. Definite foul.
well i was there during the match and i clearly recall that it wasn’t a foul at all. the ref got it wrong on this occasion. noah tried to flick it to the other side and as you can see from the ball’s position and parvesh’s outstretched right leg, he did not go through. noah turned right into parvesh cause he was going nowhere with the ball. in the end, parvesh turned arnd and shielded the ball from nowhere who came in quite hard, parvesh successfully shielded the ball and noah fell… the ref gave a free kick after that. i can assure you that this is what happened as the resulting free kick caused uproar among the vj supporters and a lot of protests from the vj players, even from parvesh himself. you do not know how good parvesh is. play against him and you will find out.
redsports people, noah didn’t outwit his opponent in that picture. parvesh is not one to be outwitted so easily, noah’s legs aren’t even near the ball. it was a clash of bodies and the ball landed behind the both of them. it wasn’t a 1-0 semi final win anyway, it was a 1-1 draw that went into penalties. i’m a photographer and i was capturing shots and i rmb that moment clearly, noah did not outwit him. in the end, the clash of bodies resulted in an sajc free kick.
Thanks for highlighting the wrong score. It was an 8-7 win on penalties.
As you have pointed out, photographer, it was an SAJC free kick. That was because Noah got the ball past Parvesh, and Parvesh obstructed Noah’s progression. So the referee whistled for obstruction for an SAJC free kick.
i still think the word ‘outwit’ is the wrong word to use. it wasn’t like parvesh got fooled, he just mainly shielded the ball from noah after noah managed to change direction and flick it the opposite direction. the referee deemed it as a free kick which i disagree with. i am not condemning noah, he is a very skilful player, no doubt. just that maybe i thought parvesh wasn’t outwitted. i am not biased against sajc in any way or another, just think that it makes parvesh look bad cause he is a wonderful player but like all vjc players, that day just wasn’t his day. hope you keep an eye on him during the 3rd/4th placing. i don’t mean any harm here, just stating my views. after all, this is what the forum is for right? thanks uncle les.
Please feel free to state your view. I welcome it.
I think Noah has the ability to change directions so quickly that he will get calls like those. In fact, some people may even contend that Naoh ran into Parvesh and so the referee got fooled into giving the foul.
Based on the sequence of photographs I got from this incident, Noah was in control of the ball all the time but he knew he wasn’t going anywhere and then changed direction to get out of a jam. Parvesh didn’t deliberately obstruct Noah but Noah’s ability to turn on a dime saw him run straight into Parvesh.
SAJC will win a lot of free kicks through Noah.
The word ‘outwit’ – to deceive or defeat by greater ingenuity – I think describes what he did. By getting a free kick at the edge of the penalty box, he got something VJC were trying to prevent.