Central Park International continued to pile the pressure on the top two teams as they notched another resounding win over ACE Team over at the lush Cantonment pitch, a nice change after having had their last two fixtures on the 'battleground' at Chinese Recreation Club. Four goals by debutant Murugesan, a double by Naoki with Nadiman grabbing the other goal made sure of the win. With Murugesan joining the likes of Azman Ramli, Michael Lim, Andrex Cox, Michael Fulgraf, Jason Tan and Heng Li with his four strikes, Naoki stole the thunder when he notched his second minutes before full-time. That goal ensured that he finished the season with 22 goals this year, with Heng Li finishing second with 21 goals and Sorensen grabbing third place with 20 to his name.
The International team started the brighter between both sides but were unlucky not to have taken an early lead with Larsen and Nadiman coming close. The latter had a glorious chance shortly afterwards but he lost his footing at the crucial moment with only the custodian to beat. Naoki then threatened with several shots but were off-target with his closest opportunity beating the custodian and only missed by inches. On the 25th minute, Sharks good work was paid off in the attacking third when a one-two between Muru and Nadiman paid off with the latter giving his team the lead. Seven minutes before the end of the half, Muru gave his team a two goal cushion with the cool finish from six yards off a pass by Jason.
The gameplan for the second-half was to utilise the pace of the two front-man and it worked to perfection as Sharks absorbed whatever ACE could throw at them and hit them on the breaks. Just a minute into the second-half, a pin-point pass from Jorgensen found Naoki with ample space behind ACE's defense as the latter timed his run to perfection, scoring his team's third as he rounded the stranded custodian. With victory in sight, Sharks played a dangerous game as they stood back and gave ACE ample time and space in the middle. The opposition had a good spell for the next 20 minutes before Muru scored the best goal of the game. Collecting a pass from Naoki, he found the custodian off his line and his measured shot found the back of the net for his second of the game. He got his hat-trick 10 minutes later before adding his fourth shortly afterwards. Just when the game was about to end, Naoki added his second with an unstoppable shot which found the top left hand corner of the net to give Sharks a resounding 7-0 victory in their final game of the year.
The manager said, 'It was a resounding victory despite the team having to make up for missing the likes of several players during this holiday period. The boys had only one thing in their mind today and that is to go out for a win but winning by such a large margin was a bonus.'
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