Central Park

3

vs

Madcats United

1

Central Park face off their old rivals Madcats United on Sunday at Orchid Park Secondary School, the venue where Sharks fondly remembered in their last meeting which somehow decided the final standings in Season 9. Both teams however didn't have a good start to the season with the opposition having lost 3 games in 4 matches while the Sharks were looking to bounce back after a demoralising defeat last weekend.

The manager rung the changes in defense with Fiet and Jorgensen starting the game that form the quartet at the back while Murugesan was dropped for the game after having a miserable outing in the last game. Madcats started the better side in the opening minutes as Sharks were put on the backfoot. They didn't seemed to have the luck of the green as the final pass were often found wanting. The early pressure paid off for the opposition when Vincent inexplicably brought down his man in the box and the referee had the easiest of decision to award the penalty which was duly dispatched from the spot. The goal stung the team into action as they tried to control the tempo of the game and pushing Madcats into making mistakes with Stefan and Jiayong working doubly hard in their shift. Yi Quan was having a great game at the back and Jorgensen provided some stability by shutting off their burly forward. The chances soon came when a switch was made with Murugesan coming off the bench in place of the fast tiring Naoki who earlier had a golden opportunity to have a crack on goal but his first touch let him down. The introduction paid dividends almost immediately as the high defense line of the opposition were soon tested with Murugesan becoming a constant thorn upfront. Sharks could have level the game in the 20th minute when some good work on the left found Stefan running late into the box, only for the Serbian to mistimed his run and the chances goes begging. Nonetheless, there was no denying the team when Jorgensen sent a deep ball into Madcats defense and Brendan timing his run to perfection which left the opposition defense scrambling back. The winger moved into goal and with Heng Li free in the box, the latter had the simplest task of tapping the ball into the net after Brendan pulled the back back unselfishly as both tems goes into the break at 1-1.

Central Park made 2 changes for the second-half and both teams seemed to slow the tempo down at the start of the game. Madcats came close to taking the lead on several occasions but Michael was ever alert and kept his team in the game. With play becoming scrappier as the clocks ticks by, gaps began to open for both teams as the game swung from one end to the another. One of those forays found Murugesan who quickly found his strike partner Na'eem with a glorious ball. The latter swiveled past his marker and with the onrushing custodian closing on him quickly, he put the ball past him with aplomb to give his team the team. That goal seemed to put the opposition in disarray and before the could regroup, Brendan won the ball against his opposition number with a strong challenge and found Murugesan who quickly changed defense into attack. As he rode past his marker, he put in a nicely threaded ball to Na'eem yet again and the forward this time round looked for power as he smashed the ball past the near post to give his team a commanding 3-1 lead with 10 minutes of the game left.This time round, the defense held firm and played the remainder of the game out.

The manager commented, 'It's a good performance from the team all-round and they showed that they wanted to win the game badly enough and kept running for the duration of the game. It's a game the team needs to win to bounce back after last week's defeat.'