Thursday, May 12, 2005
9:59 PM
haha ive been wanting to this for a long time but havent really gotten down to doing it..well here it is anyway..my experience with ac soccer..
a tribute to acjc Soccer 2004/05
the beginning of a new koncept of football:
the 2nd week of january last year..40 odd players gathered for trials..13 of us were selected..terence eric me syed jeremy kevin darren adam ian steve esdy lemin and vinod..
since day one of training it was a whole new experience..an upgrade for me to say the least..from the playing everyday in the acsi basketball court to proper training with a coach..football was not only just about having fun anymore..it was about discipline..being serious during every training session..knowing that you were part of the elite soccer players of the school handpicked by the coach..there were standards to be met..heh..discipline was always an issue..i remember how i was punished and publicly humiliated within the first week of training when i was talking to my xcountry friend and missed my turn during traingle drills..coach made me change to my track shoes and run one round with the cross team..heh..and it soon became known that the pe departmant didnt like us..harvy would say "this field belongs to the ruggers dont destroy it"..lawrence ang just seemed to be on the lookout for us all the time..and gurmz..i wont forget the time he made joses do pushups on the field cos we got on the field early..soccer wasnt just a game anymore..it had become a responsibility..an identity..and we had to live up to expectations and standards..
the birth of a new team of havok:
hahhaa this sounds like its going to be one long serious essay doesnt it..well lets take a break from the seriousness..so..back to the 13 of us j1s..we came from different schools..u had nanhua, sji, ghim moh, barker, beatty, jurong, ri and acsi..compared to the rugby team, you'd say that it would be hard for us to achieve unity quickly..considering how the ruggers were playing together since sec 1..but what happened within the space of a month was incredible..every wednesday..before trainings..all of us would gather at the cafe and just slack around, telling jokes and all..hahaha from the lamest jokes like "why cant billy walk..cos billy's a bicycle" to some RATHER witty ones like "why cant billy walk..cos he's too tired(two tyred)" hahahha..esdy syed and jeremy soon established themselves as the clowns of the team..but more importantly, it was the simple act of joking around that brought us together..we established a common understanding..and without realizing it..mutual respect..no one was more superior than the other..we were all just a bunch of jokers :)
the reality of the red, blue and gold:
so as time progressed..the truth settled in that we were all competing for the coveted 20 spots to wear the ac colours and bring glory to the school..every set A, B and C, every circle and triangle drill, every two sided game was a test..a contributing factor to whether your name would be called out or not in march when the final squad would be named..and when i looked at the quality present in the squad..especially the j2s..it realised it was gonna be a tough task indeed..well i gotta thank god..cos when i think back now..to how i wanted to trial as a midfielder initially but ended up being pushed to defence cos there were too many mids at that time..that seemed like a minor change but it ultimately shaped my future with the soccer team..being captain and all..i never played in any other position apart from defence since then..and given the abundant talent in midfield..joses shaohui shaun sandeep and all..i would have had much lesser chances to play during trainings..not that it was easy to get a place in defence..but i soon realised that it was definitely the position for me..
the rock of the team:
and speaking of defence..im gonna miss every moment of being a defender..the shiok feeling of rising above everyone to head the ball clear..sliding in for a challenge and seeing your opponent fall while you win the ball..making a last ditch tackle to foil a striker when hes in the clear..and most importantly..commanding the team from the back..thats the best part of being a centre back i tell you..and as coach put it..when you're a defender..you're ultimately the backbone of the team..dang how i miss that..
the debut:
so it wasnt long before i got my first taste of playing for ac..a friendly match against queenstown sec..i still remember that game vividly..how the pitch was super waterlogged and had all sorts of creatures like frogs in it..i started as a rightback (and how interesting considering that its my final position this year) and didnt have the most fantastic of games..cleared a ball off the line but had a shaky game in the end..vinod and lemin were the other j1s who played..and terence too who came on as a sub and made a super save..it ended 0-0..and i didnt get to complete my debut after being taken off in the 2nd half..it wasnt exactly a morale boosting start for me..i sorta realized that i had a long way to go if i wanted to make the team..
the first family vacation:
haha i'd wanna talk about everything in detail but that'd be nuts..fast forward a little to the march hols and the singapore orchid country club (socc) training camp..prior to that we had a handful of friendlies against older opposition and were uniting very well as a team..but the socc camp further strengthened the bonds..haha all the havok that we caused..playing pool..me syed and esdy going to the golf course to take photos one night..toothpaste galore on the last night..eating fried rice for dinner every night..and once again..coming up with jokes aplenty..this time even the j2s got involved.."which soccer player processes info the slowest..lilian thuram (two RAM)" "who killed bane..kevin kilbane" and the ultimate one from esdy.."who let the dogs out? didi hamann cos it sounds like baha men" yes esdy..i can never forget that one..but once again..it was proof that laughter and jokes never fail to bring about unity :) and the moment i'll remember..coach saying after one of the meetings.."i wanna see the 4 captains..and zach and lemin" and soon i found out that lemin and i were more or less gonna be 2 of the future captains..man i dunno how happy i was then..yet it also meant that i had more expectations to live up to..and then that night we all got our nice asics jerseys! my very first school soccer jersey :) #34..and on the 2nd last night of the camp we played against a police team..i came on as a sub and set up our goal..the match was taped..and i still remember the exhilaration of watchin myself playing soccer on tv for the first time :) the final day came..we took pics and dragged our luggage out of socc..i gave it some thought and realised that there was no other team i'd rather be with :)
the broken fellowship:
then came the period of uncertainty..well it already began before the camp..the release of the o level results..vinod and i knew we had to appeal if we wanted to stay in ac..i did..but he didnt..he started training with the jj team and didnt join us at socc..then came the release of the posting results..i was posted to jj..and to tell the truth..even with all the reassurance from mr how and pat sum..i was still freaked out for the two days in jj..and the one thing that i remember telling myself.."if i dont make it back to ac..i wont join the soccer team here" that simply bore testimony to how much i was attached to ac soccer..oh and it wasnt only me and vinod..esdy got posted to nyjc and was trying to get back in as well..chances seemed real slim then..
return of the jedi:
hahahaha i just had to type that..star wars in a week whooo..ok back to soccer..yes..ac soccer > starwars..ownage..haha..so my appeal was successful..and thank god for that :) and mr how and mr sum and ahem gurmit..so the journey continued :) so we lost esdy and vinod..two players whom i daresay would have easily been in the final 20 this year..but with their loss came the arrival of players who would soon become indispensible members of the team..edwin murali enghao james hwa adrian dhinesh adha..those were the ones who started training with us when the term started..and there were still many more to come :)
the chosen ones, the war:
the final 20 was selected..tim shenling terence mark nick naidu andy majun nas me joses shaohui shaun sandeep yuanzhang adam lemin james xiayue jiaming..i'll summarize the tournament..beat hc 1-0, cj 2-0 and drew with mj 0-0 in the first round, lost to yj 1-3, sa 0-1 in a game that we should come out of with at least a point, but we went out with a bang with a 3-2 win in our last match against MI..i came on for 30mins and had a rather memorable competitive debut :) nevertheless..2 rounds of football was still disappointing for our standards..and it was then that wee-little-j1-me realised that we would no longer be having the j2s training and playing for us..from that moment onwards..responsibility of the team was fully upon the shoulders of us then-j1s..and it seemed a daunting task..i looked at the j2s and then at our year..and realized the gulf in talent and quality..we were good no doubt bout that..and had improved tremendously but yeah it was like being thrown into a new world suddenly and having to build everything from scratch..so it was the dawn of a new beginning that day at sa.....
a new hope:
STAR WARS YET AGAIN..hahahaa..but that truly encapsulates what we had in the new members of the squad that had just joined..animesh ian (making his return) zouli chong-u darryl brendan dimas nap..once again..unity had to be fostered..and i knew i had the responsibility of ensuring that..murali and majun were soon named as the other two captains..captain havok and captain gung respectively :) and when i led the new team in doing the samba for the first time..i felt an overwhelming sense of pride and belonging..wahh..and i'll miss doing the samba..seriously..training was the norm..we started focussing on individual areas like passing..but it could get pretty boring and draggy..esp without the hype of matches..all of us couldnt wait till the toopid promos were over..but the bonds were being strengthened..between new and old..
the badge, the armband:
so i was named captain..during a quick meeting at the bleachers during recess one day..and lemin was the official vicecap..i didnt get my badge till after ccaab of course..and my armband till this year..but the weight of the team was on my shoulders all the same since the end of the season last year..for me it meant alot of things..from the superficial like smsing them (at least 100 a month durin the hols) and leading warmups, to the emotional, like having heart to heart talks whether about footie or life, and the spiritual: keeping the team in constant prayer and leading them in intercession before every game..and of course..on the pitch..being the voice of the team and the encourager..and i want to say this now..the only reason why im proud of wearing the captain's badge and the armband is: the team that i serve :) if you guys werent who you were..i'd just leave the badge at home everyday or pawn it to some coolgang person who'd wear it to look good..seriously..its you guys who make me look good when i wear that badge :)
happy hols:
so our december holidays were basically soccer soccer soccer..friendly matches fortnightly..and trainings 3 times a week..we were really gelling as a collective whole and you could see the mass improvement that everyone had gone through..super encouraging..then came mid december when the post o level guys came down to trial for 2005..some that would eventually join us..like hiren shen charles amos asri joseph anthony yongkai short-benja bobby arvin and maybe a couple more..and ebi too of course..they integrated well into the team..and at the end of the year i was feeling really really confident :)
the test:
you've noticed how much i've been emphasising the importance of unity within the team..well..at the start of the new year that unity revealed itself in a very emotional encounter..coach suddenly announced that he would be holding a session of trials and he would be selecting 30 players from both the current batch and the trialists, and that he'd be selecting the final squad of 20 from these 30..so thats what he did..he cut like 10 j2s? and replaced them with j1s who 1. only went thru one session of trials 2. couldnt even do the basic drills properly..well what followed that was a mass flurry of mixed emotions..after coach left..there was swearing..tears..anger..bewilderment..and what i saw before me was a team in dire straits...it was like..everything that we had worked so hard to achieve was just disappearing..going poof..i mean..how could anyone have hope in playing and all after such a thing happened..then something cool happened..some of us sat down..to console one of the j2s whom coach rejected..and i started praying and everyone just started crying..god's love was clearly linking all of us then :) that was the best indication of unity u could get..and thank god i managed to settle the team issue with mr how and coach the next day and the team was eventually restored to its happy state :) unity at its best man..havok
whoa so many memories and i havent even started on my kl trip yet hahaa..i'll stop here for now cos some important people need sleep :p part two coming to a theatre near you!
LIKE STAR WARS WHOOOOOO!
