Chapter 19- The Intimidation
Today is Saturday did you realise? So after studying, i went out with my father to queensway to buy street soccer shoes. After buying a pair, he dropped me off at Toa Payoh Central to meet hassan, imran, latif, avinesh and murali for our futsal ( indoor/street soccer) tournament. We then headed to Sembawang. when we were about to arrive at our desired destination, we all had second thoughts after seeing many people nearly twice our size, smoking and drinking, most of them having a pierced lip or a scary tattoo. Imran kept saying, '' Its not too late to back out you know.'' i knew he was only joking but we really felt intimidated by the level of competition here. judging by everyone's tan complexion, we could tell they were regulars and they play a lot, while i was an ex at my primary school, and the rest of us were more or less in a way, ''nerdy''
So when we walked in we didn't feel very comfortable as punks walked around and the music was blasting. After registration, we gathered with the other beatty sec students. Aaron and hameed then joined us as they had no team. So, after looking at several teams play, we were all stunned, it was all lightning fast speed and there's absolutely no time to do any fanciful dribbling at all. So before long it was our turn to play, all of you guys wouldn't have any idea how nervous and afraid we were, a whole crowd of pros and gangsters looking at us nerds play soccer. We were pretty intimidated by our opponents size, they were from some secondary school called canberra or something, and they were big. Our team consisted of jj playing the keeper, murali playing as the superb defender, imran mid/defence, aaron midfielder, and me the lone striker. So the match started quickly and within 1 min's time, i was shoved and i fell flat on the ground, but i quickly got up, without aaron, we wouldn't have kept the game going that well, jia jun did surprisingly marvellous, he did manage several spectacular life-saving saves. Playing in such a fast paced match really took out every breath out of me, before long, my throat was paining from the dryness, and i was trying hard to keep up with the game. One chance came when aaron delivered a long pass, i was marked tightly, but i somehow managed to head the ball, but right into the keeper's hands. Then i got another chance, although there was no clear path, i tried to keep the ball upfront and volleyed the ball off wide. Then aaron got upfront for another play, he was then pushed away, imran came to the rescue, he too was about to be tackled but he managed to deliver a sweet curling cross over to the open hexun before he collided to another player, i waited patiently as the ball curled over and converted his magnificent cross into a half-volley but it was disappointingly denied by the keeper. Do you know the real meaning of playing rough? It seems that in every match i play with the guys, we encounter really rough people and we're the good guys who play fairly. Once our opponent was taking a kick in, he passed to another player, and as i headed over the player, the kick-in taker pulled me back, what was that? Is there any love left in this world?
I couldn't stand it any longer, i had to sub latif in as the stinging pain in my throat was killing me, apparently it was quite a wrong choice as afterwards aaron was left to attack alone. A minute after that, jia jun denied a shot bravely, but he claimed that he was shoved on the shoulder and the ball just rolled in, i didn't blame him then, we played surprisingly well for a team of nerds, and he did make many good saves. Battered, beaten, and in shambles, we trotted off after the whistle blew, but i was proud of my team then, we played well.
So since the next match wasn't until two hours time, we headed to sun plaza to have lunch. We had kfc for lunch. It then rained heavily and we met huda's team at the plaza. They only played one match and were leaving to go shopping!?!?? What was that?
When we returned, our match was about to begin. This time, we decided to let avinesh, hassan, hameed, latif and jia jun play. The defence was deserted totally, they didn't play well this time, after a brief minute, hameed subbed out for aaron to go in. I was dying to play then, but with only 5 mins of play time, what could i do when our team was humilatingly 3 nil down? Till the final two minutes, hassan decided to sub out, imran nudged me, he told me to get in, although i wanted to, i didn't quite feel like it, haha. So, how can i salvage such a disastrous situation? There was nothing left i could do, but aaron ran well down the side and before he collided with 3 other defenders, he crossed over to the unmarked hexun, it was between hexun and the goalie now, before the ball hit the ground, without hesitation, i rocketed the ball homeward but to my agony and utter frustration, the lucky goalie caught it! Just after this, the whistle blew and it was over. We decided to have an all stars for the third and final game, me, imran, murali, jj, and aaron would show them what beatty secondary (d) was made of, although we were small sized, fair, unrough and a little nerdy looking, we were going to show the world what was real soccer, the real hexun, the real primary school star, hexun..ahaahhahaha..
Since our last match wasn't going to start until 1 hours time, we decided to play soccer amongst ourselves at a basketball court far away from the street soccer court. Honestly we had more fun playing here than there, it was all pure fun laughter and real skills. After a long while, it was 655 and we decided to head back. While we headed back, we saw aaron and the other beattyians heading back, i was stunned and i asked aaron what happened, he said we had been disqualified as he told the referees that we'd walk over as he thought we went home already, of all the! We were prepared fully to show them our all stars and yet we didn't get to play, but it's all ok, we decided to go home.. at least they still had 2 rounds tomorrow and if they won those two rounds, they might qualify.. pity i wasn't going..
So yes, today i had a great time, we might not have the best team in singapore or even beatty, its e1 and e2 team! But that's the best team i can ask for, we have been undefeated ourselves among beattyians, i mean, when we play in school or outside, besides the one on friday, we were pretty successful. And i haven't played soccer since sec 1, the same goes to the rest of the team, they are all learned scholars and have little time for soccer.. and yet we still found our old skills.. i thought i lost everything but i found the ''old yet magnificent skill'' sitting alone in my memory banks and i happily took it out for display, we put up a good fight, against teams that intimidated us, that were twice our size, that had 10 times the time for soccer, that trained 100 times more, yet they were not able to sweep over us easily..
I honestly do not know how to walk tomorrow, my legs rotten, my groin's really aching painfully, my shoulders are cracked..let me teach those guys a thing or two about real soccer and fairplay..
So when we walked in we didn't feel very comfortable as punks walked around and the music was blasting. After registration, we gathered with the other beatty sec students. Aaron and hameed then joined us as they had no team. So, after looking at several teams play, we were all stunned, it was all lightning fast speed and there's absolutely no time to do any fanciful dribbling at all. So before long it was our turn to play, all of you guys wouldn't have any idea how nervous and afraid we were, a whole crowd of pros and gangsters looking at us nerds play soccer. We were pretty intimidated by our opponents size, they were from some secondary school called canberra or something, and they were big. Our team consisted of jj playing the keeper, murali playing as the superb defender, imran mid/defence, aaron midfielder, and me the lone striker. So the match started quickly and within 1 min's time, i was shoved and i fell flat on the ground, but i quickly got up, without aaron, we wouldn't have kept the game going that well, jia jun did surprisingly marvellous, he did manage several spectacular life-saving saves. Playing in such a fast paced match really took out every breath out of me, before long, my throat was paining from the dryness, and i was trying hard to keep up with the game. One chance came when aaron delivered a long pass, i was marked tightly, but i somehow managed to head the ball, but right into the keeper's hands. Then i got another chance, although there was no clear path, i tried to keep the ball upfront and volleyed the ball off wide. Then aaron got upfront for another play, he was then pushed away, imran came to the rescue, he too was about to be tackled but he managed to deliver a sweet curling cross over to the open hexun before he collided to another player, i waited patiently as the ball curled over and converted his magnificent cross into a half-volley but it was disappointingly denied by the keeper. Do you know the real meaning of playing rough? It seems that in every match i play with the guys, we encounter really rough people and we're the good guys who play fairly. Once our opponent was taking a kick in, he passed to another player, and as i headed over the player, the kick-in taker pulled me back, what was that? Is there any love left in this world?
I couldn't stand it any longer, i had to sub latif in as the stinging pain in my throat was killing me, apparently it was quite a wrong choice as afterwards aaron was left to attack alone. A minute after that, jia jun denied a shot bravely, but he claimed that he was shoved on the shoulder and the ball just rolled in, i didn't blame him then, we played surprisingly well for a team of nerds, and he did make many good saves. Battered, beaten, and in shambles, we trotted off after the whistle blew, but i was proud of my team then, we played well.
So since the next match wasn't until two hours time, we headed to sun plaza to have lunch. We had kfc for lunch. It then rained heavily and we met huda's team at the plaza. They only played one match and were leaving to go shopping!?!?? What was that?
When we returned, our match was about to begin. This time, we decided to let avinesh, hassan, hameed, latif and jia jun play. The defence was deserted totally, they didn't play well this time, after a brief minute, hameed subbed out for aaron to go in. I was dying to play then, but with only 5 mins of play time, what could i do when our team was humilatingly 3 nil down? Till the final two minutes, hassan decided to sub out, imran nudged me, he told me to get in, although i wanted to, i didn't quite feel like it, haha. So, how can i salvage such a disastrous situation? There was nothing left i could do, but aaron ran well down the side and before he collided with 3 other defenders, he crossed over to the unmarked hexun, it was between hexun and the goalie now, before the ball hit the ground, without hesitation, i rocketed the ball homeward but to my agony and utter frustration, the lucky goalie caught it! Just after this, the whistle blew and it was over. We decided to have an all stars for the third and final game, me, imran, murali, jj, and aaron would show them what beatty secondary (d) was made of, although we were small sized, fair, unrough and a little nerdy looking, we were going to show the world what was real soccer, the real hexun, the real primary school star, hexun..ahaahhahaha..
Since our last match wasn't going to start until 1 hours time, we decided to play soccer amongst ourselves at a basketball court far away from the street soccer court. Honestly we had more fun playing here than there, it was all pure fun laughter and real skills. After a long while, it was 655 and we decided to head back. While we headed back, we saw aaron and the other beattyians heading back, i was stunned and i asked aaron what happened, he said we had been disqualified as he told the referees that we'd walk over as he thought we went home already, of all the! We were prepared fully to show them our all stars and yet we didn't get to play, but it's all ok, we decided to go home.. at least they still had 2 rounds tomorrow and if they won those two rounds, they might qualify.. pity i wasn't going..
So yes, today i had a great time, we might not have the best team in singapore or even beatty, its e1 and e2 team! But that's the best team i can ask for, we have been undefeated ourselves among beattyians, i mean, when we play in school or outside, besides the one on friday, we were pretty successful. And i haven't played soccer since sec 1, the same goes to the rest of the team, they are all learned scholars and have little time for soccer.. and yet we still found our old skills.. i thought i lost everything but i found the ''old yet magnificent skill'' sitting alone in my memory banks and i happily took it out for display, we put up a good fight, against teams that intimidated us, that were twice our size, that had 10 times the time for soccer, that trained 100 times more, yet they were not able to sweep over us easily..
I honestly do not know how to walk tomorrow, my legs rotten, my groin's really aching painfully, my shoulders are cracked..let me teach those guys a thing or two about real soccer and fairplay..
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