Chill out; Soccer Mania

Had a relaxing weekend and started on Fri when I went to Viet Lang (which is near VCH) for dinner with some friends and it was the first time I tried Vietnamese food and it was really good! Had Imperial Rolls, Fried Corn Cake, Hot Pot with beef and seafood (btw, apparently Hot Pot is called Lau, LOL), some paste chicken, some salad and ended with some fried tapioca as the dessert which was really nice! Quite ex though but it was really nice so I think it was quite ok! After that we went to this place called Altitude at UOB Plaza to chill and it was nice cos you get to see the city from the 63rd storey. Cool! Then we headed to Fullerton Post Bar for drinks and chat. Nice to just chill!

Had a short soccer training ytd morning as we prepared for the Inter-JC soccer tournament later this month. There's a good feeling amongst some of us as our team is stronger this year due to the addition of 2 PE teachers who are fit and are also good on the ball so hopefully we can go one step further this time and go past the quarterfinals at least. In fact, about 3 weeks ago we played at the MOE 7-a-side soccer tournament and for once we actually showed some pretty decent attacking power as we fashioned out quite a few chances in all our matches.

Started with an exciting 2-2 draw against Northlight Secondary School - NSS took the lead when our midfield lost the ball and they crossed deep for their striker to head in from an acute angle though I thought our keeper should've went for it. But we fought back and after some good work on the right and some poor defending by them we managed to equalise only to find ourselves down again when we gave a soft free-kick and this old guy curled it into the top corner. Again we dug deep and clawed back on the counterattack. I was one-on-one with the keeper who charged out and I passed it to our striker who stuck it into an empty net! After that it was still pretty exciting stuff and that was the most exciting 10 minutes of football I ever played!

Next up we were against Jurongville Secondary and we totally dominated the match and thankfully scored one to narrowly win 1-0. We then had to wait to see the outcome of the match between those 2 teams and we were cheering away when Jurongville scored cos we knew we were through as long as Northlight didn't win. Anyway, Jurongville won 2-1 so we were through!

In the knockout stage, we came up against Meridian Primary, which was pretty ironic considering they're right beside our school and they were really good cos we observed them during the group stages and they were fast and precise. We got off to a great start when our midfielder headed in from a corner but sad to say we failed to hold on and poor marking allowed them to score from a free-kick which was passed short to the edge of the box and expertly volleyed in. Chances came to and fro but more for them and they had an excellent chance late on which was pushed to the inside of the post by our keeper and rebounded in front of our goal and I raced forward to deny them the rebound and cleared then we went forward 3 on 2 but lost the ball and the counterattacked and finished off with a very precise shot to the corner that gave our keeper no chance. So we lost 2-1 and though they were the better side, it was a real pity that we didn't hold on. Would've been a different story if we had put the chance away!

Anyway back to our soccer training and had a decent outing finally after a long while. Scored 2 as we played 5v4 and we won 2-0 then we played with some ex-students and won 3-0 and I scored one though in both matches I missed quite a few chances. Need to stick more of those away! Oh ya, and I smashed my knee against the goal post somehow as I rushed back to block a goal-bound shot off the line so I've got quite a badly bruised knee =(

After the training I went for my army buddy's baby shower for his new-born girl before going home to chill. In fact I had a really relaxing weekend this time for a loooooong while cos the kids just finished Promo and I only need to mark the H1 scripts so I'm taking time off to chill. Got a lot of stuff coming up once the Promos end for them, esp preparation for Orientation! Gonna dedicate my time to doing that cos I'm concerned things may be screwed up and that's really one event that you can't afford to mess up.

K back to school tmr morning, more updates on the older events tmr!