Bragging rights

BPFC began 2010 by continuing their 2 games winning streak, sweeping aside their opponents 4-1 in Woodgrove Secondary School, the same ground where BPFC made their debut.

It was a performance which Carlo Ancholetti should be watching and learning from when his African stars starts to leave for African Nation’s Cup as BPFC showed how well they coped with the absence of several of their regulars. BPFC deployed a 4-5-1 formation with on-loan keeper Eric in goal. ShuHeng and HongYun were the rock of the central defence while they were supported by KianTat on the left and on-loan player Joel on the right. GuoXing and BingXian were the creative playmakers in the middle of the park while on-loan midfielder Elton tidied things up for them as a defensive midfielder. Steven and PengYong took their places on the left and right flanks respectively and top scorer Alan started as the lone striker up front. On-loan midfielder Lih Heng and striker Gervas provided reinforcement from the substitute bench.

The opponents were comfortable on the ball and they stroke it around in the opening minutes. They tried to play ball through to the strikers on several occasions but our defence were quick to every ball and keeper Eric did not have anything much to do but he was equally impressive in his decision making. With the makeshift defence coping so well, the team was growing in confidence and the first goal in 2010 for BPFC was inevitable. No prizes for guessing who scored for BPFC. The opponent played a high defensive line and they were punished by the pace of Alan when he broke the offside trap after a flick-on header from GuoXing. Outpacing his markers, Alan took the ball to the right of the penalty box before passing the ball into the bottom corner, showing us that you do not need to blast the ball in order to score. 1-0 to BPFC!

For the rest of the half, BPFC continued to create chances with perfectly weighted through balls but clearly the referee was having an off-day as he ruled many offside decisions against BPFC. BPFC continued to exploit their opponent’s high defensive line and on one occasion, BingXian took a quick free-kick to release PengYong through on goal, caught between going for goal and passing the ball to a oncoming team-mate on his left, he chose to lay the ball to the left which proved to be a wrong one as the ball went too wide and the good chance goes begging. Minutes later, Alan broke free again but this time pressure from the 2 centre-backs closing in on him caused him to shoot the ball wide to the right of the goal.

It was clear that BPFC was enjoying their free-flowing football with good one-twos and good spreading of play from the midfielders and they should be 2-0 up in the 2^nd half when PengYong rounded the keeper but could only hit the side netting with the goal at his mercy from a narrow angle. BPFC’s wastage of chances was punished when a rare chance from the opponent gave them an equalising goal to make it 1-1. A ball was floated from the opponent’s midfielder it went over the head of our centre-backs before felling nicely into the path of their striker who took his chance brilliantly leaving keeper Eric with no chance.

BPFC reacted well to the goal which was against the run of play. Playing positive attacking football, it clear to their fans that BPFC wanted to take the lead badly. The next goal was a team goal which resulted from a counter attack from an opponent’s corner. Good defensive work from our defenders and a couple of neat passes found Steven on the left who played a perfect one-two with PengYong to release Steven free in the left of the edge of the penalty box. Steven swung in a cross but it was slightly over hit but it found BingXian arriving late. Unselfishly, BingXian spotted the run of Gervas rushing into the penalty box and he squared the ball for Gervas who mercilessly smashed the ball low and hard into the net. 2-1 to BPFC!

BPFC’s morale was riding high and it they were desperate to extend their lead. Gervas had a great chance when he controlled a long ball but his left-footed shot was closed down immediately by the onrushing keeper. Steven had another good chance to finally end his goal-drought when he was left with the keeper to beat, but his stinging shot rattled the cross-bar.

Finally, the efforts were paid off and it was another team goal for BPFC. Good work from the midfielders found Alan on the right this time and Alan side footed the left-back before squaring the ball back into the centre where Steven was available. It remains a mystery whether Steven has eyes behind his back or he missed the ball, but what happened next was a defence-fooling dummy which resulted in the ball landing perfectly into BingXian’s path. Totally unmarked, BingXian controlled the ball under his cultured left-foot before wrapping his left boot around the ball to send a curler into the top left corner and the rooted keeper could do nothing but be amazed by the precision of the shot. 3-1 to BPFC!

With only a minute left to play, Alan who earlier have been subbed out, decided to sub himself in for Gervas and his first touch of the ball was to receive the ball from the midfield before showing great strength and speed to dribble pass the centre-defend and slotting the ball home to cap off a magnificent victory for BPFC in a super hot afternoon.

This brilliant showing from BPFC and the impressive debuts of our loan players has put some of our regular’s first-team places in threat, in particularly right-back Ang who has been increasingly linked with a move to Man U. It now seems that BPFC can cope well with the absence of Ang and BPFC might be looking to offload him in the January transfer window if an offer comes from Man U.

2010 Goal tally:

Alan – 2

BX—1

Gervas (loan) –1

2010 Assist tally:

Guoxing –1

BX – 1

Alan –1

(anyone know who assist Alan for the last goal??)