Just Keep On Rollin' Baby: SJSM 3 - 1 Saved By Jesus United

And with good reason too. The SJSM war machine seems to have clicked into gear, with the mandate of compulsory wins against lesser opponents being carried out dutifully thus far. I have identified several teams for MUST-WINS when we face them, in our bid to emerge top of the 2nd-tier teams. To the layman, this must seem all mambo jumbo. If you notice, the league consists of two tiers of teams. The elite tier consists of the top 5 runaway teams so far, namely Epiphany, Smyrna, Emmanuel AOG, Frankel, and Salem Fire. Those teams are one-notch up, and can be compared to what Chelsea is in England right now. Catching them is hard, that is, if you belong to the 2nd tier, which refers to the rest.

The standards are much closer amongst the 2nd-tier teams, and results can go either way each week. With this latest result of the same scoreline as last week's, the SJSM team has placed itself in 7th position, which is like 2nd in our 2nd-tier lil league table. If we manage to stick to the plan and produce results in MUST-WIN situations, there is no reason why we cannot finish 6th, or maybe even 5th. Teams I know we have to win are Neighbourhood Church, SBJ United, Calvary Assembly, Bethesda B-T, Tabernacle of Holiness, and Bethesda Pasir Ris. So far so good, with convincing victories over Bethesda B-T and SBJ United.

I did not expect SBJ United to be an Indian team, looking at their results, so I was taken aback on match day. Lemme see, 3 games against Indian teams, and 3 losses. They are technically superior, are pacier, and their movement is better. However, when the game began, most of the posession was with us. Our 4-3-3 did not fail us, with their defence under a lot of pressure from the hoards of people we threw up front. It was not long before we nicked a goal, the ever-predatory Mathan charging up to a 50-50 ball between defender and goalkeeper to whack it home. It was the kind of match you had a good feeling about. Our defence kept up the offside count, constantly frustrating their forwards who always strayed too far before the ball was released. However, on a break, our trap failed and their winger took the ball down the right side. He crossed in, and their forward was present to slam it in off the upright. I was the one marking him so that was something that irked me a bit. The offside trap, once beaten, makes it quite hard for the defence to fall back quickly.

Few minutes before half-time, we got our 2nd, giving us some breathing space. After the game restarted, we kept up the pressure on their team, and were duly rewarded with the 3rd after a goalmouth dingdong of miscued shots.

This Sunday at 1530hrs, we face the high-flying Emmanuel Assembly of God, and will need to keep our wits about us for the full game.