Competitive matches are both angel and devil.
You would have thousand of reasons to love them:-
- They were exciting, sometimes very exciting. You did a perfect pass. Or you did an one on one save. Or you scored a goal. Or the Team won a match;
- You would like to know how good you were and how good the Team were. And you could surely know the answers by playing a competitive match;
- You could play against different opponents and facing different style of plays. You could really enjoy every minute of it;
- You could play football in a more formal manner, with formation, strategy and tactic. All these raised your enjoyment to a higher level;
- You could fulfill your desire on leadership and you would find yourself a natural leader when you lead the team to win a match;
- You could fight with the Team and you were brothers to each other. You loved the concept of Team Work;
- You could finally see the Team wearing the same shirt together, in Blue or in Orange. May be it was your dream come truth;
- You could have Match Reports to record the highlights, to talk with and to read them every boring moment in the rest of your life;
- and these could be continued with another 990 plus reasons ...
But, you would have another thousand of reasons to hate them:-
- They were demanding, sometimes very demanding. You couldn't do a single bad pass. Or you couldn't miss a single save. Or you couldn't miss any scoring chance. Or the Team couldn't lose a match;
- You didn’t want to know how bad you were and how bad the Team were, at least not in such a direct way. But you could surly know the worst by playing a competitive match;
- You would play against different opponents and facing different style of plays. But competitive matches always mean higher chance to get injury. Injury was the last thing you would be enjoying;
- You would find the Team having no Manager to tell you the formation, strategy and tactic. There would be arguments;
- You needed formation, strategy and tactic. But you didn’t need others to tell you these. You knew them all and you knew them well. You would ask yourself why you have to listen to others. Or you simply not listen to any of it;
- You never see a full team. You never be able to play with teammates you would like to play with. You found teammates doing things you don’t expect them to do. At time, you might start to blame the one who stands next to you;
- You wonder why this guy always wearing Manchester red even though you were damn sure that he did buy the Orange shirt. A team, we're in?
- You saw yourself being mentioned as making an own goal in the Match Report. You found yourself not being mentioned at all. Or you could not find any photo of yourself. You just hate the Match Report because you did do something during the match, well more than enough to being mentioned;
- and these could be continued with another 990 plus reasons ...
Competitive matches are both angel and devil. Maintaining a balance is a job impossible. Dogs come to play with different reasons. And they have different expectations on competitive matches. That’s why we need training matches in between. And that’s also why Dogs United never think about join-in any local league.
Love it or hate it. It is really your freedom to decide whether you come to play or not. Once you were there, you should play your best, enjoy the match and be happy. Bottom line.
To end this episode, I really would like to share with you my very best reason to love a competitive match: you only need to find 10 players but 20. Sounds great, isn’t it?
"You can never satisfy the whole world. Listen to your soul and do what it tells you." Master Plato
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Appendix – A Day Dreaming
Dogs United was playing Manchester United in the Final of the UEFA Champion League 2009/10 in San Siro. A 23 men squad was selected by the Manager Sir Bobby Robson:-
1. Fly (GK)
2. Dennis (DF)
3. Raymond (DF)
4. LCK (FW)
5. Sing (MF)
6. Danny (MF)
7. Curtis (MF)
8. Jackie (MF)
9. Jason (FW)
10. Wing (MF)
11. Robben (FW)
12. Tai Fai (FW)
13. Alex Ko (MF)
14. Keep (DF)
15. Edmund (MF)
16. Lo (DF)
17. Kenneth (MF)
18. Wilson (MF)
19. Winkins (DF)
20. Hoi (FW)
21. Jimmy (MF)
22. Paul (MF)
23. Sam (DF)
And the starting line-up:-
Hoi
Sing - Alex Ko - Jason
Danny - Jackie
Curtis - Dennis - Keep - Lo
Fly
Match Report
Who is going to play?
The pre-match focus had revolved around DUFC Manager Sir Bobby Robson’s team selection with Jason and Danny omitted from the FA Cup Final against Liverpool the previous Saturday (which DUFC won by a single goal from Sing), unsure of their places.
Sir Bobby cleverly avoided more controversy by selecting them both in his final line-up.
Fly was looking to extend his clean sheet record to a continuing 14 matches.
Dennis and Keep were paired in the heart of the back. And they are now the best partner in the world, at least as good as Ferdinand and Vidic, if not better.
Lo and Curtis, the two full backs would be providing the Team best cover down the sides. They together contributed 20 plus assist throughout the whole season. It was C Ronaldo, Nani and Giggs who they would be facing tonight.
Danny and Jackie, as solid as rock in front of the defence. They would try their best to stop Rooney, Scholes and Anderson.
Sing, Alex Ko and Jason, playing upfront, would be creating as many chances as they could.
Hoi, the Captain, needed only 2 goals to break the Club’s record of the highest ever goal scorer in a season, as well as winning the European Golden Boot award.
There was no hope
Two early first half goals from Rooney and C Ronaldo put Manchester in the prima position to re-gain the same trophy 9 years from the season 1998/99.
Only 5 minutes the 85,625 fans saw Rooney scored an easy goal after a prefect one-two with Tevez. (0 : 1)
And 3 minutes later, DUFC was in the sea bed of Pacific Ocean as they could only watch when C Ronaldo run pass through 4 defenders and thundered in from 35 yards. (0 : 2)
What came worst was the double injuries in a very early first half. At 15th minute, Jason was replaced by LCK after a dirty tackle like what Martin Taylor of Birmingham did to Eduardo of Arsenal in the previous season. UEFA decided to call for disciplinary heading and further action was expected. At 20th minute, Fly (the only goalkeeper of the DUFC) got himself injury from a goal kick. Wing had to come out on a goalkeeper shirt and to play his most important match life time …
There was no hope. The fans believed it, the Manchester players believed it, the DUFC players believed it. Only Sir Bobby didn't.
Generation of Golden Old Dogs
The Manager made his third (also the only remaining) substitutions at 30th minutes. A decision seems to be self-destruction at that point but found to be the turning point of now a classic final. Danny, not in his best performance, was replaced by Winkins.
Fellow fans of DUFC suddenly realized that the Team was now fielding with Generation of Golden Old Dogs, so-called:-
Hoi
Sing - Alex Ko - LCK
Winkins - Jackie
Curtis - Dennis - Keep - Lo
Wing
Following the instruction of the Manager, DUFC then put 10 men behind the ball with Captain Hoi chatting with Brown. It was the Battle of Tanks the following 15 minutes. Manchester dominated the whole first half with 45 attempts on goal and 30 of them on target. What became critical was DUFC kept the scores at 0:2.
Coming back
Back to their usual formation, DUFC started to fight back in the second half.
Then just 2 minutes into it, they got their first corner of the match. Dennis, by beating Vidic, headed Jackie’s kick into the top right hand corner only found it denied by Van der Sar. With more than 15 players inside the penalty area, it was Hoi who kicked the rebound and scored. Lucky man! (1 : 2)
DUFC was back to the match.
In the next 30 minutes, the two teams attacked each other at will. It was the DUFC back four plus Jackie and Winkins who fighting against flow and flow of Manchester’s attacks. It was also the DUFC attacking 4 who trying to get the level goal.
At 43rd minute, Alex Ko tried his luck from long range. The ball flied toward the low left hand corner with Van der Sar making his save of the match. Hargreaves was there to clear the ball but it was blocked by Sing just outside the penalty area. Sing’s reaction shoot was deflected by the face of Captain Hoi (who was smiling at still-on-the-ground Van der Sar) and got in the back of the net. Level! (2 : 2)
So, the match went into extra time and DUFC have another 30 minutes.
Extra time
Except motivating, Sir Bobby couldn’t do anything and kept the faith to the 11 Dogs. Fans could hardly see any attack from either side becasue the Cup was too important for them to take any risk. As time passed by, it seems that the winner would be decided by spot kicks.
But you would never know what God was thinking.
At 114th minutes, Var der San kicked a back pass from Brown right into the face of now zero-movement Captain Hoi, which bounded back directly into the back of the net. And Magic! (3 : 2)
This remarkable extra time winner brought DUFC the UEFA Champion League 2009/10 medal. This hat trick (one by foot and two by face) also brought Captain Hoi the European Golden Boot award and he was now the highest ever goal scorer in a season among the Club history.
Sir Bobby after the match, “Can you believe it? Can you? It is amazing. You saw the commitment level from the players today. We showed we are a good team when we got going today. Can you believe it? We had 11 Man of the Match here tonight! If you ask me, Winkins is the BEST! Yes, Hoi is also the BEST! Oh! All 14 Dogs are the BEST! Can you believe it?”
Winkins before went back home, “I tried my best tonight. I was glad that I played my best match before I retired. Oh yes, it was my last match before I hang up my boots. All you need is LOVE!”
DUFC Team Doctor Master Wang, “I believe our Captain needed a surgery on his broken nose and left face bone. If might took him 7 months before he can play again.”
Captain Hoi added, “OK la.”
They were now the BEST in Europe, or arguably the BEST in the World!
End of Day Dreaming
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