"then when luck comes you are ready." - the old man and the sea, ernest hemingway
hoooooly shit TODAY WAS PHENOMENAL.
summary:
1st period (15min): 1-0 to mj, champions of last season
2nd period: 4-1 to mj
3rd period: 5-4 to mj, until the LAST TEN SECONDS WHEN AMIRUL SCORED THE EQUALISER TO MAKE IT 5-5
then went into a round of 5 penalty shots each, the short version is WE SCORED TWO AND SEAN JOU SAVED ALLLLLLL
AND WE ARE GOING TO THE FINALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the long version according to my memory and henghwee's whatsapp commentary:
- before mj-ri were acjc-vjc, and both schools sent down throngs of supporters with their councils and bass drums omygoodness. felt so scared for our guys because it felt like their bass drums were repeatedly pounding at our spirit :( anyway sat there not cheering for anyone initially, but ac's defense was AMAZING at 30% WITHOUT FAIL and vjc's shots weren't on target so GO AC!!!! both sides were panicking under so much school pressure, but AC EVENTUALLY WON 1-0 WOW what an upset for vj!! this season is srsly something, what with hci in girls' semis too instead of vj :D :D :D at the same time i kept noticing how stressed our own guys seemed aaaaargh
- there was so much against our guys omygoodness. MJ PACKED THE PLACE RI only took like 1/5 of the seats?! and council were having handover in school so we had no one to lead us in cheers :( every time someone tried, the cheers would fizzle out. that being said, MJ didn't have council either, their school spirit was amazing omygoodness i rly felt quite argh when just ONE mj guy randomly in the crowd can shout 'mj....mj!' and then in the next line of the cheer it's like THE WALLS OF THE ARENA ECHOED WITH 'MJ...MJ!'. you could feel it reverberating in your SOUL from all the mj people seated behind us. also i felt a bit wasted we had no official photographer to help the guys make memories? but then wa every single moment seriously IMPRINTED INTO MY MIND.
- ilene's vj friend was the loudest who cheered for raffles SRSLY made me a bit ashamed at our school cheers but she srsly cheered me up a lot hahaha
mj guy: WHAT TEAM
(no one from mj responds)
vj friend: RAFFLES
vj friend: come come i lend y'all vj spirit!!!! owait your team got victorian boy right nehmind he'll bring the spirit
vj friend: -tells her coach's inspirational story of how B div boys were losing in first two periods and came back with seven goals in last period so WE CAN DO IT TOO DON'T WORRY-
- mj's first goal was clean and left it like that for first period. in second period, mj's second goal was a bit sad for us i quote henghwee: "mj hit a grounder which hit jingzhou's leg and rolled over into the goal".
- but then we got the first goal and WE ALL JUMPED FROM OUR SEATS SCREAMING :''''')
"AMIRUL FANCLUB SCREAMING
AMIRUL SHOT ZHENMING ASSIST"
MY FREAKING HERO
- mj then shot two more. wa the fourth one amirul didn't mark their foreblade and they turn-dragged scored. damn nice shot but amirul just collapsed on his knees for a moment :'( then during team talk, we could hear coach screaming her lungs out at the boys omygoodness i've never heard her so blatantly angry before. our hearts just
- third period. only fifteen minutes left. new RI supporters were coming in but we were losing 4-1 and feels like they came for nothing. but then
"MESSY IN FRONT OF GOAL BUT ANDREW SCORES"
WA FREAK YILING AND I WERE SO HAPPY BECAUSE WE RLY WANTED ANDREW TO SCORE
AND AGAIN!!
"WHOA
WHOA WHOA WHOA
jj makes long sweep from corner to front of goal
stopped by zhenming and he does a wall of china on mj while andrew SCORES"
JJ WAS SOOOOOOO ON FIRE TODAY he did amazing strong lobs from corner to other end, ALSO so many power shots from beyond midcourt that were so on-target, just saved!!!
somewhere along mj scores BUT IT'S OK
- the clock just keeps counting down, it's at 7 minutes now we are at 5-3. BUT NOW IT ACTUALLY SEEMS POSSIBLE HOLY. i think zhenming scores somehow to make it 5-4 when the clock is 1:54 left and then ALL OUR HEARTS DIED. SOMEWHERE THERE WE ALSO GOT POWER PLAY but didn't score la.
- 1:54. RJ IS STANDING UP BUT MJ IS TELLING US IN ANNOYANCE TO SIT DOWN :'( so okay la we do. WE JUST NEED ONE MORE FREAKING GOAL. MJ is cheering "one more...MJ!" RJ is just dying. last 1 minute. stand up and sit down, die somemore. last 30 seconds. still 5-4. MJ is counting down aloud. later charis pris hong will share my sentiments "NEVER PRAY SO HARD IN MY LIFE BEFORE" i was just thinking omg omg omg omg omg if You will pls?!?!?!?
last few secounds. we got a free hit from their right corner. then something messy happens and the people at the buzzer didn't stop the time during the free hit, so the clock actually hits 0:00. the referee is GOOD THOUGH he recognises the mistake (ofc mj people are damn angry about this) and makes the clock 0:10. 10 freaking seconds to make it count. my heart just died. didn't even want to think about whether it was possible or not JUST WANTED TO WATCH
THEN
AMIRUL
DID
A
SLAPSHOT I THINK
AND FREAKING SCORED
IN THREE SECONDS
5-5
the cheers were so deafeningly loud i felt like things went numb omg my hands also clap until no feeling
but kept telling myself it's not over it's not over now we go into penalties. but then i saw the most AMAZING WHATTHEHECKJUSTHAPPENED
mj against sean jou: SEAN JOU SAAAAAAAAAAAAVED!HOLY WE JUMP UP AND DOWN
jj against mj: he SCOREDDD WE AGAIN JUMPED UP AND DOWN but pull back so not counted. it's ok good try
second round of penalties!
mj against sean jou: OMYGOD SEAN JOU. the mj try to garang then did his trick right into sean jou. i was praying so damn hard freaking
tayyang against mj: "He did his fast feet thing" and then HE SCORED. WA WE ALL THOUGHT WIN LIAO JUMP UP AND DOWN LIKE CRAAAAZY but then no henghwee then told me it's best of 5 penalties HAHAHA SO OUR HEARTS HAD TO GO THROUGH THAT WHOLE CYCLE AGAIN.
third round:
mj against sean jou: walau i swear God protecting or something. mj faked sean jou enough and could score openly but he MISSED. JUMP UP AND DOWN
sihong against mj: sihong making cross sign before he started, can tell everyone praying hahaha. he really tried and THEN WA SCORE AGAINST MJ GOALIE YET AGAIN but ref said pull back hahahha nehmind we still jump up and down. wa the mj goalie was good somemore how did they do it
fourth round:
mj against sean jou: how could it be. mj didn't score HAHAHHA SEAAAAAAAAAAAN JOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
amirul against mj: henghwee was just saying if amirul scored, WE WIN LIAO 'cos even if mj scores in the next round of penalties, we would have two penalties against their one. i was still in 'don't-think-so-much-omg-let's-just-watch" mode sooooooo. amirul damn cool damn swag damn chill and then we would expect him to do one of his cool tricks right? noooooo he just went for a simple strong placement shot. FREAK.
"RAFFLES GOING FINALS" SO MUCH SCREAMING THE GUYS SOME TEARING AAAAAAAAAH
FREAK ILENE JUST SENT VIDEO OF AMIRUL'S PENALTY AGAIN AND WHEN I WATCHED IT I COULDN'T HELP SAYING "SHIT" WHEN HE SCORED HAHAHAHA IT'S RLY DAMN AMAZING
wa then run down hi five hi five, coach was so red and happy and the girls did this crazy happy group hug around coach so she could finally spaz with us HAHAHA, everyone from rj just so happy, photo photo here and there, the girls made tay yang take a photo with lea, kept making shipping noises, then WE ALL DIED WHEN TAYYANG PUT HIS HAND AROUND LEA HAHAHHAHHHAHAH JUST KILL US NOW, homg just couldn't stop smilinggg freaking privileged to have witnessed what i did today :)))))))
i shall quote more of henghwee's amazingly hilarious commentary hahahahah true to the spirit of those moments omg
"nicholas fierce
derrick nice marking
SAKTHI SAVED THE DAY
sean jou damn cute he spazzes whenever the ball iw near
NEVER SEEN THE BOYS RUN SO FASY IN MY LIFE
nicholas running like usain bolt
dk any white sprinters but zhenming running like one
amirul doesnr look it but so is he running damn fast
zhenming runninf like tje wind
AMIRUL SCORED FREE HIT BTW
holy shit ON FIRE DAMN VIOLENT"
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH wa were so scared they couldn't go to semis and now they are going to finals i just. now everyone wants amirul makes me a bit sad but WA. also the boys were just amazing as a team la, they ran so hard!!! andrew was INSPIRING TO WATCH so was derrick tang, sakthi, i mentioned jj already, si hong playing his first game of season i think with his recent recovery (but he obv had trouble sprinting today though :( at least he tried), SEAN JOU?? EVERY ONE LA BUT NUMBER 45 YOU ARE MY HEROOOOOOOOOOO