X-S FC

X-S FC gives Height Rovers acrophobia

Meepo was both right and wrong as Captain Cesc Fabreyas scored his first ever hat-trick for X-S as they beat HRFC with a well-earned 4-2 victory. Boon Klaka capped the vintage victory with a classy finish as the icing on the cake.

X-S lined up with Weiliang van Besar, Ferdineng, Bacanuri Sagna, Sissyneo and Yongberto in defence. The midfield was held by Fabreyas, Daniel Alves, Taka and Ilhan Manqif as YongTevez and Hafizo Quagliarella spearheaded the attack.

The game started smoothly as both teams got into rhythm but eventually HRFC were looking more dangerous as they overran the central midfield and switched flanks with ease. After the goal was threatened on one occasion too many, Yarsene Wenger placed Fabreyas back to his central midfield position and deployed Hafizo on the left in a 4-5-1.

Just as X-S was gradually getting a foothold in the game, HR's lively no. 9 sent a deep cross from which was easily headed in by an unmarked HR forward. Their running midfielders were causing X-S problems despite the defence doing remarkably well in Jamie Farrellgher's absence. Just before half-time though, Fabreyas collected a loose ball at the edge of the HR penalty area, turned two defenders with a fake before unleashing a hit-and-hope shot with his left foot. It left the goalkeeper stranded as it sailed in the far post. Klaka was reportedly celebrating before the shot even went in. The scores were level at the interval.

X-S returned to the field with more vigour and fight in their play as they seeked to show HR that they were no pushovers. Ipen took over Derek at right-back and kept the no. 9 in his pocket throughout the game. Yong grew into the game as he held up play up top on his own and the midfielders ran themselves ragged covering every blade of grass in Hua Yi. The defence was calm and collected this time, keeping possession well. van Besar suddenly became bigger than besar, in fact he was gargantuan in goal (most of the time). It was a different X-S from the first-half and it showed as HR was frustrated and were shown plenty of cards in the second half. Nasty challenges started flying and one of these earned X-S a penalty as Thaqif had to leave the game with a huge swell on his lower shin. He will use the RICE technique to recover ASAP. The penalty was duly converted by the captain as he sent their custodian the wrong way for an X-S lead.

A second penalty was won by Yong Tevez as he went to ground like a rotten jackfruit after being pushed in the back by their smallest defender. Karma hit HR hard as Yong got a nasty scar from that guy's studs in the first half but never earned anything. Fabreyas immediately took the ball; nobody was taking his first ever hat-trick away from him. This time the goalkeeper was well-prepared (or so he thought) and shifted to his right as Fabreyas sent his shot the other way. 3-1 and X-S was on fire. HR required three different right-backs as they all seem unable to play football but preferred collecting yellow cards. The first rightback should've been sent-off for his challenge on Thaqif but the ref was lenient. Daniel was also mightily pissed as he was indecently banged-up by his opposite number who meekly ran away after that dirty challenge.

HR managed to pull a goal back through their angry striker as the defence failed to deal with a high ball. Yongberto made 2 vital off-the-line clearances whenever Wei Liang was beaten but other times, Wei Liang made palming shots away with one hand look as easy as swatting the flies that were flying around Taka's ass. Taka was either energetically running around or sitting flat on his butt in his bid to avoid getting singled. He may be alert today, but nobody is alert forever. Heh heh. Huda then replaced him with 9 minutes left.

Hafiz kept plugging away on the left-wing despite his obvious lethargy and his hustling in the HR penalty area left Boon Klaka to calmly place the loose ball into the far bottom corner from outside the area. World-class finish.

On the whole, this match really showed what X-S FC is made of. A team that can come back after going behind, has strength in depth, is willing to take a hit for each other and will run from wherever we are to protect fellow teammates (numerous times for Wee Meng @ Deyi, HAHA those were the days). Today, Mr. Blondie, who tried picking on the Captain in the first game, attacked Taka after the match. He was eventually pulled away by his teammates. What their no. 9 said was true, "Lose already still want to fight, SHAMEFUL!" Other than him, HR is a decent lot and we wish them luck for their match against JCST only. Heh.

Lastly, Wenger would really love to find out why Ipen cannot take a throw-in as he is an A Div rightback. Baffling.

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