In Republic Polytechnic, we pride ourselves with our
different way of learning and doing things in a
radical way. On 10th March 2004, we
demonstrated that yet again not only in the area of
academic but in the area of sports as well. The
facilitators are not only involved in the areas of
academics but for the friendly soccer match between
Queensway Secondary and Republic Polytechnic, the
facilitators played alongside the students and
battled it out, all in the name of RP. They include
Adeline Chiam (Centre for Culture and
Communications), Lin Tze-Ing (Office of Human
Resource), Shaheeda Supar (Centre for Innovation and
Enterprise) and Janelle Koh (Office of Student
Development).
The match mental preparation was not the best due to
the heavy downpour just 2 hours before the kick-off.
Whether the match will continue on or not remained a
mystery until 5pm. By then, then bus chartered to
bring the players there had been cancelled and the
girls team were ferried over in groups of 5 to
Queensway Secondary. Due to the large number of
players and the availability of the only car, there
was an instance where there were 7 people squeezed
into the car at a time (excluding driver). The skies
continued to turn dark when the players had only 10
minutes to gear up and to warm-up. Everything was in
a rush and the coach explained the tactics and
strategy while the girls were warming up.
With each half lasting 30 minutes, the 9-a-side match
soon kicked off. Having suffered an avalanche of
jitters before the kick-off and this being only the
3rd time the girls are playing on a
field, Queensway Secondary launched waves of attacks
and put Republic Polytechnic on the back-pedal all
the time. It was without wonders that within a
couple of minutes, Queensway scored a goal. Though
it was not a fantastic top-corner shot, there was
still no trade-mark back-flips, no hi-fives from
Queensway. They just walked away in a cool fashion,
having done their business. In the next 10 minutes,
Queensway scored another 2 more goals in quick
succession. As if conceding 3 goals in 10 minutes
wasn’t enough, during one of the Queensway attack,
there was a back pass to the Republic’s goalkeeper,
Jan. She picked up the ball not realizing it was a
back pass. To make things worse, the referee blew
for a foul and wrongly awarded a penalty. The whole
entire Republic team tried to argue with the referee
on the wrong decision, but as they always say, the
referee’s decision is final. Fortunately, Jan dived
to the correct direction and saved the penalty.
Republic Polytechnic then decided to substitute in
their captain, Valerie, who was nursing an ankle
injury. Together with 2 other substitutes, Nurul and
Sheena, Republic Polytechnic began to play ball.
Quick one-twos were exchanged and very often,
Valerie embarked on her solo (Maradona-like)
dribbles into the penalty box to create havoc. If
this was not enough, Nurul and Sheena were making
their cross-diagonal runs and causing confusion to
the opposition. It was exactly through one of these
instances when Valerie let in a thunder that allow
Republic Polytechnic score their first ever goal in
all competition. Another first was achieved for
Republic Polytechnic. The half-time score was 4-1.
The game continued in good fashion and Valerie was
dictating play and launching waves of attacks. As
and when Queensway managed to tackle the ball away,
their counter-attack efforts were timely cleared by
Adeline and Monica, who played a superb game at the
back. It was during one of these attacks when
Janelle scored a goal off the cross of Nurul.
Chasing the game with their dear lives, Republic
Polytechnic started attacking down the flanks to
earn either a corner or to cross the ball in. In one
of the attacks, Republic Polytechnic earned a
corner. Janelle took the corner and it struck the
legs of the Queensway defender and landed in the
net. However, for some strange reasons, the referee
did not award that goal and stated that the ball
went out and came back into the net from under the
net. This broke Republic Polytechnic’s heart and
with their poorer fitness, their defence soon broke
down. Queensway sent in a man-marker to take on
Valerie and that stopped Valerie from spraying
passes and doing her mazy runs. The man-marker
started to tackle the ball from Valerie and launch
their counter-attacks. A few goals came in quick
succession and the final score was 7-2.
Though Republic Polytechnic lost, they came out of
the field with their heads held high. These girls
have no field to train and yet they diligently come
for training every week to train on the hard court
to improve their skills. Even though generally their
fitness were not up to mark, a few of them like
Adeline, Monica, Ziana and Hamraini managed to last
the whole entire match. These girls are the ones
with passion to improve their skills and game and
let RP win some honours. Like what one of the 20
plus supporters from RP, Benjamin Seow, said, “This
match was entertaining and the team made up for
their lack of skills with their spirit and
team-work. This team has the potential.”
