Prodigy revives season with hard fought win

IT was a match that Prodigy were expected to lose considering that they lost their no.1 keeper Jiahui before the game and had only 12 players (plus 1 more at half time) to choose from on the large PUB pitch.On the other hand, the opponent Madcats United had a huge turnout with 2 nigerians in their ranks with one looking particularly like new man city striker Adebayor. Any lesser team would have surrendered during the game such were the intimidating physical supremacy of the opponents. But Team Prodigy obviously did not read the script as they played with their hearts on their sleeves, particularly in the 2nd half, and produced our best display of the new season. The first half was reminiscence of the soak and strike strategy used by the famous Italian teams in the 90s. Madcats were throwing everything at us in the first half, and had numerous shots. However, Shawn and Wenjing ran a tight ship in defence clearing every single ball flying into the penalty box and the cats were limited to long-distance shots, and they weren't having any luck with those. None came close and our make-shift goalie Ching Weng did not have to make any save in the 1st half. On the other end, Prodigy wingers, Bernard and Weiyang were giving their fullbacks a torrid time with the occasional fastbreaks from midfield.


At half-time, it was evident to us that the way to win the match was to exploit the expansive flanks of the PUB pitch, with our wingers having caused so much trouble to the cats. We had a game plan and boy did we execute it. The second half started, and time and time again we played the ball quickly to the flanks, where our advantage laid. The domination that the cats had in the 1st half began to erode. Eventually, from an opposing corner, CW surprised everyone with the only long kick out to Hongyao who took it down like a pindrop in a stack of hay. With the quick shift of body, he swerved and whacked the ball far right for Bernard who was on a mesmerizing run down the right and after he feint the full back, he unleashed a quick strike. Seconds felt like hours, minutes turned to days as the ball trickled underneath the keeper to beat him at the near post. It was 1-0, much to the delight of the Prodigy fans who were cheering wildly in the stands. Madcats were stunned and as expected, they started to throw everything at the Prodigy defence, including the kitchen sink, but the Prodigy defenders repelled every Madcats attack and we stuck to our game plan. This came to fruition once again when Ken won possession through some very gritty work on the left side within our own half. The ball was quickly released across the pitch to Ali. Showing the deft touch we all know he has, he controlled the ball swiftly and put Brandon through on goal with a perfectly weighted through ball. Brandon did justice to the quality of the through ball by finishing off the move with aplomb by unleashing a drive to the top left corner, to the joy of the players who knew that 3 points were within grasp. However, Madcats were not to be denied and after almost 20 shots, they finally put one on target with 10 minutes remaining. Remembering the Benedetto game, Prodigy started to kill the game off by wasting time and holding on to the ball. There was still some late drama when Chingweng denied them an equaliser following a freekick outside the box by tipping the ball over the bar. The last few minutes seem like an eternity as the fans were waiting for the ref to blow the whistle while Madcats were throwing every man forward.

In the end, the Prodigians held on for this memorable victory which totally wiped off last Sunday's defeat by Benedetto. The joy on every Prodigian's face after the match came from knowing that each and everyone of them had ran their lungs out for each other, for the team, that the team had fought a war and emerged victorious through a well executed game plan. It was pure bliss. Let us use this performance as the benchmark for every Sunday now if we are to challenge for promotion. Nil Sine Soccere!

PS: Victory delicated to Jiahui from Team Prodigy