On the morning of Thursday, 17th May 2007, more than a hundred RSAF boys from Lim Chu Kang Camp 2, 163 Squadron arrived at Fico Sports Hub for a mini-friendly soccer tournament.
At around 9am, CPT Chua started off with a briefing session on the rules of the game. The tournament was to be held in a round-robin format in which the 12 teams would be divided into two groups, and with each match lasting 10 minutes. After all the teams have played against the other teams in their group, the top two teams from each group would then face off in the semis, followed by the finals. In addition, a Golden Boot award would also be given to the top goalscorer of the competition.
Teams were formed according to their flights and departments, and comprised a mixture of NSFs and regulars. They were all playing together, irrespective of their ranks (which couldn’t be visibly seen as they were not wearing their uniforms anyway), and as CPT Chua stressed on the fairness of the competition, “The referee’s decision is final, regardless of rank.”
And after CPT Chua passed on to the commanding officer, LTC Vincent Yap, to say a few words, it was time for the games to begin.
LTA Marlon from “HQ FLT”, after drawing their opening game 0-0, commented that though he wasn’t too happy that his side didn’t win, he was enjoying playing on Fico’s pitches which were in excellent condition.
He then went on to share how they’re usually working hard everyday, so this was one of the rare occasions when they could just get together and build cohesion over a game of football that most of them loved.
LTC Vincent Yap was visibly impressed with Fico’s facilities on his first visit. “This place has many soccer courts, and it would an ideal place for hosting corporate events,” he remarked.
LTC Yap, who regularly plays football with his friends on weekends, also said that he found futsal a very suitable sport for those who couldn’t run the length of the normal pitch but still wish to attain a good workout and enjoyment from the game.
When asked of he and his team’s performance in the tournament so far, the commanding officer, who had played two matches by then, admitted that they were “not very good”, especially as he was already “an old man”. His lower-ranked opponents certainly weren’t holding back their challenges on him, despite the occasional joking shouts from the spectators that anyone who dared to tackle him might get pumping punishment back in camp later. But from my personal observation later, I felt the CO was being modest about his own fitness level as he still looked to be in pretty good shape even after a series of grueling matches.
I later met up with CPL Joel and CPL Wesley who were resting by a bench in between their games. Incidentally, CPL Joel’s team “Charlie 2” had just thrashed CPL Wesley’s “Charlie 3” 6-0 in an earlier game. Both were playing at Fico for the first time, and CPL Joel, who plays football on regular basis, commented that he would definitely consider coming here again. As for CPL Wesley, despite the fact that his team had lost all their games, he was still in a rather good mood as he was enjoying his first trip to Fico and playing the game of futsal.
Like CPL Wesley, most of the boys were certainly playing it with the right spirit like LTC Yap had urged them to in his earlier address. While there was an element of competitiveness amongst the boys, they were not overly physical and launching over-the-top tackles. The referees thus mostly kept the cards in their pockets, with only a few warnings dished out over some insistent pushing and shoving.
The matches lasted all the way till after 1pm (good for those who didn’t want to go back to camp that much!) and the final saw “Bravo 2” playing against “Delta 2”. After the match ended 2-2 at the end of normal time, it meant the penalty shootout would determine the winner in a nail-biting finish.
“Bravo 2” eventually triumphed over their opponents 4-3 on penalties, thus “Delta 2” finished as runner-ups, with “GLS” in third place.
The Golden Boot award was given to 3SG Lim Keng Hong from “Delta 1”. Interestingly, he actually lost count of the numerous goals he scored, as when asked how many goals he had scored, he replied uncertainly, “Errr… don’t know? Maybe 6 or 7.” A check with CPT Chua later confirmed that he had scored 7 goals.
All in all, it was a fun day away from the usual dull and strenuous training for the boys, although like always, the boys had to do area cleaning of the place before leaving… (Thank you boys!)- by CHONG CHUN LIAN