RAIN UNITED
FOOTBALL CLUB
Welcome back to RAIN UNITED football - 2008
Happy New Year - The "winter" break has helped me digested my 2007 busy football calender and I hope 2008 will help me refresh, reinvigorate and inculcate more goodwill towards contributing football matters.
I would also like to thank the parents, friends, associates, sponsors, coaches and boys in making 2007 a wonderful football year for us.
We will resume our football trainings and selections after the Chinese New Year period and football plans will be updated asusual accordingly. We are targetting to recruit boys to train and represent the Choa Chu Kang Sports Constituency in the Peoples' Association Tournament, a joint entity between the PAP Community and FAS. For Rain United, new recruits will also be looked at.
Two busy months of juggling both football and work, here were some of the highlights during the month of December 2007 :-
December 9, 2007
Cross-Culture Mini Football Tournament
We witnessed a pulsating match between Nakamura's GFA soccer academy against Paul's ANZA soccer academy in the finals of the Cross-Culture Mini Football Tournament. The game was played at a see-saw level which could go either way as both teams put up spirited display throughout the game. The rain did not hampered the parents and the supporters whom were fabulous during the entire tournament.
The ANZA team came out winners in the end with a hard fought 3-2 win against the GFA team. It was demonstrations of "never say die" attitude from both teams, where football speed, fitness, agility and gamesmanship were witnessed. I had a hard time taking a breather coping with the fitness of the boys while officaiting the finals and Paul was also closed to planting a "bullet" on me when extra time was played.
Before the finals was played, we witnessed the playoff for the third placing between our owned Choa Chu Kang Sports Constituency team against our neighbour from the Bukit Batok Sports Constituency, which were triumped by the Choa Chu Kang boys with a scoreline of 6 - 3.
The special event of the tournament was demonstrated by the sporting supporting parents, friends and coaches from all the participation teams. The parents from the ANZA team combined with our marshals played a "Parents' Cross-Culture Game" against the combinations of parents from the GFA, Bukit Batok and the Choa Chu Kang team. The game was played in the soaking rain and it brought so much joy to the parents, behind their supporting kids that 10 minutes was requested for "injury time".
At the end of the tournament, the kids demonstrated the goodwill between themselves and this tournament indeed was nurtured with so much good memories. Videos and photographs were taken and sent to the team managers.
I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to "POKKA" for their generous official drinks sponsor, the Choa Chu Kang Sports Constituency for rendering their support, the team managers in Aw Boon Leong, Paul, Nakamura and Alan in being here as well as the parents, fans and the marshals in making this tournament a success.
December 14 - 16, 2007
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Football Tournament
We gathered at 0700 am and embarked on our annual trip to Kuala Lumpur, this time, from the kind invitation of MPPJ/FAM to participate in the Boys under-10 & Under 12 years old aged group tournament.
The boys with their usual enthusiasm together with the accompanying parents took the chartered coach and travelled through the Malaysian highways with their PSP's, gameboys and chatted their football throughout the jouney. Their noise did not hampened the adults who were catching on lost sleep.
We arrived KL in the late afternoon and proceeded for our dinner after we have checked into our hotel rooms. The boys were housed with one another, minus the parents on this occasion to show their independence and responsibilities towards looking after one another. We gave the boys a pre-tournament talk and expectations after our dinner, afterwhich lights-off was commanded.
The parents seized the opportunities to adjourn for their night snacks while the kids were still chatting the night away, despite the curfews. It was understandable.
We took our breakfast as a team the next morning and boarded the coach and proceeded to the tournament venue. Beautiful pitches were in placed decorated with colourful team jerseys from the friends from the Malaysian teams and 2 invited Singapore teams. The organisers held a meeting with all the respective team coaches and registration took placed. Apart from the challenge trophies for both winners in their respective aged groups, there will also be a MVP award, best keeper award and the top scorer of the tournament award. Each team can only win the special award once to make the tournament friendlier.
With most of the last year's squad promoted to the under 12 squad, our under 10 boys were clearly the underdogs with one of the youngest squad in the tournament. We had fielded players from 9 years old onwards and the opponets were far bigger and older than expected.
The boys were overawed by the opponents size and were relenting about missing their bigger brothers who were playing in the senior tournament. Not much of a chance was expected by most, including the boys themselves. It was also the first time for half the squad and they were brought in for exposures and were playing together for the very first time. It was a big tasks to start off with.
The supporting parents together with the boys good discipline with the "winning attitude" approached eventually brought us joy. It makes coaching much pleasant to work the boys as a team and utilize their individual talent to blend as a team. They carried themselves very far throughout the tournament and made themselves big in the end.
We took each game one at a time and deployed different tactical play with different opponents as the tournament goes and ended up as eventual CHAMPIONS, much to the surprised of most. We won all our matches, scored 10 goals, conceded 1 on route to the finals. The opponents were seen using their bigger physics and tough tactics to "push" our boys but our mental strength, determinations and perseverence in playing as a whole team won us the admirations and pride to the parents and most importantly, the boys themselves. They had believed in themselves. This was a prestigious tournament with the press and members of FAM recognising the high level of the tournament.
At the end of it, our young goalkeeper in Justin, conceded the least goals, Captain courageous and top scorer of the tournament with 6 goals in Lionel won the golden boot award and lifted the championship golden trophy. To me, I will cherished this moment for a very long time to come. The grit and true display of character from the boys will bring me fond everlasting memories.
We rewarded the boys with a good maken session and took them for their shopping at the Bukit Bintang city area and the Petaling Jaya night bazaar in the night. We proceeded to the Times Square the next day where the boys spent hours in the huge amusement wonderland before returning back to Singapore. The parents had their fair share of more shopping, Thai massage chatting away with the unexpected tournament win and the more football talk between the Manchester United vs Liverpool game which was to be held in the night.
The boys sang, cheered and laughed all the way back home. They did the unexpected once again and were chatting about the tournament. Just wondering sometimes, where do they get all their energy from ? Lionel was battered with his small frame and young age but he came back walking tall. His bruises and tears were well rewarded with his courageous leadership and good football play in the entire tournament. Proud daddy.
The organiser of the tournament has also extended the invitation for us to come back as defending champions this year and we will continue to strive and maintain our well-being on the importance of the "winning attitude".
December 28 - 30, 2007
Pasir Ris Resort - BBQ and year end celebrations
A small party was gethered for parents, boys and members of Rain United to usher 2007. Thank you to those who have managed to turn up and may ther new year brings you and your family more joy, good health and a blessed 2008.
A big thank you to those who have been rendering support in helping our kids and ourselves in developing and continuing in our cultivation of our owned football interest the fun, educational and proper way.
May good things comes to you and best wishes comes true.
Cheers
Sabastian