It'd been raining all day, and the weather certainly wasn't going to cut us any slack as it continued to pour down through the game. The pitch looked heavy from the start, and as play went on it really turned into a mudpit which made for extra gritty football.
The team pretty much selected itself as we enforced the 'first come first play' rule. The only problem being that we ended up with a starting 11 that had an abundance of midfielders and no real defenders apart from Majdi and the Gaffa.
That called for a change from our usual strategy as we adopted a more riskier 3-5-2 formation, which in hindsight paid off as we were able to make full use of our numbers in the middle of the park where it mattered, and the huge pools of water on the pitch as that extra defender!
We started the game confidently, really using the full width of the pitch with some good short play, making use of that extra person in midfield. Sulhi having just been promoted to the senior team ranks, in particular was extra keen to prove himself and he would cause all sorts of headaches for the HSBC defense with his trickery and pace.
The formation also meant that we were able to play wide, away from the surface water in the middle of the park and that proved to be crucial as Amir S on the left and Pg Sham on the right took full advantage of the space on the flanks with some pin-point crosses flying in from all sorts of places.
It was the kind of game that really suited our own version of the twin towers as Haidi and Fadil easily won the headers, and we really should've scored more. Fadil missing the inside of the post by just inches when his theatrical flying header met a cross from Amir S on the left.
It was no surprise that we drew first blood, when Fadil was put through from a long ball, coming off the feet of Sulhi, and when in those kind of one on ones, Fadil really doesn't miss much.
There were several more chances to double the lead in the remainder of the half, but the soggy field and heavy ball really didn't help as we struggled to keep our passing game going, whilst HSBC really dug in and came back at us with some determination.
They too were guilty of missing some sitters, breaking free on the counter attack leaving us short at the back, but they failed to get any of their shots on target when they really should've scored much to Yusra's relief. He really didn't have to make too many saves and had solid hands when called on.
We fielded a completely new team in the second half and things looked good for us as HSBC didn't really have any fresh legs to throw on.
The midfield combination of the two Khai's and Arch in the middle would probably have done alot more damage had the weather been kind to us, but playing on the heavy waterlogged pitch meant that they weren't able to play their fancy-dan ways somewhat dissapointingly.
The stand out performer of the half definitely was Amir D on the left. He made plenty of space for himself on the flank running circles round their right-back, and he too was unlucky when his 20 yard screamer, which from the benches really looked like it was going to put us up 2 nil, only managed to canon off the cross-bar.
Meanwhile in defense, Nazrul and Rahimin were on top of their game, really tidying up all the loose ends as HSBC went in search of their equaliser.
It was perseverance in the end that paid off, as HSBC finally did manage to break free of the two centre backs with a clever one-two and Yusra wasn't able to put his gloves behind a shot that ended up in his top left corner from inside the box.
Obviously a draw was less than what we had deserved having dominated the game throughout, but we simply paid the price for not being able to seal the deal in the business end of things upfront. A rematch awaits!
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