Match report Home Utd U18

On a rainy yet scorching Saturday morning, NTU began their reign under new coach Basir with an impressive 2-1 win against Home United Under 18.
The aim of the friendly was to execute the game plan practised during the previous training session on Wednesday, coupled with some tactical discussion on defending from set pieces and corners. With the plan fresh in the minds of the players, NTU started brightly, and took the lead through a Khai free kick which curled past the wall into the bottom right corner.
NTU followed up the bright start with Boon, Khai, Peng and Aloy raiding down the flanks, Ian and Manfred overlapping, Jin and Fuhang providing steel and incisive passing through the middle, Captain Aaron and Weihao providing a solid and stable defense line.
Showing their class and confidence, NTU again built up an attack from the back, this time allowing Peng to get a shot on goal, alas, the Home keeper proved equal to the shot.
Home United were being pressed back with the perfect execution of the tactics, however, they showed promise by creating a good goal scoring opportunity but only managed to shoot wide with only Tianci to beat.
As the first half frizzled to a close, the sun started to show it’s true colours and beat down it’s fiery rays of light and heat, resulting in NTU intelligently slowing it’s tempo and controlling the game as talked about.
Half time: 1-0 NTU
The second half began with debuts for Daniel, Neo and Wai Leong.
Home United kicked off the second half with furious intensity, closing down players with the ball and not allowing the same rhythm to be built up by NTU as per the first half. However, this pressure served to raise the game of NTU as KT drilled a through ball to Kester, who demonstrated his predatory instincts by smashing the ball into the back of the net, with a little help from Winston.
Home United, thou down were not out and came back strongly, scoring a beautiful goal which flew past the fingertips of Tianci. Finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel, Home United threw the gauntlet at NTU, with their wingers taking on wing backs Neo and ex JJC captain Wai Leong, their strikers pushing further up the field and cross field balls being played. Twice, they managed to drill balls into the box, however this was repelled by the defense, led by Kennard.
Keeping their heads up and playing their game, NTU started to create more attacking opportunities, with KT showing off his dribbling skills, Winston providing all sorts of problems to their back line.
If anyone thought that the sun wasn’t hot at the end of the first half, they were wrong, as the rays of sunlight beat down on earth, causing temperatures to reach around 33°C, evaporating most water puddles on the field and allowing the referee to blow the final whistle.
Starting line-up:
First half: Tianci, Aaron (Capt), Weihao, Ian, Manfred, Aloy, Fuhang, Jin, Boon, Peng, Khai
Second half: Tianci, Kennard (Weihao), Daniel, Wai Leong, Jin, Fuhang (Kester), Don, KT, Boon (Neo), Winston, Peng

Written by Kennard Gan