Benedetto 4-6 Kampung 81 16th March 2008

At the end of the day, the score reflected how dominating Kampung 81 was as they condemned Benedetto to a 4-6 defeat on Benedetto's home turf. The first half was a disaster as the defence was in shambles. There was no creativity in the midfield and the defence had to fend off attack after attack. Workhorse Yuekai was left on the bench at kick off as the captain Joe Benitez decided to tinker with the midfield. He was unavailable for comment before the game. And it proved that a midfield without the workhorse was like a liverpool midfield without Gerrard.Nobody was there to give the crunching tackles to pummel Kampung 81's midfield into submission and make them aware that they were not going to have an easy game.
To their credit, Kampung 81's through passes were deadly and their one touches created chances aplenty. Benedetto's defence was static and error prone as we conceded 3 early 1st half goals.Joe then decided to make a change in personnel. Yuekai was put into the fray to stem the "Yellow Tide" from flooding Benedetto with waves after waves of attack. Zhihan was also brought in. But, yet another defensive error which saw 2 defenders collide with each other to present Kampung 81's striker with a simple tap in meant that Benedetto went into the break with a 4-0 deficit. Turning it would not be a simple task.
Benedetto started the 2nd half a different side and quickly got a goal back through our giant striker Wei Jun. However a James own goal made it 5-1 to the Kampungers again. The pressure of a striker running behind him proved too presurising for him as he deflected a low cross into the net. However Benedetto got a goal back through John and he quickly scored another great volley to decrease the gap. Zhihan was beaten at the near post and James made up for his own goal with a goal at the other end to make it 6-4.
Although the game was lost, there were positives to be taken as Benedetto showed the never say die spirit to claw their way back, inch by inch, into the game. Captain Joe was pleased with the attitude and resillience shown by the team in times of difficulty.However the team definitely has to improve quickly as league draws to a close.Each and everyone has a part to play on the pitch and only when everybody plays for the other 10 men on the pitch, will the team be complete. Onwards Benedetto!