Vanilla Stars VS Pemuda

The arrival of Vanilla Stars in Wisma OCM caused quite a stir. Other teams had only heard that there would be a team made up of ‘foreigners’ participating in the League this year. It was made worse when they realized that the team had a local amongst them. This local was recognized by some as a member of team Kinta last year. Team Kinta incidentally took second place in the 2006 League.

The match started without much ceremony. Handshakes between both teams, greetings exchanged. As this was the first match Vanilla Stars were playing together, it took a few minutes for the players to click. The ball exchanged hands a few times, going up and down the court. Vanilla Star’s Right-half tried to draw first blood. Unfortunately his attempt from 9 meters clashed against the post with a resounding “clang”, drawing “ooohs” from the crowd.

A few minutes more and Vanilla Stars began to find their groove. In a short span of time it was 5-0 to Vanilla Stars. 10 minutes before half-time and Vanilla Stars were 10 – 6 up. Out of the blue there was a lapse in concentration. This allowed Pemuda to score on a number of hard shots from 8 meters. It wasn’t helped by bad passing from Vanilla Stars allowing Pemuda to capitalize on the turnovers. At least 3 goals were given to them on a silver platter resulting from fastbreaks. Half-time ended with Pemuda having the upper hand leading 11 – 10.

The match resumed with Pemuda being allowed to extend their lead to 13 -11. Vanilla Stars called for a much needed time-out. After the 1 minute break, Vanilla Stars started to play a better passing game. Goalkeeper from Vanilla Stars was kept busy. He even managed 2 pointblank saves snuffing out the danger that resulted from Pemuda’s fastbreak attempt. A change from 6-0 defense to 5 – 1 proved effective. Fluid passing and better placement of shots allowed Vanilla Stars to troop out the victors. Final score 22 – 16.

A special mention has to go out to the goalkeepers from both teams. Goalkeeper from Pemuda did a good job, making some excellent saves in the process. Unfortunately, his heroics weren’t enough to prevent defeat. Vanilla Stars did not have a goalkeeper initially and it was the cause of slight anxiety. One of the team members had to offer himself. We threw him into the deep end of the pool and he did really well on the first day of the job. I think Vanilla Stars just found their goalkeeper.

Blogger’s comments :

The match was slightly marred by verbal confrontations between certain players from both teams. This was a result of controversial calls ( or rather failure to call ) on the part of the referees. For those who had the opportunity to witness the match, it is to be noted that none of the Vanilla Stars were called for illegal defense.