300 G2: Off The Blocks

Frontliners 300 recorded their first win of this year's PFL campaign with a 7-1 victory over fireBRANDS Patriots last Saturday.

Sounds so professional.

Frontliners 300 were in attacking mode against Patriots this time around and were parked in front of Patriots's goal in the first half. However, they stood firm and proved a stubborn side to break down when Patriots keeper, Joyce pulled off five saves in quick succession. Frontliners still found it hard to find the back of the net even when Patriots had only 4 players on court.

Walson was the first to break the deadlock with an assist from Tristan. Walson has the honour of scoring 300's first goal of this year's league nearly 8 minutes into the game.

Frontliners were made to wait for their second goal. About 10 minutes, if you're wondering how long exactly. Patriots often caught 300 on the counter attack which left Kuan Yang fuming at the forwards who didn't drop down. No Michael Cheah this time to lead the Spartan cheer and the hairdryers. According to our chatbox, he was in Ipoh at that time.

(Fred found Kyle in the corner of...)

Kyle scored 300's long-awaited second goal after a neat assist from Fred.

There was no long wait for the 3rd goal, well, maybe 'cause any longer and it would have been the 2nd half. This time, Walson repaid the favour and turned provider for Tristan to score.

Half time: 3-0.

FireBRANDS came back with a cracker in the 2nd half, when 17 seconds in, caught 300's line off-guard and scored. Not long after, Marcus was handed a 2-minute penalty for heading the ball. (Too much football, Marcus?)

Kyle scored his 2nd of the game and 300's 4th with a neat wrist shot in the 4th minute of the 2nd period when Patriots were once again down to 4 players.

Six minutes later, Fred and Kyle linked up again and Kyle scored his hat trick.

Sachin received 300's second bench penalty of the game for repeated offences. Slashing 3 times in a row. Even when down to 4 players, Tristan managed to score and make it 6-1.

Marcus, the youngest player in the squad, added another in dying seconds to make the final score 7-1.

AND FINALLY, even after working pretty hard and having a hat trick to his name...

Kyle looks a little uncomfortable receiving the Man of the Match Can of Isotonic Drink. Gatorade this time around.

And another once in a lifetime can...

Captain Ray Gan who, looks rather reluctant to receive the can of Gatorade, turned 15 on match day. (I guess 300 prefers 100 Plus, coach.) :)

NEXT UP: 300 vs Spearhead.

Playground Floorball III

Unfortunately, FFC does not have a full-time club photographer, so make do with more and more words.

Our beloved "home ground", PBSM was unavailable again that week, so Frontliners trained at Taman Gelugor again, bringing some life to the otherwise quiet neighbourhood.

With Div. 2 in a week, Kuan Yang was still practising dead-ball situations. This time, it was less messy. In the absense of the b-ballers, Frontliners could utilise the whole court and have more game time.

That was about it.

Oh YEAH, Frontliners welcomed a new player to the club, a GIRL. Really.. when was the last time we introduced a new female player with the sudden influx of SXI guys over the recent months?

Introducing.. ZOE CHOW ZHU QING (photographer needed here, seriously), who finally made it for training after constant bugging from Pei Li.

and she impressed even Coach Kuan Yang.

Spartans In The Making

Firstly, FFC would like to apologise for the overdue match report (or fuzzy recall).

Division II has begun, people! More Saturday trips to Dal... nope? BALIK PULAU SPORTS COMPLEX. To break it down, PFL Div.2 is played on full-sized courts (for those wondering, it's 40x20 m) for two periods of 20 minutes with 5 teams participating. Frontliners played the opening game on Saturday against Firebrands.

First game of the season, so every one's pumped and excited, including former 300 captain turned 300 "assistant coach" Michael Cheah, who led the Spartan cheer and gave some players the hairdryer (not Fergie-esque, though) when they came off for substitution.

A note to 300, please wear those green shorts for all matches or else suffer a two-minute bench penalty like Firebrands' Vincent Lim. Down to 4 men, 300 had the opening edge, keeping the ball on Firebrands' half most of the time. And all of a sudden, 300 ran out of gas too fast when Firebrands' came out to attack and scored when James was left unmarked.

The first half ended 0-1 with Firebrands threatening in front of goal and 300 barely making it in front of Firebrands' goal. Although Kyle and Tristan, looking for an equaliser, gave Bryan some work to do. It was obvious that 300 was the underdogs in this game after that 5-0 drubbing in pre-season but made Firebrands sweat for that second goal.

Which, came early in the second half.

300 seemed to have come back to life in the second half after a lazy first. The forwards ran more and came back to defend and spending more time on the other side of the court, with the ball of course. Tristan, especially was not afraid to push forward alone, usually coming up against bigger and better opponents.

Debutant keeper Omprekash did not disappoint and kept the scoreline as reasonable as possible.
300 was outmuscled, outplayed and left chasing shadows, often on the losing end of 50-50 challenges

Soon, Firebrands struck again and delivered the final blow in the last minute.

4-0.

Frontliners could draw many lessons in floorball from this game. Playing as a team for the first time, the forwards learnt to drop back. Newbies like Zoe and the Saints showed good promise as a future asset to 300 and possibly the Spartans while the older ones continue to gain experience.

Next came the coveted Man of the Match Award (a.k.a a can of 100Plus)...*Kuan Yang's attempt at a drum roll*

None other than goalkeeper, Omprekash.

and a special "once in a lifetime" can of 100Plus went to...

#17 who turned 17 on match day. :)

Playground Floorball II

After many floorball-less weeks, it was fitting to have training back at Taman Gelugor, complete with the hot sun, colorful slide and... sleeping apek.

And of course, nothing would be complete without the dearly beloved, ever-gaya Kuan Yang, as coach.

It was share and share alike in the court, as the usual basketball junkies came over to have their weekly throwabout. Making full use of the reduction in space, most of the time for training was spent on one freehit situation, done again and again to drill the players into remembering it.

Ingenius plan, really.

Also, since there was only one thing done over and over again for the whole of training, there leaves nothing much to write, except for one short quote by the coach (do check out the quote of the week) that left Michael and Jason rolling on the ground with laughter...

...which of course, the coach ignored.

Kyle and Nick Toong really enjoying their physical battle.

Coach correcting Mike and Julian's positioning.

Fun fact: Women have it tougher than men to take off at full blast (according to Jason Chan). Whether true or not, players in the wall, if doing their job correctly, need very strong quads to get off the ground quickly. Fact.

The players were in fine form now, getting into their stride, so much so that the poor uncle woke up, took a look at what was going on, then left. To Kyle's relief.

Endless repetition leaving Mike a broken man.

The players carrying out their punishments after Coach added a twist in the drill: push-ups for defenders if goals are conceded, and push-ups for attackers if goals are not scored.

The basketball junkies still playing despite the heat left Coach with no option but to use two nice bottles (as requested) as goals.

Jason, the ever-charming salesman, diplomatically went to the b-ballers and persuaded them to give up their half for a few minutes.
It was like pinball, as Coach would throw in another ball whenever the original went out. Fast, messy... but fun.

And then as promised, the players vacated the court after time was up, blatantly ignoring the MPPP rules to occupy the oh-so-lovely slide. All in all, training was good.

As always la.