What was that?!?!

And he goes on to hug his dad in a moment no one who witnessed it will ever forget. "My dad prayed I'll score a hat-trick tomorrow, so I can't thank him enough for his support and having such confdence in me," said Haidhar.

That wonder goal rounded off a superb individual performance by TeamCuzz's MOTM, and thus keeps up with the trend of having no less than 5 goals scored in the game as well as having a player to notch a hat-trick in this fixture. He joins Syed, Haikal, Shahrudin and Olai in picking up that accolade.

Haidhar had earlier scored a brace in the first half, with strikes and build-up that were identical to each other. Catching Real on the backfoot, Khairil, Ali & Syukri caused much confusion in Real's defense that allowed Haidhar to be free from the attention of Real's defenders. With time on his hands, he scored with aplomb, with both strikes ending up at the bottom corner beyond the outstretched arms of the opposing custodian. Those strikes were crucial considering Real had taken an early lead and were looking to build a fortress around their goal.

Ali scored TeamCuzz's third goal, its importance heightened with the fact that Real had just equalized minutes earlier. Credit goes to Syukri for his tireless running that ended up with him dispossessing a defender before laying it deliciously in the path of his strike partner. Unlike the player of previous weeks, Ali showed conviction and strength to get to the ball and wrestle it from the goalkeeper's cluthces before passing it into the empty net. The goal will certainly boost the confidence of this young striker.

That said, it was truly a good team performance all around. Aril was superb in goal, capped of with a fine save that would have left many others stranded. He had to thank his defensive unit of Saifudin, Faizul, Fazlon, Naufal and Aidil too for limiting the chances that Real had on TeamCuzz's goal. The defence ensured threats on goal were few and far between, with countless interceptions in the final 3rd. They in turn had to thank the midfield quad of Shahrudin, Razif, Khairil and Haidhar for their fine display in midfield - comfortably dominating through stringing simple passes, orchestrating many attacks as well as battling against their much bigger opponents. Likewise, credit goes to the strike duo too for their tireless work upfront.

Note:

1) Thanks to Haidhar's dad for his support from the touchline.
2) Thanks (& apologies) to Saifudin for the ball and countless other balls which he had bought for TeamCuzz which eventually goes missing (I feel you bro). Unless each player have a sense of responsibility to retrieve a ball after kicking it waywards, it is inevitable that balls will be lost. That said, TeamCuzz should really have our own inventory of balls bought using the team's fund.
3) Thanks to Ms Noraini for her understanding in allowing Fazlon to send a handful of us back home.
4) Thanks to those who came. It is not easy to be playing with 12 week in and week out, but sometimes we just gotta do it. That said, I hope the others who have not turned up lately do turn up coz the Manager has already planned at giving everyone a fair playing time (perhaps even more for those who haven't been playing).
5) Soccer is not a cure for everything. At least not fever.