Eusoff Hall has been crowned the men’s soccer champion again after edging out Kent Ridge Hall 1-0 in a tepid final at the Sports and Recreation Centre on Feb. 18, courtesy of a scrappy goal right at the death.

Both teams set out to frustrate each other from kick off, with clear scoring opportunities few and far between. 

The match was fought mainly in midfield, with neither side able to string together a decent run of passes. 

Kent Ridge was the leading team of the two sides in the first half, with winger Goh Cheng Kang making some promising runs down the right flank to deliver telling crosses into the penalty area.

Nevertheless, a long range effort from Kent Ridge mid-way through the first half that ballooned over the crossbar set the tone for what was to come for the remainder of the game.

The presence of a cheering crowd along the touchlines did nothing to inspire the players to life as the first half concluded with neither team scoring a goal.

Nothing much changed after the restart, and it seemed like both teams were more than happy to contain each other and hope for a defensive error to capitalise upon. 

The tactic almost paid off for Eusoff.

A long ball into the penalty area was poorly dealt with by the Kent Ridge defence. As the ball hung in mid-air, a bicycle kick executed by a Eusoff striker did not miss the target by much.

Nevertheless, the score still remained 0-0 and as the game wore on, fatigue began to kick in, with both teams guilty of sloppy passing and ill-timed challenges. 

Eusoff had a player yellow-carded while a Kent Ridge player was sternly warned by the referee.

It was evident by then that the prospect of playing extra-time was looming in some players’ minds. When both teams were considering reshuffling their lineups with substitutions, Eusoff dealt a sucker punch to Kent Ridge with just minutes on the clock remaining.

Eusoff striker, Chin Jiarui, managed to force a header in past the Kent Ridge goalkeeper to make the most of a lapse in concentration by the Kent Ridge defenders as they once again failed to deal adequately with an aerial ball.

Kent Ridge launched a last attack that led to a corner in the dying seconds, but it was too little too late.

Eusoff vanquished the ghosts of last year’s final, which they lost by the same score to Temasek Hall.

The victory is likely to come as a surprise to few, as Kent Ridge Hall were the pre-match favourites, boasting several IVP players.

An euphoric Darren Neubronner, who plays in midfield for Eusoff, pinned the win down to a mixture of hard work and good luck.

“Although KR were the stronger team on paper, we never gave up and we had a strong team spirit and knew that we would have to work hard as a team and for each other if we wanted to get something from the game,” said Neubronner.

He further added, “Morale was high in the squad before the game and we went in expecting a tough match but knew if we stuck to our plan we would win.”

For the Kent Ridge players, knowing that they have thrown away the best chance in recent history of winning silverware in IHG soccer for their hall will no doubt be a bitter pill to swallow.

Kent Ridge midfielder Andy Ng said, “We were confident going into the game and we knew we had a good chance of winning the tournament this year as this is the best squad we’ve had in recent years. 

“However, Eusoff stuck to their task just like we did ours, but towards the end, we were expecting to end up in extra-time and we started to give away cheap fouls and that proved to be costly for us,” Ng added.

Both teams qualified for the final by playing in a round-robin group stage followed by a semi-final. 

Eusoff defeated defending champions Temasek Hall in the first semi-final while Kent Ridge overcame Sheares Hall in the other fixture.