*

We had to come up with a name, and I suggested Spice Boys by reflex. It is quite easy to draw connection of the name with the British pop girl group, but little did they know that Spice Boys actually existed in the form of a group of Liverpool legends and I wanted the team to be as entertaining the pop girl and play wonderful football as the lads from Liverpool.

Jamie Redknapp, Robbie Fowler and Jason McAteer were not who they were in a matter of days, and I have always been telling myself that if I can do it with Gangdust FC, I can do it here with Spice Boys.

Spice Boys had to start somewhere, and the annual Dean’s Cup is the perfect opportunity to kick off the dream.

Dean’s Cup is the holy grail of sporting achievement in the little faculty, and to win the Cup is a bragging right you have all year and a message to everyone that you are untouchable on the court.

But the story unfolded few months before the Cup.

I was a clueless new boy in the faculty when one of them invited me to play in their weekly futsal session. I was quite excited to realize amidst the intimidating air the faculty has, it still values the sports I love, and I didn’t take long a time to say yes and show up.

I met most of them in the faculty's lecture hall and that’s when I learned their name and background – but on futsal court, I learned a great deal of their character, attitude and conviction. All of them are younger than me, but I am surprised to figure out how much I have learned from them – as a footballer, as a friend and as a person,

I can never imagine how my life would be without football and friends and I can never thank God enough for constantly blessing me with them.

The friendly ghost of Gangdust FC memory seems to have missed me and it knocks my door and say hello in the form of Spice Boys. We are the faculty’s underdogs, and we are not blessed with breathtaking trickery and wonderful skills to kill the opponents. Our strength is in the passion and love we have for the game and I was so confident Spice Boys could be a force to be reckoned with, despite our limited skills and preparations.

Napoli didn’t shake the world of football in its first 80 years and Barcelona didn’t gather the team with amazing esteem overnight. It takes time and perseverance to leave a legacy behind, so we joined this year’s Deans Cup with the hope to set alight the legacy and most importantly to have fun along the way.

Spice Boys is a balanced outfit, and for a young and fledgling team, we have all it takes to actually play sexy and entertaining football. But sexy and entertaining alone will not win a team a match, as tactical and set pieces have to be carefully meted out in complement.

Syazwan is the man between our goal post, and wears invisible iron glove everytime we play. He is a fitness freak and his efforts blessed him with quite a huge pair of arms. With a bit of practice, the decision to give him the glove was quite easy.

Adzraai, Syafiq and Tuan Arief, who all have the knack to cut down attacks with their great timing and strength, man the defensive department. We rely so much on the creativity of Rhastdan, Qayyum and Shahrul up front to provide us with goals, while Farid and Faris are always on the lookout for opportunities on the bench, obviously not just merely making up the number.

I love the team, and I have a huge feeling that the team will leave a huge mark in my heart, so looking at how well the team looks on paper, we were set to play in this year’s Dean’s Cup.

Maybe what we asked was a bit too much, as it proved to be not the best first tournament we had. We failed to win any medal and had to settle for fifth place. We played some excellent games, and had decent amount of possession, but like Liverpool, sometimes to convert possession and chances into goal is just so hard, not even Steven Gerrard can casually do. I am quite happy that despite the result, we actually played quite entertaining game and we had fun making love with the ball. Every one of us were smiling. We had fun.

We held our chin up high and left the court with burning desire to return and bounce back next year. I am proud to be part of team. It is certainly not the end of the story we plan to finish on high note one day.

The story has just begun.

*

Tonight’s drive along the mundane Jalan Mahameru was the first that I actually enjoyed. When I usually take about 20 minutes to get home, I purposely joined the more congested lane so that for once I could sit quietly, not to swear at ignorant motorists nor listening to crappy songs on the radio, but to go through the mental image of the smile each one of us had few hours before and the fun we had by playing as team we hope to be a legacy we know as the Spice Boys.

It took me one hour, and I enjoyed every fucking minute.