With the 2008-09 season entering its third month, the USRC's football teams continue to show great form and to ride high in their respective leagues.

The Club's first team are of course defending champions of the Yau Yee League and have a lot to live up to. Last season was a marvellous achievement but there is no time to rest on your laurels in football and so the pressure has been on to make a good start this time around. With the usual close season comings and goings, Coach Richard Ewart found himself a bit short of players come the first game in September. The situation has improved since then, however, and the side now boasts quite a few new faces, including goalkeeper Susantha "Susu" Liyange; defenders Harsha Dharma and Olivier Chasson; midfielders Nick Street, Isao Ogawa, Craig Barnish and Yusef Ansari; and forwards Steve Cairns and Josh Fitzgerald. After five games, the new players were beginning to settle in and the squad was taking shape nicely.

The first game of the season was on 21 September at Football Club against Albion. Last season's Golden Boot winner, Henry Callaghan wasted no time in opening his account and newcomer Street added a second. But defensive uncertainty at set pieces cost and Albion were able to level the scores in injury time. The game finished 2-2. In the next game, KCC Dragons were no match for the rampant Greens and USRC scored four without reply. The goals came from Esse Kouwonou, Yoshi Kajigaya and that man Street again.

Next up were Squadron on 12 October. This is always a tough game and despite going through a lean spell, the former champions were able to hold the reigning champions to a 1-1 draw. New boy Dharma scored for USRC. The following week Antonhill were the visitors to King's Park and were seen off (2-0) thanks to Kouwonou and a brilliant free-kick from Ogawa. Then on 26 October, nine goals were shared with newly-promoted ANP. Fortunately six of them came for USRC, with six different scorers - Ogawa, Kouwonou and Callaghan all scored again and were complemented by Laurence Rudge (pen), Dave Jessop and Akio Ninagawa.

After five games, the top of the table had a familiar look about it:

Next up for the USRC would be early-season surprise package (think Hull City) Swiss XI.

The USRC Socials entered unchartered territory on 12 September with their first game in the Legal League. They too had new players to bed in, including Jason Boon, John Slater and Christian Malm, as well as returning players like Gary Ferreira, Joe Fahy and Vince Docherty. In addition, Vince's son Josh, mentioned previously, made a great start for the Socials, quickly establishing himself as one of the league's best strikers.

The first was against Legal Head and it proved to be a nice introduction with the USRC winning fairly comfortably by 3-1. The man Callaghan got the opener and a second was added by "ringer" Michael Blay (First Team Captain). The third was an own goal. A sterner test came on 26 October against fancied Monopoly. Fitzgerald opened the scoring for USRC with a fine finish - lobbing the keeper from 20 yards. But Monopoly fought back and equalised and then struck the woodwork twice in the closing minutes. The Socials were certainly happier with the point than were Monopoly.

Then on 3 October the USRC faced J-Leaguers - a team made up of Japanese expats and were well beaten 2-0. It was no comfort that J-Leaguers' best player was Akio Ninagawa, a USRC First Team player. The lads urged Coach Ewart to ground him in future. So the record after three games was one win, one draw and one defeat. Fortunately two more wins followed, 2-0 against BOC's (Dave Buckley and Malm) and 4-3 over Revolution (Fitzgerald (2), Chan Kim Fung and an o.g.). The league table then looked like this:

The Socials can be satisfied with their start to life in the Legal League and will be hoping to stay in the top half of the table at least this season.

You can find out more about the Football Section and how to get involved by checking the notice board outside the Gunners Bar.