All I can say is planning your project will reduce the amount of time to code it. Perhaps start by designing the database of players - what details do you require from a new member and how will they go about searching for a partner? Start with the basics of the site first and then once that is all working correctly add extra features such as the forum.

I think PHP would be a good choice, and MySQL should serve as a good database engine. You will also need to read up on HTML and CSS. I think your site is certainly doable in 9 months but it will take a lot of planning and design before you worry about the code.