Ced
Goodfellas 0 - 1 BOC (half time 0-0)
Saturday September 25
Happy Valley #6
The leader of the legal league was looking forward to facing BOC and consolidate its top seed position
Ced, yours truly, who had some good memories from last year's game against BOC was given the task to fuel the team spirit
Here is a quick summary of the Cantona-like speech from the French man
"Every season is a new beginning with people leaving the team, other joining and even leavers who are coming back
Every game is also a new beginning and it starts at nil-nil
No matter what you did the week before and how many goals you have scored you have to do it all over again"
And here is the reference to MU best #7 aka Cinema not so good actor aka GOD aka Eric Cantona
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6drzs_eric-cantona-when-the-seagulls-foll_sport
Line-up:
Andy
Shiuy Bear Flo Ikes
Doug Justin Dave Howard
Chris Ced
Subs: Shaka, Kettz, Mark, Leo
Toss
When the referee called for the toss BOC players were still getting dressed and they were only 9 of them reporting for duty
The BOC captain won the toss and requested to switch side to earn an extra minute to let his last men put their short and jersey on
And so the game started in this awkward situation with 11 vs 9
Early minutes
In these early minutes the fellas established a new record of ball possession in football history
The ball was moving nicely but we failed to create much out of it and the couple of runs we have only managed to finish the warm up
Note for later: we should have turned the numeric advantage into goals, by pressuring them a bit more
Woodwork don't work - part 1
Ced received the ball on the right side turned around and passed to Doug who immediately found Chris in the box
Nice control from Chris, which put himself in a perfect position to open the scoreline. Beautiful shot, the keeper was beaten but the post denied the goal.
BOC's late joiners must have got the message as they arrive to bring their side to 10 and then 11 players
Woodwork don't work - part 2
Even with a full team, BOC players not knowing what to do with the ball prefered to hand it over to Goodfellas
And the fellas continued their game with lots of passing back and forth between the lines and the forwards making run on due time
Free kick taken by Doug near the center of the pitch on BOC side
The ball went up in the air above the defense and Cedric made is run, the goalie was coming towards him for a clearance
The French man was first on the ball but only managed to head it on the crossbar
By that time BOC even had a substitute and they were making frequent change to maintain their fragile 0-0
The first half resumed, the pitch was a oneway street but BOC defense was strong even if it was relying heavily on his tall center defender
We have had so many opportunities in this half that I cannot remember all of them
I did have several shots on target myself from midrange but they were not powerful enough or too close to the keeper to beat him
I do remember a free header from Howard, who failed to find the open goal
Half-time
- Half-time score: Amazingly enough the scoreline was still nil-nil
- Half-time team talk: keep working hard, put a little bit more of pressure on them and it will come
- Half-time break: hear that noise, hate that noise => http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO9Vv11Qq28&feature=related
The second half was Sebastian Kettner big return from injury to the competition
Coach Justin had to go for a training session and Mark replaced him on the spot
Shaka came in as right midfield and Leo on the left
I kind of forgot who took a break
The one way traffic sign was changed after we switched sides (which means it was still pointing towards BOC goal)
In this second half, the Goodfellas had once more many opportunities to kill the game and claim the victory but for some reason they failed to do so
With the minutes passing by the Fellas started to feel more and more nervous while BOC started to think they may well get a draw after all
They did better than that
Something was not sounding right in this game, there was some noise on the line and for some reasons our call for goals could not go through
And what was meant to happened when you outrageously dominate the game .... just happened
Someone got cramped (I won't give names because Dave is a good friend)
Ced had some important words to say to a BOC player who had confiscated the ball and was chasing him in our own half
The guy ignored Ced's SMS (slow motion slide) and continued his solo conversation with the ball
This time Flo was personally coming up to greet him for a quick chat
Ikes apparently wanted to talk to the guy as well and challenged him for a face to face conversation
There were some miscommunication on our side and Ikes' tackle took everyone off balance
Every one but the BOC attacker who was still on the line, he gave Andy a quick call
The ball took a nice curve in the direction of the top right corner of our goal
Andy could not pick it up, the attacker didn't leave a message, he hanged up, thank you very much.
All the sudden the situation had changed
Dave who is not ashamed of his body had to leave the pitch for a full body massage
With 1 goal down the Fellas became even more nervous even with a good 20 minutes remaining on the clock
They were rushing their game a little too much especially in the final yards ...
... taking the impossible shots from a tight angle, instead of passing, ...
... dribbling 2 defenders, instead of passing
Everybody had good intention and was trying to save the day but each of us failed on his own (myself included)
We have had plenty of chances, to name a few I can recall:
A powerful free kick which was going in the top right corner, but which the keeper managed to deflect (I think it was from Leo)
A run from Shaka whose shot was blocked by the last defender
A similar run from Chris but again blocked at the last second by the defense
I think everyone participating to the offensive plays had his chance in front of the goal
Again several shots from your humble striker, all on targets, but way too weak or too close to the keeper to claim a goal
The last opportunity was this last corner from Howard which fall in the 6 yard box that everyone saw passing by but no-one could put in
That is a good summary of the game on its own, we had the chances, we were just missing this little thing that makes the difference
Hopefully sometimes it the other way around like Saint Etienne (Flo and I team) in the derby against Lyon this weekend
Lyon dominated the game hit the cross bar or post 2 or 3 times but failed to score
Saint Etienne managed to score on their only shot on target, a free kick from Payet
Saint Etienne is still top of the ligue 1 and Lyon dropped from 17th to 19th, Incredible!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGVBXnH4k5c
Conclusion:
There is a French say that goes like : "on leur a tendu le baton pour se faire battre" (literally it translates into "we gave them the sick to get ourselves beaten")
The equivalent english expression would be "we gave them ammunition", if you are not a poet just say "we got screwed by a stick in our ass")
BOC did not win this game, we lost it ; with so many chances we should have killed the game early
We need this little extra thing that makes the difference when small details matter
We need this little extra confidence that makes us come back from difficult situations
We need this little extra strength that makes us fight until the end
So my recommendation is:
Stop wanking before the game and replace that by a good night of sleep
Please pass on my recommendation to whoever is assisting you in that task
Okay more seriously I don't know what to say. We had our chances ; they got lucky
I found the stats of our game on fifa.com, have a look. Shit happen. "C'est la vie"
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/statistics/matches/round=249722/match=300111112/index.html
We probably need to train on set pieces to unlock a difficult situation with corners and free kicks
Personally I need to train on mid range shot and put a little more conviction in those strikes (I suck)
I leave you with with Eric's favorite moment ; may more to think about for the next game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_uzU85htH4&feature=related
Heads up
Allez les Goodfellas!
