Indoor Game Week #2 - Pinelands (1's)

Good morning guys

OMF! My legs feel like they are about to fall off. Great running last night guys. We have played two out of the top three so far. So hopefully we can keep up our intensity for the next few games.

1.       A couple of platters went astray.

2.       Being caught in possession and those ‘Import/Schalk style’ diagonal balls weren’t working.

3.       Substitutions…I know you other guys want to score, but making substitutions so that all three flickers are on the side shouldn’t happen.

29 January 2012

Venue: Sunningdale

Opponents: Pinelands

We took the field to what would be another tough match. Vis shocked us all and won the toss, well there is a first time for everything. We decided to thrust the great responsibility of marking Team Bruce (TB) on Brundle. We second guess this decision momentarily when in the opening minute TB owned Brundle and dribbled thru most of the team before slipping a pass p-spot for a Pinelands player to finish off into the goals. Mutual 0 – 1 Pinelands.

We all hoped it wasn’t going to be one of those games where we get rail roaded, but less than a minute in a already a goal behind we feared the worst. But things were looking up. The tri-fector found themselves on the field 5 minutes into the match and started to find a few gaps here and there. Coming close a few times but not making the keeper work for it. Most of the half was spend running around like crazy people, then having a quick substitution to go throw up in the bathroom or pass out for a few minutes.

I remember briefly receiving the ball on the left hand side of the field. And slowly dribbling towards our goal line trying to open up space since I did not see a pass on. I ended up having to almost scribble Milky as I was running along our own base line screaming for help like a little girl. Luckily I composed myself, closed my eyes and flung the ball as hard as I could down the line out of danger.

……………Piles would like a mention in the match report since I left him out of the last one. He said he must have been kak because he wasn’t mentioned at all. At least he is a clever one. #toosoon.

The only short corner we had in the first half saw, due to bad captaincy, all three of the short corner flickers on the bench. Since Suffix was the last player taken off I blame the back line. AS was expected we didn’t score #toosoon. Our back decided that we weren’t defending enough and decided to add some more pressure by swinging some diagonal balls across the field. These passes were then picked up by Pinelands who went straight back to attacking us. Felt like we spent most of the half doing winders.

There were some heavy tackles thrown around, particularly directed at little Drummond. Vis and Bollie sending a message to the current players at Mutual that they shouldn’t leave the club…EVER! Or if they do it should be to a different province. Vis winning tackle of the night with a classic hand on them back and stick thru the legs tackle, coming nowhere close to the ball at all and getting a lifted eye brow from Leon. Amazing he saw that one #tellhim.

We defended like demons, keeping the score at 1-0 until half time. We put pressure on Pinelands when we needed to and ran around like complete nutters the entire half. Bollie making a sliding tackle that would have earned him a call up to the SA squad (bokke) had the selectors been watching. Milky kept us in the game late in the first half by saving a short corner flick.....with his face!Pablo was for once the violatee instead of being the violator when a Pinelands striker, what can only be described as, rammed into him from the back. The umpire said it looked like a foul, looked like 3^rd base to me. This is probably the reason Pablo had a smoke at half time.

 At half time I mentioned that either they had thrown oil on the pitch or I was getting faster, because all of a sudden I was slipping all over the place. Previously I have never been able to build up enough speed to make myself slip and now all of a sudden it was possible. After a 3 minute debate (we involved the opposition so it was more like a mass debate) we decided that they must have thrown oil on the floor.

And so the second half began, Pablo’s partner from the first half came over and apologised for being so rough earlier. This was greeted with smiles from both parties. We started a lot better than we did in the first half, by this I mean we did not concede in the opening minute. The first move of the big move of the second half saw Chef on p-spot with what we thought was a simple tap in. He must have been given a googly of a pass because we all watched as his deflection sailed wide.

Pinelands starting to feel some pressure and realising that they were not coasting thru this game at all put on the bunsen burners. Accelerator to the floor these guys looked like they were dressed up in red and yellow suits. (yes that was a reference to the flash) With boogies running forward to intercept a pass to their striker and missing, this ended up being a one on one with Milky. With another striker rushing in from the one saw it become a two on one and the ball was passed across a diving milky and smashed into the bottom corner not giving him mush chance at all. Mutual 0 – 2 Pinelands.

Mutual then got onto the attack again with Tosser making a …slow jog up the left hand side of the field after receiving a tester from Bollie. Making the defender commit and slipping it past him to Pablo, you must have realised from lately that he was on dry land. He didn’t have his usual blind pace which I thought would have improved because we now play at a venue closer to the sea.

Then I sat there on the side of the field and watched as Brendan ‘Pie eater’ Marsh single handedly took apart our defence. First to dropped Boogies like a cheap whore (great wording there Piles) then we seemed to even throw a few legs out and knee high sticks to slow him down. (As if he was actually moving that fast to begin with) Scrimmaging two more defenders and pulling Milky towards the baseline, he was able to finish into the bottom corner. Mutual 0 – 3 Pinelands.

Drummond wanting to prove a point to us, really did not do much. He was on the wrong end of a bad call which finally went our way. One of the most blatant back stick tackles I have ever seen, the only way it could have been worse was if I rugby tackled him, picked up the ball and threw a NFL style pass over head to Vis. Needless to say we got the ball and had another attack, forcing the keeper to pull off a decent save.

The last few minutes of the game seemed to fly by. With another short corner being given our way and again somehow all three flickers on the bench. I think Boogies wants to get on the score sheet so badly that he makes substitutions like this. Suffix pulling of a great tackle on Drummond smashes the ball thru to Piles who gets a great touch on the ball and directing it straight thru the keepers legs. NUTTTY! Mutual 1 – 3 Pinelands. Selector(s) finally getting some reward out of Piles after he didn’t feature in the previous match report.

In the dying moments of the game, Pablo received a ball from Tosser. Taking on the one defender and drawing the other slipped the ball to Vis you just needed to get some sort of contact on it, but he didn’t. Chef not liking the platters today. They ended off the game with a short corner, slipping the ball and flicking it high into the net. Bollie on the base line getting a touch on it, but not enough to deflect the ball out of the goals. Mutual 1 – 4 Pinelands.

A very hard fought game. We need to keep the intensity up for our midweek game against Team Denn….i mean Fishhoek. Which is one of our must win games. Maybe we could actually step off the gas a little so that we don’t have to run to the bathroom and empty our stomachs during the game.

Final Score Mutual 1 - 4 Pinelands

Next Game:

Thursday 2^nd @ 19h30 vs Fishhoek

Yours in awesomeness

Tosser