Winter League Game Week #3 - vs UCT (Mens 3s) - 2013 Season

27 April 2013
Venue: UCT
Opponents: UCT
Time: 18h00

We took the pitch after a scrape together of players to fill our 3s with Youngster being sick, Demon at a wedding and Caveman on some helicopter ride. In came Mini as a stand in goalie, new talent Ingo from the 4s and a shock return from retirement for Tallis after being out for a few years.

We took the field looking around very worried, knowing that last year when we played the UCT side in M4 both games were extremely tight and could have gone either way with maybe a goal or two seperating the sides. With Mutual having the ball we centered off and with 3 touches from Pete to TJ then to Brown, Brown rounded the keeper and slot one in from a narrow angle.....18 seconds played. Mutual 1 - 0 UCT.

Speaking on behalf of the other defenders the rest of the half was a massive blur, sweat pouring in my eyes chasing around what seemed like 25 players on the field. A couple of the blond UCT boys resemled Flash Gordon at stages. The next 34minutes and 42 seconds were spent chasing  baby blue shirts around the pitch. I wish we had a medical staff on site i would have made them test all these boys for steroids use. Slowing down play as much as we could, sometimes just banging the ball up field so i could fall into the fetal position for a few minutes and actually breath. 

I asked Vis, who was umpiring, how much more time was left/how much more time i needed to waste so i could collapse on the spot.....7 minutes played was his response. THAT was a blow to my system (and no not the good kind) Felt like that Christmas when my dad gave me a walkie talkie instead of the Dino-Rider Triceritops I wanted. With the sweat pouring down my face and the tear building up behind my eyes, vision was at a minimum.

We did start to have our fair share of counter attacks, with us coming close a couple of time. Then straight back to seeing a sea of blue run at us like a scene from Braveheart. Kev at the tender age of 60 was even force to dive (or fall over not so gracefully) to clear a ball as the UCT forwards were gunning down on him. Mini also saving us a couple of times rushing out early and smothering the ball and anything else he could get his pads to.

As soon as Vis signalled the 10 minutes left in the half everyone seemed to get excited. We didnt have to last that much longer before we could catch our breaths for 10 minutes during half time. Blake received a ball from Pete, and a one touch back stick smash slips one past the keeper to double our lead before half time.  Mutual 2 - 0 UCT.

With the half time whistle going, looking out onto the field, the astro looked like a the aftermath of a battle field with Mutual bodies lying everywhere. Well at least thats the all i could see from the floor. Our team talk was mainly just loud breathing and gasping for air. Some of the guys looked like they were seeing start after a fast paced first half, Blake and Brown stunk of brandy and we kept trying to get Vis' attention to slip him some cash to call the game after 10 minutes.

UCT must have had a team talk from Leonidas, "Tonight we dine in hell" - These boys in baby blue all of a sudden looked vicious and had a taste for blood. Wave after wave of baby blue attacks crashed against the Mutual defense. but some how we stood strong. 

Youngster pulled off some fantastic saves during the half. Mick put in some solid tackles. And Darrin threw in a few crunchers, tacking so hard that the refs decided to give us a breather because the game was getting a little rough and we were told we have a minute to chat to our team and calm things down. Yes, i took my sweet ass time. Breath guys breath, only *Tosser looks at Vis with tears in his eyes*, Vis signals 20.... WTF - are you jas! 

So knowing there was only...ONLY 20 minutes left we decided to use the age old tactic of slowing the game down. Everytime UCT hit the ball out, Tosser would do a slow walk/jog to get the ball and slow play down as much as possible. Two 16's later....15 minutes left. It seemed things were going in our favour. Defending like demons we conceded a couple shorties which our shorty defence kept out well. Kev kept chasing their striker that was 3 times younger than him.

Eventually my tactic of throwing over heads from every 16 worked out. Like a fisherman throws out his line and waits for a bit, a UCT defender bit stopping the ball above his shoulder giving him a breather for 5 minutes. We actually had a chance to get a few passes off. We took control in the last couple of minutes of the game, just trying to keep possession and give our defenders a breather. With the UCT player coming back to the field with a few minutes remaining, it was back to slowing the game down. a few more 16s and few more wasted minutes. Mutual holding off some tough competition for their first clean sheet of the season.

Final Score: 2-0

Yours in awesomeness
Tosser
The unbeaten run continues....#33Unbeaten, next up we have Paarl....in Paarl. Pack your passports boys!