The Beautiful Game!.

Saturday 28th November:
Jos Watergraafsmeer F3 [1] Geuzen-Middenmeer F4 [2]

GM-F4 kicked off the match. Moving in a forward direction with the ball was Melle and Jan. With supporting play from Marwan on the left and play maker Samuel, it was not long before F3 were under a lot of pressure. Their good organized defense was equal to our close ball control, shots on target and corners. 

The play generally was up and down the field, our mid field players were working overtime, darting runs with the ball from Jelani on the right, well timed tackles from Nicolas on the left and Elianto meant that F3 never really came close to our goal in the whole 1^st ten minutes. With the temperature now dropping to minus, the coaches agreed to play a 9 man game. 

F4 chased the ball [if only to keep warm] but played with just Kiran as defender. It was beginning to snow, F3 reached the half way line and looked for their only option which was to boot the ball up the field and see what happens. 

Adjustments to defense were made but it was too late, with frozen feet our defenders were not able to get in position and had to watch as F3s lone attacker skipped into wide open space. Down the right hand side he looked at his target and rifled a low shot past our frozen keeper’s far post.  

A shivering group hug in front of the goal was followed by a re-group of positions on the field. Samuel dropped back with Kiran, while Ruben moved up to support the attackers. The pressure on their goal was immense, strong tackles and the chances were many. With snow in his eyes the F3 goalkeeper was able to keep out our attempts.  

Half time couldn’t have come sooner as the snow fell harder, F4 headed for the dressing room. [No pep talk this week just the message ‘do the same as you are doing & it will happen’]. 

Anyway 1^st priority is to ‘get warm’ and it wasn’t long before boys were hanging from their finger tips on hot water pipes, wearing papa’s coat, huddled in corners anything to get warm.

F4 returned quickly to the field, F3 were already waiting in position and the snow had now stopped. F3 kicked off. F4 immediately gained position and pushed forward. Jelani and Jan shifted to defense, to give Kiren opportunity to go forward while Marwan shifted to his more natural right. 

The boys spirits were high as they had most of the ball, ‘it was just difficult to kick a ball when your feet our like ice blokjes’ [Jelani]. 

It has been over 60 minutes [1.5 games] of football since the fans of F4 have heard the sound of real joy. It was from one of many corners we had had, kicked in from the left and high landed in their goal box full of players, the ball bounces out and drops nicely for Marwan on his right foot. The same as in practice he rifles a shot up into the roof of the net.  Goal ;-) 1-1 It’s been a long time coming. 

Despite not being able to see the grass, the cold, ice on hands and frozen ears F4 could smell a victory. But F3 were not just going to give it up so easy. They were cold too so there was a couple of scary moments but our defense and our keeper Vesper was now equal to any of the chances F3 did have. It wasn’t long before, from a similar position in front of their goal on the right that Marwan again had the ball on the end of his right foot [can he do it again?]  1-2 Yes He Can.

The final whistle came after 5 minutes of more spirited football with players from both sides trying to improve the score, keep warm and be brave.  

I cannot praise F4 enough. Well Done and Thank You :-)

GOALS: MARWAN [2]

The Beautiful Game!.

Saturday 20^th November 2010 - Ibrurg F3 [4] G-M F4 [0]

Iburg F3 showed early on why they are positioned high in the league. G-M F4 kicked off the game and immediately retreated towards, their own goal line. It wasn’t long before the stronger, more organized opponents where one goal ahead. Panic set into F4 side as they realized that some players were not playing in given positions. It was almost like Iburg F3 could smell the fear as they pressured our goal line while making runs towards the big gaps that were visible in our defense. In all the confusion and excitement and after more than five minutes of pressure from Iburg F3 we found ourselves conceding another.

G-M F4 players grouped themselves but they had to hold more pressure. It was only the whistle of the referee and the agility of our goal keeper that saved our heads from dropping too far. There was also good 1^st half performances from Elianto, Vesper, Kiran and Siyar. Ruban in goal was quick and active. He made up for his early mistake by consistently making some fine saves and making it difficult for Iburg to punish us too much.

2 goals down at half time and coach gave a strong ‘pep’ talk. Fans from F4 had to wait until deep in the second half before they could see our players wake up and begin to play football. Samuel, Nicolas, Jan and Melle performed courageously, fighting for every ball. On many occasions they had good chances to score but it was not to be. Jelani and Marwan were also good when they had the ball with some noticeable actions. 

Even though there were another two more unanswered goals, Iburg where under a lot of pressure from G-M F4 and they were only saved buy the post and a lot of luck.

The Beautiful Game!.

Saturday 6^th November 2010 
Diemen [4] Geuzen-Middenmeer F4 [2]

We Lost [with style] We lost [still playing to the end] We Lost [Just]

From the 1^st kick off it was apparent that something was different about F4. Normally happy [as a bunch] to run at get the ball,on Saturday they seemed happy for Diemen to run at them with the ball.

On many occasions Diemen used their wing players to penetrate deep into our half. F4 seemed happy to chase and run alongside the opposing player almost inviting them to ‘have a go’. And ‘have a go’ they did. Time after time, they found big gaps in our defense which put pressure on our goal keeper. Clever runs, good passing and players ready to wait in position so that they could receive the ball. 

In the end the pressure was too much. F4 found themselves 2 goals down by half time [two very good goals] which could only be avoided if we had played in good position and make tackles at the right moment.

The half time dressing room surprisingly was not a sad place.  F4 players quickly re-grouped, and in their second half performance you could feel that they were determined not to let this game be one sided. 

It was a spirited response and F4 put Diemen under a lot of pressure in front of their goal but their defense was a match for our attempts and it was not possible for us to break them down.

Both Nicolas and Samuel worked hard and in return they found themselves on the score card with two very well worked goals, one from a corner and in the last moments of the game the other goal came from open play. 

Generally there were some good performances from F4 but in the words of my ‘old’ teacher ‘Could Do Better’.

Sure the coach is not happy with a loss but as stated in the dressing room the coach is proud of all players because you did not give up ;-)

Goals From: Nicolas 1 Samuel 1