Time until the Next game at Benalmadena Polideportivo
Match 1 Report from Rory
It was a game of two penalties.
Welcome back to everyone’s comprehensive cure for constipation and insomnia.
Two strong teams faced off against each other at the Poli on Thursday. The reds played with Kevo at the back with Alvin, a latter-day Jack Charlton / Bobby Moore combo. Steve, Yoza and Dave the owl comprised a very attacking and creative midfield, with big Frank just playing off “buddy” Colin who was trundling around upfront. Johnny started between the sticks, so he could get it out of the way as quickly as possible.
Dave the cab and Laurie started together at the back with ‘woar’ Trevor playing in a marginally more advanced role. Glyn played target man… a target for mickey-taking and all round medium quality banter. Al played on the wing with Dazza playing right midfield. Both teams looked rock solid and knew deep down it was going to be another low scoring affair. All the better for yours truly to remember who did what.
The reds dominated the early exchanges, with super assist merchant Dave the owl triggering a complex series of one-twos involving most of the team. A well-known fact in three touch soccer-ball is that your first touch has to remain your first and mustn’t immediately result in a tackle and loss of possession. The reds mastered this necessity early in the game and accordingly looked most likely to score even though most of their early shots were embarrassingly wide / over the bar (take your pick). If nothing else, it kept the ball-boys occupied.
Dave the owl was successfully swooping through the lines and picking up a few stray field mice on the way. His neat passes made the most of Yoza’s silky skills and soft shoe shuffling. The blacks assigned three men to take out Yoza’s left leg, a tactic which started to become effective as the game wore on. When in possession, the blacks were pretty handy at knocking the ball about themselves and gradually started to put the reds’ goal under some pressure. Dave the Cab (never one to pass up the chance of pushing forward) supported Dazza with one of his surging runs down the right wing. Remarkably, Dazza found Dave with a pass and the ball was squared across the box where Laurie brilliantly slotted it past the statuesque Johnny in the reds’ goal. Blacks 1-0 Reds.
There followed a brief period of superiority for the blacks, and they started to grow in confidence. Kai was solid in the false number nine role but was still working his way through his little red book of Scandinavian expletives at an alarming rate. The blacks had successfully kept Yoza’s left leg out of the game, but the rest of him was playing pretty well as he had some good link-up play with big Frank and the winged predator Dave the owl. Colin was starting to burn through his Duracell batteries (other makes are available), but kept running back and forth across the pitch, making himself available for the right pass, or in most cases, the wrong pass. Finally, the slick passing paid off and the reds were able to thread their way through the massed ranks of the blacks’ defence, with Colin getting on the end of a great move to drill the ball past Laurie in goal. A fantastic end to a great one-touch move. Blacks 1-1 Reds.
There then followed a couple of controversial decisions by the ref (hang on, we didn’t have a ref)…ok a couple of controversial decisions by all fifteen players. Anyway, it was controversial as Dave the cab had inadvertently allowed some of his (too) long hair to be blown into the box, thereby preventing Colin from scoring. Strangely, all fifteen players agreed it was a penalty. Up glided Kevo to confidently strike the ball towards goal. Woar Trevor hurled himself to his left to pull off a great save to keep the scores level.
However, worse was to come for the blacks when Dave one-two’d his way down the right wing. Meanwhile Alvin who had just moved above Dazza in the league table for shooting pigeons off the top of the fence behind the goal surged forward and smacked the ball into the corner of the goal to give the reds the lead. Blacks 1-2 Reds
Alvin’s joy was to be tragically short-lived when he tried to leap across the corner of his box to prevent the blacks from getting off a shot on goal. Even though he was 6 inches above the ground when traveling across the corner of the box the “fifteen” agreed that he had broken the vertical plane of the box, and after some complex mathematical calculations, decided that a penalty was appropriate.
Fortunately for the blacks, Steve was in goal and even though Al hit it six inches to his right, his wild swing comfortably went nowhere near the spherical gas bag. The blacks were level. Blacks 2-2 Reds.
Although Steve attempted to belatedly redeem himself after his comical attempted penalty save, his shooting was only marginally better than Timo Werner when he’s got an open goal. While there were chances either end, no-one was capable of breaking the deadlock with the game culminating in a well-deserved draw for both teams. Final score Blacks 2-2 Reds
The guys happily retired to the bar where they discussed when is penalty is not a penalty.
Match highlights from both games on our Youtube channel, details on the front page or here https://www.youtube.com/@WFSBenalmadena
