Match Day 8 – 21/06/2008 – C’s

JUN

26

After back to back losses, the FC Adelaide C squad ventured up the hill to play closet Germans Handorf on their turf. It was a must win game, as another loss would have put a serious dent into our premiership aspirations. With the cup round on and Handorf’s senior teams both not playing, we weren’t sure what to expect. El Presidente got a start in defense with the Angry Dinosaur boosting the squad in goals and yours truly making my first start for the year up front.

After losing the toss, my 14 year old opposing captain (nicknamed Hobbit, appropriately enough) had us starting the game going downhill.

We got off to a bright start, with Ferrrrnando and ‘Pipa’ taking control of the middle and ‘The Flash’ seeing plenty of the ball down the right. We almost went behind though after just 10 minutes (again, I hear you saying to yourself), against the run of play our defense got caught flat footed. A long ball over the top saw Tass come off his line, but he was beaten to the ball by the fleet footed Hobbit who managed to chip the keeper. It was on target but was cleared off the line after some great tacking back by ‘The Godfather’.

After dodging that bullet, we began to hit our straps. We mounted a sustained period of pressure, forcing several corners and testing the keeper with some long range efforts. It was almost 1-0 shortly after when a back heel from no more than a yard from ‘Captain/Coach’ in a goalmouth scramble was cleared of the line by a Handorf defender. We weren’t made to wait for long though and shortly after we went ahead when some defensive pressure from our forwards forced a turnover in the box and Ferrrnando buried a sharp chance into the bottom corner. 1-0 to us.

‘Captain/Coach’ came off for for a rest as ‘The Veteran’ came on for a run.

The rain was falling more steadily as Handorf brought on two of their senior squad members in an effort to change the run of play. It didn’t have the immediate effect they were looking for as we went 2-0 up after a moment of individual brilliance from ‘el Jefe’. With the box full of defenders, ‘el Jefe’ dummied then turned in tight space before curling deft shot into the top right corner. It was a cracking goal, 2-0.

It wasn’t going all our own way though and shortly after Handorf managed to win a free kick deep into their attack after a mistimed tackle by ‘El Presidente’. Some slack marking from the back four gave the Handorf attacker a free header from less than 2 yards and he made no mistake. 2-1.

With the half nearing its end it looked like that was going to be it, but there was time for one more. ‘El Jefe’ somehow managed to score again after latching on to a loose ball in the box; he smacked it hopefully at goal and managed to get it past the keeper and into the far corner. It was the end of a dramatic first half, with our boys sitting down for a well earned rest with a 2 goal cushion.

As if the first half didn’t have enough drama, ‘The Flash’ reacted badly to being substituted for ‘Baby face’ Evangelou and the constructive criticism of ‘Pipa’, and threatened to go home. Some positive re-enforcement and a bit of lovin’ from from the missus saw him regain his composure and put his shirt back on.

As the second half got underway, we found out how much harder it was to go uphill!

Handorf started to get more into the game and ‘The Godfather’ and Carlos ‘The Wedding Singer’ were being put under a lot of pressure. ‘El Presidente’ was having a good game alongside ‘The enforcer’, but 10 minutes into the half the ref gave an indirect free kick in the box to Handorf for an apparent back-pass. It looked like a bad call to all those wearing yellow, and ‘The Angry Dinosaur’ vented his frustration by kicking the ball half way to Stirling. The ref gave him the obligatory yellow card and stern talking to, before the whole team came back into the box to defend. Thankfully justice prevailed and nothing came of it.

The arm wrestle continued for another 10 minutes before ‘Captain/Coach’ came back on for ‘The Veteran’, and ‘The Flash’ regained his cool and came on for ‘el Jefe’. Within minutes we won a penalty when a Handorf defender hand-balled in the box. ‘Pipa’ demanded the ball and stepped up to take the penalty. Unfortunately for him though, he didn’t take the uphill lie into consideration and he smacked it into the crossbar spurning a great chance to extend our lead.

Shortly after it was game on, when I high ball in the box saw ‘The Angry Dinosaur’ go up against the two foot tall Hobbit in an aerial duel on the goal line. Somehow the Hobbit managed to out jump ’The Angry Dinosaur’ and head home from point blank range to cut our lead back to one.

The game opened up from this point with both teams going forward with urgency. Both teams created chances, but it was ‘Country Boy’ who scored the winner after a free-flowing move left the Handorf defense exposed. He took the chance well, sealing the game with a powerful shot which sent the keeper the wrong way. Handorf had nothing left to give and the ref blew full-time, giving us our first win in 3 weeks.

In the end it was 4-2 to our boys. It was an exciting match, well done to everyone involved.

Leigh McGillick