Sunday, July 15, 2007
Fuggn hell...
The stage was set for what was going to be a momentous occasion. Possibly division 1 winners for the first time ever. As far as setting goals was concerned, this was the pinnacle. Something we'd set ourselves on winning since the halcyon days when we first started in 02-03. And after all the years of getting ourselves up to division 1 only to get smashed and demoted back to division 2, we had finally made it. The division 1 grand final. No more meaningless division 2 grand finals. This was it. Division 1. The big boys league. With probably our biggest supporting crowd watching on and all players on time well before the delayed kick off, the atmosphere was definitely electric. The sense of something special was almost palpable.
So we lined up as the team that was perhaps lucky to be in the grand final. And we faced a team who was on a high following their spirited and tactically astute game versus the Underdogs, whom we considered to be the favourites to take out the title. So our opposition must have been good to get there. Adidos was a hard running team. Probably not the most skillful on the ball, but definitely played as a team with tough tackling, fast passing and endless movement. Still, despite their strengths, which appeared perfect foil against our style of play, none of us were really concerned. We had Simmo. And that's where it all fell apart...
From the get-go, their fastest and perhaps toughest tackler held on to Simmo's shirt and shadowed him, everywhere. Up forward, in the middle, in defense. It didn't matter where Simmo ran, he'd follow. Adding to this was the fact that their players were tracking back quickly. Simmo was playing against a two man wall with the tagger yapping at his feet. In effect, this muted our attack completely and it was rare that an open shot actually got through to test either keeper. And perhaps cruelly, Adidos scored the first goal following a chain of deflections off Dave and Quoc that luckily landed flush for an open shot that Derek couldn't save. Ass. 1-0.
Adidos scoring the first goal meant their defensive tactics would be even more effective. Still, we didn't panic and played the ball around. But our opposition were really putting in the hard yards and hassling anybody on the ball. Every seemingly easy pass became a 50-50 which we nearly always lost. The were much stronger physically and easily brushed us aside. Perceived pressure began to be our worst enemy as passes went astray, first touch went out the window and fast counter attacks from us would fall down one pass in. It was frustrating, because our normal avenue to goal in Simmo had been so effectively shut down. Dave was probably the closest to score out on the left but nothing passed the keeper. Heng drilled a few from long range but none of our shots were really on target to give them any scares at the back. Still, we were pleased that we were only 1-0 down at half time. Some fine saves from Derek were the reason for this.
It was clear we needed to change our attacking approach at half time. But the beginning of the second half was met with more frustration, as our only real trusted option was bombing it up to Simmo and hoping for the best. Adidos were really working well to close down the space and hassle Simmo from all directions. And after saving some excellent shots when Adidos countered, Derek finally let another in when a save fell straight back to their winger and he scored. 2-0 was going to be hard to peg back. And when our failure to find another avenue to goal kept casting its ugly shadow on the game, a freak deflection off Dave from way out made the game 3-0. It seemed to be all but over.
Some hope began to glitter when Simmo scored one back but some slack defending gave them another goal in what was surely the end of the game at 4-1. Some late game scrambling nearly got us back level. Quoc began to find his scoring touch again. Sanji began to run up and had a ball fall to him off some ricochets in the corner but couldn't find anything but the ceiling. But the pressure was coming on. And eventually, we managed to get the game to 4-3 with some wild scraps in front of our goal and Adidos' foul count reaching over 5.
Suddenly we found ourselves in the same situation again with virtually two minutes left. One goal down with five fouls against the opposition. Scoring from a free seemed to be the only real way to score. And Simmo and Quoc tried valiantly to get them to foul us near our goal. Our protests fell on deaf ears to the ref who seemed too timid to call a foul that might decide the match. Some dubious tackles from behind were blatantly ignored and finally, with 15 seconds left, he decided to pay one at an acute angle from the goal. However, they'd be no after siren heroics this time as Adidos hung on for a most deserved victory.
Score: 3-4
Goals: 2 Quoc, 1 Simmo
Man of the match: Derek
Player of the season: Simmo
Thought for the season: It was pretty evident from today's game that we are a one man team. Simmo is an inhuman player and has pretty much scored over 90% of our goals this season. He's a machine gun.
But when teams like Adidos finally catch on to marking him, its pretty obvious we need another avenue to goal. He can't beat three guys.
When we attack, we need either:
- more shots from other people (someone wanna start pulling the trigger a bit more please? Even a deflection can create a goal)
- faster passes (too many times we stop the ball too much giving them time to run back)
- better control of passes (our first touch is crap and slows down our movement)
- use the fact people are going to Simmo to create space for a second striker
Some food for thought...
Overall, a good season to make the final. But we're not in the business of playing to make the numbers in the final. We want to win. I don't think we can get through to being champions until we start finding other ways of scoring.
So we lined up as the team that was perhaps lucky to be in the grand final. And we faced a team who was on a high following their spirited and tactically astute game versus the Underdogs, whom we considered to be the favourites to take out the title. So our opposition must have been good to get there. Adidos was a hard running team. Probably not the most skillful on the ball, but definitely played as a team with tough tackling, fast passing and endless movement. Still, despite their strengths, which appeared perfect foil against our style of play, none of us were really concerned. We had Simmo. And that's where it all fell apart...
From the get-go, their fastest and perhaps toughest tackler held on to Simmo's shirt and shadowed him, everywhere. Up forward, in the middle, in defense. It didn't matter where Simmo ran, he'd follow. Adding to this was the fact that their players were tracking back quickly. Simmo was playing against a two man wall with the tagger yapping at his feet. In effect, this muted our attack completely and it was rare that an open shot actually got through to test either keeper. And perhaps cruelly, Adidos scored the first goal following a chain of deflections off Dave and Quoc that luckily landed flush for an open shot that Derek couldn't save. Ass. 1-0.
Adidos scoring the first goal meant their defensive tactics would be even more effective. Still, we didn't panic and played the ball around. But our opposition were really putting in the hard yards and hassling anybody on the ball. Every seemingly easy pass became a 50-50 which we nearly always lost. The were much stronger physically and easily brushed us aside. Perceived pressure began to be our worst enemy as passes went astray, first touch went out the window and fast counter attacks from us would fall down one pass in. It was frustrating, because our normal avenue to goal in Simmo had been so effectively shut down. Dave was probably the closest to score out on the left but nothing passed the keeper. Heng drilled a few from long range but none of our shots were really on target to give them any scares at the back. Still, we were pleased that we were only 1-0 down at half time. Some fine saves from Derek were the reason for this.
It was clear we needed to change our attacking approach at half time. But the beginning of the second half was met with more frustration, as our only real trusted option was bombing it up to Simmo and hoping for the best. Adidos were really working well to close down the space and hassle Simmo from all directions. And after saving some excellent shots when Adidos countered, Derek finally let another in when a save fell straight back to their winger and he scored. 2-0 was going to be hard to peg back. And when our failure to find another avenue to goal kept casting its ugly shadow on the game, a freak deflection off Dave from way out made the game 3-0. It seemed to be all but over.
Some hope began to glitter when Simmo scored one back but some slack defending gave them another goal in what was surely the end of the game at 4-1. Some late game scrambling nearly got us back level. Quoc began to find his scoring touch again. Sanji began to run up and had a ball fall to him off some ricochets in the corner but couldn't find anything but the ceiling. But the pressure was coming on. And eventually, we managed to get the game to 4-3 with some wild scraps in front of our goal and Adidos' foul count reaching over 5.
Suddenly we found ourselves in the same situation again with virtually two minutes left. One goal down with five fouls against the opposition. Scoring from a free seemed to be the only real way to score. And Simmo and Quoc tried valiantly to get them to foul us near our goal. Our protests fell on deaf ears to the ref who seemed too timid to call a foul that might decide the match. Some dubious tackles from behind were blatantly ignored and finally, with 15 seconds left, he decided to pay one at an acute angle from the goal. However, they'd be no after siren heroics this time as Adidos hung on for a most deserved victory.
Score: 3-4
Goals: 2 Quoc, 1 Simmo
Man of the match: Derek
Player of the season: Simmo
Thought for the season: It was pretty evident from today's game that we are a one man team. Simmo is an inhuman player and has pretty much scored over 90% of our goals this season. He's a machine gun.
But when teams like Adidos finally catch on to marking him, its pretty obvious we need another avenue to goal. He can't beat three guys.
When we attack, we need either:
- more shots from other people (someone wanna start pulling the trigger a bit more please? Even a deflection can create a goal)
- faster passes (too many times we stop the ball too much giving them time to run back)
- better control of passes (our first touch is crap and slows down our movement)
- use the fact people are going to Simmo to create space for a second striker
Some food for thought...
Overall, a good season to make the final. But we're not in the business of playing to make the numbers in the final. We want to win. I don't think we can get through to being champions until we start finding other ways of scoring.
Monday, July 09, 2007
Deja vu
Another season has whizzed by and we found ourselves facing a familiar opponent in the semi-final. Chickempron Submarine were up for some atonement following their epic loss in last season's division 2 grand final. Now in division 1 with a new futsal ball, nothing much else had changed. Same players. Same uniforms. Same shit refs. Same prematch bullshit. Luckily for us, Simmo took to the field with some haggling about his registration bungle before kickoff. We'd seen it all before. For that reason, we went in without a gameplan, thinking we could knock these guys off pretty easily. Smiles all round. Joking about. Piece of cake...
The spinoff from all this was the lax approach to the start of the game. Compared to the fast paced, emotionally charged intensity of the first semi final between Underdogs and Adidos, this game kicked off at a pedestrian pace. No one was running to space. Passes were missing targets. First touches ended up in the nets. We were off the boil. Allowing Chickempron's best player Peter too much space, they built up to offence too easily. And it was only their lack of other star players that really kept the score low. With a little fortune their way, they managed to score off a misdirected backheel from the corner courtesy of a deflection off Sanji. And with their one man team scoring and Simmo being a little off target at the beginning, we were a little puzzled how we'd fallen two goals behind.
We had trouble beating their keeper who was having the game of his life. Simmo was firing some high shots with a lot of venom but he kept parrying them away. Dave got in on the act from the left wing but his well connected shots caught nothing but keeper. And walking into half time, the combination of our lethargy and their better play left us trailing and wondering what to do.
The second half was much the same. Chickempron got yet another goal from a lucky deflection from a free kick off Quoc. And suddenly we were in trouble. And time for Simmo to step up to the plate, yet again. Everyone just pumped the ball to him and he'd do the rest. Control it. Turn. Run. Shoot. And as Chickempron started racking up the fouls, they became increasingly more cautious as we kept smashing free kicks. It was a matter of time.
And trailing by a goal nearing the end, we were becoming increasingly desperate. Quoc tightened the screws on their playmaker and he was getting frustrated at all the calls going against his team. Dave and Quoc linked up for some defence splitting running and passing which came to nothing on the scoreboard. And then it nearly came. One minute left and Quoc had the ball at his feet with two defenders scragging him. With a trademark shift of the ball and moving in between the two defenders, he found himself with only one player to beat. And chose instead to lay off to Simmo who was one-on-one with the keeper. This was it. And the ball came straight off Simmo's trusty boot, and hit the keeper flush in the body.
The crowd including myself thought that was it. Game over. Chickempron ran back to try and pass out and run down the clock. It was time to take risks. And somehow, on the death knell for the end of the game, we ended up with a free kick. Trailing by one goal. With Chickempron accumulating well over their quota of five fouls. With everyone yelling at Simmo, who was walking away, to take the kick. With a massive crowd awaiting their final watching eagerly with their hearts in their mouths. Summer season grand final 07 all over again. Remember what happened last time keeper! Simmo smacks it. Keeper who has had the game of his life can't save it. 4-4. Extra time! Deja vu indeed.
Extra time started and Box Hill Indoor Sports Centre was buzzing again. Refs joining the growing crowd to watch the titanic struggle between the DBB vs Chickempron. And now, the game had truly opened up with Chickenpron walking a tight rope as fouls carried over to the extended period of play. Derek made some nice saves to prevent an early exit from the finals. Shit was starting to go crazy in this cutthroat end to the match. Powerful shots were flying in. Both keepers were saving their teams. And Quoc got the ball and was slide tackled by their best player. Peter actually got the ball with the challenge but it was interpreted as a dubious free to us (Quoc said later his shirt was being tugged.)
In any case, Simmo had another attempt to save the game. A one-on-one free kick with the keeper. The crowd was expecting a massive trademark bullet shot off his boot. And the whole of Box Hill held their breath as he approached. And Simmo took his time. And walked up to fire with all guns blazing... and incredibly he scuffed the shot. Forcing the ball to bounce pathetically on the ground at half pace. The crowd had in that split second allowed their hearts to start beating again. To breathe properly again. There was going to be more time played out afterall. However, the keeper, who had just about saved Simmo's best efforts for most of the game, dived. And ended up scooping the soft shot. And incredibly, back handing it into his own goals. A horrendous howler. But a dramatic and fortuitous one at that.
Lucky. Very lucky. But we have made the grand final for DIVISION 1. Hopefully next week we're switched on. Unlike Chickenpron, our opponents next week have team full of better players. Psych yourselves up from the start next week boys! No half assed bullshit at the beginning. We want to be DIVISION 1 premiers this season!
Score: 5-4 (including golden goal in extra time)
Goals: 5 Simmo
Man of the match: Simmo
Tears award: Chickempron's goalie (for letting in a free kick after full time to let us equalise again)
The spinoff from all this was the lax approach to the start of the game. Compared to the fast paced, emotionally charged intensity of the first semi final between Underdogs and Adidos, this game kicked off at a pedestrian pace. No one was running to space. Passes were missing targets. First touches ended up in the nets. We were off the boil. Allowing Chickempron's best player Peter too much space, they built up to offence too easily. And it was only their lack of other star players that really kept the score low. With a little fortune their way, they managed to score off a misdirected backheel from the corner courtesy of a deflection off Sanji. And with their one man team scoring and Simmo being a little off target at the beginning, we were a little puzzled how we'd fallen two goals behind.
We had trouble beating their keeper who was having the game of his life. Simmo was firing some high shots with a lot of venom but he kept parrying them away. Dave got in on the act from the left wing but his well connected shots caught nothing but keeper. And walking into half time, the combination of our lethargy and their better play left us trailing and wondering what to do.
The second half was much the same. Chickempron got yet another goal from a lucky deflection from a free kick off Quoc. And suddenly we were in trouble. And time for Simmo to step up to the plate, yet again. Everyone just pumped the ball to him and he'd do the rest. Control it. Turn. Run. Shoot. And as Chickempron started racking up the fouls, they became increasingly more cautious as we kept smashing free kicks. It was a matter of time.
And trailing by a goal nearing the end, we were becoming increasingly desperate. Quoc tightened the screws on their playmaker and he was getting frustrated at all the calls going against his team. Dave and Quoc linked up for some defence splitting running and passing which came to nothing on the scoreboard. And then it nearly came. One minute left and Quoc had the ball at his feet with two defenders scragging him. With a trademark shift of the ball and moving in between the two defenders, he found himself with only one player to beat. And chose instead to lay off to Simmo who was one-on-one with the keeper. This was it. And the ball came straight off Simmo's trusty boot, and hit the keeper flush in the body.
The crowd including myself thought that was it. Game over. Chickempron ran back to try and pass out and run down the clock. It was time to take risks. And somehow, on the death knell for the end of the game, we ended up with a free kick. Trailing by one goal. With Chickempron accumulating well over their quota of five fouls. With everyone yelling at Simmo, who was walking away, to take the kick. With a massive crowd awaiting their final watching eagerly with their hearts in their mouths. Summer season grand final 07 all over again. Remember what happened last time keeper! Simmo smacks it. Keeper who has had the game of his life can't save it. 4-4. Extra time! Deja vu indeed.
Extra time started and Box Hill Indoor Sports Centre was buzzing again. Refs joining the growing crowd to watch the titanic struggle between the DBB vs Chickempron. And now, the game had truly opened up with Chickenpron walking a tight rope as fouls carried over to the extended period of play. Derek made some nice saves to prevent an early exit from the finals. Shit was starting to go crazy in this cutthroat end to the match. Powerful shots were flying in. Both keepers were saving their teams. And Quoc got the ball and was slide tackled by their best player. Peter actually got the ball with the challenge but it was interpreted as a dubious free to us (Quoc said later his shirt was being tugged.)
In any case, Simmo had another attempt to save the game. A one-on-one free kick with the keeper. The crowd was expecting a massive trademark bullet shot off his boot. And the whole of Box Hill held their breath as he approached. And Simmo took his time. And walked up to fire with all guns blazing... and incredibly he scuffed the shot. Forcing the ball to bounce pathetically on the ground at half pace. The crowd had in that split second allowed their hearts to start beating again. To breathe properly again. There was going to be more time played out afterall. However, the keeper, who had just about saved Simmo's best efforts for most of the game, dived. And ended up scooping the soft shot. And incredibly, back handing it into his own goals. A horrendous howler. But a dramatic and fortuitous one at that.
Lucky. Very lucky. But we have made the grand final for DIVISION 1. Hopefully next week we're switched on. Unlike Chickenpron, our opponents next week have team full of better players. Psych yourselves up from the start next week boys! No half assed bullshit at the beginning. We want to be DIVISION 1 premiers this season!
Score: 5-4 (including golden goal in extra time)
Goals: 5 Simmo
Man of the match: Simmo
Tears award: Chickempron's goalie (for letting in a free kick after full time to let us equalise again)
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Grand final vs Chickempron Submarine
The stage was set for redemption. All the past choking efforts of previous finals in seasons gone by had amounted to this. The last loss in a final to Real Corrupt really fucked us up. And here we were, ready to finally go one better. Facing the fourth placed team in the big grand final. Following our demolition of Shuuto the week before, there was a real feeling of optimism that this would be the day.
The plan was to play a good defensive game, get ahead, and draw the opposition to commit whilst we let Simmo rip them on the counter. And just like against Shuuto, the plan was working. Simmo shot us to an early lead and we used this to our advantage, tapping the ball at the back and making our opponents push forward for an equaliser. Heng, with some hard running and a nice 360, ran down the left wing and took a shot which was parried away. Some hard scrapping and he capitalised on his hard work to double the lead. Although we weren't ripping it apart on the scoreboard, we were controlling the game well, albeit a little too defensively. Quoc was holding the fort at the back with Dave, whilst Henry and Sanj weren't too adventurous, opting not to gift unnecessary chances to the opposition. Two goals up at halftime in the big one was more than we'd imagined.
Following the half time counsel, there was a sense that we'd seal this game with miserly play. Don't be stupid, and we'd win. How wrong we were. As our attack disintegrated into a sloppy game at the back, Chickempron started pushing up and hassling the ball carrier with disastrous results. Their best player, Peter, began to control the play, willing his teammates to run into space as he pinged passes into the space in front of them. To our shock horror, they began to get a sniff as some indecisive defending let him in on his trademark turn'n'run'n'shoot to give them their first goal. The catalyst for a comeback was on the cards and quite quickly, Peter gave them the equaliser with Chickempron pumping their fists and psyching themselves up to run all over us.
A game that had seemingly been in our total command was slipping away. Again! And when Chickempron got into the lead, and doubled the lead with about 5 minutes remaining until full time, it was game over. Literally. Heads slumped. Fingers were pointed. Fuck you cunts. Defend. Cover that guy! Save the ball! Silence. This was fucked! Quoc and Dave gestured wildly to sub back on but the ref would not let them. Everything was going wrong. And in the mean time, buoyed by their reversal in fortunes, our opposition were sky high and pumped to rub salt into the wounds.
Enter, Simmo. With the game virtually lost, and the rest of our onfield players running back and looking to stem the hemorrhaging at the back, Simmo embarked on a one man mission to turn the tide. With Chickempron giving us some of our own defensive medicine, Simmo took on two/three defenders and shot a goal out of nothing. Suddenly, it's us sniffing the coke. Two and a half minutes left. The ball was hoofed from our defence. Simmo controls. Simmo turns two defenders. Simmo shoots. Simmo scores. The team erupted. The bench went wild. The whole of Box Hill Indoor is turning to watch our game. Simmo jumps onto the net and repeats his Herculian celebration from a week just past. Suddenly Chickempron were on the back foot. Suddenly we were going to run over them.
And with two minutes remaining, the unthinkable happens. Almost straight from the kick off, their tall player, James, one-twos with Peter and shoots low and hard to score what was surely the winner. And just like that, it was game over. For sure. Heads down. Chickempron all run back to defence. Impossible to penetrate. Only 90 seconds remaining. And the feeling of deja vu was immediately felt amongst our players. The same fucking shit all over again. And what the hell, the last 90 seconds was just playing out time. It was all desperation and little composure as our team was going in for everything and having to push up. Fuck this. Oh you reckon ref? Pay it now why don't you? And we win a free just a third of the way from the goal. But the buzzer has already gone. Fuck. Its game over. Simmo walks over gesturing someone else to take it. But Henry and Heng would have none of that. The best striker in our team was going to take the last kick of the season. Just get it over with so we can leave. Simmo runs up. Simmo shoots. Simmo shoots a bullet. An arrow that goes low and hard, and leaves their keeper dumbfounded. 5-5. The ref couldn't believe it. The bench couldn't believe it. Chickempron couldn't believe it. The whole crowd couldn't believe it. It was going to extra time.
The ref wasn't doing any favours with what seemed to be made up rules to favour the other team. As he said, extra time was a continuation of the second half, so Quoc and Dave sat frustrated as they were effectively subbed out. And when our accumulation of 5 fouls had carried over, we were left hoping that the dangerous spots we'd conceded our free kicks would be missed. Derek stops the first one from an acute angle. The second would be impossible. Perfect range for a long missile. Hard for the keeper to stop even if he comes out. Hard to stop if he hangs back. Derek was in no-man's land. A nightmare for the stopper. Derek saves what surely would have been the golden goal. Its like a heavyweight title fight in the 15th round. Both teams are tired. Sanj, Heng and Henry push up for the winner and Simmo, in the worst bit of role reversal is forced to defend. The mayhem finishes at 5-5. Penalties it would be.
Heng was up first. The tension was unbearable. Everybody in the centre not playing in a game had their eyes fixed up the far end for this title decider. Heng scores. They score. Henry scores. They miss. We are pumped. Sanj misses. Its crazy. We're level again. Derek saves Peter's shot. And its time for our striker, Simmo to seal the deal. He does. And celebrations go off. Peter from the other team shakes our hands conceding defeat. Hang on. WHAT THE FUCK? The ref is saying that the keepers have to kick too. Dave goes to remonstrate with the head umpire. Confusion reigns. The crowd is only drawn further into the contest. With a respite of 2 minutes arguing, their keeper fronts up. He scores. Derek lines up. If he scores, we win. C'mon Derek. He misses. Its level again and sudden death. Heng scores. We erupt. They score. Henry scores. We go ballistic. They score. Sanji lines up. He shoots. In the middle. The keeper does not move to either side. The ball goes through the keepers legs. We don't cheer. We sigh. Sanj scores. Peter, their best player lines up. He shoots same side as the previous attempt. Derek moves to the left and saves. A huge save. This is it. Simmo to win the game. Looking exhausted, Simmo walks up. And smashes it in. We are the champions!
Although we'd say after the game that it should never have gone like that, we'll take that victory any day. Against all odds at one stage, we came back from death at least 3 times in the game and came out division 2 premiers for our first title win since the start of the team 5 years ago. A FUCKING MASSIVE EFFORT! Well done boys for a great season, one of which we dominated after a slow start. Thoroughly deserved and how about a celebratory dinner/drinks as Sanj has suggested next week?
Score: 5-5. DBB wins on penalties 7-6
Goals: Simmo 4, Heng 1
MVP for the grand final: Simmo (I don't care what Box Hill says, Simmo was man of the match by a mile and a half. 4 massive goals in normal time. 2 from the brink of dead. And 1 massive free kick to keep us in the match. And the penalty kick to win the game.)
Redemption award: Derek (paid us backfor that Grand final loss)
Most memorable quotes after the game:
-Sanj, "After 4-2, I thought we were gone."
-Derek, "I was gonna give up the game."
-Quoc, "I was ready to unleash so much shit on Derek."
Season awards
Top scorer: Simmo
MVP: Simmo
Most tilted player: Quoc (for so many unnecessary yellow cards)
MIA award: Heng
Biggest flashpoint: Dave and the fat guy from Shuuto
Big bollocks (no homo) award: Henry (for taking so many dirty tackles and hits)
Colonel's award: Sanji (for suggesting KFC after every match)
Dirty boy: Derek (never keeping a clean... ah just kidding man!)
#1 ticket holder: Tam
Best win: Grand final vs Chickempron Submarine
Most satisfying win: Semi final vs Shuuto
And that's it for the season. Big things next season in Div 1 hopefully. Peace out.
Edit: here's some pics courtesy of Chops' camera...
The plan was to play a good defensive game, get ahead, and draw the opposition to commit whilst we let Simmo rip them on the counter. And just like against Shuuto, the plan was working. Simmo shot us to an early lead and we used this to our advantage, tapping the ball at the back and making our opponents push forward for an equaliser. Heng, with some hard running and a nice 360, ran down the left wing and took a shot which was parried away. Some hard scrapping and he capitalised on his hard work to double the lead. Although we weren't ripping it apart on the scoreboard, we were controlling the game well, albeit a little too defensively. Quoc was holding the fort at the back with Dave, whilst Henry and Sanj weren't too adventurous, opting not to gift unnecessary chances to the opposition. Two goals up at halftime in the big one was more than we'd imagined.
Following the half time counsel, there was a sense that we'd seal this game with miserly play. Don't be stupid, and we'd win. How wrong we were. As our attack disintegrated into a sloppy game at the back, Chickempron started pushing up and hassling the ball carrier with disastrous results. Their best player, Peter, began to control the play, willing his teammates to run into space as he pinged passes into the space in front of them. To our shock horror, they began to get a sniff as some indecisive defending let him in on his trademark turn'n'run'n'shoot to give them their first goal. The catalyst for a comeback was on the cards and quite quickly, Peter gave them the equaliser with Chickempron pumping their fists and psyching themselves up to run all over us.
A game that had seemingly been in our total command was slipping away. Again! And when Chickempron got into the lead, and doubled the lead with about 5 minutes remaining until full time, it was game over. Literally. Heads slumped. Fingers were pointed. Fuck you cunts. Defend. Cover that guy! Save the ball! Silence. This was fucked! Quoc and Dave gestured wildly to sub back on but the ref would not let them. Everything was going wrong. And in the mean time, buoyed by their reversal in fortunes, our opposition were sky high and pumped to rub salt into the wounds.
Enter, Simmo. With the game virtually lost, and the rest of our onfield players running back and looking to stem the hemorrhaging at the back, Simmo embarked on a one man mission to turn the tide. With Chickempron giving us some of our own defensive medicine, Simmo took on two/three defenders and shot a goal out of nothing. Suddenly, it's us sniffing the coke. Two and a half minutes left. The ball was hoofed from our defence. Simmo controls. Simmo turns two defenders. Simmo shoots. Simmo scores. The team erupted. The bench went wild. The whole of Box Hill Indoor is turning to watch our game. Simmo jumps onto the net and repeats his Herculian celebration from a week just past. Suddenly Chickempron were on the back foot. Suddenly we were going to run over them.
And with two minutes remaining, the unthinkable happens. Almost straight from the kick off, their tall player, James, one-twos with Peter and shoots low and hard to score what was surely the winner. And just like that, it was game over. For sure. Heads down. Chickempron all run back to defence. Impossible to penetrate. Only 90 seconds remaining. And the feeling of deja vu was immediately felt amongst our players. The same fucking shit all over again. And what the hell, the last 90 seconds was just playing out time. It was all desperation and little composure as our team was going in for everything and having to push up. Fuck this. Oh you reckon ref? Pay it now why don't you? And we win a free just a third of the way from the goal. But the buzzer has already gone. Fuck. Its game over. Simmo walks over gesturing someone else to take it. But Henry and Heng would have none of that. The best striker in our team was going to take the last kick of the season. Just get it over with so we can leave. Simmo runs up. Simmo shoots. Simmo shoots a bullet. An arrow that goes low and hard, and leaves their keeper dumbfounded. 5-5. The ref couldn't believe it. The bench couldn't believe it. Chickempron couldn't believe it. The whole crowd couldn't believe it. It was going to extra time.
The ref wasn't doing any favours with what seemed to be made up rules to favour the other team. As he said, extra time was a continuation of the second half, so Quoc and Dave sat frustrated as they were effectively subbed out. And when our accumulation of 5 fouls had carried over, we were left hoping that the dangerous spots we'd conceded our free kicks would be missed. Derek stops the first one from an acute angle. The second would be impossible. Perfect range for a long missile. Hard for the keeper to stop even if he comes out. Hard to stop if he hangs back. Derek was in no-man's land. A nightmare for the stopper. Derek saves what surely would have been the golden goal. Its like a heavyweight title fight in the 15th round. Both teams are tired. Sanj, Heng and Henry push up for the winner and Simmo, in the worst bit of role reversal is forced to defend. The mayhem finishes at 5-5. Penalties it would be.
Heng was up first. The tension was unbearable. Everybody in the centre not playing in a game had their eyes fixed up the far end for this title decider. Heng scores. They score. Henry scores. They miss. We are pumped. Sanj misses. Its crazy. We're level again. Derek saves Peter's shot. And its time for our striker, Simmo to seal the deal. He does. And celebrations go off. Peter from the other team shakes our hands conceding defeat. Hang on. WHAT THE FUCK? The ref is saying that the keepers have to kick too. Dave goes to remonstrate with the head umpire. Confusion reigns. The crowd is only drawn further into the contest. With a respite of 2 minutes arguing, their keeper fronts up. He scores. Derek lines up. If he scores, we win. C'mon Derek. He misses. Its level again and sudden death. Heng scores. We erupt. They score. Henry scores. We go ballistic. They score. Sanji lines up. He shoots. In the middle. The keeper does not move to either side. The ball goes through the keepers legs. We don't cheer. We sigh. Sanj scores. Peter, their best player lines up. He shoots same side as the previous attempt. Derek moves to the left and saves. A huge save. This is it. Simmo to win the game. Looking exhausted, Simmo walks up. And smashes it in. We are the champions!
Although we'd say after the game that it should never have gone like that, we'll take that victory any day. Against all odds at one stage, we came back from death at least 3 times in the game and came out division 2 premiers for our first title win since the start of the team 5 years ago. A FUCKING MASSIVE EFFORT! Well done boys for a great season, one of which we dominated after a slow start. Thoroughly deserved and how about a celebratory dinner/drinks as Sanj has suggested next week?
Score: 5-5. DBB wins on penalties 7-6
Goals: Simmo 4, Heng 1
MVP for the grand final: Simmo (I don't care what Box Hill says, Simmo was man of the match by a mile and a half. 4 massive goals in normal time. 2 from the brink of dead. And 1 massive free kick to keep us in the match. And the penalty kick to win the game.)
Redemption award: Derek (paid us backfor that Grand final loss)
Most memorable quotes after the game:
-Sanj, "After 4-2, I thought we were gone."
-Derek, "I was gonna give up the game."
-Quoc, "I was ready to unleash so much shit on Derek."
Season awards
Top scorer: Simmo
MVP: Simmo
Most tilted player: Quoc (for so many unnecessary yellow cards)
MIA award: Heng
Biggest flashpoint: Dave and the fat guy from Shuuto
Big bollocks (no homo) award: Henry (for taking so many dirty tackles and hits)
Colonel's award: Sanji (for suggesting KFC after every match)
Dirty boy: Derek (never keeping a clean... ah just kidding man!)
#1 ticket holder: Tam
Best win: Grand final vs Chickempron Submarine
Most satisfying win: Semi final vs Shuuto
And that's it for the season. Big things next season in Div 1 hopefully. Peace out.
Edit: here's some pics courtesy of Chops' camera...
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Finals...again...
Gents - we've hit the finals again, this time we look like a real chance against Chickempron Submarine (not that we haven't looked a chance in finals before this...). We've thumped them numerous times in all our last meetings (except our very last meeting where we won narrowly 2-1, without Simmo of course). Let's not choke, play like we did last week and kick some ass!! No one stack or hurt themselves during the week...and eat plenty of KFC before Sunday.
Good luck to us w000t!!!!
Game date / time : Sunday 1 April / 9pm
Who : Henry, Dave, Simmo, Derek, Heng, Sanji, Quoc (who shall be referred to as Sam Chun on Sunday...pay your rego you mofo)
Bench / crippled / manager : Chops
Good luck to us w000t!!!!
Game date / time : Sunday 1 April / 9pm
Who : Henry, Dave, Simmo, Derek, Heng, Sanji, Quoc (who shall be referred to as Sam Chun on Sunday...pay your rego you mofo)
Bench / crippled / manager : Chops
Monday, February 12, 2007
vs Chickempron Submarine
With Quoc, Henry and Dave all off overseas or away, it was patchwork team that was assembled. Geoff's mate Dud and Simmo's buddy Steve were filling in. And it took us a while to get going with all the new faces playing differently to the norm.
It was clear that our skill level was much higher than Chickempron this time round, and we clearly dominated the opening stanza with some lovely one-twos. The only thing better was Simmo's sharp shooting from the corners that left the opposition stunned. However, a moment's slackness saw us give away a few cheap goals that unbelievably, handed them the lead.
Fortunately, we regrouped and gave the other team a massive thumping that they thoroughly deserved. Chops' free kick and penalty got us in the lead. Sanji was holding the back and giving that much needed movement off the ball after passing. It was the stuff that broke open their defence and created numerous chances. Geoff was putting in some nice holding work and scraping doggedly for the hard ball as the bigger opposition tried to hack their way into the game. Dud was playing the striker's role to perfection creating chances by positioning in the right spots.
When it was clear the opposition were no match for our skill, it was time for Simmo to take over the show well and truly. Unbelievable workrate, getting past defenders and shooting from the most of acute angles to hit the post and score at will. It was an amazing performance, one at which left his teammates picking their jaws off the ground from some of the most bullet like shots seen.
It was getting to the point where the opposition were looking at people to blame for this belting, or Simmo's belting. When they started trying to chip their "shit" keeper from the kickoff, you know you've had a good day at the office.
A fantastic victory, albeit against shitty opposition.
Score: 12-3
Goals: 8 Simmo, 2 Chops, 1 Dud, Geoff
Man of the match: Simmo (by a couple of hattricks to be exact)
Tilt award: The outfield players of the other team (for trying to chip their own goalie)
It was clear that our skill level was much higher than Chickempron this time round, and we clearly dominated the opening stanza with some lovely one-twos. The only thing better was Simmo's sharp shooting from the corners that left the opposition stunned. However, a moment's slackness saw us give away a few cheap goals that unbelievably, handed them the lead.
Fortunately, we regrouped and gave the other team a massive thumping that they thoroughly deserved. Chops' free kick and penalty got us in the lead. Sanji was holding the back and giving that much needed movement off the ball after passing. It was the stuff that broke open their defence and created numerous chances. Geoff was putting in some nice holding work and scraping doggedly for the hard ball as the bigger opposition tried to hack their way into the game. Dud was playing the striker's role to perfection creating chances by positioning in the right spots.
When it was clear the opposition were no match for our skill, it was time for Simmo to take over the show well and truly. Unbelievable workrate, getting past defenders and shooting from the most of acute angles to hit the post and score at will. It was an amazing performance, one at which left his teammates picking their jaws off the ground from some of the most bullet like shots seen.
It was getting to the point where the opposition were looking at people to blame for this belting, or Simmo's belting. When they started trying to chip their "shit" keeper from the kickoff, you know you've had a good day at the office.
A fantastic victory, albeit against shitty opposition.
Score: 12-3
Goals: 8 Simmo, 2 Chops, 1 Dud, Geoff
Man of the match: Simmo (by a couple of hattricks to be exact)
Tilt award: The outfield players of the other team (for trying to chip their own goalie)
vs A.C.U
On a hot summer's day, we fronted up to meet ACU. The heat had sapped most of anybody's energy and enthusiasm and for the most part, it was a fairly slow paced game. Slack marking, lazy running and poor ball skills led to a pretty ugly contest.
At the end of the day, we eventually got the job done. And given the extremely hot conditions, we could be excused for such a lazy performance.
Score: 3-2
Goals: ?
Man of the match: ?
At the end of the day, we eventually got the job done. And given the extremely hot conditions, we could be excused for such a lazy performance.
Score: 3-2
Goals: ?
Man of the match: ?
Sunday, January 28, 2007
vs Adidos
Following the week's capitulation in a friendly a few days earlier, the DBB were on a mission. In our failure to string enough passes together, looking at each other not run, struggling to get a shot on goal and thoroughly getting our pants pulled down by a our better opposition (no homo), it was time to cut the shit. And versus the top team Adidos, it was time to address all these issues, and also show a bit of character, grit, and fucking skill, rolled into one game.
Adidos had only lost one game for the season. And for the opening stanza, it showed. Defending in packs, breaking out to attack and tackling hard. In fact, most of the ball winning was bordering aussie rules, with some shirt fronts and hip and shoulders that would've gone punished in AFL, let alone soccer. By the time our shirts had been half torn, and we'd gotten enough bruises on our arms and nearly falling off balance from all the ice hockey body checks, we could only look to the ref in amazement at how this shit was being allowed to happen. And with our gameplan under attack, our bodies being assaulted and the umpire acting like a happily bribed official, we had our backs to the wall...
But we responded. We stayed calm. And if anything, we relished the challenge. Simmo was back to his attacking best unleashing those bullets off either foot with no luck. And his tireless tracking back and fearless tackling against the bigger opponents made the opposition stand up and take notice. They were getting a title challenge. With Quoc looking the liveliest he's been in weeks, reading the play and intercepting passes with Dave, and attacking with vigour, it was a matter of time before we'd breakthrough. And after much toil, Dave clawed his way out of the trenches and managed to get us ahead. But the game remained close and tough with us walking off into halftime in the lead courtesy of Dave's goals.
The game stepped up further in intensity as Adidos' tried to stop our ball possession. But we held firm and Simmo and Henry were coping a lot of dirty fouls but stayed strong. And with Frank putting some good hustle up front and Chops closing down after attacking and putting in some roughhouse tackles, we were holding strong. And it was only a matter of time before the cracks began to appear as Adidos was forced to push for the equaliser. Suddenly a war of attrition became an open war of attrition as their defence parted quicker than the red sea. And as Chops held their defenders up, Quoc and Dave read the next pass by intercepting and shooting. Simmo turned on turbo and starting locking and loading from both flanks. And ran to a long through ball to run'n'gun and make the contest 6-0. Even Adidos' most tilted player came over to concede that was too good. Spirit breaking indeed.
We did tire at the end but the game was as good as over by that time. A fantastic performance. Organisation, holding the ball, resolute defending, and plenty of shooting. That's what we're capable of when we put it together. We should be the fucking top team!
Score: 8-2
Goals: 3 Simmo, 2 Dave, 1 Frank, Henry, Quoc
Man of the match: Simmo (great team performance though)
Betting on himself to get a card award: Quoc (for unnecessarily getting another yellow in the first few minutes)
Adidos had only lost one game for the season. And for the opening stanza, it showed. Defending in packs, breaking out to attack and tackling hard. In fact, most of the ball winning was bordering aussie rules, with some shirt fronts and hip and shoulders that would've gone punished in AFL, let alone soccer. By the time our shirts had been half torn, and we'd gotten enough bruises on our arms and nearly falling off balance from all the ice hockey body checks, we could only look to the ref in amazement at how this shit was being allowed to happen. And with our gameplan under attack, our bodies being assaulted and the umpire acting like a happily bribed official, we had our backs to the wall...
But we responded. We stayed calm. And if anything, we relished the challenge. Simmo was back to his attacking best unleashing those bullets off either foot with no luck. And his tireless tracking back and fearless tackling against the bigger opponents made the opposition stand up and take notice. They were getting a title challenge. With Quoc looking the liveliest he's been in weeks, reading the play and intercepting passes with Dave, and attacking with vigour, it was a matter of time before we'd breakthrough. And after much toil, Dave clawed his way out of the trenches and managed to get us ahead. But the game remained close and tough with us walking off into halftime in the lead courtesy of Dave's goals.
The game stepped up further in intensity as Adidos' tried to stop our ball possession. But we held firm and Simmo and Henry were coping a lot of dirty fouls but stayed strong. And with Frank putting some good hustle up front and Chops closing down after attacking and putting in some roughhouse tackles, we were holding strong. And it was only a matter of time before the cracks began to appear as Adidos was forced to push for the equaliser. Suddenly a war of attrition became an open war of attrition as their defence parted quicker than the red sea. And as Chops held their defenders up, Quoc and Dave read the next pass by intercepting and shooting. Simmo turned on turbo and starting locking and loading from both flanks. And ran to a long through ball to run'n'gun and make the contest 6-0. Even Adidos' most tilted player came over to concede that was too good. Spirit breaking indeed.
We did tire at the end but the game was as good as over by that time. A fantastic performance. Organisation, holding the ball, resolute defending, and plenty of shooting. That's what we're capable of when we put it together. We should be the fucking top team!
Score: 8-2
Goals: 3 Simmo, 2 Dave, 1 Frank, Henry, Quoc
Man of the match: Simmo (great team performance though)
Betting on himself to get a card award: Quoc (for unnecessarily getting another yellow in the first few minutes)
Monday, January 22, 2007
vs Shuuto
Sunday saw us pitted against Shuuto, one of our archrivals for the past few seasons having banished us runners up one season and some pretty heated encounters to boot. So whilst the contest may have been a dead rubber for us logically, as we can't really make the finals, there was sure to be some fireworks. Seeing the same opponents for the umpteenth time just added fuel to the fire. Familiarity breeds contempt.
The opening was a sign of things to come. Shuuto matched us evenly in many respects. But the one thing they definitely held the edge over us in was physicality. And their movement and hard tackling was tiring our players pretty quickly, particularly without our own bulldog Heng being away for work. However, Henry and Simon stepped up to the plate and more than manfully went in for the hard ball and began to hold the play up. Simmo was running around like a machine on a mission and Henry copping the full force of some rough house tactics from our opponents.
Indeed, it was Henry who was driving the ball up and shielding it from his enemies that began to dominate the play. And true to his hard work, he was rewarded with a great opening goal and then a somewhat luckier one in the first half. Such was the composure shown in such a wildly moving match that he received the first of many blatant fouls. Dave was showing his usual surges from the back but had no real luck as the opponents began to concentrate on changing the momentum by shutting up shop for the rest of the half.
As Shuuto began to camp again in their defence, we responded by trying to draw them out. If the first half was a brawl, then the second was starting out like a chess match. Each team trying to draw the other out and snipe a goal unassumingly. It was holding off in our defence that led to too much space for their tall striker to rifle one in from the wing. And then a combination of a wall that humpty dumpty could've broken and some lucky deflections led to the most bizarre equaliser. Sanji came on and provided us a target up front but our shooting was pathetic. Shots flying wide, shots dribbling in with no power, waiting too long to shoot. We had chances. Many chances.
Suddenly we were on the backfoot as Shuuto pressed hard again trying to draw us back out into war with some bone crunching tackles and hard running. A card was thrown in somewhere. The game was turning into slugfest in the middle with both teams not really pressing everything in attack. It was going to take a mistake rather than a moment of brilliance to win this game. Deep into the last three minutes of the game, their dribbler was scrambling back in D and turned to make a run for it. Chops luckily stuck a foot out and won the ball whilst his opponent lost balance. The ball popped up for a nice release of frustration at a bad day at the office. Fortunately, the ball went into the corner of the net. 3-2.
We scrambled and defended to starve them possession like our lives depended on it. And with Derek shuffling the ball either side of the circle, time eventually ran us out victors by the narrowest of margins.
A performance with a lot of heart and grit. But to only score 3 goals from how many chances is a worry.
Score: 3-2
Goals: 2 Henry, 1 Chops
Man of the match: Henry (all game dribbling and not losing it, copping tackles, winning the ball and two goals was the icing on the cake)
WTF award: Derek (wondering what would've been had the wall been set up correctly.)
The opening was a sign of things to come. Shuuto matched us evenly in many respects. But the one thing they definitely held the edge over us in was physicality. And their movement and hard tackling was tiring our players pretty quickly, particularly without our own bulldog Heng being away for work. However, Henry and Simon stepped up to the plate and more than manfully went in for the hard ball and began to hold the play up. Simmo was running around like a machine on a mission and Henry copping the full force of some rough house tactics from our opponents.
Indeed, it was Henry who was driving the ball up and shielding it from his enemies that began to dominate the play. And true to his hard work, he was rewarded with a great opening goal and then a somewhat luckier one in the first half. Such was the composure shown in such a wildly moving match that he received the first of many blatant fouls. Dave was showing his usual surges from the back but had no real luck as the opponents began to concentrate on changing the momentum by shutting up shop for the rest of the half.
As Shuuto began to camp again in their defence, we responded by trying to draw them out. If the first half was a brawl, then the second was starting out like a chess match. Each team trying to draw the other out and snipe a goal unassumingly. It was holding off in our defence that led to too much space for their tall striker to rifle one in from the wing. And then a combination of a wall that humpty dumpty could've broken and some lucky deflections led to the most bizarre equaliser. Sanji came on and provided us a target up front but our shooting was pathetic. Shots flying wide, shots dribbling in with no power, waiting too long to shoot. We had chances. Many chances.
Suddenly we were on the backfoot as Shuuto pressed hard again trying to draw us back out into war with some bone crunching tackles and hard running. A card was thrown in somewhere. The game was turning into slugfest in the middle with both teams not really pressing everything in attack. It was going to take a mistake rather than a moment of brilliance to win this game. Deep into the last three minutes of the game, their dribbler was scrambling back in D and turned to make a run for it. Chops luckily stuck a foot out and won the ball whilst his opponent lost balance. The ball popped up for a nice release of frustration at a bad day at the office. Fortunately, the ball went into the corner of the net. 3-2.
We scrambled and defended to starve them possession like our lives depended on it. And with Derek shuffling the ball either side of the circle, time eventually ran us out victors by the narrowest of margins.
A performance with a lot of heart and grit. But to only score 3 goals from how many chances is a worry.
Score: 3-2
Goals: 2 Henry, 1 Chops
Man of the match: Henry (all game dribbling and not losing it, copping tackles, winning the ball and two goals was the icing on the cake)
WTF award: Derek (wondering what would've been had the wall been set up correctly.)
