No official announcement on Pony has been made, but sometimes things are
just so obvious they don't need saying. Responsible for three goals
and could have done better with two more - such are the margins between a
trousers-down thrashing and close game between fairly evenly-matched
teams.
Conditions were atrocious, but a howling cross-wind didn't favour either
team in any given half. You'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise by
the scoreline. Games started fairly low-key with both teams sharing
territory and possession. Brooklyn won a free-kick just outside our box
after one of their players went down under a combination Jason/Corey
challenge. The free-kick was fairly well hit, but my feeble effort to
stop it made it look like Riise v Barthez circa 2001. 1:0.
Stallions responded with some real spirit. A concerted spell of
pressure resulted in a cross being turned behind a Brooklyn defender.
Those with a clear view say he didn't get his hand anywhere near it, but
the ref had no hesitation in pointing to the spot (although he then
seemed to have considerable hesitation about whether he'd made the right
call). Rauru showed no mercy, banging the penalty low to the left.
That wasn't the end of it though, Tom appeared to have forgotten that
Rauru never misses pens and had encroached looking for a rebound.
Second time around was an action replay - ball in the same spot, keeper
going the wrong way - 1:1.
No sooner had we got back in it, I popped up for clanger #2 - letting a
cross evade me to one of their players on the back post to slot it past
me and nuts Tangihaere on the line just for good measure. 2:1. Sadly
the third wasn't long in coming. Brooklyn broke down their left. The
ball-carrier attracted all our defenders, so when he slipped a square
ball there was one of his team mates just inside the box with seemingly
acres of space around him. Rattled, we went on to concede a 4th pretty
promptly too. A ball over the top eluded the defence and (for a
change) I was on my heels. Was he offside? No matter, I did my best
open door impression and the ball nestled in the net.
And that wasn't even it for the half. When their striker got the ball
with his back to goal 20 yards out there didn't look to be much danger.
Three twists and turns and a thumping shot inside the post proved that
looks can be deceiving. 5:1 on the stroke of halftime. I'm probably
doing our attacking threat a disservice here, but I can't really
remember us troubling their keeper much after the pen. Maybe the second
half would be better...
Well, we'll never know. The first 10 minutes or so of the second half
were much like the first - fairly even. Then came a lobbed pass over
the top. An easy take and I was already thinking about how a quick
counter could be launched. What's that? I've missed the ball
completely and now the striker behind me is poking the ball into an
empty net? Sh!t. In hindsight, I'm not sure if it was that or the
hat-throwing strop that followed that was most Pony-worthy. Either way,
comedy goalkeeping has a new benchmark.
By now the game had taken on the air of a foregone conclusion and
neither team could quite rouse themselves to change that. Rauru had one
cleared off the line, someone managed to clear the back fence with an
effort, Paddy found the net with another, although it was ruled out for
it being an indirect free-kick (despite it looking suspiciously like a
foul and the ref not having his hand up). We even got one back - well
played that man (who was easily one of our better players on the day). Brooklyn, however, weren't happy with us being within four of them and banged in one more just for fun.
Ultimately, it was one of those games best forgotten. Almost funny that
on another day it could have been so different. We certainly needn't
be worried about round two with those guys. Back at the clubrooms, it
was decided that no MVP points could realistically be given, so that's
one chore off Aaron's list for the week. Not even Stallion was
football-related - congratulations Graham for a sterling effort as
barman.
6 comments:
Shit, tough game Stallions.
God, freaked out looking at the table - if you look at the table that doesn't register one of our wins this puts us on equal second to bottom with Inter (though I guess whoever they wrongly gave that win to - Nth Wgtn(?) may drop below us when those points are removed). So while its not that bad, we are potentially only one loss off being in the bottom two and fighting relegation! Time to fix this vs Miramar Saturday. A must win.
We probably pushed up too high in the defense and maybe should have played to the conditions. I can't recall their defensive players pushing up to halfway. Maybe we should have stayed deeper and waited for the ball to come to us rather than running back, trying to chase a ball that held up in the wind or was blown 8 metres across field.
It also didn't help with the arms and legs having a local anesthetic during the game. Should of had a whisky at half time.
Paul, we should all have written a paragraph. we were all shit and all deserved the pony award not just you
Man, tough game alright. We were all pretty shit but at least Graham performed well behind the bar and Paul wrote a good match report!
The bounce of the ball just never seemed to go our way. I'd love to blame the shit ref or the wind, but BNU had the same shit ref (who was an unbiased type of shit) and the same wind so I guess that just leaves us. Agree that our tactics weren't the best. I had assumed that because they hadn't scored or conceded many goals that their attack must be average and their D good. I was wrong on both accounts (their D was ok but not that good).
It's a crazy old league with weird results every week (how did Marist beat NWLions 7-3?!). We'll just have to keep going hard, try and cut down on on D, and put away any chances on attack.
You won't have to worry about a "hat-throwing strop" this week Paul...the headband has arrived ;)
"on errors on D" that was meant to read.
Look on the bright side fellas, we can't play any worse than that...lets learn from it and make sure it doesn't happen again this week!
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