Game 13, February 15, 9:00 a.m.
YC&AC Over 35s 2 v Koreanna 7
The Silver Machine had no choice but to abbreviate its amorous activities on Valentine’s Night in advance of this absurdly early kick-off on the hill. It’s good to see a Sunday morning from time to time, however, and a red-wine fueled and typically romantic Machine was rewarded for falling asleep on the sofa half way through Barry White’s “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Baby” with a glorious morning the next day.
(The choice is yours: You want Barry?
Or you want the Velvets?)
Rather spoiling the good-to-be-alive ambience as we dumped our bags pitchside was the unavoidable sight of Koreanna going through their warm-up routine. Resplendent in matching blue tracksuits with KOREANNA emblazoned in black on the back, the slim and muscular Koreans (a mixture of North and South, according to Captain Sada) did something similar to what the Seconds do pre-match, but looked so much more intimidating.
Forth and back across the pitch they jogged, sometimes switching sideways to do that difficult cross-leg skipping thing the professionals do which only causes most fools who try it to fall over. Then they sat on the floor in a circle and stretched, for at least ten minutes, until they were satisfied they were supple.
Meanwhile on the other side of the pitch the Over 35s banged in long shots in the general direction of Trevor the Octopus until the big hand was on the twelve.
Peeeeeep
First quarter then and, well, our worst fears were essentially realized. Totally outclassed, we could easily have walked off at the break 0-5 down. Headers flew narrowly over; drives whizzed just wide; our woodwork reverberated…. 0-2 was a good result at the quarter mark. Multiply that by four and you only get eight.
The team talk at the break was about getting tighter to their centre backs and central midfielders before they had a chance to spray it out wide and catch our back line on the hop. The team response on the pitch was simply to get even more physical.
Martin picked up a yellow for a hip-height Hornung-fu special; Gordon got a yellow for his second little shirt-pull of the day; and Russell was lucky to escape without sanction after attempting a most unbecoming little scything trip on their star man, the No. 20, as he peeled away on his jet heels near the touchline. The more robust approach kind of worked though. Koreanna could only add one to their tally in this period.
Third quarter now, and for reasons unknown (but I can make a guess [guests?]) Koreanna rested the influential No. 20 as well as their captain, and stuck their towering centreback in goal. History shows that the Silver Machine needs no second invitation to exploit such generosity, and once again we weighed in.
Thor turned in a six-yarder from a corner early in the quarter (1-3). His clenched fist to the bench helped raise spirits further as the crowd celebrated to the tune of Roxy Music’s “Do the Strand.”
“It’s a new sensation…”
A few minutes later, Alan Plater held up the play on the edge of the box before releasing an on-surging Gordon Deas down the right with a well timed pass. Gordon powered on past the flat-footed defender and thumped his shot first time low past the keeper. Cracking goal. Coolly celebrated.
Game on!
From 0-3 down to 2-3 down… Could we pull off yet another remarkable comeback victory? We fancied our chances alright as we strutted out for the fourth quarter.
Did I mention earlier that we’d been a bit physical in this one? We had. Indeed we were most unlike ourselves in this match, and respect to the referees, they punished us for our transgressions, sometimes quite reasonably. But did we deserve what happened at the beginning of the fourth quarter? We most certainly did not. I was right there alongside the referee when it happened…
…. Some sort of a through ball into the penalty box after a scruffy passage of play in midfield. Their striker goes in pursuit of the ball, closely followed by Martin who produces a brilliant sliding tackle to send the ball out cleanly for a corner. So clean was the contact between foot and ball, in fact, that the ball practically bounced off the wall behind the conifers at the Swimming Pool End. The referee, however, saw it differently.
PEEP! went the whistle and WRONG! pointed the finger toward the penalty spot. Worse, no! out came the yellow card, to be followed a second later by the red. Not without a quiet word in the ref’s ear–and he was not alone in expressing his opinion–off stomped Martin. Unbelievable.
The Koreanna striker then snidely chipped the PK straight down the middle as the Octopus dived to his right. And the rest, as they say, is…
Well, surely I don’t need to describe Thor’s second?
Game Over
For those of you who chose Barry White as your BGM (as no doubt most of you did), here’s a reminder of the Velvet Underground’s “Sunday Morning” refrain:
Watch out, the world’s behind you
There’s always someone around you who will call
It’s nothing at all
Take care, all.
By Alex Hendy
Goals: Thorstein Strand, Gordon Deas
Man of the Match: The ref
Referees: Lads, just because a bloke falls over under a challenge doesn’t mean he’s been fouled.
Cards: Hornung (2 x yellow), Deas
Attendance: Big respect to YFA Director Akiyama-san for watching the whole match.
