A blog! On a Monday! I thought I’d try and re-energise my inclination to compose some match reports as a way of fighting the drabs, and to give me something more interesting to write on a Monday morning, so let’s hope this is the start of something regular.
Last Friday saw another bumper turn out at Coram Fields, as has been the case since the start of the New Year. Your teams:
Yellows: me, Kanat, Markus, Alex, Siebs, Oleksandr, Andrea, Alan and Johnnie
Blues: Simon Gas, Parminder, Steve, Pele Dermot, Morgan, Johannes, Joe, Yev and Nick
Now then. It is not uncommon for queries to be raised about the balance of the two teams; in fact for certain people its almost a hobby (hello Alan!) However, I think it’s fair to say that I was somewhat taken aback when I resrufaced from the Holborn tube station at exactly how much opprobrium this week’s selection seemed to have generated. I can hazard some guesses as to why this might have been, but suffice to say that I was pretty confident the two teams balanced and that neither side would run away with the score.
Onto the game itself, and the pre-match favourites – that’s the Blue team – duly took the lead after around a quarter of an hour via a characteristically sweet volley from Johannes. However, the Yellow team, lead magnificently from the back by Oleksandr and Kanat, drew level after Alan nodded a Trent Alexander-Arnoldesque pinged through ball past the ‘keeper to change the momentum. A few moments later Alan turned provider slipping a perfectly weighted through ball to Markus who calmly and deftly stroked home to make it 2-1 to the Yellows.
The Yellows were really purring at this stage with Alex’s rangy passing and moving carrying the ball forward for Alan, Markus and Johnnie, with Siebs picking up anything loose in midfield. The Blue team fell further behind when Olexsandr picked up the ball on the left and drove home into the far corner.
Following Johannes’s loud exhortations the Blue team found some shape again and started to put the Yellows under pressure, but they found Andrea in goal to be an insurmountable obstacle, and one fairly spawny goal aside – a speculative cross from Yev that managed to plop into the net while everyone collectively went for a hotdog – the Yellows stood firm, with some muscular defending denying Morgan in particular the breakthrough that the Blues were striving for.
Final score: Yellows 3 – Blues 2
The pregame predictions were (thankfully) somewhat inaccurate, but it’s always nice to know people are keen for a decent game.
Until Friday!
Stick that in yer blog! 