Michael Collins vs Torpedo Raval 1-1

After a turbulent few weeks with results going both ways the mighty Collins were looking for a prechristmas boost and a further win to get us through until 2008. Torpedo had had a few good results and were looking to advance into the top half of the table. St Marti was at its worst with dust devils blowing up across the pitch, and to cap it off, Isaac turned up to ruin the match with his personal brand of awful refereeing. Don't complain, don't kick the ball away, don't dispute, don't breathe!!!

A few players that we expected to start weren't there, and i arrived to find 4 players never seen in a collins kit before. Janus didn't get a chance to play. Nasim started at right back, Christian played at centre half for me to get a look at the opposition, and Fritz joined me on the bench. The usual suspects were playing apart from that.

The first ten minutes were very much in the Collins favour. Battling hard with 5 across midfield, and Dom up front, the Torpedo midield didn't have any of the ball, and it seemed only a matter of time before we scored. The game slowly levelled though and our fullbacks looked a little slow. A couple of scares proved that this would be quite an even game. Isaac insisted that we wear bibs as the colours were similar, and we ended up with our shirts inside out. Playing midfielders as defenders is always a gamble as they tried to get forward all the time and expose the flanks. Minutes later the inevitable happened as just this happened, 1-0 Torpedo. Heads didn't go down though. There was all to play for, and back we came we were seeing alot of the ball but it was looking crowded up front. Half time came and soem changes were needed.

The team thought that we should not change the plan and were feeling confident, so Fritz came on to add a little speed to the right wing for Zugi. Apart from that, it all stayed the same. 10 minutes into the second half after a comical fall, Richard replaced Mike as centre back. It was now very difficult to see anything with the wind and grit added to the direct sunlight in the defenders faces. Torpedo made a strange change bringing on a slow forward who was very easy to control. The Collins were starting to make a few chances at the other end and it looked like Torpedo were tiring. Just then they scored as we took our eyes off the ball, and bizarrely Isaac disallowed it for offside. He evened the tables though by sending off Lucho for a second yellow card within a minute for a very innocuous challenge. The opposing player was squealing like a stuck pig though.

Being down to 10 men actually improved us. Dom came back to central defence meaning there was more space up front for Lluis and Ian to work. Nasim came off and was repaced by Lluis friend (antonio?), and Fritz dropped back to right back. All of a sudden, their midfield had no bite left, their forwards were easily controlled and they were on the back foot. They began to argue amongst themselves and we pushed forward winning a series of corners and free kicks. For some reason a backpass was not dealt with and Ian slipped between goalkeeper and defender. It looked like he had overrun the goal but he managed to keep it in and pass back to Lluis, who buried it from a very tight angle. The Collins were in raptures, it was no more than we deserved after the red card setback. Isaac blew for full time, and a christmas point seemed a fair result. The Torpedo players were gents and took it well. 7 points before the xmas break is unheard of, are we getting better or luckier. We'll see in 2008. MOM kyle, great workrate in midfield. Great debut by Fritz. All in all a good days work....

Another week best forgotten 7-1 Dynamo

Well it seemed to start ok, we had a full team and 2 subs. A new midfielder, Branco who looked the part, and we were feeling pretty confident against the team directly above us. On the back of a 7-1 win last week, on paper we should have had a good game against Dynamo. The fact that they had about a squad of 25 and all came to the game probably should have warned us but it didn't. The first half was a blur, they seemed to have 4-5 strikers cutting swathes through our defence at will. Every pass went straight to a man, and every clearance from us ended up back in defence within seconds. Midfield had the ball for seconds before being swarmed upon, and even the Dynamo centre backs were making it look easy. Defensively we were poor, both Rich and Mike looked too slow against the lightning strikers. Carlos and Tom were a glimmer of hope kicking everything that moved apart from the ball, and causing the Dynamo wingers to lose control a little. Either way, they were 4-0 up in no time and it was starting to get messy.

Ian manged to get on top of a long ball by Mike Roberts, skipped past the defence and lobbed a despairing keeper to give us a lifeline. The next 10 minutes the collins pushed up and caused problems. It looked like we were getting into the game at last, then came the whistle.

Weary at half time we realised we needed to change things and carry on the pressure. Branco moved inside and Ian to the left wing, Lluis to the right. Zugi came on for Carlos and his mate for Mike. Immediately at the restart they scored again and it was going to be difficult. Richard did his regular ridiculous slide in the area to gift them a penalty, and they made multiple substitutions (more than 5 i think), but each of the subs was as good or better than the men they replaced. 7-1 did not flatter them, they were that much better than us. One more game against Torpedo and then the xmas break. Lets try and make this one a 3 pointer...

Michael Collins vs Storesnay 7-1 woohoo

After the match that cannot be mentioned the week before, i asked the team to show what they were made of, and prove to the rest of the league that we weren't going to be this seasons whipping boys. And they made me proud!!

Dom returned to bully the opposing defence, and Zugi was back from suspension, but without Lucho, Jerry, Chris, Javi and Adam, the team was looking a little threadbare again. Carlos came to the rescue with his friend Alberto, and Tomiu, joined us on the bench.

The game was so surprising that i actually forget when the goals went in, so its probably not going to be factually correct but from what i can remember.....

Storesnay were playing 4-5-1 and their gollywog striker although quick was easily marshalled by the centre backs. Our wingbacks pushed up and kept him sorely lacking in support. Lluis was running like a greyhound on the left wing and his marker was completely out of his depth. To stop their packed midfield running the game, we opted simply to miss it out by firing long balls at Doms head and letting Ian and Lluis pick up the pieces. It worked so well one might wonder why we don't do it all the time, in fact......

Lluis darted past his despairing defender and slotted calmly for 1-0 quite early on, and we were determined not to let the post goal confusion rattle us and allow an easy equaliser. The pressure continued and Ian bagged a goal soon after calming us down and showing that we can score more than one per game. Tom was sent to the dressing room for a small graze on his knee and we had to use a substitution by a very petty referee. Tomiu went to left back and immediately took the ball upfield on a long mazy run. Not a bad find but definitely wanted to get forward. Dom scored soon afterwards which he deserved for bossing the penalty area. A silly 5 minutes allowed Storesnay to get a goal back when we started to pass the ball about in front of goal but before the break Lluis was dragged down for a penalty and Kyle took it with style. Shellshocked, we retired to the changing room, the only blot being that we had 3 yellow cards for kicking the ball after the whistle had gone, nonsense and the ref was being pathetic.

The second half started with 4 changes for them, but much the same for us. Alberto came on for Mike and soon afterwards, Tom replaced the very good Hugo in centre mid for thigh strain. This meant no more subs, but plenty more goals to come. Dom added another soon afterwards and Lluis capped his man of the match performance with another goal and a penalty. Their forwards were trying spectacular dives and complaining relentlessly. Tom was trying his hardest to wind them up by commenting on their captains parentage being linked to poultry, and recieving an elbow for his troubles. Jordi was obviously bored in goal so began his brawl starting behaviour but their striker was so fed up he walked off. Ian got a second yellow from the pedant in the black for handball, and Jordi got one fot timewasting. At 7-1 with 3 minutes to go, why would you timewaste?????

Either way, it was a wonderful performance, and sets us up nicely for Dynamo on saturday.

Michael Collins vs Mu Gung Hwa, 1-2...oooo the shame!

There were high hopes ahead of the clash with Mu Gung Hwa. After all, nobody
ever loses to the Koreans, do they? Last season they even managed to lose to
the even more inept Dragon United, so this was a chance to enjoy the
delightful scenery of Vallbona and three even more certain points than
England at home to Croatia.

But things didn't look quite as promising when we found we had only just
managed to scrape together eleven players, and the bench was occupied by the
suspended Zugi and his very bored looking girlfriend. To make matters worse,
Lucho was injured and in no state to play, and the other full back, Chris,
was anything but one hundred per cent either.

But once things got under way, it looked like this was going to be plain
sailing for the Bhoys in green and white. The Koreans were hopelessly inept
in midfield, their forwards may have been fast but were hardly threatening,
and they had a substitute goalkeeper who never used his hands and wasn't
much better with his feet.

A few promising attacks from the Collins and a few feeble efforts from the
Koreans, and the bookies were already paying out. This game had a five or
six goal win written all over it. Sure enough, some ten or fifteen minutes
into the game and Lluis struck home the opening goal with a shot that was
made to look a lot better than it really was by the fact that the goalkeeper
didn't bother trying to save it.

That was the wake up call the Koreans needed, and as the half drew on, they
started looking more and more dangerous, although their forwards couldn't
hit a barn door with a broomstick or whatever the saying is, and Jordi
expertly dealt with any miskicks that actually hit the target. Instead of
sewing things up there and then with a couple more goals before half time,
the Collins sat back and allowed the Koreans more and more chances, and we
were finally made to pay when one of their forwards exploited the fact that
Lucho was unable to run by running into acres of space and sticking away the
equaliser. This was a minor setback, and we all expected normal service to
resume after the break.

Unfortunately, where the Collins is concerned, normal service isn't perhaps
half as good as we would like to think it is. It's hard to find anything
positive at all about the second half, as our poor fitness started to show,
and a desperate lack of ideas up front failed to threaten Mu Gung Hwa's
stand-in goalkeeper. The best chance to wrap it all up come in when Adam was
through on goal but rather than slot the ball home, he opted to pass the
ball to Ian, despite the fact that he was in an offside position at the
time. Summed the day up nicely.

With Gerry also injured but no subs to replace him, from expecting to coast
to victory, the Collins found themselves desperately hanging on for the
draw. And with five minutes left on the clock, disaster. Richard stuck out a
leg to tackle the nippy (get it?) Korean forward who was through on goal,
and down went the wee git like a ton of bricks as if his ankle had just
become detached from the rest of his body.

Referee Chelsea John immediately pointed to the spot while the Collins
defence was outraged at this potential Oscar winning performance that was
about to cost us the match. For no apparent reason, Jordi's protests seemed
to hit a particularly nasty chord among our oriental opponents, and a
certain member of their team called Yassir ran the length of the penalty
area and went in feet first in an attempt to turn Jordi's leg into a
boomerang. Canadians play ice hockey so they are used to this kind of stuff,
so Jordi coolly throttled his assailant and allowed other players to drag
him away to Chelsea John for trial, and the verdict, and quite rightly so,
was a red card.

Back to the game, and the diving little imp took the penalty himself,
celebrated with a most ungentlemanly gesture towards our keeper, and we were
2-1 down.

It was in the final minutes of the game that the Collins finally worked out
that a bit of attacking football would not go amiss, but it was all too
little, too desperate and too late. We left the pitch with our heads held in
shame, having lost to the team nobody ever loses to, and despite the nasty
incidents towards the end, you have got to hand it to the Koreans. They don't
often get to enjoy winning matches, but at the end of the day, the Collins
only have ourselves (and a few injuries and absent substitutes) to blame and
Mu Gung Hwa rightful winners. Ooh, it hurts to say that.

Collins Vs West Ham - 0-3

Well this was always going to be a tough game, against the league leaders, with the leagues top scorer for the previous 4 seasons, but we still went into the game with confidence as the previous 2 performances were good enough to merit something from the game. The problems started when 5 minutes before the start of the game we found that Adam, Javi, and Gary weren't going to be there and the teamsheet and tactics had to change completely. We did however welcome back Jerry who has been missed on the right wing, and Carlos appeared helping to add a much needed sub.

Carlos's job was to shadow Kike the striker, thankless task for anyone, this meant that Ian was up front on his own, and the wingers were there to support him. A defensive midfield of Zugi and Tom was used to shore up the middle of the park, and Lucho, Mike, Dom, and Chris started at the back.

The first 20 minutes were as usual pretty even, with the Collins getting a few chances but looking a little light up front. Ian worked hard but wasn't seeing much of the ball, and Lluis and Jerry gamely tried to support. Carlos drifted a few times but in all the forward line of West Ham was contained well. On about the 40th minute disaster struck, the wonderful defending lapsed for a heartbeat and an exquisite piece of skill from West Hams midfielder as he spun on the spot and rifled a postage stamp shot past the despairing hand of jordi. 1-0 West Ham. Half time came and we didn't have much to change. the strikers were havinga tough time of it, and Carlos was starting to tire but without the expected replacements there wasn't much we could do.

We started the second half on the back foot and 10 minutes in, a scrambled goalmouth goal slipped past everyone, and it was time for a change. Hugo, who had come on for an injured Lucho at left back in the first half was injured himself but Carlos was on his last legs, so Richard came on for Carlos, and Hugo had to suffer on. Dom was pushed up front and started to cause damage immediately. Within seconds though, Kike left a stranded Richard and fired past jordi for 3-0, always a danger when changing centre backs mid game. From there on in though, it was very even, the last 25 minutes were very positive. Dom was winning everything in the air up front and giving Ian and Lluis something to work with. Jerry went off injured and James came on up the right. We started pushing them on the back foot but unfortunately no goal was forthcoming and the whistle came too soon for us. We can't complain about the scoreline really, they were a better attacking force than us, but the last minute change of plans didn't help. Maybe we showed them too much respect and limited our firepower, but it was a strong performence by most of our players and something to build on. Carlos had a great game, as did Hugo, but Dom was the most influential player in the game, and won the MOM award. Zugi got sent off for a stupid argument at the end with the Narcissitic referee and will miss next weeks match.

Collins vs St George 2-3

We went into this one slightly nervously but not without confidence after the wonderful 7's tournament scores the week before. St George had lost a few key players but they were still a very real threat. The league champions had lost the week before against the Celtic Cross and would be gunning for a good win.
The Collins started brightly with Ian and Adam up front, working the Georgian back line well, and the defense was marshalling their attackers nicely limiting them to 30 yard shots. Jordi had hardly anything to do in goal and we were looking good. About 10 minutes into the game and some good work on the wings allowed Ian to shoot, a rebound fell into Adams path and it was 1-0 Collins, this was just what we wanted and it was time to build on the score. The Georgians pushed on and a silly mistake in the very well organised defense and they managed a goal mouth scramble into the net 1-1 and frustration. The Collins were still in it though, and Lluis was rampaging down the wing at every opportunity. The Georgian keeper was looking pretty dodgy and the orders were to shoot on sight. 5 minutes before the end of the half and Ian teamed up with Lluis along the left, the flying winger skipped past two men and slotted a classic shot onto the postage stamp, the Collins were going in 2-1 up against the league champions.

Half time was about keeping up the good work. Tom was looking a little tired so James got a run out on the right wing to try to draw some of the cover away from Lluis. Kyle and Zugi were covering alot of ground in central mid but with the injuries there were no replacements for them, and they had to dig deep. Only one silly mistake had marred an otherwise faultless defensive display and Mike, Dom, Lucho, and Chris were covering Jordi well.

The second half started well again but soon the Georgian changed became apparent. Their manager came on at centre back and started stroking the ball around creating options for them. They looked alot more self assured, and created more chances. The Collins started to be pegged back in our own half and tired legs were starting to tell. Jordi began a series of wonderful saves and Dom had three goal line clearances to his credit. The Collins were under threat but coping well and the georgians started the long shots again. The equaliser came 7 minutes from the end and tired defensive players started to make mistakes. Richard came on for the last 5 and Hugo replaced and injured Lluis to try to fight out the last 5 minutes but it wasn't to be. A lack of subs pais the price for a sterling display by the Collins. With the last kick of the game, the Georgians scored to leave us with 0 points for all the hard work. Man of the match was Jordi for his outstanding contribution, and its a far cry from the 14-0 drubbing we recieved last year at their hands...

Barca 7s Tournament

The Michael Collins went into this tourneo with no real expectations, just looking forward to a kick around and seeing a few new faces on the pitch. We arrived in bits and bobs and almost missed the first game. The tournament started with 2 groups of 4, and we started with a bang. The first hattrick for a very impressive Leroy on his debut and we were 3-0 up. Game 2 was against Flo's pilote urbain, and our nemesis struck to put them 2-0 up. The Collins rallied though and through impressive work from Kyle and Ian, brought the match back to a draw at 2-2 by the final whistle. Our final game was a 3-1 victory placing the Collins at the top of group 1 and into the next round.

The first game of the second phase was against a strong second placed team from the other group, the other french outfit. But Ian made short work of them after some wonderful football from Tom, Lluis, and Leroy. 3-0 Michael Collins and we were cruising. Next came Flo's french team again, and once more the Collins could only draw with the mercurial frenchman, and this meant that we needed a win to guarantee first place at the end. The signs looked good, the Black Sheep were to be our opponents and were carrying a bit of age on us. We had a few subs available but it was decided to play the strongest line up from the start. For some reason it just wasn't happenning in this game and tired legs gifted them an early goal. The heads went doen for once and at 2-0 Black Sheep the Collins ran out of ideas. It was a real shame after all of the hard work and ended our 12 match unbeaten 7's record. To make matters worse, Flo scored in the other game to win 1-0 and they went second.

A great day was had by all but disappointment that we only came third. Then to cap it all off England lost the RWC.........Bollocks!

The 2007-2008 Season begins 2-1 Collins

The season began with a bang for the Michael Collins FC with a win at Barceloneta 2-1 against the mighty 9 man Red Stars. Either way a wins a win and it took us almost 6 months to get three points on the board last season. It was an odd game as we didn't know half the team, and we were trying out new players due to the lack of pre-season opportunities. Normally we'd have lost this one but i think the new Michael Collins is moving up in the world. Dom and Mike Moberts marshalled the defence well and the new forward pairing of Peter and Adam were getting in some good positions. The finishing was woeful though, and if we'd played like we were at the end of last season we would have scored 6 or 7. Anyway, the old guard of Ian, Kyle, and Javi played well as always and 3 points is a great start. A couple of new signing shone, Chris at right back is very assured, and Luis looked menacing on the wing. It will be nice when Tom and Jerry get back in action, there will be alot of attacking options for us by then

Barca 7's this weekend, and a chance to play against Flo the defector, lets see if we can convince him to come home......