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...