Match Report – 31 January 2010 – Match Day 3
Dinamo Red Star (Campos, Pratt x2) | 3 – 0 | Familiar FC
Sunday’s match pitted the #1 and #2 teams from last season in what was sure to be a battle royal. Somewhere in the stands I was sure I heard the chant “two men enter, one man leaves…two men enter, one man leaves…” The game was sure to be a spectacle as Familiar was out to avenge the 2-3 loss they suffered in the championship final.
Well, spectacle is one way to describe it. Watching the play was kind of like watching Tina Turner as Aunty Entity in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. One could try to resist but ultimately had to watch as they were equally disturbed, entertained, amazed and grossed out.
Both teams showed the rust from two weeks off while having only played two games in the new season. The ball was constantly given away with nary a 4 pass stretch achieved. As is usually the case when a team is out for revenge and the level of play is messy, the game became unnecessarily physical. I say unnecessary because the ref couldn’t handle the spastic pace and made matters worse with errant decisions…or rather lack of decisions.
That said, we managed to keep a clean sheet thanks to Mike’s aggressive control of his box. After taking a knee to the head, his eyes turned red and ears started steaming…oh yeah, it was on. Sebas and Carr hit people like they usually do, but as the true card king from last season, Sebas took the yellow. Billy also earned a yellow for colorful commentary, but the rant seemed justified after all of the times he was nearly hacked to pieces without any sort of call. He certainly got the last laugh by opening up the scoring working through the last two defenders and beating the keeper, 1-0.
On a strange chemistry note, Sean and Nick quickly became bunk bed buddies as Nick pushed forward from the back. His overlapping runs fed Sean, Tyler, Billy and P the ball time and time again. Their first real connection ended up in a smashing back post header by Sean off a perfectly delivered corner kick, 2-0. In what seemed like only moments later, a ball was played into the box and then out to Nick who overlapped into the corner and then crossed the ball back post to Sean who was waiting to head in a deja vu header, 3-0.
Solid, messy win starting down a man and playing with only one sub. We will hit our stride and the chemistry will flow. We just need to take turns bunking with Nick and Sean!
