Ultramarines 2 WISE 2 (match abandoned after 78 mins)
Some play football to relax, but the majority of the matches I've played in have become so fiercely competitive that there is always at least one (near) fight. Tonight though, it was a bit different. The match was abandoned...
We were originally scheduled to play this match on Friday 16th Feb but it was put back until tonight so that the English players of our team were in France and so could play. The fixture meant we had to travel away to their pitch, which no joke is actually worse than what we have to train on, and that is saying something! Our training pitch is pretty much a block of sand and so the bounce is unpredictable at best, but tonight the pitch was as hard as concrete and trust me it hurts to dive onto!
We got off to a terrible start and were soon 2-0 down. The first goal was not one of my proudest moments. The ball was lofted into the air from the right hand side down near the corner flag, I rushed out to catch it and would have except totally lost the ball in the glare of the spotlight. I nearly had the ball in my hands but was clattered by the onrushing striker, who buried the loose ball. I personally thought it was a foul but then again I should have done better.
The second though wasn't much better. Their winger cut inside from the right wing and hit it left footed along the ground towards my bottom left corner. I dived down and got a finger to it but again it was not enough. Honestly, one of these days I will instinctively dive down with two hands. This is another of the occasions when I would not have conceded if I had.
The quality of refereeing was shocking to say the least. I reckon even Graham Poll would have done a better job. One minute a push was a foul and then the next minute it suddenly was not a foul. I thought we were being hard done by (the referee was provided by the home team), but apparently our winger Harold used his hand to control the ball in the move which resulted in Remy thumping the ball into the back of the net via the inside of the post and the keepers' heels to make it 2-1.
2-1 it was at half time, and we began the second half as if we were winning and in control of the game. Unfortunately, we had lost Simon to an ankle injury late in the first half so our tactic suddenly became solely reliant on the counter attack, so hopefully the injury will get better soon. Tackles began to get more and more physical and we equalised with a half-volleyed effort from Tom direct from a quickly taken throw-in early on. Soon after I made a save I was proud off; I was caught horribly wrong-footed by a deflected shot but managed to jump up and claw the ball over the bar. Amusingly this resulted in a Blanc to Barthez show of affection from my defender Eric (for those not in the know, during World Cup 1998 in France, Blanc kissed Barthez on the head after making a crucial save).
Then it all kicked off. A free kick for the Ultramarines was fired in towards goal. My defender Eric went to clear the ball and from where I was I thought he did. There was shouting and screaming from the Ultramarine players and I learnt later that apparently the ball had bounced up and hit him on the arm. I did not see this myself, but he was inside the area and so if this is true then it should have been a penalty. The referee gave it, and pretty much everyone in WISE colours was protesting about an earlier incident that wasn't given [the Ultramarine keeper punched away a back-pass under pressure from our striker].
Meanwhile, I was preparing myself for the penalty, I have a good record with them (I have never conceded one) so I was confident. I knew he was going to hit it to my right from the way he placed the ball, but the argument was still going on so he could not take it. In the end, he just ran up and hit it, and blazed it over the bar (to my right). He shouted something (I didn't catch it) and followed the rest of his team off the pitch.
Whether they walked and so forfeited I do not know. Will the match be declared a draw? Will it be a marked down as a void match? Will we have to replay it? I do not know, but either way this was probably a blessing in disguise. We only had 13 available players tonight, and even lost Simon to an injury. I'd fancy us to beat them if we have to replay it, although knowing how heated a replay would be would we ever get a result?!
Labels: WISE
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