Mucky
Joined: 17 Feb 2005
Posts: 206
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| Posted: Thu 26.4.07 5:42 Post subject: FROM IAIN C |
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With apologies if I’ve spelt your name wrong, invented you, missed you out altogether or fictionalised events. This week, I’ve hidden a regular first choice premiership eleven somewhere in the report. First to e-mail me with all eleven names gets to feel smug about it for 10 minutes. It’s easy! Just look for the contrived sentences.
21/04/2007
Colombo Lions 1, Maradana 1
Lions unbeaten run continues despite second-half fright show.
And about time too! After almost a month consisting of a tour abroad, bank holidays and playing amongst ourselves, the Lions emerged blinking into the sunlight for the first meaningful friendly in what seemed like an age. For a pleasant change we’ve travelled away to play a fit and well organised opposition and the Lion’s current unbeaten run of 5 games looked as though it might be under some scrutiny. The pitch was a bit unforgiving but the prospect and eventual arrival of some rain improved the playing conditions.
It was a difficult game to judge given the circumstances as the playing surface was so uneven and the opposition looked as if they’d done this football lark before.
For most of the game the Lions preferred the route one approach while Maradana chose to stroke the ball around seemingly with a purpose.
Frederik was kept busier than usual but the Frenchman was on top of his game and dealt with everything, stopping and holding onto a variety of tricky shots from all angles.
But from a Lions eye view, the first half reflected the weather in being a bit dull but without the occasional flashes of brilliance. The Maradana goal wasn’t threatened convincingly and both teams seemed content to spend most of the time sussing each other out and playing a waiting game.
In fact the only notable piece of Lions play led to the opening goal.
A routine corner was bent in toward the back post by Rich. In a packed area, the Lions went to attack the ball at the near post taking with them a defender each. The result was an awkward bounce which fooled everyone and made the ball end up high in the far side of the net. There was something about this fluke that looked well rehearsed.
0 - 1
Whilst either team were as likely as the other to be one-nil down, the nature of the goal seemed a bit unfair on Maradana. However, there was a discernable girding of the loins and they carried on until the interval as though the score line remained balanced.
Half time: 0 – 1
The second half was a different ball game as the rain started in earnest.
However decent a team Maradana might be, they certainly weren’t as good as the Lions made them look in this period.
In making sure that everyone got to make an on-field appearance, the out-field ten became disorganised and struggled to find any game plan beyond that of defending deeply against side growing more in confidence with every shot on goal.
In short, the second half was a shambles. There wasn’t a single shot on the Maradana goal and the Lion’s defence were scrambling away danger in an uncharacteristic panic rather than cleverly and effectively as they have done in recent memory. Almost all clearances were wayward, culminating in yet another attack with Maradana virtually setting up camp on our half of the pitch. The back four seemed unable to bridge the midfield gap to set up any kind of scoring chance.
A battered and chaotic defence, weakened by Martin’s absence, eventually succumbed to the sustained pressure and conspired to concede the messiest of scrambled goals for the equaliser.
As the rain continued to hammer down, Maradana continued to torment almost exclusively in the Lion’s half of the field.
In the final few minutes, Maradana could have claimed a deserved victory when a short cross was headed goal ward and then deflected cleverly on its way in. However, Asanga showed great positioning sense, finely tuned reflexes and goal keeping zen denying the effort by palming the ball safely over the bar.
The atmosphere was pretty good though. Thanks to the rain, the crowd had gathered under the sheltered stand and were making themselves heard.
In the end though, Maradana should feel justifiably aggrieved not to have won this game while the final whistle couldn’t come soon enough for the out-of-practice Lions. Maybe they’ll be downing the champagne next week.
The draw, however, stretches the Lions unbeaten run to 6 games and the Man of the Match award went deservedly to Frederik for a solid first half display and a clean sheet.
Final score: 1-1
Starting XI: Frederik (M.o.M), Laurent, Steve H, Kaz, Iain D, Jools, Rich (capt.) (1), Steve A, Chandu, Danny, Mucky
Subs: Asanga, Danieli, Iain C, Andy, Kadi, Furrukh, Sylvan |
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