Div 4 Men Turn it on ‘Los Merengues Style’

The mighty Blacks were under the pump from the first kick off. Flinders had the majority of early possession and pressed frequently testing the defence and Jacob who was Buffon-esque. Apart from a plethora of interesting free kicks, which were described in detail by a solid and entertaining referee, not much happened in the first 35 mins.

The Blacks had some practice setting up walls and defending corners, and Flinders were honing their offensive clearance skills. Shortly before half time the Blacks grabbed the lead through a neat passage of play. A Saville 40 yard throw, a Dooley flick on, a Foster crossshot, and a Pruis tap in. Magic.

The second half was more of the same. Blacks solid, nay rigid, in defence. Billy and Aaron as un-passable as Gandalf on a bridge. Blacks did however concede a penalty through a heinous tackle. After getting a lecture from the ref about penalty etiquette Jacob Buffon Davey pulled off an amazing right footed save while diving in the other direction. The shot had the momentum of an angry camel, but Davey’s right foot was more than it’s equal. At this stage Flinders seemed to be having a competition to see who could kick the ball the furthest over our back line, which suited us fine.

We scored another goal through Foster forward pressure, intercepting a clearance, first touch intentionally close to the keeper to lure him out, pass off to Dave the ice man, who coolly slotted Blacks second, and last of the day. Blacks win 2-0, Real Madrid-esque.

A very even affair in the first half, with both teams having good opportunities. Both defences remained solid. Flinders quickly identified Johnswood’s left shin as a team weakness and set out attacking it with vigour, forcing an early change and messing up the coaching staff’s brilliant substitution plans. Both teams remained solid all half, with Gaku and Brennan coming to dominate the midfield and starting to earn some advantages for the blacks.

The second half brought both the good and the bad. Blacks opened the scoring through a Rajan kick out, which Flynn tracked down like a hunter and torpedoed into the back of the net.

Rajan meanwhile was getting some punch practice in his own box, and had to bring out the flying volley save once or twice also. Flinders eventually tied up the game with some boring play leading to a boring shot which rolled into the goal boringly.

Blacks pushed to regain the lead through some Brennan magic. He picked up the ball in midfield, decided to dribble, avoided passing like a champ, dribbled some more, and hammered the ball into the corner with the outside of his right. Beautiful.

Unfortunately Flinders again brought the scores level through some sharp attacking and unlucky defending. Blacks pressed for the winner and should have had it when Sammy C had a blatant penalty claim harshly denied by the ref. Blacks were battered and bruised at this point with 3 people subbed injured and a couple more on the field injured. We held on for the 2-2 draw. Great effort from the lads.