COBRA 1 - LXG 1
Report by Florian Lafayette
On Saturday 10 March, LXG legionnaires faced COBRA in their battlefields of Kraaimen in a clash of the top two teams. The game had all the making of a big event: Girlfriends and friends had turned up in numbers on a sunny but crispy March day, coach Paulus Romanus in an Ferguson like attempt had put on his best Manchester United tie, and Dutch Emperor Martin Van Bommel, probably still confused and drunk from the night before, showed up with his latest Gucci sun glasses thinking that this was an all girls game somewhere down the Italian coast!
Soon after, players started preparing themselves mentally when the unavoidable occured. Patrick, King of all Scousers, received a call from our beloved Romanian Catalino, whose Romanian GPS had once again let him down on the way to the pitch. The ensuing conversation between Catalino and Patrick King of all Scousers had all the making of a joke, as Mr Scouser passed over the phone to me with a look of: '"It is Cata on the phone, can you give him directions? Flo can you help, please? I am struggling to understand what he has to say as he must be so excited about the game".
After this slight delay, coach Paulus Romanus gave one of his most inspirational speeches of the season and LXG legionnaires marched out onto the field to take on the best team so far in the league in a 4-4-1-1 tactic (no mention of torello this time though..;).
The begining of first half started well. For the first ten minutes, the LXG midfield of Pineda Copacabana and Vivien La belle vie seemed to control the ball, and a couple of free kicks and corners were found thanks to some determined running from Peter - Bip Bip- Puskas and Victor Napoleon on both sides of the wing. The best chance of the half came to Victor Napoleon's canon shot from outside of the box, which skimmed the bar and was heard all the way back on the plains of Waterloo. Surely, a contender for most amazing shot of the season on You tube's website. The remainder of the half was, however, a stark contrast to the beginning of the game as COBRA started to assert themselves by controlling more and more the midlfield and putting regular pressure on the defence. The spaces left in the midlfied and some inadvertent incursion by Florian Lafayette (I love to pretend to be a left back) into their attack led to one of COBRA's defenders stealing the ball and running down the whole length of the pitch to see his shot go wide of Michal's (the black Spider) post. Nevertheless, the defence, very active, in the latter part of the first half, held firm and LXG legionnaires went into half time in need of a break and a tactical reshuffling.
Changes were made with Marco Primadonna switching to left midfiled with Napoleon, Saj King of Gent taking over from Vivien la belle vie in the midfield, Maldini swooping with Eoin O'Shea at right back and Jimmy Daddy switching to left back in place of Patrick, King of all Scousers. The changes made seemed to pay off as LXG took the upper hand in the midfield. The left midfield was seeing a bit more of the ball and some nice moves between Marco Primadonna, Endrik the Panther and Napoleon kept their defence busy and resulted in a corner down on the left touch. Marco Primadonna took the corner and his long and beautifully curved cross landed on the keeper's goalline, who made a mess of it and let the ball cross his own line. Result: 1-0 for us. The subsequent celebration was an italian version of the film "Chariots of fire" with Marco Primadonna running half way across the pitch to jump passionately into coach Paulus Romanus' arms, which left both their girlfriends on the touchline wondering about their allegiance to the male sex.
Upset by such turn of events, COBRA pulled in all forces and made some changes by bringing on an additional forward. Straight from the kick off, COBRA kicked a long ball downfield which escaped the defence, but Michal's (the black spider) great sliding save held their assault. COBRA threatened forward but the defence held firm with some strong play in the air and strong tackling until a free kick was awarded to the opposition just outside the box. The ensuing free kick and especially defensive wall (to be shown at all great football academies) was an example of WHAT not to do. Members of the defensive wall (whose names will not be divulged for fear of repraisal) and probably thinking that it was time to take part in a jumping competition, jumped all together in unison when their number 10 spotted the gap and kept his shot low to the ground which fooled inevitably Michal the Spider. 1-1. The result was some swearing by our Polish keeper in his native language, which thankfully nobody understood.
With 10 minutes left, LXG legionnaires pushed forward one last time, especially down the right flank where Peter - Bip Bip - Puskas outpaced his defender a couple of times to see the first time his shot go wide and the second time his cross land in perfect position for Endrik the Panther to score the winner. However, Kraaimen being not the theater of dreams (not yet) for LXG, Endrik the Panther decided to proceed otherwise. Instead, Endrik in an uncharacterist fashion decided to mix his pencils (his feet) like a great Italian painter and proceeded to hit everything but the target. Fair to say, however, that the bad bounces on the pitch did not help.
With this chance left begging, COBRA tried one last time but LXG held firm for a 1-1 draw, which left the opposition (especially their stupid goalkeeper) celebrate like they had won the championship. As pointed out by a very emotional and proud coach afterwards in the dressing room, LXG can take a lot of pride from this performance as we maintain our unbeaten record in 2007 and keep pressure on COBRA.
On Saturday 10 March, LXG legionnaires faced COBRA in their battlefields of Kraaimen in a clash of the top two teams. The game had all the making of a big event: Girlfriends and friends had turned up in numbers on a sunny but crispy March day, coach Paulus Romanus in an Ferguson like attempt had put on his best Manchester United tie, and Dutch Emperor Martin Van Bommel, probably still confused and drunk from the night before, showed up with his latest Gucci sun glasses thinking that this was an all girls game somewhere down the Italian coast!
Soon after, players started preparing themselves mentally when the unavoidable occured. Patrick, King of all Scousers, received a call from our beloved Romanian Catalino, whose Romanian GPS had once again let him down on the way to the pitch. The ensuing conversation between Catalino and Patrick King of all Scousers had all the making of a joke, as Mr Scouser passed over the phone to me with a look of: '"It is Cata on the phone, can you give him directions? Flo can you help, please? I am struggling to understand what he has to say as he must be so excited about the game".
After this slight delay, coach Paulus Romanus gave one of his most inspirational speeches of the season and LXG legionnaires marched out onto the field to take on the best team so far in the league in a 4-4-1-1 tactic (no mention of torello this time though..;).
The begining of first half started well. For the first ten minutes, the LXG midfield of Pineda Copacabana and Vivien La belle vie seemed to control the ball, and a couple of free kicks and corners were found thanks to some determined running from Peter - Bip Bip- Puskas and Victor Napoleon on both sides of the wing. The best chance of the half came to Victor Napoleon's canon shot from outside of the box, which skimmed the bar and was heard all the way back on the plains of Waterloo. Surely, a contender for most amazing shot of the season on You tube's website. The remainder of the half was, however, a stark contrast to the beginning of the game as COBRA started to assert themselves by controlling more and more the midlfield and putting regular pressure on the defence. The spaces left in the midlfied and some inadvertent incursion by Florian Lafayette (I love to pretend to be a left back) into their attack led to one of COBRA's defenders stealing the ball and running down the whole length of the pitch to see his shot go wide of Michal's (the black Spider) post. Nevertheless, the defence, very active, in the latter part of the first half, held firm and LXG legionnaires went into half time in need of a break and a tactical reshuffling.
Changes were made with Marco Primadonna switching to left midfiled with Napoleon, Saj King of Gent taking over from Vivien la belle vie in the midfield, Maldini swooping with Eoin O'Shea at right back and Jimmy Daddy switching to left back in place of Patrick, King of all Scousers. The changes made seemed to pay off as LXG took the upper hand in the midfield. The left midfield was seeing a bit more of the ball and some nice moves between Marco Primadonna, Endrik the Panther and Napoleon kept their defence busy and resulted in a corner down on the left touch. Marco Primadonna took the corner and his long and beautifully curved cross landed on the keeper's goalline, who made a mess of it and let the ball cross his own line. Result: 1-0 for us. The subsequent celebration was an italian version of the film "Chariots of fire" with Marco Primadonna running half way across the pitch to jump passionately into coach Paulus Romanus' arms, which left both their girlfriends on the touchline wondering about their allegiance to the male sex.
Upset by such turn of events, COBRA pulled in all forces and made some changes by bringing on an additional forward. Straight from the kick off, COBRA kicked a long ball downfield which escaped the defence, but Michal's (the black spider) great sliding save held their assault. COBRA threatened forward but the defence held firm with some strong play in the air and strong tackling until a free kick was awarded to the opposition just outside the box. The ensuing free kick and especially defensive wall (to be shown at all great football academies) was an example of WHAT not to do. Members of the defensive wall (whose names will not be divulged for fear of repraisal) and probably thinking that it was time to take part in a jumping competition, jumped all together in unison when their number 10 spotted the gap and kept his shot low to the ground which fooled inevitably Michal the Spider. 1-1. The result was some swearing by our Polish keeper in his native language, which thankfully nobody understood.
With 10 minutes left, LXG legionnaires pushed forward one last time, especially down the right flank where Peter - Bip Bip - Puskas outpaced his defender a couple of times to see the first time his shot go wide and the second time his cross land in perfect position for Endrik the Panther to score the winner. However, Kraaimen being not the theater of dreams (not yet) for LXG, Endrik the Panther decided to proceed otherwise. Instead, Endrik in an uncharacterist fashion decided to mix his pencils (his feet) like a great Italian painter and proceeded to hit everything but the target. Fair to say, however, that the bad bounces on the pitch did not help.
With this chance left begging, COBRA tried one last time but LXG held firm for a 1-1 draw, which left the opposition (especially their stupid goalkeeper) celebrate like they had won the championship. As pointed out by a very emotional and proud coach afterwards in the dressing room, LXG can take a lot of pride from this performance as we maintain our unbeaten record in 2007 and keep pressure on COBRA.
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