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Big Circus, Sunday 14th May. The Swiss and the Knights traveled to the Atsugi Big Circus (why is it called that?) for the late fixture on Sunday in one of the few remaining games of this season’s league. With the Hibs. already having claimed the trophy and the Knights already demoted, it was mostly for pride that both teams had gone 60 kilometers out of Tokyo to this patch amidst the onsens. Well, considering the prizes at stake in the TML championship, it is for pride every weekend.
One of the Knights players said at the conclusion of the game, ‘A 2-1 win on two penalties, now that’s something to be proud of’’. I looked at him and thought about saying something an American usually does like ‘A win is a win’, ‘Doesn’t matter how, just win baby’, or the old classic ‘Sayonara Knights’, but the more I thought, what he said was enough. Regardless of the fact that both times Quentin the ref. called for penalties, Swiss players were clearly knocked to the ground inside the box. One of these was an impressive kung-fu style kick from behind while Yan was in the midst of shooting towards an open goal. Regardless of the fact that the Knights played most of the game with 10 players, had 11 for about 10 minutes, until their keeper was awarded a red card for a two footed spike tackle on Angelo (just outside the box), the Swiss did control the game and probably should have scored a few more during the run of play but just couldn’t get shots on target. Lastly, as manager of the Swiss, I was proud that I was able to get 11 players to the ground for a 7:30 kick off on a Sunday night – a feat that should not be overlooked.
The Knights actually took the lead in the first half against the run of play when Quentin called for a handball on Raffaelle outside the box. Jorge, who had actually played the first league game of the year in a Swiss shirt, sweetly struck a left footed free kick in past Uchida in goal for a 1-0 lead. The Swiss equalized about 5 minutes later following a corner kick which was cleared off the line. The ball was falling straight to Dave Pratt only for the Knights defender to smack into him from behind and Quentin had little choice but to point to the spot. Kirk put it away in spite of some impressive coaching of the keeper by Jorge who pointed to where the keeper should go, thus directing Kirk to play it the other way. The rest of the half consisted of the occasional Swiss miss and the Knights counter attacking but few of them resulted in shots on goal. I think the Knights had 4 shots on target all evening. The second half of the match didn’t change much as both teams had the bare minimum in terms of players and no lineup changes were made. The Swiss were trying to pass the ball around more to create against a solid back line of the Knights but an inability to control the ball in the final third and also poor finishing meant there was nothing to show for some good build-up work. The Knights were more direct about counter attacking and Jorge up front combined with some surging runs by the big defenders made it interesting but no goals resulted. With about 15 minutes left, Yan earned the Swiss their 2nd penalty and Dave knocked it in. The game ended with the Knights trying to equalize but it wasn’t to be.
The Swiss are pressuring the YCAC for 2nd place but we have to hope for a strong performance from the Geckoes to make it happen this weekend. Good luck to them.
Reporter: Cap'n Kirk.
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