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Todoroki Sunday 17th Feb,
Swiss vs. Celts, a thrilla’ it was not. How about this for a short summary, an 80 minute tale of a bouncing ball that no one could kick into the goal. It was sort of like WWII in the North of France – a battle for position in the mud trench of Todoroki Pitch #2. Don’t let anyone try to convince you otherwise, the pitch reminded me a lot of the film set “Saving Private Ryan”. There were even a couple of bunkers, supposedly showers or toilets, but no lighting made the visit a little too adventuresome for me.
Anyway, a quick look at both teams at the start meant revealed some serious issues. The Swiss were outweighed at every position by at least 20 kilos and calcium deficiency in the Swiss lineup meant that any ball into the air was going to be won by a Celt unless Kirk was somewhere close by. Unfortunately, that didn’t help much as most of the long balls were by the Celts into the Swiss half of the pitch.
The Swiss can play some football on a decent ground but there was nothing like that on this night and the long ball and battle for position was perfectly suited to the well armed Celts. The Swiss just did not have a team that could play in conditions like they were or against opposition like the Celts – 50/50 balls were continuously won by the green and white.
The best player for both teams was king of the Celts, Henry M., whose continuous running in attack and tracking back to defend on corners was rewarded with a goal off a corner with about 15 minutes remaining. The Swiss captain screamed at his defender not to let the big guy go, but he admitted later that he lost him in the lights. He is a bright lad (I think Mick O’Hagan from the Hibs taught him at St. Mary’s a while back).
The Swiss had scored 10 minutes into the 2H after a series of 5 corner kicks which the 10 assembled Celts could not clear. Aoki just kept on sending it back in and Konno knocked it in from about 5 meters out. The keeper nearly got a hand to it but it snuck over. Both goals were a bit comedic and more due to will than skill. I’m not exactly sure what the purpose of these games is when no one produces anything that any of us want to look back upon the day after – sort of like the tree falling in a forest – does it make a sound? Or, like J2, the 3rd place match at the World Cup, does anyone really care?
The rest of the game was a series of bad passes, long boots, shots from distance, misses up close, one bad call for offsides against the Swiss which saw them score – to no avail. Overall, the Celts strategy was better as the defense was solid and their big men up front did hold the ball up well, often turning around their Swiss defenders. Unfortunately, the ground didn’t allow for anyone to control the ball and get off shots so many chances were wasted. The Swiss played their best in the last 10 minutes when Raffaelle pushed up into midfield and started to try and pass it around. Furuya had one shot go off the right post and Aoki had the ball in the net but it got called back. The best moments for the Celts were actually shots from about 25 to 30 meters out – one of them nearly going into the upper right corner in the 1H.
In the end, neither team seemed happy with the result. I’m not sure what kind of note I should end this on, I guess the fact that taxis don’t come to the ground past 8 pm means no one should accept that 6:30 kick off time again, what a disaster.
Report by Cap'n Kirk
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