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ASIJ Sunday 2nd March,
Plenty of goals between YCAC and BFC yet again as a Shosuke inspired BFC turned around a 3-1 deficit in the last 25 minutes to claim all 3 points in Chofu on Sunday
Perfick it was at ASIJ, Ma, absolutely perfick. Not too hot, not too cold, no wind to speak of and the pitch, omg, the pitch. That's the best line I've run up and down with my flag all year. ASIJ, with a little imagination, almost has a stadium feel about it. OK a lot of imagination but with high fences all round the pitch and a mini bleachers down 1 side for spectators its as good as it gets for most of us. We still managed to lose 3 balls over the fence, incidentally, belying the notion ever so slightly that we are actually worthy of playing in a stadium of any kind in the first place
The YCAC had brought a squad fit to do justice to such a surface. Zippy and skillful. None too bright as it turned out but good enough to run rings around the League leaders for 2/3 of the match.
First half, BFC were only really in the game when YCAC got fed up with the ball and gave it to them. That happened a fair bit but generally BFC did the right thing and returned it shortly after. Carlos didn't though. Presented with the ball 25 yds out, after a seemingly interminable lame effort by the YCAC back 4 to either clear the ball or stop Al Himmers dribble, he, Carlos not Al-though I'm not saying that Al wouldn't have done it equally as well given half the chance-lashed the ball into the corner of the net. A sweet strike with minimal back lift and radar guided accuracy. Economy of effort etc and so on and so forth
"Al Himmers dribble", worth another mention, I think
That was the equaliser. Hide Yoshioka had calmly lifted the ball over Jason in the BFC goal to put YCAC 1 up sometime before. The same 2 protagonists had met in similar circumstances, ie mano e mano, earlier but Jason's outstretched leg had kept his goal intact on that occasion. While on the subject, a 2nd stunning save late in the 2H denied a 4th YCAC goal. Jason again, obviously, the denyor and Tyson Masar the denyee.
That's Jason done. He was nowhere when Hide stooped to head in his and his teams second from Adam Sjostedts knock back. Nowhere again as Toru curved in a beauty from the edge of the box early in the 2H for 3-1 YCAC and nowhere again when only the corner of crossbar and post prevented Hide completing his hat-trick sometime after
Danny Rawlings, the YCAC GK was, by contrast, always somewhere. Flying through the air in vain attempts to stop any of the 1st 3 BFC goals, on his arse as Kazu's goal-line clearance rescued him after misjudging a free-kick or rooted to his line as the BFC fullback rather rudely smashed a direct free-kick into the opposite side of the goal for the winner. Who'd be a goalkeeper. 7 goals conceded and not really a bad one amongst them
Back to Toru's goal, his 1st for YCAC. 3-1 up and a couple of the BFC are starting to flag with a good 25 minutes left. What would you do at that point? Of course, 3-1 up-lets get 9 men into their box cos its party time. It ended badly when the ball broke leaving Shosuke and a friend 2 on 1 in the YCAC half. The former backed the lone defender right into his own area and then slipped the ball sideways for his pal to finish coolly. Worse than the goal itself was the sudden collective jogging of memory as to what Shosuke can do if you let him run at you. So YCAC stood off and let him run again; shoots and scores himself, 3-3, and again; wins a free-kick on the edge of the box. Bosh. 4-3.
There you have it. Snatched defeat from the jaws of victory as they say and missed the chance to complete the double over the Champs. Shogannai. We gave a good account of ourselves and got to play at ASIJ. It has marvellous facilities, nothing like the places any of us attended as teens with the possible exception of Team Manager Anthony Savage. He did seem to find the high fences and the Guards at the gate familiar and went quite pale when he saw the showers
Report by Steve Taw
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