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YCAC, Saturday, April 18th
In hindsight this 6 goal thriller seemed to be the inspiration behind the classic played out by Liverpool and Arsenal earlier this week. There were thrills, spills, great goals and foul mouths galore.
Right, I’m going to get my managerial excuses out of the way nice and early. In the week leading up to this game, we lost players for all kinds of unimaginable reasons. The last one being on the day of the game with Yusuke getting struck down by food poisoning. So into the game we went with 12 men.
Games between Sala and Geckoes are generally pretty fiery affairs. There is definitely no love loss between the two. However, until about the last 15-20mins of the game it was played fairly. Geckoes had the best of the possession in the early stages of the game, but showed no real threat. This was down to some solid and classy defending from the Sala back 3. Slowly the Sala midfield got a grip on the game. With Shige and Brookey seeing more of the ball we started to create some decent chances.
Stu and Toby were giving the Geckoes defence all kinds of trouble. The Big man had a great run down the left wing leaving 2 or 3 players for dead also showing great honesty to stay on his feet after several attempts at his ankles. Finally getting a shot off but hitting it wide. Toby then had a 1 on 1, which the keeper got down to save smartly. He had no time to rue this chance because the next time he touched the ball he scored a cracker. Some great work from Shige, easing past a few players on the edge of the box before slotting it through to the unmarked Toby. He took one touch then gave the keeper no chance with a clinical finish into far corner. 1-0 Sala.
The second goal came not long after. What appeared to be a harmless ball was played in (by Brookey I think), the Geckoes defenders stopped for a game of janken to decide on who would clear it. Stuey didn’t wait for the winner, he was in and slotted in a cool finish. Sala 2-0.
It looked like we’d be taking a 2 goal cushion into the 2nd half....until a late free-kick was award to Geckoes on the edge of the box, for what appeared to be a fairly innocuous handball (ball to hand, hand to ball, hands on your balls…I don’t know the rules anymore!!!) Anyway, the resulting free-kick was floated in. It was well placed but had no real pace on it. Yet, a combination of a short keeper blinded by the devilishly low floodlights led to a sucker punch goal just before half-time. 2-1.
Half-time came and went, and within about 5mins of the restart so had our lead. The ball was lofted into the edge of our box; the Geckoes player made a smart run and managed to get his head onto it. From the on looking Sala players it looked like a nothing header that would fall into the grateful arms of the waiting goalkeeper. But fate had other ideas dealing us a dodgy hand. Goalkeeper Katsu had anticipated the cross floating beyond the Geckoes forward, so the resulting header left him completely wrong-footed and he could only dive helplessly as the ball bounced in. 2-2.
From here, the Geckoes sensed the win was theirs for the taking. They started to put us under more pressure. One effort hitting the bar. Then came the 3rd and most controversial goal. Dan was jockeying Geckoes best player Masa. He dribbled the ball around Dan and into the area, Dan recovered well and got himself level but his hands were on the Geckoes player who then fell like the Japanese stock market (Is that original? I’m not sure but it’s topical so I’ll have it) and the sound effects that came with the fall were embarrassing. The ref, who in fairness had a good game was quite far from play and from where he was can’t be blamed for awarding what must have looked like a stone-wall pen. The penalty was slotted away nicely, giving katsu no chance. Geckoes 3-2.
The fact that we were now behind, woke up the Sala forces. A few balls over the top to the front men gave us the momentum again. We had a few efforts which were either saved well by the keeper or off target. The game then started to turn a bit niggly. Nothing nasty, just a few late challenges, lots of shirt tugging and plenty of verbals. Scotty (who had been having a solid game) looked set on having a fight. Not to say it was all one-sided, a few Geckoes players looked keen to meet his demand. The ref dealt with it, and a few yellows were dished out.
Back to the football, fatigue was setting in for Sala and time was running out. However, we showed strong character creating a few decent efforts. Shots from Sid and Ryotaro both well blocked. Then came the eqauliser and arguably the best of the 3 Sala goals. A lovely ball over the defence from Dave, Toby latched onto it bringing it down with a fine touch round the keeper then stretching with his right to poke it in. 3-3.
Not much time left for anymore action. All in all a good game of football, and quite calm compared to previous clashes between the teams. Maybe due to the ref stating at Kick Off that any insult to him or an opposing player would lead to a red….never seen Scotty look so distraught! Plenty of free-flowing football from both teams, providing real entertainment for the handful of spectators.
Man of the match – Dave, awesome at the back all game.
Toby not far behind with 2 fine goals.
Report by Mr Ian Jelley
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