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Hodogaya Koen, Saturday 6th December
Sixteen consenting Vagabonds passed up the chance to go a-berrying and a-mushrooming in the woods on this fine autumn day for a 9am game against Zion. They may still be regretting that choice, losing 3-5 in what was probably their most disorganized performance so far this season.
Although the Vagabonds began in the ascendancy, Paul Wadsworth scoring from midfield with a carefully placed shot, the effects of Barbital taken the night before became apparent after about 15 minutes.
The astro pitch had markings for a half dozen sports. It was like playing on a giant ouija board. It also held some water from the previous night. The low sun was more blinding than the floodlights at hachioji park, reflecting off the damp pitch surface.
At 1-0 behind, a lot of one-way traffic came from Zion, a young energetic team that had no qualms about playing like headless chickens for as long as it took to knacker their much older and much slower opponents.
Zion opened their account after Lyndsey Hughes backpassed to their unmarked striker, who had five minutes to load his musket and blast. Soon after Gary Quinn was penalized for cocking his leg like a urinating dog just inside the box. Two Zion players immediately flopped over it and that was that. The beanpole Referee pointed to the spot. 1-2.
The injustice was avenged a minute later when Muzzy`s head met Graham Burt`s corner, the keeper spilled the save back to the gaming boy, and he slotted home the equalizer.
But the Barbital regained its hold on us for the remainder of the half and Vagabonds made more mistakes. A poor throw out from Taylor was intercepted and flew immediately back at, and past him, and then a header made it 4-2.
In the second half a lack of Vagabond fitness and increased method in Zion`s madness widened the gap between the teams despite some good fits of effort from the Vagabonds - Simon Sparkes and Steve Glenn orchestrating moves from midfield.
Vagabonds best moment was a Steve Glenn goal that was so good there was a silence after he scored. It wasn't a “great goal” or a “brilliant goal”. There were no words for it. As Gordon said, it was a “different paradigm”. Gordon wasn't there but that evening I tried to describe it to him. I still can`t quite believe that a Vagabonds player is capable of scoring that type of goal, not to mention how a team could score that type of goal and lose.
If Zion hadn’t immediately responded with a great goal – a 25 yard bullet from the left wing that Taylor had no hope of seeing never mind saving – Vagabonds might have capitalized on Steve`s stunning goal and got a result today.
But to be fair to Zion, Vagabonds didn`t deserve much from a performance that was lumpy. They never got their act together as consistently as for example against the Saitama Jets (probably a better team than Zion).
The Barbital to put us to sleep early the night before was certainly an agent, the 3 at a time substitutions perhaps another, the early hour was terrible - ideally we should play all of our games between 11am and 1pm after a natural night`s sleep, and the pitch markings were a headache.
The problem, Richard Straughan humbly ventured after the game, is that “ we are not as good as we thought we were”. That may be fair. But after today`s game I would suggest that we are not as bad as we now think we are. .
Report by Terry Cooney
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