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Hchioji Park, Saturday 13th December
With the usual writer Bevan swapping the sun and beaches of Phuket for stupid amounts of snow in Hokkaido, the match reports from Hibs have become non-existent. The obvious choice to step up and do them would be our very own journo, Jay, but he seems to be a bit too busy entertaining his pet cat, or more likely on his own prowl in Roppongi or wherever it is you go to look for girls of the loose variety. I suppose after putting in 2 years as Hibs manager he has decided to return to the lifestyle that most of us had (and probably still have) when we first arrived in Japan. Girls, booze and football. Probably in that order. Not much else a man really needs to be happy is there? After the 3 basic necessities of life everything just starts to get a bit complex. Well, the BFC match actually had the Hibs concentrating on football for parts of the match. We don't like to get involved in the mind games that some of the other teams do, but a few jabs were felt from BFC so far this season in their match reports. I guess it wasn't anger, but more of amusement that we had been mentioned in most of their reports. The 2 most amusing were about Hibs and the vertigo and being called out along the lines of "we'll catch you". Although the icy relationship between Hibs and BFC has thawed a bit recently, including getting hammered together in Phuket courtesy of the Shanghai Krauts, they've still got what we want. Our TML title back.
While BFC were noticibly missing players like Shosuke and Pablo, we were not only without Bevan. Ike, Ed, and Kenji were unavailable and Andre arrived at halftime. The gaffer Naoki decided not to even lace em up.
If nothing else, it's always entertaining when Hibs and BFC lock horns. We even had 2 spectators. Not girlfriends, wives, or kids, but proper spectators. They came up to Hachioji "just to watch". Cheers for that Dave and Simon. This was always going to be an important match and even more so with most BFC players feeling like their season was on the line. Not sure what James said to them before the match, but he definately had them up for it. BFC came out flying and had a good chance in the first 5 minutes. Alex was able to get off a shot from just past the penalty spot that was luckily too close to Hitoshi and pushed out for a corner. Not long after Dan unleashed a great effort from just outside the box that had Hitoshi beat, but smashed off the very corner of the goal. Nearly a cracker of a goal. Fortunately for the Hibs, we finally got our footing and began to take control of the game. A Hibs corner went through everyone and was going towards the far post side netting, but only made it as far as the post and looked suspiciously like it came off the post onto the BFC defender's arm. The next free kick by Tani looked to be heading in, but in the end didn't dip enough and came back off the cross bar. The rest of the first half was pretty even apart from a moment of magic from Kuni Katase. Not sure where the ball came from but from at least 30 yards out Kuni popped the ball up on his thighs, I believe 3 times, while running towards the goal and finished by volleying a rocket straight past the BFC keeper. I think Bevan had pole position for our goal of the season award with his goal against YCAC in the cup, but Kuni has put one out there that's going to be very tough to beat. On to halftime and the Hibs were feeling very good about our chances. Naoki warned us that BFC have nothing to lose and will come out flying again in the second half, but to our amazement, they didn't. Our in form Brazilian striker Andre arrived after teaching children English for beer money. BFC still played hard, but we certainly expected a bit more fight from the champions after having them against the ropes. Hibs next goal came from a perfect ball and a perfect headed finish by Mike McGirr. Although, maybe the fact that he was completely unmarked in the box made the pass look all that much better. BFC then seemed to lose it a bit and turned their attentions towards the referee. That is until they were awarded a penalty for Yasu deciding not to clear the cross with his foot or head, but to extend his arm and let it hit him. He then humourously appealed to the referee that it had hit his thigh. Sorry Yasu, but I think everybody including me, the referee, the BFC goalkeeper and probabl y even Dave and Simon on the other end of the pitch saw that one.
What happened next was a bit baffling. The man with probably the hardest shot in the TML, Carlos, decided to try and place his penalty past Hitoshi. Not a good idea. Hitoshi has apparently recently decided that no penalty is going to go past him. Ever. He has saved the last 5 penalties in Phuket and 2 or 3 that I can remember from this TML season. I'm not sure if it's the bright orange top or the mohawk that he now has, but something seems to be throwing the opposing penalty takers off their games. Our last goal came near the end and was basically a comedy of errors. I believe it consisted of Andre scuffing a shot from 3 yards out, 2 BFC defenders not clearing the ball for some reason then Andre poking it in with his toe on his second chance. It was probably the ugliest goal I've ever seen, but Andre decided it deserved a dance. While the rest of the Hibs celebrated near midfield Andre did some rediculous Brazilian dance by himself inside the box. Fair play to him though, he is back on top of the scoring chart this season. Of course he was last season too, until someone named Lidbury, well, just ask Andre. He'll tell you how things finished last season. He's hardly in the clear this season with Tyson from YCAC banging em in at nearly the same rate. It was a good match and a good finish to the year for us. We definately have to keep up our concentration and intensity from the first match next year. BFC seem to think that we've won the title, but we have been fortunate to win every match so far, but we still sit only 2 points ahead of YCAC. That shows there is no room for error. This is not a done deal. Let's enjoy this win and be ready to get back to t he task of getting our title back in 2009..
Report by Josh Schirmer
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