A Masterpiece in 2 Acts, written, directed and produced by the Uni Whites.

Prelude: Presentation of the Characters.

On the court side: Pembroke (Blue). I put Blue in brackets because from the Blues of the last 2 matches, only the name remained. I got to play 6 matches this year for the Whites, 4 of them against Pembroke... And I reckon I already played against some of them in Div 1B and in Div 4 with Pem. Gold...

On the garden side: Uni Whites C's. Also quite a large shuffle in our side; only Leo, Rob, Jacky and Solomon played the 3 matches against Blue this season.

Act I: A new strategy

Chris came up with a new tactic this week, directly inspired by the great Bill himself. And as any new strategy, it takes some time to transpose from the paper to the field. In this 1st half, both teams were a little nervous, losing balls quite easily. No one really had control of the game, but Pembroke probably had a little more composure and confidence in the way they played. The first 20 minutes were not particularly brilliant and no real occasions were created from either side. The typical scheme in our side was a pass from Saf to Austin, Austin to Simon, Simon to Bobby, Bobby to Austin, long ball down the line to Bobby... Throw in! It happened so many times that it became too predictable and we lost all our balls that way.

The last 15 minutes were a little more interesting from our side, with a nice passing game, and a few occasions from Jeff that ended-up in the keeper's arms. However, Pembroke had the most dangerous occasions of the 1st half, with 2 one-on-ones with our keeper (Jacky) both saved. On a following dangerous occasion, Saf taught us what cold blood means while shooting the ball over Jacky's head, hitting the bar of our own goal... We preserved a clean sheet at half time, even though we had a chance in the last minute when Bobby finally managed to run up the line, pass two defenders before crossing for Jeff and Kenneth who saw their shots stopped consecutively by a defender and ultimately the keeper.

Act II, Scene 1: Road to Relief

The second half started with 2 substitutions, Jared for Kenneth, and Pouf for Jeff, followed quickly by two others, Chester for Bobby and Sam for Solomon. A strategic replacement switched Jared for Sam as a last man. All of them fitted nicely into their respective position, except Pouf, a little lost in the midfield for the first 10 minutes, having a hard time to find his position relative to the team. In the meantime Pembroke was determined to collect their first points of the season, and possibly three at a time. Our defense did a great job, and Jacky was a safe keeper to catch the ball that passed through. We had a couple of occasions but nothing dangerous enough to scare their keeper. The tension was growing since we really needed this win after so many weeks, and not being able to get closer to their goal was frustrating. Following a serious occasion where Robert was heading to the goal and stopped illegally, we got a shot from 20 yards on the left side of the pitch. Saf took the shot and put it into the 6 yard box, it went over the first line of players, bounced just in front of Robert who was pushed by a defender and went towards the arms of the keeper... when Pouf came out of nowhere, and hit the ball with a furious header into the back of the net. I think the shout that followed was recorded at 120+ decibels... Moments of indescribable joy...

Act II, Scene 2: Road to Victory

If the 1st goal was a relief, we had 20 minutes more to play, and Pembroke had not decided to surrender yet. Doubling their efforts, they manage to create some interesting opportunities, and where very close to equalize on a header only a few minutes after our goal. The following occasions were stopped by our Rock defenders, who managed to maintain the clean sheet while we were pushing for a second goal. Following a run of Robert on his left wing, he cleverly passed the ball to Leo, who ran into the box, passed one defender, a second one, dribbled the keeper, and scored the second goal in a very narrow angle. Robert and Leo shared some man love behind the keeper line, and as Pouf was joining them, the ref came to make them notice that some kids were watching... and obviously Pembroke was waiting for us...

Act II, scene 3: The Great Escape

After that second goal, deep inside, we knew that the game was ours. Pembroke kept on trying, but you could see that their confidence was down, throwing some long balls, going at 3 to the ball or to mark Sam... They tried to come back to the score, and it opened some spaces for Sam, Chester and Robert. On a corner kick we had, Robert had a shot above the defense and the ball was heading to the top left corner... until the defender headed it off the line. You could also tell the frustration of the Pembroke players as they were doing more and more fouls. Sam did a great job up-front and had a few occasions to make the score larger. In the last few minutes, a midfielder from Pembroke had the stupid idea to genuinely put himself on the running trajectory of Pouf, as a pure anti-play move. 120 decibels later, half of the Pembroke players were focused on what happen on the middle of the field, forgetting that the ball was still in play.... Simon took this opportunity to launch Sam with a long ball; Sam controlled the ball and placed it between the legs of the keeper for the 3-0... and settle the result of the day for the 1st victory of the whites on that Saturday. At that time, we didn't know that the B's and the A's were following the same road to victory.

That's it!

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