The Taming of the Dragons

March 9, 2008

The Scholars Cup

YC&AC Over 35s 2 v Yokohama International School Teachers 0

Guess who’s holding the Scholars Cup…

In the inaugural Scholars Cup match, played at the end of last season, the Yokohama International School (YIS) teachers rather out-classed the Over 35s on the smooth green artificial grass at Shin-Yoko Football Park. We wondered then whether the bumpy brown real dirt at YC&AC might prove to be a leveller when next we met.

Who is to say what role the pitch played in the Fives’ comfortable victory this time around, but on a day when Premiership leaders Arsenal could only manage a draw at lowly Wigan, whose pitch was described by Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger as “a disaster”, it’s worth considering.

Other factors to consider would be the absence from the YIS squad of the excellent Simon Lorimer and of course Neil Richards, the early injury to the equally excellent David Noon (unlucky fella, get well soon), and frankly I’m afraid a relative lack of fire in the belly of the Dragons on this occasion.

And then of course you’d have to consider us.

I don’t think we’ve seen a better team goal this season than the one Marc Bailey tucked away to set us on our way here. Captain Sada Hosogai, plainly relishing the freedom to get forward that his new position (?) at left back affords, started the move deep in our own half. Playing toward the Paul Blamire Shed End, Sada carried the ball to the halfway line at speed before neatly squaring it inside. Our midfielders then switched the play out to the right, providing Alan Plater (I think) with the opportunity to cross from deep in Dragons’ territory. This he did superbly, picking out the onjogging Marc Bailey near the penalty spot who fired emphatically past their keeper first time. Great, great goal.

[Update: Jan Broere provided the cross from which Marc Bailey headed home. It's another contender for goal of the season.]

So great was it indeed that I can’t remember how Marc struck the second. Or really very much else at all about this one.

Why can’t I remember? Here’s a clue:

Captain Sada’s holding the Cup!

And here’s another clue:

Peter Yang’s holding the cup!

By Alex Hendy

Squad: Picture on the Squad page

Goals: Marc Bailey (2)

Man of the match: Stephane Martin. Influential throughout, the big man deserved better than to see his raking drive from twenty yards skim the crossbar late on.

Referees: Good again.

Card Count: None

Attendance: It’s fair to say YIS brought more than we did.

Freak Injury Rocks the Fives

March 1, 2008

YC&AC Over 35s A 6 v YC&AC Over 35s B 7

With our scheduled fixture against who knows who having curiously been cancelled 15 minutes before kick-off [no comment], a friendly game broke out on the hill between Over 35s A and Over 35s B.

The free-flowing high-scoring game was a lot of fun but unfortunately was marred by a serious injury to Stuart Neie, which sadly rules him out for the rest of the season. Stuart somehow broke two bones in his foot in an innocuous looking stumble at the Swimming Pool End.

It’s a cruel blow for Stuart, especially with the Interport just a couple of weeks away, and of course it’s very bad news for the team too, with Stuart proving an increasingly solid performer at the back in recent weeks.

Most pressingly though, our squad for the Interport (Sat. Mar. 15, KO 13:45) now looks very thin. So just to reiterate Captain Sada’s recent message (forwarded by Alan on March 4): “We are desperate to have defenders for Kobe. Any volunteers?”

By Alex Hendy

Under a Blood Orange Sky

Game 14, February 23, 2008

YC&AC Over 35s 1 v E-Dreams 0

According to yesterday’s Japan Times (March 4), the Meteorological Agency reported on March 3 that “yellow sand was observed in various parts of Japan late Sunday [March 2] and Monday morning for the first time this year [my italics; click to read story].” If that’s right, what on Earth was responsible for the sky over Yokohama at lunchtime on February 23? I think we should be told.

Minato Mirai sky, Feb. 23. (Picture by Dikee Bailey.)

Fierce winds blew horizontally across the YC&AC beach in the early stages of this match, making life very uncomfortable for our opposition, who had lost the all-important toss. The stinging gusts had subsided somewhat by the time it was our turn to point into them, but the weather would continue to muck with our equilibrium. Early in the third quarter, the sky over the Breezeway suddenly darkened, orangely, and descended upon us. It was like the end of the world. Or a Tangerine Dream album cover.

And as if that were not scary enough, from out of that dark, low, orange sky appeared snow. A hideous little flurry of fluffy white snow. Folks, it was not remotely cold! Had E-dreams, in nightmare mode, brought the weather with them?

Who Are Ya?

E-Dreams are a mixture of Marinos Papas and other YFA sorts expertly coached by YFA’s own Kambayashi-san. Individually they didn’t look the best, but as a team… We struggled to break them down. Frankly we were as bad on this day as the weather was unpredictable, and if Harty Heesen hadn’t been in such fine form in goal, we might well have gone down to a shock defeat.

[UPDATE: A careful reader informs me that Trevor played in goal for us on this day. Funny. I had Harty down as man of the match for one recent game. Apologies to both players.]

Normally we like it when the opposition plays a high defensive line. It gives us bags of space behind for our quicker players to exploit. Unfortunately on this day our timing was out of joint, Marcos Pereira in particular regularly running offside. Even on the occasion when we did beat the trap and capitalised by scoring the game’s only goal, Marcos was, in your match reporter’s understanding of the rules, offside when he finished.

Here’s what happened: A ball from midfield sent Mika Niemi scampering through, past the second last defender (the last defender being the keeper) toward goal. Onside. As the goalkeeper approached, Mika selflessly fed the ball left and forward to Marcos who clipped it (in that dippy curvey way he has when using his right foot) into the empty net. No flag. However, since Marcos was beyond the second last defender and in front of Mika, he was, I believe, offside. He would have been onside had he been a bit further behind the play and Mika had passed the ball back to him. There is an illustration of this scenario here: Sample 3.

But we won’t be lodging an appeal.

It’s time to move on.

By Alex Hendy

Goals: Marcos Pereira

Man of the match: Harty Heesen. 100% fumble free, Harty claimed every cross and looked absolutely unbeatable. [UPDATE: See above. If it wasn't this game, it was certainly another!]

Referees: A bit whistle-happy

Card Count: None

Attendance: A restless few. “Think about what you are doing, Marcos!”–President Marcel.

Nil Nil

Game 13, February 16, 2008

YC&AC Over 35s 0 v ACA 0

The Silver Machine rolled out for this match against the Armani Army knowing that if we were to take anything at all out of the game we would need to draw on all the qualities of strength, determination and perseverance that tend to distinguish us from other teams.

ACA had put a combined nine goals past us in the season’s two previous encounters and have in their ranks two or three players capable of scoring at any moment, from any distance. Add to the mix their penchant for over-the-top goal celebrations and it’s fair to say that ACA are our bogey side: they get right up our nose.

Game on then, and not only did we draw on the aforementioned qualities of resilience, we added “finesse” and “needle” to the play list. Gordon Deas provided much of the former with some great tackling and slide rule passing, while Kevin Carden’s “offside” needling of their captain was right out of the top drawer, continuing long after the final whistle.

While our defence held firm in the face of some typically silky forward play from Armani, our midfield and attack carved out numerous chances. The best of these fell to Petr Vyvial from the penalty spot, but alas the keeper read Petr’s intentions, protecting his throat brilliantly from our forward’s power drive.

The Over 35s had won eight of our twelve regular games before this one, some of them emphatically, but this 0-0 with ACA surely ranks as our best performance of the season. A terrific effort this from the Silver Machine.

By Alex Hendy

Goals: None

Man of the match: Gordon Deas. Ruled the midfield.

Referees: Good

Card count: None

Attendance: A little under capacity