Swalings Intertops Cup: Week 5

Match Report from February 28, 2009

With only two games left of the season, the title race was still wide open; if the Swalings Titans and Swalings Strikers beat the Swalings Panthers and Swalings Superstars respectively, they would put themselves back into contention for the league winners and it would go down to the last games of the season. LET’S GET IT ON!

Swalings Titans vs. Swalings Panthers

Swalings Panthers went into this game 5 points clear of the Swalings Titans, leading spectators to think this would be a walk in the park for the Panthers. However, the Titans would not lay down and die in the first half, with some brilliant goalkeeping by new boy, Michael Santos, and some good defending by Jonathan Coghlan, who looked unbeatable.

It was also the Titans who came closet to taking the league through Michael Josiah. Jonathan Coghlan laid the ball off to Jacob Knoll, who put a cross field pass into the path of Michael Josiah. Michael, under pressure from Justin Hadeed, fired a snapshot at the Panthers’ goal, but was denied by the side netting. The alarm bells went ringing inside the head of the Panthers that this wasn’t going to be a Sunday morning stroll, and went to raid the Titans goal. Wave after wave of attacks from the Panthers on the Titans goal, but they were being denied by excellent defending from Jonathan Coghlan, Jacob Knoll and Amer Hourani, with superb saves from Michael Santos putting shots around the goal post and over the bar.

Again, it was the Titans that came closest, with Jacob Knoll. A long ball from an than Bento clearance over the top of the Panthers defence, with Jacob tearing after it like a bat out of hell; he held the ball up brilliantly and was then tackled by Matthew Massiah. However, the ball broke loose and Jacob pounced on it like a tiger and fired a shot goal-bound — Richard Coghlan threw out an arm to deny the goal. Nothing came from the resulting corner.

Richard must have left his kicking boots at home that day, because he was struggling to clear the front line with his kicks, with the ball landing at the feet of Michael Josiah, who also must have left his shooting boots at home, because his shots were going wide.

The Panthers couldn’t find the key to break down the Titans defence, but luckily they were handed the key when Jonathan Coghlan and Jacob Knoll were substituted. With them off the pitch, the Panthers found their goal, and what a goal it was.  Matthew Massiah went on a break down the right, with what seemed the speed of Usain Bolt, he tore down the wing; Ethan Bento came running across to intercept, but Matthew stopped and turned around and then knocked it back past and carried on running. He took one look up and saw Nadeem Doumith waving his hand high in the sky calling for the ball, Matthew then chipped the ball to the centre of the park with the ball at knee height. He knocked it down in front of him and then half-volleyed the ball towards goal. The ball  raced through the open legs of the Titans’ keeper and into the back of the net, which I thought might have bust with the speed the ball was going.

Half time came with the Panthers narrowly in the lead with one goal.

The second half started and with the Titans only trailing by one you would have thought they would come out all guns blazing; however, with only three minutes gone into the second half, the Panthers doubled their lead through Matthew Massiah.

Matthew collected the ball on the left from a long kick down field by Nadeem Doumith after a good interception from Jesse Franker. Matthew collected the ball, tore infield, and wrapped his foot around the ball to send it into the back of the Titans’ net. 2-0 Panthers.

This was the killer sting for the Titans, and their heads dropped. The Panthers now had the keys to the city and were running ragged. The balls were being pinged from the right of the pitch to the left of the pitch, back and forth, one-twos, long balls, short balls, running the Titans’ defense ragged, and it didn’t take much longer for the third goal to come. The ball was being played from the back of the pitch to the right back again to the left and then into the centre, for Andre Amour to send the ball like a rocket into the back of the Titans goal.

The heads of the Titans fell even lower — however, not all did, with special mention going to Amer Hourani, who made several crunching tackles to break up the Panthers play; also to Michael Santos who had to make some last minute body-on-the-line blocks; and to Jacob Knoll, who was like a Duracell battery, running up and down the field chasing every ball he could, to try and win it back, almost coming close to scoring twice, but being rejected by some good goalkeeping from Justin Hadeed to decline his efforts.

With minutes left on the clock, the Panthers score the final goal. The ball bounces loosely around the Titans box, and Matthew flicks his foot out just before the ball goes into the keeper’s area, and puts it past the oncharging Michael Josiah to make it 4-0.

The whistle blows and the Panthers are ecstatic; they look now to be league favourites. Titans’ first half was let down by their second half performance, but will hopefully bounce back for their end of season game against the Superstars.

Swalings Super Stars vs. Swalings Strikers

With the Strikers fired up and looking to build on their first league win last week and push for the second spot, they were raring to go.  The Swalings Superstars were looking to leapfrog the league leaders and put themselves in pole position.  This game looked like it was going to be a cracker, and what a cracker it was!

The Strikers took the kick off with Jerry Aska and Sean Janosek, and were put under immediate pressure by the Superstars, with Sergei laying down the law and letting the Strikers know he was the top dog by putting a tackle in on Tony Hourani that the old England left back, Stuart “Psycho” Pearce, would have been proud of.

The ball is played from deep by Sergei Cheremeteff up to Bashire Joseph, who holds the ball up beautifully to see Sergei steamrolling down the centre of the park. Bashire passes the ball back to Sergei, who takes the ball in his stride and then sends it screaming into the back of the Strikers’ net. Alex Bento, the smallest player on the pitch, was going to be well known by the biggest player on the pitch, Bashire, for the remainder of the game, because whenever Bashire got the ball, Alex would pop up to deny him from being able to do anything.

The Superstars seem to have this one-two down to a fine art, when their second goal comes from one. Bashire knocks the ball forward to Justin Bento, who lays it down the pitch for Bashire to chase; at the corner flag, Bashire tears towards the goal and, like last week, was at such an acute angle fired goal-wards with the outside of his foot to try and curl it in. Chris Khouly got down well and looked like he had it covered, however the ball hit a tuff of grass and took a horrible bounce over Chris and into the Strikers goal. 2-0 Superstars.

The Superstars turned up the heat and were putting pressure on and trying to squeeze the ball through the Strikers defense. However, their wall of defense didn’t show any cracks, thanks to superb defending from Jaiden Wulliez, Alex Bento and Sean Janosek. When the rain of attacks stopped on the Strikers goal, they managed to get the ball upfield and get a shot away that scored their first goal. Alex Bento was the goal scorer, coming in off the left to fire the shot towards Tonaj Francis, who was unable to keep hold of the ball and it rolled into the Superstars goal. 2-1.

Now with a spring in the Strikers step, they win the ball back almost immediately after kick off and bare down on the Superstars goal.  Tony Hourani lays the ball to Jerry Aska, who shimmies past Justin Bento, and kicks the ball quickly into the bottom right of the goal, leaving Tonaj rooted to the spot.

So the ties are even at the break, with two apiece.

The Strikers come out in the second half with all cylinders firing and with a winner’s mentality looking to see the Superstars off. After a strong challenge on Bashire by Alex Bento, and some clever passing by Sean Janosek, Jerry Aska, and Tony, who sends the ball up to  Jairo Bailey, who, with his first touch, sends the ball flying into the back of the Superstars net for his first goal in the cup. Strikers lead 3-2.

Swalings Strikers are stopping everything the Superstars are throwing at them, with Chris Khouly making fine saves, one after the other.  He clears the ball up field to Jairo, but unluckily miscontrols the ball, and it falls to the feet of Sergei. Sergei — in acres of space — goes on a dribble that ends up with him scoring a goal by putting it into the bottom of the left corner to tie the game 3-3.

The Strikers are making leeway up the pitch, but are denied by Nashaun Matthews with a brilliant tackle. Tony Hourani wins it back and, in the process, knocks Nashaun over. Nashaun then cheekily tries to pretend his hand falls on the ball and scoops it away; the referee isn’t having any of it and blows up for a free kick and a yellow card. Tony quickly lays the ball off to Alex Bento, whose shot is cleared off the line by Justin Bento, the Superstars goalie. The second yellow card for the Superstars is given against Jay Boswell, who put his hands up in the air and handles the ball. The Strikers — so keen for the victory — are throwing everyone forward, however Justin Bento throws the ball out to Sahyen Smith, who plays it on to Tonaj Francis, who then passes to Bashire, who is looping on the outside — his shot is pushed around the post by Chris.

Sergei takes the free kick. With two minutes left on the clock, everyone is in a mad rush, except for Bashire, who takes the ball under control and sends it sailing  into the back of the Strikers net. 4-3 Superstars. The Strikers cant believe it — with only 90 seconds left on the clock, they had almost drawn the game. But the Swalings Superstars wanted to rub some salt into the wounds of the Strikers and went on to score a fifth.

The ball is lost in the Strikers half and, as the whistle is going up to the ref’s mouth, Bashire hits a wild shot, and it bounces into the back of the Strikers net as the whistle blows.

The Superstars go wild and the Strikers heads slump; they are in utter disbelief, after playing thirty minutes with such great passion and heart, to be stripped of at least a draw at the death of the game. However, Bashire shows great sportsmanship by going up to Alex Bento and patting him on the back and thanking him for a great game.

I’m sure they would have swapped shirts if they didn’t need them for next week… and if Bashire wasn’t over a foot taller then Alex. Parents in the crowd said it was the most exciting game so far, real end-to-end stuff!