String Penelope

Deep in Wallonia the turds were welcomed by heavy rain and gusty winds. At least the rain dispersed by the time the teams came out of the changing rooms but the wind stayed and should have an impact on today’s match. But before the turds could begin with their warm up Wilf managed (while saying that he doesn’t trust the door lock to keep the teams valuables safe) to pull out the door handle and the turds were actually locked in in a windowless basement changing room. (The stuff horror movies are made of…) Luckily there was still phone reception and Eugene managed to reach the barman of the clubhouse who would come shortly after to free the turds.

Unimpressed by the difficulties to leave the changing rooms the team decided to attack this game from the first second and to start with a high pressing scheme. After some slow starts in recents games FC Irlande  was in the game from the beginning but they were met by an opponent that was equally determined to press and fight for every ball for almost every inch of the pitch. Quickly it became obvious that String Penelope`s matchplay was based on playing man-cover with every player on the whole pitch for the whole time. The turds responded equally determined to fight for every inch and the game developed into a battle of attrition. Probably not the most attractive game for neutral fans since it was difficult for either team to create chances in the first half but that can happen when two teams meet that are ready to give it everything to win.

Towards the end of the first half FC Irland lost a bit of traction and more battles for the second balls were won by the opponent which gave them more ground and a slight upper hand. The facing strong wind gusts were not helping Irlande either. Still it was a bit unlucky that the 0-1 for String Penelope happened out of Irlande goal kick. The ball was lost on the midline and suddenly a String forward got the ball around the box and was able to put it perfectly in the upper left corner.

In halftime the turds put their heads together and pushed each-other to get back into the battles and win balls early because that was how todays match would have to be won, by beating them man to man and fight for every inch. With new determination FC Irlande began the second half and directly pushed String into their half, also with the help of the wind that was now blowing from Irlande´s backs. The turds only had to survive one scare when a String Penelope finish found the crossbar. After that,  one could feel that Irlande´s stamina prevailed while String Pendpole´s eleven had to pay tribute to their aggressive tactics.

It was then that the turds came through on the right wing and Wilf found the machine Shane in the box who overcame the goalkeeper with a lot of quality and brought the deserved equaliser. The goal finally tipped the game towards Irlande´s favour. With big energy form the bench the turds won more and more ground and it came how it had to come. Massi send Shane deep who beat his defender and was again alone in front of the goalie. From the live coverage since I can’t describe it better than Guus: “Shane goes through, dinks it over the keeper like prime Bergkamp”.

2-1!! what a comeback! Pure mentality of the turds.

For 15 long minutes FC Irlande fought and defended passionately. With starting rain the ref finally blew the whistle and the 3 points were secured. It was a mind game today against a tough opponent and the turds adapted well and showed a great response to last weeks disappointing draw.

Shane won a well deserved MOTM and is now in a double digits goal tally (sorry Rob I think you won’t win best goalscorer this season after all). It is now 9 undefeated matches and the new jerseys still have to see a loss.

Quick shout out to Guus for his first ABBSA match day experience with FC Irlande and to PA coming in and bringing on a brilliant fighting performance.