BRFC Reserves 0 (4) - BRFC Thirds 0 (1), 11/18/08

From the desk of Thirds' own, Sholltrain:

The 2008 State Cup paired two of our very own club teams in a historic match for the ages. The "Bickering" Reserves vs. the "Fifths" (think liquor) Thirds. The match was slated for a 12:30 kickoff, which normally would have left enough time for even the hardest of partiers out late to stumble out of bed with whisky breath, shower, shave and have a smoke before taking public transportation out to the field with plenty of time to warm-up. The Thirds seem to have kept themselves out of too much trouble the night before with 16 players arriving well in time. The Reserves, however, found themselves with only a handful of players at kickoff time, no coach and no uniforms. Soon, 10 players were ready. Stavros, in keeping with his famed reputation for buying
time, laced and re-laced his boots to match specification which added an extra fifteen minutes to the game start time. Unable to hold off the ref any longer, the match began with the Reserves down a man.

It was a blistering, bleak, windy day, which accounted for Stavros' gloved hands and Austin's skull-cap adorning their uniformed selves. Oddly enough, Austin felt the warmth from some streaking crossing runs and felt the need to hold his hat in-hand for the rest of the half. Austin had an early chance which somehow did not find the back of the net. The pressure was on from the Reserves from the start, owing to the fact they would not accept getting beaten being a man down. #8 needled through the defense early and struck a keeper-beater across the front of the goal which took a Thirds bounce off the far post and stayed in bounds for Zac to recover. The ball was kept in the Thirds half for the first 20 min, until the midfield decided to get involved and work the ball towards the other end of the pitch. At some point before the middle of the first half, a strange sight was beheld by all, Stash diving over the fence at breakneck speed trying to get down to the field to aid his fellow Reserves as the eleventh man. Utility player J.Brown played sweeper for the Thirds and was seen slide-tackling and coughing out the remains of lung throughout the match.

Cardozo, for the Reserves, had a tough match. His whining British accent could be heard throughout the match, but when Mike followed through on a 50-50 ball to his stomach, the high-pitched whelps emoting from this man scared the pigeons off the telephone poles lining the field. Such a display of histrionics is rarely seen even on today's finest television serials. The whining even got to his own team, as later in the match I believe his own keeper struck him in the head (following a punch-out from a cross.)

Poor Austin did not have an easy afternoon either. After complaining early on of being fouled and threatening to start diving, the referee advised him he would not call any fouls on him. So all bets were off, and Darrell and Mackers took turns harassing him all around the field, not allowing him much more than a few steps before dispossessing him of the ball, and sometimes even his manhood as he later protested. The Reserve defense held strong throughout, not allowing much in terms of opportunities to score from the Thirds. Not helping our effort, Gustavo was sick and could not dispatch the 2 or 3 guys swarming him in the middle with his normal efficiency.

Halftime: 0-0

The second half saw much of the same in terms of a back-and-forth effort across the middle. #7 for the Reserves was all over the field causing chaos and confusion amongst who should defend him, leaving him to complete his sharp accurate through-balls and controlling the midfield. Chances to score were seen on both sides, with Mike having a couple shots and Okey missing a chance in front of an open net that hopefully will haunt him until his dying day. Unlucky for the Thirds, most shots were directly to their keeper, who had a stellar game with few mistakes. Scoring chances for the Reserves saw a few shots sail over the top of the goal, with a spectacular shot going to the top right of the net. Somehow, Zac's bragging finally came together with his talent and his horizontal leap 6' in the air allowed him to block the ball down and land on it a foot from the goal line. His wind was knocked out, allowing the Thirds a brief respite from his barking loud mouth, so we were able to continue without a running commentary from the backfield.

The end of the match closed with the teams tied at nil. On to PKs.

This is the shortest paragraph as the Keeper for the Reserves was clearly better matched for this situation, blocking the Thirds second kick and seeing the third shot sail wide.

Reserves 0 - 0 (4-1 PKs)

Now this leads to the greater questions which our club needs to ask itself. Which of the teams is better suited to be the Reserve team? A case was made in this effort that clearly the distinction is blurred.

Thirds: Zac; Brown, Derek, Nick and Darrell; Vinnie, Gustavo, Mike and
Ryan, Juan and Brandon.
Subs (all played): Mackers, Sholl, Bernfeld, Donald and Okey.