BRFC Old Boys report 5/3/09 by Sheero

Tesoro – 3 Barnstonworth Old Boys – 3

Quite the rollercoaster ride for the Old Boys on Sunday, chasing the league leaders Tesoro. Twice digging ourselves out of a 2-goal hole to snatch a point in even more dramatic fashion than the 3 points we took from them back in March. Dishing up their first defeat back then was a 25-yard Bazza piledriver in the last couple of minutes to break their hearts. After this Sunday, they probably want to kill him…
Missing one or two key players, BOB took to a rainy Randall’s Island at 8am and by 8:05am we were 2-0 down. The first was a cross from the right that was inexcusably allowed to squirm under the keeper to leave an easy finish from close range. A couple of minutes later, Rocco made a rare error under pressure, trying to find a teammate at the top of the box, only managing to lay on a simple finish for the Tesoro striker. At this point I feared a morale-crushing massacre – we simply weren’t in the game, and Tesoro looked very threatening every time they came forward. But we roused ourselves and BOB slowly came to life and managed to apply some of our own pressure. At one point, we were camped in Tesoro’s half and forced 4 consecutive corners, but couldn’t quite find the finish despite testing the decidedly shaky keeper.
We eventually managed to half the deficit after a strong run into the box by Jeff, who was chopped down from behind. With everyone on the field bar the referee expecting the penalty call, the action paused. Jeff was first to realize the whistle wasn’t coming, jumped to his feet and sent a deflected ball towards the goal where Luxury was waiting to nod home from close range. The game really opened up and it was a coin-toss as to who would score next. Both keepers made the odd nervous mistake, but half-time arrived with the score still at 2-1. BOB’s half-time talk was positive – after a nightmarish start, we had fought our way back into the contest and had every right to believe we could get something out of it.
That belief quickly dissolved after about 2 minutes of the 2nd half when the referee awarded the most ridiculous penalty against us. As the ball came in from the left, the shot was miss-hit by the Tesoro striker while his teammate ran into Scooby. As they both fell to the turf, no one could believe that the ref blew for a penalty, the opposition scarcely believing their good fortune. Sheero guessed right, but the penalty kick was well-placed in the corner to make it 3-1.
The referee did well to ignore the insults hurled in his direction, and somehow no one got a yellow card. And after a few minutes of some collective sulking, we once again raised our game, and it became a very open and entertaining contest, with both teams threatening to score at any time. But our back line stayed strong and limited the clear opportunities. Meanwhile, up front we were giving the Tesoro defense plenty to think about with Josh & Steve and later Joel putting in a ton of effort to keep the pressure up. We were eventually rewarded when the referee decided it was time to award the mother of make-up calls. Obviously a student of the “2 wrongs make a right” school of thought, the referee gave us a penalty for an innocuous push on Josh, and being a huge fan of gift-horses, Bazza dispatched the kick (twice – idiot ref) to make it 3-2.
To be honest, at this point I would have been fairly content with this outcome – we’d battled well, but been beaten on the day because of some early mistakes. We did apply more pressure, but being the pessimistic bastard I am, I didn’t think we’d get back into it. Even as Bazza picked up the ball in the center circle, looked up to spot the keeper off his line, I didn’t think anything of it. Five seconds later the most perfectly placed 40-yard lob you are ever likely to see was scraping the underside of the bar as the keeper scrambled back helplessly, the ball nestling quietly in the back of the net.
Moments like these make 1 point feel like so much more – especially as it kept our hopes of the division title alive. If we meet Tesoro in the playoffs, Bazza will probably have a contract out on him.
Great battling effort by everyone…
BOB: Sheero, Rocco, Greg, Dominator, Macca, Billy, Bazza, Colin, Scooby, Jeff, Josh, Luxury, Joel.