Saturday, 2 May 2009
Narrabundah FC 3
Ellis 28′, Dziubinski 69′, 83′
Belnorth 0
Coming into this match, Belnorth had been on the end of two pastings and had conceded 21 goals in 2 games scoring just 1 in reply whilst Narrabundah had been successful in both their prior matches. With this in mind, one could of expected that some complacency might creep into the Narrabundah players thinking, and so it was too prove as they turned out their worst performance of the season so far, spurning numerous chances throughout a match that generally lacked the intensity of their previous two fixtures.
The match kicked off in the bright Autumn sunshine in Kaleen with Narrabundah captain Will Coulter forced to miss the opening of the match due to Narrabundah’s favourite ex-Yugoslavian referee Miro taking issue with the player’s appearance, which apparently he wouldn’t have gotten away with in “the old country”. Despite this setback, it soon became clear exactly why this Belnorth team have been struggling so far this season.
Despite the ‘goals against’ tally reading in the double digits in both their previous matches, Belnorth lined up with only 3 defenders at the back and Narrabundah began to immediately create chances with several balls in behind the defense that were only let down by misplaced final balls and/or over elaboration. Despite the bright start with Ellis proving particularly industrious in midfield, Narrabundah soon dropped the pace and the quality of the match went down faster than a Cristiano Ronaldo in a boxing match.
Narrabundah rarely looked troubled at the back but weren’t controlling the game as well as their disciplinarian manager would have liked. Narrabundah continued to waste chances with first Weir firing over from 10 yards after a goal mouth scramble and then Dziubinski firing against the post when one on one with the keeper. The break through finally came when a Quiroga angled ball made its way across the box to an onrushing Ellis who neatly tucked it into the corner of the net.
Despite the goal, Narrabundah continued to fail to take control of the game and Romero soon rung the changes, eventually throwing himself onto the pitch in desperation. Despite regularly getting in behind the flimsy Belnorth backline, Narrabundah continued to fail to make clear shooting opportunities and they went into the break with a disappointing 1-0 lead.
After the break the team re-emerged unchanged with Romero surprisingly still on the field despite giving what appeared to be a re-enactment of “A Muppets Christmas Carol” towards the end on the first half. Narrabundah though failed to really lift the pace of the game and the 2nd half closely mirrored the 1st with misplaced passes and hopeful balls contributing the majority of Narrabundah’s play.
With tempers being tested, some frustrated late tackles started to creep into the game with Belnorth substitutes hopefully appealing for red cards on several occasions. However the situation was quickly defused by Mr. T who rolled onto the field in a surplus army tank, threw Snickers® chocolate bars at the offending players, screamed some unintelligible nonsense about nuts and left to applause by the travelling fans.
It was not long after this that Narrabundah finally made the game safe. After some neat interplay on left, Quiroga slung in a dangerous low ball which Scott “I’ll cry if I don’t score” Dziubinski managed to put past the lumbering goalkeeper and into the net from close range, thereby saving us all considerable embarrassment. The relief was tangible for the Narrabundah players who had been fearing (in addition to the aforementioned tears) that their wastefulness would come back to haunt them.
Narrabundah continued to control the match and the third goal turned out to be the best as another move starting on the left ended with Romero on the edge of the box with the ball. He somehow managed to trip over his own feet despite no player being with 5 meters but in the process of falling unceremoniously to the turf somehow got a knee to the ball to push it in the general direction of Muller in what turned out to be an excellent reverse pass. Muller kept his cool and swung an excellent cross to Dziubinski who met the ball with a delightful volley on the run. 3-0 and the score line was starting to get a respectable look about it from a Narrabundah point of view. Before they could add to their total however, the final whistle had gone.
As the teams trudged off the pitch, as expected, neither team looked particularly happy with the final result. Narrabundah obviously disappointed at their failure to put the competitions weakest team to the sword, while Belnorth were disappointed at… well… just being an abysmal football team. Plenty of work for both coaches then to win back the many supporters who left today’s game with eyes bleeding and their faith in football as the beautiful game completely destroyed.