29/10/2011: FCB Bunwer go down to a second successive defeat. Alessandro Renucci reports.
“Following week 6’s home defeat to Ruper King, this week, one would have
expected a resurgent FCB to bounce back with a victory…however, sadly,
the cold and dark conditions gracing Madrid at the 8am meet point were
perhaps indicative of the somewhat stale footballing performance that was
to ensue.
Again, FCB travelled to Villaviciosa de Odon the scene of the recent famous
victory against AALPA, however it was agreed that this week’s fixture
provided FCB with their first real test of the season against a top
half-side with a quick, ball-playing reputation. Squad-wise, Rami’s heroes
were again missing the rugged, rebel without a cause, Karim, in addition to
the honourable Hutch and limon-faced, cello-playing Reece, who was struck
down by illness at the 11th hour. The starting line-up was as follows:
Daniel, Ally, Omar, Ojo, Tom, Kirky, Mikey, Nick, Ish, Chaz and George.
Despite the lack of proper warm-up, and the chance to get the ball passed
between the team before the kick-off, FCB started admirably, coping well
with the slick movement and passing of Procarton. The Britanicos, however,
were poor on the ball, as across the pitch making the wrong decision became
standard fare: resulting only in lost possession and increasingly frayed
tempers on and off the park. Perhaps inevitably, FCB were caught cold on
the 25 minute mark as the opposition managed to spring the offside trap to
take the lead. Some slick passing across the frontline was cooly finished
off by the opposition left-winger who ghosted in from the left-flank to
finish across the face of the helpless Daniel. 1-0 and time to re-group.
FCB replied almost immediately though, through some direct and dynamic play
by the on-rushing Omar who combined nicely with the industrious George,
only to result in a header which glanced a few yards wide. The wake-up call
that FCB needed though fell upon deaf ears (as it had done for Martin
earlier), as FCB again went to sleep in defence and were punished not long
after by another through ball that was finished first time by the
opposition no.9. From then on, it was key that the Britanicos kept their
cool, however unnecessary bickering across the park and outlandish
outbursts by our vocal midfield(-er) did nothing but rattle FCB’s cage
further, and half-time could not have come sooner.
The message at half-time was simple, relax. It was communicated to the team
that although things were not going our way, it was essential that FCB
remained calm and returned to the basics that are drummed into the squad at
training: movement and passing. At first, the team responded well, putting
together some nice passages of play in the midfield and on the touchlines,
however any real penetration was severely lacking. The penetration that the
team were looking for finally came around the 60 minute mark as a direct
pass from George released a speeding Mikey through on goal, only for him to
be scythed down before he could fire goal-wards. Pressing for a goal,
Raminho and Fletch opted to change to a 3-5-2, however our passing let us
down again, leading to at third goal which perhaps killed off any
reasonable aspirations of a comeback. Time for a substitution. Rami and
Fletch made the move to replace Martin and Chaz with the enigmatic Hateem
and debutant Ricardo to mix things up in the midfield. Sadly though, only
at this point did FCB manage to start playing a little bit of football,
keeping possession in the middle of the park and making runs at the
opposition fullbacks, play that was rewarded when George went through on
goal and rounded the keeper before finishing ‘coolly’ into the far corner!
With Dave Pugh now on and working hard in the midfield, one more clear-cut
chance fell to our No.9 workhorse as he attempted to loft a tight through
ball over the on-rushing opposition goalkeeper. The keeper though, pulled
off a wonder-save to claw the ball away from the net, compounding the
feeling that today was just not our day. In addition, a late cameo
appearance marked the return of the injury-struck Lee Fletcher to the FCB
defence in the closing minutes, and was met with a spine-tingling round of
applause from the away fans, especially after his famed knee-high tackle in
the weeks’ previous. However there was no fairytale ending to the man’s
return to first team action as the home side again moved quickly and
directly late-on, resulting in a decent first time finish across the face
of the goal.
Although FC Britanicos were soundly beaten today by a better team, at least
on the day, some positives must still be taken from our performance.Today’s
defeat, although painful, at least shows us the standard of opposition that
we are going to need to beat if we seriously want to compete in this
league. Twelve and six goal victories are of course pleasant, but they are
not going to come by every week, and we need to learn to stick to the basic
fundamentals of the game if we are to beat teams of a higher standard. I am
more than confident that the fight and commitment shown in previous weeks
will continue to burn in the hearts of Rami’s men and soon enough we will
get back to winning ways. We will learn from this performance, and as the
famed philosopher, Ice-T once remarked, “Winners have to absorb losses”, a
mantra that the Bunwer Boys are more than capable of abiding by.”
MOTM: Omar Majid
