Football is a simple game. Don't give the ball away and win!

By Willy Swartjes

It was a beautiful sunny and hot afternoon. BUFC's formation started without the 2 Seans (Nevin and Murray) both allegedly injured. However, Willy said that he remembered that Sean Nevin had been talking recently about his garden being spoilt by mole-hills. Dave Lees quickly checked his mobile satellite system. Indeed, Sean N was running with a spade through his back garden hunting moles in his typical noisy fashion, kindly assisted by Sean M who had found a good excuse for not 'attacking his garden'. Mergim, still injured with 2 broken ribs, was laughing his head off and almost broke another 2 ribs as a result of the shocks. More hunting was going on in the Panama Canal where goalkeeper Marion Walecki was trying to spot Polish marine mammals. Somewhere in Europe's snow-capped mountains Bengt was on the hunt for the Swedish Bigfoot 'Yeti' which he thought he had spotted last year and now he wanted to write a newspaper article on it. Finally, the Lebanese connection Rommel- Fadi were on a special mission in the Middle East which involved picking oranges to ensure a proper supply of fruit to the 1st vets for the remainder of the season. The latter on special request of El Capitano in an attempt to obtain dumped prices and thus saving his money for half-time fruit refreshments. So far the double-dutch nonsense story about those who were not playing. Time for serious stuff: BUFC 1st vets team tactics. The team was happy to see the return of the Silver Fox who was still suffering from back problems. Sergio and Didier were reinforcing the squad. The starting line up was as follows:

El Capitano was determined to get the 3 points and set out the team tactics which can be summarised as follows: 'lads, don't give the ball away and win'. Fran was not satisfied with such simplicity and asked for a more intellectual approach. But Willy was impressed as this simplicity reminded him of a famous one-liner of legendary Dutch football guru Johan Cruyff who once said: 'if we have the ball they cannot score' ('Als wij de bal hebben kunnen zij niet scoren' courtesy of JC).

BUFC started well by putting pressure on ITT. Wing backs Fran and Marc were reliable as always and in the centre of defence Sergio was doing a great job. El Capitano cleared whatever had to be cleared. Jess, Jason and Nick were winning everything in midfield and kept launching Gerry, Marc and Willy. BUFC created some chances but no clear-cut ones until Gerry Cain was brought down in the box after a breakthrough. Penalty it was!

El Capitano comes forward with a determination that was not seen since he won the highland games back in 1968. However, the Scotsman places it right into the arms of the ITT keeper. The vets were astonished about so much simplicity and for a few moments the Saturday afternoon looked grey and dark.

The penalty should have been the start of a simple win in accordance with El Capitano's tactics. But it was not going to be that simple and the vets got away when ITT hit the crossbar just before halftime. At halftime El Capitano explained that his missed penalty was part of a carefully planned strategy. He didn't want to give the team a comfortable lead too early in the game thus risking that the team would become complacent. He subsequently handed out oranges (thanks very much to Gerry and his wife Cheryl!), told the lads not to give the ball away and win. Willy was again touched but this time by the oranges as they made him think of his orange underpants which he had forgotten to put on.

And so the afternoon looked orange and bright again and the second half started with an inspired and determined BUFC. Marc chased the ball on the left side of the ITT goal and provided a perfect lay off to Willy who decided to put another JC one-liner into practice: 'You have to shoot otherwise you can't score' ('je moet schieten anders kun je niet scoren' courtesy of JC). And so he placed the ball carefully into the right bottom corner. A few minutes later Marc's hard work paid off and he finished a BUFC attack with another well placed ball into the ITT net. BUFC kept the pressure and Jess stunned the crowd with a long distance volley shot from outside the box. 3 - 0 to BUFC. ITT finally managed to score their goal but this was only for statistics. A corner from the left by Willy landed at the far post where Marco, eager to get his share in the scoring party, told Jess to stay away and let him score. However, it was a warm California style afternoon and Jess decided that it was his day, went for the glory and cunningly scored put a second on his account. Final score 4 - 1 to BUFC.

It is that simple lads!

MOM: Jason. Well done Jason, great performance!
Goals: Willy, Marc, Jess (2)
Sub: Didi (replaced Egerton)
Lucky card: Dave

BUFC 1st Vets post match beers!

(Photo: courtesy of Capitano)