Video Here  and Photos Here

Rorys writings

“It’s still possible to play the game without throwing your toys out of the pram” – Albert Camus.

In the “friendly” match the spirit of the game still lives on. All the players pass to each other and very few people (you know who you are!) argue with the referee. Everyone appreciates Dave has a really tough job to do, and he can’t help it if he needs his eyes tested.

The teams were evenly matched. The reds had goal hanger Ken at centre forward with Mike in the hole, which was reported to the Council immediately after the game. Ton, who’d just missed out on being called up for de Netherlands in the upcoming soccerball Trump Cup, started in goal. Perpetual runner Steve did what it said on the tin and perpetually ran. Meanwhile red Graham (yes, there’s also a Graham in the black team) sat deep as the holding midfielder, allowing the skilful ball trickster Mercedes to weave her magic just behind the front two. Dangerous Dave ghosted down the left, primed to unleash some strikes on the opposition goal.

Meanwhile the blacks welcomed back Insta Influencer and dog botherer Fez to the hallowed turf to display his array of flicks, misdirected passes, and turbocharged shots which rarely troubled the opposition goal. The blacks started well and initially dominated the ball without getting within half a pitch length of the opposition goal. Sonic was his usual dynamic self, leading the blacks’ high press and patiently waiting for a decent pass which he could finish off.

The reds passed their way through the blacks press and managed to find Mike in the hole, even though it came up to his neck. The canny Scot (cliche alert!) slid a brilliant ball through to the marauding Ken, who stopped marauding, took the ball in his stride and fired it into the goal. What a gem. Reds 1-0 Blacks.

Dave rabbit was full of industry for the blacks, but initially misplaced so many passes that we even found one of the balls down the back of the sofa. Bambi continued to motivate his teammates with barrages of verbals for not finding him with a 40 yard pass through a mass of players. Unfortunately Kevin DeBruyne pulled out at the last minute and will be fined the usual €5. Dave rabbit finally got his bearings sorted out and scored with a great strike to level the scores. Reds 1-1 Blacks.

Fez was beginning to find space on the wings, even though space didn’t want to be found on the wing or anywhere else for that matter. Nevertheless, the soon to be disappointed ‘Boro fan was putting in some good crosses for Bambi to go close on a number of occasions. The front man from the Den, was starting to stretch the reds’ defence, and Sonic went close when bursting through on goal, only for Klaus to dive fearlessly at his feet to pull off a fine save. Bambi finally bagged the goal his forward play had warranted when he ghosted into the inside right position and hit a great strike across the keeper. Reds 1-2 Blacks.

Perpetually running Steve went in goal for the reds and proceeded to pull off a string of remarkable saves reminiscent of Jan Tomaszewski’s “clown” performance when England failed to qualify for the 1974 World Cup. The blacks just couldn’t beat Steve, who’ll spend the rest of the week nursing his plastic grass burns.

When he finally came out of goal the blacks seized the opportunity to score a third. A lovely sweeping move culminated in Sonic passing it through to Bambi who cushioned the ball back nicely for Rory to strike a nice low curling shot off the bunion on his big toe and into the bottom corner. Reds 1-3 Blacks.

With Ken being tightly marked by Geoff, and Ton playing so wide on the left wing he ended up on the paseo on the costa, the reds were finding it hard to break down the blacks’ defence. However their luck changed when Welsh Steve accidentally lofted the ball over head height, giving the reds a free kick a yard (91.44cms) outside the box. A short free kick to perpetually running Steve enabled him to strike a great shot into the corner to set up an exciting finale. Reds 2-3 Blacks.

The reds were pushing hard for the equaliser, with big Glyn starting to make his presence felt in midfield. With the seconds ticking down Mercedes brilliantly evaded her marker before sending in a cross for perpetually running Steve to volley into the net and bag himself a brace. An excellent conclusion to a gripping game. Final score Reds 3-3 Blacks. Shout out to Dave for preventing any toys from being thrown out of the pram.

 Colins Corner

The warm weather is certainly bringing our seasonal players out to Spain as both games lined up 10 aside.

Frank was clearly seen brandashing a camera, he wasn’t even trying to hide it 😅 so once team photos were taken we got under way in the faster game.

Peter 🐟 aided by Bambi had done a sterling job marking out 2 pitches using all available space and with so many players we settled initially into a game of walking football with plenty of passing.

New boy Simon despite reading the rules was still finding his feet, unfortunately he found them both in his own penalty area. Ref John showed his soft side and let him off this once, with a suggestion that he might want to read them again.

It was Simon who opened the scoring for reds as he slotted past Eddie in goal for blacks.

The game ebbed and flowed and when Han let fly from some distance it looked to be an easy collect from Dave 👑 in reds goal, but Han had clearly smothered the ball in grease as it slipped through Daves’ hands 1-1

The early walking gradually turned into a bit of running and tackling from behind with warnings being administered by Ref John who was trying to keep everyone on the pitch.

Having been 1-0 down Blacks took the lead when Jim got the better of the reds defence and scored 2-1 Blacks

Dave 👑 was pulling off some great saves and when Han was sin binned for running or tackling reds had an advantage but unable to capitalise and when Alvin was inevitably binned as well reds had even more advantage, though only for 20 seconds as Han returned.

Ask 21 people what they saw and you’ll get 21 different versions of the facts.

The only person’s opinion that matters is the refs and despite your reporter seeing Han with ball facing his own goal being challenged from behind by Maj and both players going to ground a penalty was awarded which Maj dispatched past Eddie to level the scores.

Harsh? Possibly, but if getting booted out of a play off final is a fair punishment for watching a game of football, then maybe it was a penalty.

So the game finished 2-2 and with no meaningful football match on this weekend your reporter awaits Monday to go again.

Oh, apparently there’s a Hull fan and Middlesbrough fan amongst us with a meaningless game to be contested and a couple of Spurs fans praying for a win on Sunday!

Bonus video of Reuters visit to WFS Benalmadena Click Here