Only ourselves to blame. Cavallina 2-1 IUE

Scorer: Leo.

Right, to dominate a game for its entirety and then let in two goals in the last ten minutes with their only two shots of the match is ridiculous. We should have won this game 2 or 3-0, no questions asked. How we managed to throw it away is beyond me. We missed two many good chances when dominating, and seemed to have assumed we had already won. Okay, we were denied what was one of the most blatant penalties I have ever seen, and their freekick that they equalised from was a complete joke, but come on, this is not how it should be. We have to make up for it in our last game, my last as coach. We are in two tournaments in May and June, with some very very good teams. I am only playing in those though; Dom and whoever else wants to help him are in charge of the team. Bagsy not in goal.

A lot of us took this defeat to heart last night, including me. To cheer you up, here is a funny comic strip: Click on it:Last night's team: Charles - Luke - Mate (captain), Dave M, Dom (Simon) - France (Johnny), Ernesto, Dave H, Nate (Manolo) - Leo - Irial. Good to see Ryan on the bench last night, eh Dave?

Alice Bands. IUE 5-0 Sporting 2003

Cerreti, Tuesday 15th April, 2008. Goals: Irial (2), Leo (2), Johnny.

Okay, yes, I was wearing a hairband that even the Italians were disapproving of yesterday. I blame Lewis Carol. In any case, we played brilliantly with me in my hairband, Dom in his captain's armband, and Andrew in the stands in a chipper mood, next to the Rychlik clan. Are they here on spring break, Nate? Woo.

With Si suspended and Ernesto out, Dave M came in at centre back and Dave H came back into midfield, with Luis holding slightly more, France shifted over to the left and Nate came in on the right, while Leo finally had his dream of playing just behind the striker come true. I'm glad I took him off before he got his hattrick or I'd never have heard the end of it, and he would expect to play there every week. This was a very important game, if we wanted to secure third place, and Sporting having only lost three games all season.

The first half was a relatively tight affair, but all in all an excellent performance by us. We were caused some problems by the movements of their striker on their onrushing midfielders. Discipline was the name of the game and it was important to stay alert with their clever movement. We actually defended excellently, with them not having a chance in the whole half apart from one from a very tight angle that was never going to trouble David. Sporting's high line looked like it had been copied off us before Christmas; while they managed to press the play, they held it naiavely and statically high, and Leo, Irial and the two wingers combined well on several occasions to beat it only to be called offside by the northern ref. We eventually broke the deadlock through Irial, after some brilliant play down the left and a wonderful interchange between the token Italians. 1-0. Excellent goal and a deserved lead. We had to be patient, as Sporting pressed the game well, but always looked on the verge of getting in. The mood at half time was upbeat but cautious. It was discipline and simplicity that had put us in the lead, and it was these things that would keep us there.

We started the second half well, and quickly found ourselves 3-0 up after a couple of goals by Leo who danced round the keeper after a long ball by David (see, Baez, it sometimes helps if you don't waste time!) after he had finished beautifully a couple of minutes before, whipping it round the keeper. We were passing the ball smoothly and Dave M was very solid at blocking defender, snuffing out any danger before it could materialise. Irial got his second and, frankly, we should have had four or five more quite easily. Manolo and Charles came onto the wings, and eventually Johnny uo front. Their midfield continued to work, but their high line, while still high, didn't look like it cared any more, and we got in countless times. Johnny came on for the excellent Leo and finally got his first goal for the EUI after a brilliant cut inside and cross by galavanting left back Mate Tokic. An excellent header by Johnny - a real striker's goal. The biggest cheer of the night too. Have fun washing that kit, Manc.

Team: (1-3-4-1-1) David - Luke - Mate, Dave M, Dom (captain) - France (Charles), Luis, Dave H, Nate (Manolo) - Leo (Johnny) - Irial.

El Messi Irlandés. Medici Fiorentini 3-4 IUE

Caldine, Monday 7th April 2008. Goals: France, Luis, Dave H (2)

Strangely enough, I was talking on the morning of the game about great goals where players have dribbled from the half way line and finished... Maradona v England, Messi last year are a couple. Atkinson vs Wimbledon is an unlikely candidate, and there is of course Weah at the San Siro from a while back (youtube them all, you'll have lots of fun). Well, they were all beaten in all respects last night by a brilliant wonder goal from our own number 10, Dave Horan, who decided to get his own back on his team mates, who apparently were 'not passing to him' (do the accent in your head), by going straight from the kick off, taking on a couple of Florentine doctors an finishing well, putting us back on track for a win we were on the verge of throwing away.

Also of note in this game was a wonder save by David in goal, after tipping the ball onto the bar, the ball went high into the air, leaving him seemingly clueless as to where the ball was, in fact about to drop onto their onrushing striker's head, only to prove himself to be the Iberian Zatoichi (google it), proving that you don't need to be able to see the ball to leap into the air and palm the ball to safety.

The third wonder of the match was Si's wonder strop that got him sent off, after the ref gave a very very generous penalty against the unlucky Simon and he got up and punched the ball out of the number 9's hands, who, having already thrown himself onto the floor once to win the penalty, did it again and got Simon sent off.

So, down to 10 men, and with tiring legs on a big pitch with fifteen minutes left, plus 4 mins injury time, we did something miraculous: kept the ball for the entire twenty minutes. Unbelievable. Who'd have thought we had the ability not to press the self destruct button. Well done to everyone.

So, the match: Dave H came back in up front, and France returned to the right, with Leo switching back to the left wing. The settled back four, and now habitual midfield partnership of Luis and Ernesto remained in tact from last week. We started off excellently, even though our kits were stinking. Thanks Manolo, maybe next time you could wash them with actual soap. To make things even worse, the Medici were decked out in full Fiorentina away strips, as some of them work for the club. The pitch was a bizarre affair, with fake mowing lines of different shades of artificial turf, and was the narrowest AND longest which we have played on this season. Very strange. Medici played a very suited system to the narrow pitch, and won that made in difficult for our midfielders in particular: a kind of 4-2-2-1-1, with width coming from the strikers pulling wide, with the oncoming midfielders pushing into the space. The key to bossing the game was following these men and winning first and second balls in midfield. While we played very well for spells in the first half, we failed in that key task, making things more difficult than they should have been. Our most dangerous players in the first half were our wingers, who managed to take advantage of the narrow set up of Medici, with the Italian wizards Leo and France getting in behind on several occasions. Much to Leo's disgust he is now definitively a winger. Ha! Shame he go injured after 20 minutes, time enough to set up France's goal, which he almost managed to fuck up, even though he had an open goal and about twenty five yards of space. Their narrow formation also meant lots of space for our full backs, and in fact both of our first goals originated in good play by first Mate, and then Dom for the second goal, who crossed in excellently, with the ball eventually falling to Luis who put in it into the far corner. We mixed out play up well, with a good combination of short passing and longer balls, with the most common pass easilt being me up to Irial, who repearedly did excellently to open up the play to our oncoming midfielders. We started to lose out in midfield, but still looked pretty solid, but risking losing concentration. In the thrid minute of inujury time at the end of the first half, they won an absolutely scandolous corner and took it short, caught us sleeping, and crossed the ball into an empty box. Great finish by Ernesto! 1-2 at half time.

The second half was a typical IUE affair, with us letting in a goal after losing a man during the second phase of a crossed free kick. Dave H scored his wonder goal, and a more normal goal, and they scored from their stupid penalty. We missed the usual bucketload of chances, and generally played well, in particular as we were tiring due to the long pitch. On several occasions we shot when we should have passed, a theme that continued from the first half. Dave M came on and did a solid job first blocking in midfield and then at centreback as we went to 4-4-1 with more of a flat back four as they pushed three up front. This actually gave us the room to stroke the ball around for twenty minutes and close out the win. Good performanec overall with a scoreline that didn't really reflect how well we played.

Team: (1-3-4-1-1) David - Luke - Mate, Simon, Dom - Leo (Nate), Luis, Ernesto (Dave M), Francesco (Charles) - Dave H - Irial (Johnny)

Pazienza. Iue 0-1 Casellina

Tuesday 8th April 2008. Cerreti.


Hmmm... I had forgotten what it was like to lose. Given how well we actually played last night, this isn't surprising... I actually think we played better yesterday (save a ten minute spell just after their goal at the end of the first half, in which they began to dominate the midfield) than we did in the previous two games, games in which we scored 10 goals with ease. Last night the ball just wouldn't go in. I woke up at 7am this morning thinking about my free kick in the last couple of minutes last night that crashed off the underside of the bar and bounced on the line and then up into the air. Painful. I'm really sorry it didn't go in lads.

Sometimes the ball just won't go in... There's nothing you can do about it. As Leo's dad said after the game, even if we had played for another hour, we still wouldn't have scored. In front of what was defintely a record crowd, we put on a great second half display, after a pretty decent first half performance. with Casellina reduced to booting the ball into touch and fouling. Thinking about our missed chances, there is a lump in my throat; we twice ducked under the ball in front of goal when we could have just nodded in to an open net, we hit the bar twice, headers and shots went just over and just wide, and their keeper made a few tody saves. Their goal was an absolute belter: a twenty five yard volley into the top corner. Nothing you can do. How do so many teams manage to score just good goals against us?

Grrrrr! You'll understand if this isn't a long match report... A quick summary though: We started with Manolo coming back in on the left, with Leo starting on the right, and Nate coming in for the suspended Dave H and Irial dropping back slightly deeper and Luis coming back into the midfield. Casellina are a team who know how to defend and the game was tight in the first half, but we managed to open up the game well at times, and defended solidly in general. Leo was our most dangerous player, cutting inside well from the right and almost scoring a couple of times. They scored a belter of a goal, and got in another time after a one-two down our right. We started to look slightly ragged at the back and lose out in the middle to their five-man midfield, with their number seven finding himself in too much space. A bad last ten minutes of the first half, but we are still playing well.

Dave M came on at the start of the second hal to go 5 vs 5 in midfield, with the idea being to get our midfielders to bomb forward to support Irial, and to push our wingers wider and try and get in behind. We absolutely dominated the second half, territorially and in terms of possession and chances. As we were so much on top we went back to 4 in midfield with an extra striker, with Norberto coming on for Nate. It seemed inevitable that we would score. By the time my free kick came off the bar - the sweetest free kick I will ever hit, which looked in for 25 yards - it had become clear that it just wasn't our night. Pazienza.

Team: 1-3-4-2: David - Luke - Mate, Simon, Dom - Manolo (Dave M), Luis, Ernesto, Leo - Irial, Nate (Norberto)