The Red Devilz had an early taste of probable 1st division football when they squared off against the Tuakau Panthers in a Thursday evening clash at Bledisloe Park under lights. The game, whilst advertised as a friendly was an all out competitive affair, the intensity, pace and passion displayed was worthy of an end of season finale. Tuakau took the honours on the score-sheet but both coaches agreed that the game was a fairly even affair and a second ‘friendly’ later in the season has already been agreed.
On Saturday the drama unfolded pre-match; firstly, during the warm-up the Viper complained about a sore, swollen finger, ruling him out of the first half goal-keeping assignment. The Muss was thrown the goalie jersey and hastily joined Kurt B. our expert goal keeper trainer for the pre-match warm-up routines. Then; the Devilz had just taken the field moving into their starting positions and the Sharks were hesitantly arriving onto the pitch as all of a sudden the Waiuku Jaguars invaded the pitch, claiming that their fixture against the Dury Tigers was scheduled at the same time on the same field. The commotion was eventually dissolved and the game kicked off 12 minutes past 12:00 noon.
The game and the players suffered early on from the lunch-time blues, legs looked leaden, passing was a bit sluggish and the Devilz were guilty of wastefulness. Within five minutes the Devilz established a suffocating dominance which unfortunately did not reflect on the score sheet. Between the fourth and 13th minute the Devilz had created six ‘sitters’ yet to the dismay of a perky group of supporters, the ball just did not find its way over the line…
After 14 minutes exactly the spell was broken, once again a surging run down the right hand side by The Sweet Touch and the sweetest of right crosses into the box found Mijnheer Bergkamp who finally made his mark.
From the kick-off the Devilz pushed up and won the ball in midfield. An opening pass found the Sweet Touch again on the right hand side, this time he took the ball up and cut back inside and with a ‘sweet’ strike beat the goalie, the score was 2:0, barely 45 seconds after kick-off.
The remainder of the first half saw the Devilz dominating but forgetting to put the game out of reach for the Sharks.
During half-time the Devilz devoured ‘a bucket’ of Oranges, testimony to the late kick-off and the havoc this plays wit the body clock.
The second half started how the first half had finished, the Sharks gallantly tried to make the game a contest but, in reality it was the Devilz’s game to ‘waste’. It took 4.54 minutes of the second half to confirm that, on this day, the Sharks were being had for lunch. Tellingly the 3rd goal came of an attempt to clear the ball out of the danger zone by the Sharks, The Conductor took it upon himself to meet the clearance and with a half volley drove the ball back into the box, the keeper attempted to stop the bouncing ball in front of him but it had too much power and spin for him to get a clean pair of hands to it, the score was 3:0 and finally the result started to reflect the game.
To the Sharks’ credit, they continued to keep the game a lively contest, whilst the Devilz’s defence was solid, occasionally the Sharks made some inroads and managed to give Rene Higuita a chance to make his presence known.
Half way through the second spell Bergkamp came over the right and drove toward the box, from around 18 metres out he let fly a ‘bewt’, the keeper did not stand a chance and the score was 4:0.
The Sharks suddenly remembered that they could play the game too a bit… three successive attacking moves, mainly over the left hand side finally allowed the Sharks to peg one back. At the time they deserved the goal thoroughly.
The Devilz responded in a manner of champions. From the kick-off the ball was carried out wide, again it was The Sweet Touch who asked all sorts of questions of the defence; he won a corner and Bergkamp strode to execute.
A sharp precise corner kick into the middle of the five metre box was met by a flying Viper, a thunderous header, which would have surely broken the net, if only there was one. The score was 5:1 and the Devilz played out the game, showing some mild effects of the hard Thursday night work-out, yet always untroubled by the remaining few ‘Shark-Attacks’.
A special thanks here to our friends from Sistema Plastics who, compelled by their enthusiasm for this team, generously sponsored us with 10 very flash drinks bottles and an even flasher carrier bag to go with it. Thanks Mate; we will remember the name SISTEMA when the ‘Back to School’ campaigns are rolling.
We also wish to thank Caltex for supporting our team this year with plenty of goodies for the player of the day –Thanks Caltex-.
The Devilz’ motto “… the Sky’s the limited!”
10th Grade Lions come from behind and roar to life in the second half!
The 10:00hrs kick-off at Waiuku promised to see a more alert start to the game of the Lions, everyone still remembered the ‘sleep-in’ from the previous week and both coaches worked overtime to remind the players that the game starts when the whistle blows… The team looked confident and fresh before kick-off and the fans were relaxed.
What a start to the game it was, during the first three minutes the Waiuku Hawks touched the ball three times, the Lions had 95% of possession but goals did not eventuate. As is often in situations like this; an unfortunate turn of events was about to hit the Lions, not once but twice within 90 seconds. A Lions’ attack was blocked and the counter attack form the feisty Hawks saw a midfielder breaking free and with a crisp right footer he wrong-footed the goalie; the score was 1:0 to the Hawks and the Lions looked hurt.
Worse was to follow, the Lions continued to attack but lost shape in their midfield and defence. Sure enough, the Hawks capitalised and another surging run from the same midfield motor ended in a lofty drive into the right hand corner of the net, the goalie stood no chance. Five minutes gone and the Lions were 2:0 down, this was a first for this team this season and the coaches and fans were not sure what to expect.
Some tactical changes were made, the defence was shored up and another attacking midfielder was brought on, eventually the power-play of the Lions paid some dividends; in quick succession the Lions managed to score to tie the match up at half-time, 2:2, and some stern words were spoken during the interval.
The Lions came out for the second spell a changed team; positional discipline was adhered to, passes start to find the right team member and combinations started to flow. Goals followed as a logical consequence. During the second 25 minutes the Lions plugged the Hawks like a lifeless chicken, five goals in the second spell was met with dwindling resistance by the Hawks, for all their good efforts out of the first half the Hawks only managed one more goal. The man of the match performance by the Hawks’ goalie made the end result look kinder than the Lions were. 7:3 to the ‘Raging Lions of the second half’ guaranteed that the Lions will now have a true top of the table clash next weekend against the Manukau Mischiefs at 11:00hrs on Bledisloe Park 03. By sheer coincidence you will have the opportunity to also see the Red Devilz take on the Tuakau Pumas at the same time on Bledisloe Park 04. Families will be torn between these two matches, but, as has always been this season with these two teams, football will be the winner on the day, once again.
Let’s hope the Lions will attract more fans for the remainder of the season, what we have seen so far makes you look forward to more of the same.
WELL ROARED LIONS!