The Silver Sharks, promoted from the 2nd division grading round to the 1st division South Championship round faced up to the first game in the new division in style. In a tense arm wrestle the Silver Sharks absorbed everything the Red Devilz could throw at them and proved with gusto and determination that they earned their place in this championship round.
The game was played out at furious pace throughout the first, and for most of the second half; both teams however, toward the end of the game, got caught out once again by the over-sized pitch.
The question really needs to be asked of the AFF what they are trying to achieve with only six field players per team on 65 X 45 metres pitches (That is 243.75m² or 2622.75ft² per (field) player, in case you were wondering). Too often the quality of the game and overall the development of the players suffer from the sheer size of the pitch and the resulting ‘open spaces’. Dare to compare with the Ashburton Grove, home to the Ars., playing field of 105 x 68 metres or 324.55m² per professional (field) player. Surely it must dawn even on the uninitiated observer that the proportions of the playing fields these 10 year olds are subjected to are simply wrong. Interestingly; the FA (2005) “Guide to indoor and outdoor areas for small sided football, mini-soccer and futsal” defines a maximum pitch dimension of 60 x 40 metres for seven-a-side football for its senior participants.
Both teams had opportunities in the first half to score but good goal keeping and the proverbial ‘inches’ denied the attacks of a happy end.
The second half continued to deliver some ‘heart-stopping’ moments at regular intervals and the teams gave as good as they got.
The first goal to the Red Devilz, with 13:20 minutes of the second half on the clock, was contentious; under pressure the goalie was judged to have carried the ball over the goal line, the referee awarded a goal and the tension in both supporters’ camps rose.
If contentious had a sister her name would be controversial; well, she entered and hugged centre stage within 50 seconds of the first goal of the match.
The Sharks broke through some non existent defence straight after kick-off and in an one-on-one with the goalie the attacker smacked the ball into the goalie’s open hands, a touch on the loose ball saw it trundling toward the empty net, but it’s progress came to a cruel halt in a sizeable puddle right in front of the goal line. In the mayhem which ensued, the goalie put his arms on the ball and the Sharks and their supporters were jubilantly claiming a goal. The referee adjudged the ball as being saved, not having crossed the goal line by its full circumference (see also Fifa laws of the game, 2007/08, law 10, The Method Of Scoring:” A goal is scored when the whole of the ball passes over the goal line, [..].”).
Sadly, from hereon the game, which deserved all the attention of the crowd, became a side-issue for some rather raucous vocal few. Their focus of attention turned against the referee and toward what they deemed a misjudgement of said incident.
Suffice to say that the Sharks, who scored within five minutes of the incident to level the score 1:1 continued to play a good challenging and attacking brand of football, equally the Devilz showed some good combination football and nice touches on the ball.
The fact that no team broke the dead-lock form here might have been divine justice, the level of abusive language littering the surrounds of (oversized) pitch three directed toward the referee and the petulant behaviour displayed by one during the latter part of the game and at the end of it had nothing divine but plenty of pitiful to it. More so when one comes to understand that this one, believe it our not, too is a CBR, or at least was seen to be sitting the course some three or so years back.
The Red Devilz wish to extend a congratulating hand out to the Silver Sharks and welcome the team into the first division, let’s hope the Sharks will continue to concentrate on their football and not get sidetracked by the sideshow. We are sure you are going to make a positive impression in this division with the football you play.
On another note;
We wish to thank Caltex and Lynda for supporting our team on match-days again this year with plenty of goodies for the player of the day –Thanks Caltex-.
The Devilz’ motto “… the Sky’s the limited!”