Availability of players was above expectations for all RBBFC teams and our new Captain Maliki was faced with the hard task of stitching together a team out of 15 players who convened (amongst regular 3rd team players, old players coming back, and new comers). But, Bobby Taylor made the selection of the starting eleven easier; when he realized in the locker room that he had forgotten his ID (rushing Taylor would then be left out to join us in the second half). The Captain decided to go for an experimental formation (for the 3rds) with 3 at the back, 5 in midfield with two wing backs, and 2 up front.

On to the game and the opposition (Union JP) this week were a rather young group of players which had started the season with a 5-0 result away from home. But the 3rds showed little fear as they set about controlling the game. We started strong as we did in the previous match, keeping pressure on the opposition’s half.

The right positioning and good ball movement from start resulted in an early goal which gave us the lead after just 5 minutes into the match. A great lobby ball from Alves to Braun set him free to take the defender and the keeper before slotting it in. 1-0 up and we were controlling the match.

With the pace of Ramel and Lewis on the flanks and Alves, Dehombreux and Nardi in the middle, the opposition were not allowed to get forward as much as they wanted to. They hardly got a kick in the middle of the park, but in the only real chance for them at that stage, their left winger who had managed to escape Ramel and Criado for once, shoot from far out to beat Nahas after the ball bounced in front of him and ended up on the left top corner. What a lucky shot...I just hope that we get a few like these as well.

1-1. We continued to pressure them on their field and taking the advantage of the wind, we were controlling the game and creating more chances than the opposition. Dehombreux, Alves, Maliki, were winning the majority of their challenges in the midfield facilitating the work from the defense. Union JP looked dangerous up front with two fast forwards, who were then finding space to play around our defense playing with 3 on the back, but the offside trap was working in our favor at that point.

In a 50/50 challenge Eryoruk got injured and Gutierrez came in for him. Lewis was very comfortable on the left wing finding the space to assist the forwards. We had two great chances to score the second goal with headers from Goell and Braun after a corner and a free kick coming from that side. We knew that it was a matter of time to get the second goal in.

Then, on a fast move from defense to attack the ball found Braun who played a one-two ball with Goell, who set Braun to finish it and put the 3rds 2-1 up just before halftime.

Half time came and we trooped off to a team talk, since we knew that the spaces in the back needed to be closed to save us the 3 points. We have struggled in the first match to keep up the pace in the second half and we did not want the same to happen this time, specially playing a young and fast side as Union.

So, Harbusch and Taylor were brought in to replace Dehombreux and Ramel. They gave us another push, and immediately contributed with good moves. But, overconfidence and our lack of interest in killing the match early on allowed Union JP to grow in the match and they took advantage of their momentum.

A free quick on the left side was called by the referee and that whistle was the turning point of the match. The following 15 minute cost us the match…3 goals conceded… On the first goal, Nahas missed it and we conceded the tie 2x2. The motivation went down a bit. We need to work on that for the other matches, we were very much alive at that stage of the match and could definitely have turned it in our favor again.

They continued to push down the wings and we were not keeping up with them any longer. One of their fast moves from the left, opened up the space for their forward to get into the area and place it on the lower corner with Nahas getting there just late… 2-3.

We still had a couple of changes with Lewis in the second half but that was our last gasp and towards the end we conceived another silly goal, by losing the ball on a bad pass which left their forward one-on-one with Nahas… 2-4 hard to take it, since we played very well in the first half and certainly know that we let them back into the match due to our own mistakes.

Lesson learned, a lot of talk after the match, and we are all pumped up for the next match. We know we have a quality team and that we should do well in this division, but we will only be rewarded if we play full matches with the same winning attitude demonstrate in the first half of our matches so far..

MOM: Henrique Braun