Boston, his harbour, his lobsters and the business... our story begins on the other side of the ocean. Kris, our curly goalkeeper felt into a trop at the TD Garden. He knew we were playing the boys in green…he just went to the wrong stadium and Nossegem is not Boston.

Because Kris is making a arm-wrestling with Larry Bird in the TD Garden VIP space, he would not rejoin Nossegem on time.

Nossegem, his airport, cheese sandwiches, and the football, « le vrai ». A perfect weather and sun, perfect field and a beautiful smile on each faces before that great battle foreseen.

They are top of the league, we want to be top of the league again.

Line Up :

[Kris Mercelis in Boston (lovely hair)], Pete Jean Minne Shilton in Goal,

Back 3 : Spencer Springob, Nils McGrath, Big Ben Thom

Mid 5 : Joaquin Gimenez, Luka Luke Novak, Steve Lamarra, Richard McGeehan (Cpt), James Philpot (nice boots)

Up 2 : Daniel I need Donner, Andrew got a ring Hodgson

Bench and ready to battle : Dex Decio Bernardo, Monsieur Thibault Boulanger, Diederik Didi Lebbink

After referee’s compliments about Andrew weight lost, we begin the battle. The boys in green put quickly a good pressure on the boys in white. We could not pass the ball as good as foreseen, despite this lovely pitch.

They had some good shots and free-kicks but they went all taken by our goalie. As a diesel motor, we increased our level after the 10 first minutes. Some better passes, crosses and chances but no goal to reward our efforts. After a good cross from Andrew, Luka Luke could finished with a Zlatan high kick but he missed it. As often, the Irish chose that moment to have their best chance of the game. A good pass between our defenders came to their forward who arrived alone for a face to face against Jean Shilton. He waited to the last second before diving and saved the crossed shot with his left foot. 0-0 half time.

The second half began with a typical rainy British/Belgian weather.

The boys in white began to put more and more pressure, playing with a great mentality, winning first and second balls. To increase that momentum Decio Dex and Monsieur Thibaut came in for Joaquin and Spencer.

On a quick free quick, Richie found Luka on the left, he played a one two one to Nils who hold the ball, he made a lovely Brazilian trick to launch tiny Steve along the line, he made a beautiful hard cross on the ground. Big Ben, who stayed in the box, made a gorgeous offensive tackle to broke the nets. 0-1 to the good boys, totally deserved.

The battle continued. Nothing really dangerous for our defense and goalie, we were trying to keep the ball in our feet.

Thibaut got the ball back and made a lovely spin pass through the defenders to Luca. Our Super Lukic faced the goalie and tried to finish it on his right, but the goalie made a great save.

Another good opportunity came for Daniel on a long pass. He faced also the keeper running to him. He tried to lob him and finish it afterwards, but he took the wrong side and could not handle it.

On our last attack, the referee decided to confirm our victory, 3 points and new top of the league equal with Portugal !

Great win, great mentality, great battle. Let’s keep this spirit for the next weeks.

MOM and reporter : Peter Jean Minne Shilton