Team: Mercelis / Bernardo, Minne, Philpot / Novak, Agily / Hodgson, Petersen, Van Dijck / McGrath, Godeau

Subs: Si M'hammed, Springob

The 5th October is an auspicious day in Portuguese history: King Alfonso VII of León and Castile first recognised Portugal as a Kingdom on this day in 1143 and 767 years later, the first Portuguese revolution began, following British meddling. 109 years on, could the Brits finish the job and remind the reigning champions that despite last years setback, that which does not kill us makes us stronger, and the British are back and ready to fight to regain our title?

First, the small matter of rallying the troops and ensuring that the Nilsmobile arrived with its full contingent. Unusually, I was in fact the only one on time, with Spencer and Luka displaying varying degrees of unresponsiveness due to a hangover and the need to ‘move furniture’, respectively. The different uses of a Saturday morning are remarkable. Full disclosure: I was in the pub. Luka was abandoned as a lost cause; Spencer retrieved from the bush in Woluwe in which he’d spent the night and we headed to Rosieres for the battle.

Arriving at the ground found the Portuguese already awaiting us, with a gauntlet of players and fans to run before reaching the safety of the changing room. The team was set out by Le Capitan as follows: Leaky Kris in goal, still searching for his first clean sheet and having conceded 3 goals in back to back matches for the first time in his career (one was a Euroleague game so fortunately not included in the stats). Jean sweeping, flanked by Dex and James. Sioux on the right wing, Hodge on the left, Luka, Noah and Jacob in midfield with Nils and Thomas up front. Intensity and quality were the themes of the team talk: press them high, make our passes don’t let them settle etc, as well as a reminder that are few better feelings than beating the Portuguese.

After the obligatory overly-imperious five minutes of fame for the referee pre-match, we were able to start and seemed relatively comfortable for the first 25. The Portuguese were pressing the defense quite high, but this left space on a few occasions for Luka to turn into. RBB had a good chance after Thomas was played in behind after a smart exchange of passes, but the goalkeeper made a good save to deny the good guys the lead. Gradually, Portugal grew into the game as their pressing began to tell, winning the ball in some good areas, but without much quality to show for their efforts, and unusually for a Portuguese team, sending a lot of crosses (mostly from free kicks) into the box, that were dealt with rather easily.

At half time neither team felt like they had an advantage, but the potential for RBB to take control was there – a bit more composure and quality and we would be able to put the game away. Unfortunately, this message fell on deaf ears as the second half was very sloppy – more inaccurate longs balls and greater pressure on the midfield and less composure from the defense meant that it was difficult to build any structure to play from, and set pieces weren’t taken advantage of. Portugal were enjoying their best period of the game, with a very direct counter from an RBB exposing leading to a good chance that the striker fortunately wasted, and a bobbling ball in the box toepoked towards goal producing an excellent reaction save from Kris. Tarik joined the game on the right and Spencer in midfield, bringing some more energy to midfield and as we entered into the last 10 minutes RBB had weathered the storm, finally putting together a few passes to move into dangerous positions but still unable to really threaten the goal.

Of course, a vital ingredient in any championship side is what Coach McGrath once described as cojinas, which is believe is translated as the desire to win more than anyone else. Some teams switch of at 68 minutes, but never RBB.

MOM & Reporter: James Philpot