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2ND XI v MOZAC 12 OCTOBER 2008
The next day was really beautiful and although I had plenty to do, I reckoned that I would wander down in the glorious sunshine and watch Pionsat reserves take on Mozac's third team, in the Puy-de-Dome 3rd Division pool D.
I'd seen the guy in this photo before, playing in a 3rd XI match. He wasn't particularly effective but he wasn't all that much out of place at this level, but it was his age that did me. There seems to be a great number of elderly players around here at this level, so I reckon I ought to start to polish up my skills from the days when I played left-back for GAFLAC Chester and Crewe Permanent Way back much further than I care to remember.
Pionsat seemed to be a little out of their depth in this match at first. Much of the action was all in the direction of the Pionsat goal, and of course I had positioned myself at the other end, so I missed much of what was happening.
What little action there was around here was mostly speculative shots from distance and mainly off-target. This attempt wasn't too bad and brought out a save from the Mozac keeper. And he needed to be up for it too, with a Pionsat attacker loitering ready to take advantage of any loose ball.
There was a much better attempt by Pionsat a short while later, with a beautiful ball across goal that caught everyone totally unawares.
Amongst the people caught unawares was Pionsat's no8, who with the goal gaping and at his mercy from just 2 yards out, managed to find the side netting when it would have been so much easier to score - to a chorus of groans from the assembled multitudes (about 20 of us, I reckoned, including one little girl of 3 or 4 who throughout the match was chanting "allez, papa!")
The second half was a repeat of the first, and I reckoned that I was in the right end for all of the action.
And that was just how it started, with the Pionsat goal under seige from Mozac. On this occasion, a good header on target from close range. This brought a useful save from the Pionsat keeper, palming the ball round the upright, to keep his team in the game.
Good for him.
And not long afterwards we had some more Mozac pressure, and a terrific goalmouth scramble as a Mozac player forced his way into the penalty area amid a pile of static Pionsat defenders.
From this uncomfortable position he even managed to squeeze a shot off, and this was another one that ordinarily would have had "goal" written all over it. But you can see how quickly the Pionsat keeper (almost obscured by his no2) was in coming off his line, and managed to get just enough on the ball to keep it out of the net.
And it just kept on coming. Totally relentless. Another good move by the Mozac attackers resulted in another shot on goal. This one however was wide of the upright, as the Pionsat defence look on - doubtless breathing a sigh of relief.
The twenty or so spectators, including the three or four hanging around the girls in the pie hut in the distance, were certainly having their money's worth today, even if all of the football was at the wrong end of the pitch. I wasn't complaining.
But Pionsat hadn't given up the match, and there was the odd occasion when they managed to get down the field to the other end and put Mozac under pressure.
A good attack down the left wing saw a Pionsat forward (obscured by the Mozac no4) manage to get a shot at the goal, but it was always going wide across, and didn't really put the keeper under any pressure to make a save.
And somehow, you knew it was going to happen.
All of this pressure on the Pionsat goal, but occasionally they could get upfield and show some teeth, as in the previous photo. But nevertheless Mozac were once again all upfield and had left their goalkeeper all on his own. A hopeful Pionsat punt out of defence and a desperate race for the ball by a Pionsat attacker, the Mozac keeper, and one of his defenders.
At this level of football, the wisest course for any goalkeeper is to stay on his line and stare out the attacker, relying on the force of his personality to put him off. Instead, he had gone for it and was always going to get there second. The Pionsat no12 tried a speculative lob over him which in normal circumstances would have landed in the hotel car park down the street, but more by luck than judgement found the back of the net despite a despairing slide by the defender.
15 minutes later, it was 2-0 to Pionsat as a nice build-up paid some dividends down the centre. And you can see the reason for this goal. In the centre of the field are 3 Pionsat forwards with not a single Mozac defender putting them under any pressure. For a team that had played so well for the first hour or so, the Mozac side had simply started to crumble.
And it wasn't as if the Pionsat team was up to all that much. They had kept their heads when they were struggling, and had buckled down to produce a result.
Keeping their heads, yes. That's more than can be said for the Mozac keeper who by now was playing a different game than that of the 21 other players on the pitch.
Another rush of blood to the head and a rush out to the edge of the area to try to intercept a ball that he would never have caught even if he had come by train. Another delightful lob from a Pionsat forward, but this one bounced off the crossbar with the keeper nowhere within reach.
There was another one too, but that lob landed somewhere round about the car park of the Queue de Milan Hotel down the street.
And by now, the keeper had gone to pieces. He even won a free kick for a foul committed against him, and kicked the ball straight at the offending player. The referee, who hadn't actually seen this, remonstrated with him for kicking the ball before the whistle, to which the keeper replied with a phrase that has no place on a family web page. The result was a free kick against him.
It would have served him right if Pionsat had scored, but no such luck. And the referee promptly concluded the proceedings even though there was another minute or so to play. Presumably, one imagines, to avoid another unwelcome hitch to what had been a very fine afternoon's football.
This is a match that must have had Mozac wondering how on earth they managed to make it back home with nothing to show for all of their effort.
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