 | FOOTBALL CLUB |
| FOOTBALL CLUB |
THE FARM
MY LIFESTYLE
ON MY TRAVELS
There are more links at the top and bottom of each page.
These concern the administration of the site, but you should visit them just the same.
SITE SPONSORS
please support them
You can contact me to order a full-size high-quality image.
E si vous voulez commander une image en plein dimensions et á haute qualité
Please if you would like to add anything to the text of each image or to correct an error.
Si vous avez des choses á ajouter, ou vous voudriez corriger quelque chose que j'ai écrit,
SAURET BESSERVE V 2nd XI 1st MARCH 2009
The glorious weather we had been having these past few days broke today and we were blessed with thick grey clouds that threatened rain. Not such a nice day for football, but in this sort of surrounding the ambience is good so despite the weather I was optimistic of a good game of football.
But not as optimistic as I might have been. Pionsat managed to muster a full team but there were only 8 players on the field for Sauret Besserve. Winning is one thing, but it's nice to do it in a competitive fashion. The Sauret trainer pleaded with the Pionsat chairman to allow the game to kick off late so that he could try to muster a few more players. Eventually Sauret managed to put out a team of 11 and we kicked off.
They even managed to find a substitute later - flagging a guy down as he was passing the pitch in his car and sending him home to change.
Most of the action was up at the Sauret Besserve end. Almost relentlessly so in fact. There was quite a bit of good build-up play from Pionsat, as there always is from the 2nd XI, and they won a corner.
The corner was cleared by the Sauret defence, but not very far. A Pionsat midfielder had a good whack at goal from about 20-25 yards out but it went just wide. I wondered if this was a taste of things to come.
After that flurry of excitement we settled down into something of a midfield slug for a good 20 minutes with nothing very much happening. So it gave me an opportunity to have a look at the officials
Now as you know, I'm loathe to criticise the officials at a football match. They are overworked, underpaid, and deserve all the assistance that they can get. Without them, there wouldn't be any football as you can't rely on the players to police the match honestly themselves.
Nevertheless, that doesn't mean that you have to condone everything that goes on and the far-side linesman was, quite frankly, appalling. It's all very well volunteering to do the job, but you need to have a good understanding of the rules before you take the job on - especially the offside rule, as Pionsat's 2nd XI is a very quick team and regularly beats any offside trap that the opposition can throw out. A correct interpretation of the law in essential.
Basically, you are not offside if
i.... you are in your own half
or
ii... you are not interfering with the action
or
iii.. there is more than one opposition player between you and the goal AT THE INSTANT THAT THE BALL IS PLAYED TOWARDS YOU
so a good offside trap will watch for the ball about to be played by the opposition and then all run upfield quickly so that the forwards will be behind the defence and thus offside
and a good way to beat the opposition is for your forwards not to interfere with the action, but for a quick midfielder to run forward and pick up the ball. And Pionsat's 2nd XI has any number of quick midfielders so they do this all the time, with great effect.
But our linesman was flagging the forwards even as they made no effort to interfere with the action, to the fury of the players and spectators. Even worse, on other occasions, he'd let a midfielder run on but the moment he passed the defenders rushing upfield, he'd raise his flag even though the ball had been played long since.
The howls of derision from the crowd drew the referee's attention to what was going on and he began to ignore the most blatant of the linesman's weird decisions. This kind of thing - where a linesman is blatantly ignorant of the rules he is supposed to be applying - brings his club into disrepute and leads to a great deal of unpleasantness on the pitch. It makes the referee's job much harder and leaves him exposed to all kinds of criticism from both teams.
Not that the referee was much better either. A few decisions - one or two clear and blatant trips in the penalty area went unpunished and there was a handball in the area right at the end that wasn't given. Many other fouls all over the field went unpunished.
On one occasion we did have a free kick. It was awarded in Pionsat's favour and a good ball was put in. It went right across the goal but no-one was able to get on the end of it.
And just look at the woeful Sauret marking.
The match had started to warm up again and we had a lovely move downfield - right over the top and across field to beat the offside trap and an excellent cross into the area.
Pionsat at the moment are ravaged by injury and they were playing without a target man, so it was the no14 who was up front for this. With the goal at his mercy he couldn't quite get his head on it. It would have been a beautiful goal if it had have gone in.
Shortly after this, Sauret mounted a rare attack up the other end. For once it was the turn of the central defence of the 2nd XI to be absent and Michael in goal was called upon and it was a good job that he was alert. He had to get down twice in a matter of seconds to put in a couple of good blocks.
That was good play by Michael. He really did well there as it could easily been disaster for Pionsat, who are miles better than this team that Sauret has put out. If Pionsat can get it together, a cricket score looks on the cards in this match.
And even as we speak, the ball goes up the other end. A good run down the wing and a good cross in found the no11 whose turn it seemed to be to be in the centre-forward position this time. He got right onto it and despite the despairing effort by the keeper, that was that - 1-0.
It was a well-deserved goal for Pionsat who seemed to be on the end of one or two ...er ... debatable decisions just recently. They had worked hard for this.
I know I shouldn't do it, but I can't avoid remarking on another poor piece of play by the referee. As you can see, he has absolutely no idea of where to stand.
Where he is now, he has the same field of view as the linesman so he is doing no good there and even worse, he risks blocking the linesman's view of the play. He should be running diagonally along the field on the other side to his linesmen so that the play is always between him and his linesman so they have a full view of what's going on.
The ref was doing this for almost every free kick and every corner.
And just look how narrow the pitch is. It has to be the narrowest adult pitch I have ever seen.
Yes, we are getting one or two free kicks during the match. This one was accompanied by a peal of bells from the church just across the back. I suppose it was such a rare event that even the bellringer wanted to celebrate.
It was a good ball in and the forward jumped well to head it goalward but it was always going to be the keeper's. Keen reader of these pages is Michael. You can see that he's now taken to wearing a yellow jersey.
Not long after that we have the inevitable disaster.
There's a major mix-up in the Pionsat defence. Michael rushes out for a ball he isn't ever going to get but he does just enough to put off the attacker. The ball is worked out wide where a Sauret winger picks it up.
The winger drives it in towards the empty net but a Pionsat defender who understands the meaning of "covering back" heads it off the line. But only as far as a Sauret player who volleys in past a diving Michael who has by now just about made it back to his line.
That was all the action for the first half. Pionsat started strongly but lost concentration at the end and allowed Sauret Besserve back into the game with a most unlikely equaliser. This kind of thing is inevitable with any team that I support. It makes me wonder if at some time in the past I killed an albatross.
The second half gets under way and for quite a while nothing much happens. Pionsat are still running the Sauret defence ragged and the ref is still overruling the linesman's offside decisions. And round about the three-quarter mark the game suddenly comes to life with a bang.
There is an absolute peach of a ball into the Sauret Besserve penalty area. The keeper rushed out for it but he didn't stand a chance of getting it.
Keen readers of these pages will recall that I have been saying for ever that at this level of football the best thing for a keeper to do if he can't get the ball is to stay on his line, as otherwise he stands a reasonable chance of being punished good and proper.
Here is an object lesson of what to do against a keeper rushing out for a hopeless ball. A simple lob over the top and in for a second goal. It was absolutely beautiful and a pleasure to watch.
I have seen some really superb goals watching these football matches.
Almost immediately there is another fast breakaway by Pionsat. Down the field go two Pionsat players with just one defender trying to stop them and the keeper is absolutely nowhere. It's a simple goal for 3-1 and I get a beautiful shot of the back of the linesman's head - just like at Teilhet in November with the same team and the same linesman.
At least Damian apologised to the scorer for depriving him of the photo opportunity of his big moment, and he also excused himself to me. "Je suis quand même assez large" he said. I told him that amputation could cure that.
There's another breakaway on down the field from Pionsat. The forward rides a couple of weak tackles and when he pops his head up, he notices that once again the keeper has strayed from his line.
This time however the lob is hit too hard and goes way over the bar. It was really a pity as this was a really good attack and deserved a goal.
It's all Pionsat right now - they are starting to run riot and they certainly have the measure of this keeper.
This time we are treated to a really good break diagonally across the field and again the keeper is absolutely miles off his line as you can see. It was a good shot over the keeper's head from all of about 25 yards, but once again it goes over the bar.
By now it looks like the Sauret defence to a man has abandoned the game. They are exhausted and just can't keep up the pace.
We're having a whole series of attempted lobs of the keeper who can't seem to be able to stay on his line.
The best of them so far was from a diagonal ball right across the field to the right winger who lets fly with one that only narrowly misses the post and goes out for a goal kick. The no7 just can't get to it in time.
The winger later admitted to his colleagues that ironically this shot was supposed to have been a cross into the area. If it had have been me, I would have kept quiet about it. It was a much better shot than a cross and had the Sauret team in all kinds of difficulty.
With all of this attacking play most reasonable people would have put their shirt on Pionsat scoring a fourth. And they wouldn't have been disappointed either.
There's more good play down the left wing (for once I've chosen the best side to stand even though it's pot luck with the linesman)and the ball is played into the centre of the penalty area to the no11 who puts it beyond the reach of the keeper for an easy goal.
The Sauret defence is nowhere as you can see.
There were enough tries for this one to have made a fifth goal. Pionsat had a 2-on-1 and then passed the ball wide to bring a third player in on the action. He knocks it back in and it bobbles around in the area three or four times with no-one getting a decent touch on it.
Finally a Pionsat player gets a good piece of it and drives it in but it just goes wide of the post, to the accompaniment of another tintinnabulation from the campanologists.
Quasimodo seems to be enjoying the game even if no-one else from Sauret-Besserve is.
The next two photographs are of the same piece of action so they should be taken really as one.
Once more, Sauret-Besserve has a totally stationary if not non-existent defence. There's a good ball downfield that it played up to the no10. I was expecting him to head it in hence the photo but instead he does really well to bring it cleanly under control.
So having brought the ball under control he gets off a shot at the near post but it goes wide - to the relief of the keeper.
As I have said before, Pionsat's 2nd XI going forward is a sight well-worth seeing. There is some really good play up front.
As the match draws on to a conclusion it's all over bar the shouting. The Pionsat players are shooting at goal for fun right now. You can see that one of the central defenders - the no6 - has joined in the attack as well he might seeing as there is nothing much going on at the other end of the field.
The Pionsat no10 comfortably beats a number of weary Sauret defenders and puts in a good cross to the no7, who bears more than a passing resemblance to Melanie Seiffert's dad incidentally. His shot just goes wide of the post.
Sauret have their heads right down now - worn-out and being run ragged by a rampant Pionsat forward line who are tearing them to shreds.
There's another good ball down the right wing and some nice play is followed by a decent ball into the middle. The forward tucks it round a despairing keeper for number 5 with the Sauret defence nowhere in sight. The ref blows up almost immediately and you can't help thinking that he was trying to put the Sauret players out of their misery.
You really have to feel sorry for the Sauret keeper who was playing Pionsat on his own for the final 20 minutes. It's all very well saying that Sauret had a makeshift last-minute side but then this was a hastily-reorganised makeshift Pionsat team too. Had they had a towering central striker they could have had a bagful here today.
Back to the footy page
Il y a sans doute des francophones qui aimeraient lire cette page en français. Donc vous devez m'aider á á la traduire!
En plus, si vous avez des choses á ajouter,
home page | latest updates | site map | site index
about this site | audience participation | copyright notice | technical issues | accessibility statement | read this | contact me
©