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CONDAT GIAT VOINGT V 2nd XI 28th MARCH 2010
It's a beautiful drive down to Giat which is a lovely little town somewhere in the direction of the Mont Dore. But it was freezing, perishing cold with a bitter wind and with the town being at almost 800 metres up the locals were forecasting snow.
The ground itself is on a kind-of raised plateau with a steep bank down on three sides - a most peculiar arrangement for a football pitch. There are a few men running around with brassards saying délégué - the kind of thing that anyone who has ever been in a northern Workingmen's Club in the UK will immediately recognise in the committee members who all wear a big badge saying something like "Committee Member. Look at me! I'm important! I get kicked around at home and I get kicked around at work and now that I have a little bit of power for once in my miserable little life I'm going to show everyone how important I am by kicking you around for no good reason except for gratuitously gratifying my own delusions of self-importance!". The job of these délégués, by the way, is to run down the bank after the ball if it is put into touch and to return it to the field of play.
Condat, although languishing in the lower reaches of the division, have most of the game in the early stages and it's no surprise that they take the lead.
A good ball out of their defence is played on downfield and the Pionsat midfielders were just brushed off the ball in the middle of the park. The forward runs on through a static central defence and has an easy shot that beats Philipe who has been called out of retirement to play in goal in view of Michael's injury.
There's no pie hut here, which is a disaster from my point of view. At half-time someone sets up a table outside the changing rooms but of course there is no coffee and I am freezing. I really ought to bring a thermos or a gas stove to some of these matches.
Condat's second goal was in the middle of the second half. It's another ball down the middle of the field but this time it's running loose and so a Condat player sticks out a desperate foot to catch it.
And luckily for him (but not for Pionsat) not only does he catch it nicely but it runs neatly into space between a couple of wrong-footed defenders. He gets up, pushes the ball on and volleys it past Philippe into the net.
This is a shame because up to here Pionsat have been having a good spell of the ball. But they have offered nothing at all up front for the entire match so far and I can't remember them ever having such an insipid display as this. And where are the central defenders? There isn't a single one in shot. They are caught miles out of position and aren't quick enough to get back.
But Pionsat's no10 who has been working hard for the entire match for little reward decides to go it alone. He dribbles his way past a couple of defenders and looses off a good shot. The Condat keeper, in his fetching pink jersey has to be at full stretch to push this one around the post. Thomas, running in, can't get to the loose ball.
We're not too far away from the final whistle and I reckon that this is the first time in the match that the Condat keeper has had to exert himself
Just seconds remaining on the clock and Pionsat win a free kick just outside the box. It's a good kick in and well-won in the air by Christophe, I think. Anyway, whoever it is who wins it gets in a good header that beats the keeper but is hacked off the line at the last minute by one of their defenders.
Play is held up for a while as it seems that the defender, in hacking the ball off the line, has also hacked his keeper's leg in the process so treatment is required.
And in gratuitously gratifying my own delusions of self-importance, this photograph was published by the local newspaper in illustrating their own report of the football match which, rather strangely, echoed a few of my own comments.
And so that was that. The natch was something of a disappoinment not only because of the result but because of the lethargic performance. The long lay-off due to the severe winter has knocked some of the players out of their rhythm and they need to do something drastic to get themselves match-fit.
Not only are the 2nd XI not finding it as easy in Division 2 as they did in Division 3 last year they are missing several key players from last year in attack. No Nico, no Sébastien, no Christophe Larue, no Roman Marinho. The team's trademark last year was the quick break up front and the ball over the top with these lightning-quick attackers and without these players this season is turning out to be a long hard struggle.
But I have been going down to some of the training sessions of the club just recently and on the Wednesday following the match there were just 12 players from the entire 3 teams. The following Wednesday training was rained off due to a waterlogged pitch and no-one suggested any road work. On the Friday training was cancelled due to someone's birthday and the following Wednesday there were just two players - everyone else was watching the footy on the box.
Is anyone really surprised that the teams are struggling right now?
When I went to update this entry I had a good read of it, and it made me wonder what had been going on at Giat while the match was in place. I dictate the incidents into a hand-held dictaphone (age and memory issues) during the match and it's not my habit to amend them later as I try hard to recreate the atmosphere of the game - not very easy to do that onto paper. But my petulant, bad-tempered comments were clearly triggered by some incident and I've no idea at all what it was.
Weird.
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