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AS CHARENSAT v 2nd XI 11th APRIL 2010
And so a blast down the road from the 1st XI's match at St Gervais sees me arrive at Charensat's ground 5 minutes after the kick-off. Apparently Pionsat are already a goal down, and against Charensat too, who are a pretty awful side? Something can't be right. And who do I notice in goal for Pionsat but Christophe, who normally plays up front.
This goalkeeping crisis for Pionsat is now becoming desperate. The original 2nd XI keeper was injured over a year ago and it's unlikely that he will ever play again so Michael who kept goal for the 3rd XI is now keeping goal for the 2nd XI. But he's currently out with an injured shoulder. Françoise who keeps goal for the 1st XI has injured his thumb and won't be playing for a while which leaves only Matthieu as a recognised goalkeeper. But he can't play all the time as he works in Paris. Phillipe who retired a season or two ago has been recalled and aparently he should have been playing today but something appears to have happened to him.
So chapeau to Christophe for volunteering.
But it's not long before Pionsat equalise. Thomas is playing down the left wing and it's clear that he's having a much better game today than he did against Condat the other week .
He wins the ball well, goes past a couple of defenders and crosses into the centre where the little no10 is lurking. His first shot on goal is blocked but he intercepts the rebound and makes no mistake with the second attempt.
But isn't it nice for once to see a packed defence? If only Pionsat's 3rd XI could get bodies back behind the ball like this.
And Pionsat take the lead from a dreadful mistake by the Charensat winger. Being blocked forward by a couple of Pionsat defenders he casually backheels it to where he thinks a colleague might be.
But the Pionsat no10 is far far quicker off the mark and takes the ball past a defender into acres of empty space. Thomas is all alone in the centre of the field so the no10 turns provider and passes the ball infield. Thomas spots the keeper coming a-wandering off his line and pokes the ball past him into the net.
And the photo wold have been much more exciting if the linesman hadn't have stuck his big head in the way blocking the goal.
But its not all Pionsat by any means. Charensat have a few ideas in attack.
They win a corner and the ball is put high into the penalty area. One of the big Charensat players rises above the defence and gets his head to the ball but puts his excellent header wide of the post. The referee gives a corner, yet I certainly didn't notice a Pionsat player get a touch on the ball.
Now if only he'd gone for the centre of the goal because I don't know if you have noticed but there isn't a Pionsat central defender anywhere in sight. There's just Malik, who is a full-back and that's nowhere near enough. See one of the photos above.
And the pitch is a disgrace, isn't it? I wonder when was the last time anyone mowed it.
Michael who is playing in the outfield due to his injured shoulder wins the ball on the left side of midfield, rides a couple of half-hearted tackles and puts a long ball right across the field to the no9. He puts the ball right over the top of the defence to Thomas who comes running in down by the far post.
Thomas notices the keeper advancing off his line so he takes the aerial route but the ball goes over the bar.
This is all very reminiscent of Pionsat's 2nd XI in their glory days when they won the 3rd Division at a canter, and Thomas seems to have recovered his form today.
There's panic in the Pionsat defence as they play an offside trap that doesn't work. This leaves two Charensat players clean through on goal against Christophe but he stays on his line and stands up well to the attackers.
Between him and a defender who has rushed back to help they manage to get a couple of blocks onto the ball and clear it out of danger. I've no idea about the raised hand just there though. The Pionsat defender hasn't scored a goal.
Considering that he's not a goalkeeper Christophe certainly earned his corn there.
I've said on previous occasions that Pionsat's defence can be a little shaky at times and some slack play allows Charensat back into the game a couple of minutes after Christophe's heroics.
One of the Charensat attackers takes full opportunity of some weak defending, finds some space and squares the ball to a colleague standing unmarked on the edge of the six-yard line. And no keeper, no matter who he is, is going to be able to prevent a goal being scored from such a position as that.
For the last few minutes there's been a lot of action down in Charensat's left-back position and the other Christophe, the one who is chronologically- advantaged (there are several Christophes who play for Pionsat and it's not easy to distinguish them for the benefit of my audience), wins possession with a tenacious tackle.
He looks up and sees the no10 standing totally unmarked on the far edge of the penalty area so he lifts the ball over the defenders into space. The keeper comes running out of goal but the no10 gets to it first and lifts the ball over the keeper's head into the net. There won't be many simpler goals than this.
And yes - it IS just like old times.
Regular listeners to cricket matches on the BBC will recall the commentators waxing lyrical about red buses passing by The Oval in South London when nothing much seems to be happening on the pitch. Here in the Combrailles we are much more fortunate as never mind any crossroads, we have crossaviationcorridors.
We're right underneath the main southern corridor for aircraft leaving Paris for Africa and South America, and also underneath both the east-west and west-east corridors for aircraft flying to Frankfurt in Germany. Here on the right-hand edge of the image is an aeroplane flying in to Frankfurt from the west while flying diagonally across the image is southbound aeroplane out of Paris.
It gets even better a few minutes later. A huge old four-engined jet, maybe a first-generation Boeing 747, lumbers its way overhead on its way southwards to wherever. Even at 35000 feet it was making a racket.
But that's not all the aircraft we have flying over. Military jets practise their low-flying exercises overhead to the annoyance of the local inhabitants and back when NATO was bombing Belgrade we had the Stealth Bombers and B52s going by, as Switzerland and Austria banned them flying over their territory and NATO didn't want to send them down the Rhine corridor where everyone might notice them. No point in having a Stealth Bomber if everyone can see it.
I used to go out at night and count them all out and count them all in again afterwards. 12 out; 12 in, as regular as clockwork. Until one night it was 12 out; ... errrr ... 11 in. So I rang up work
"Have the Septics had a bomber shot down last night?"
"Shhhhhhhh!"
But I digress.
"and not for the first time either"...ed
At the St Gervais match earlier there were one or two decisions by the referee that left me extremely puzzled. And it seems that controversy vis-a-vis the referee is dogging my footsteps today. I've seen the referee here make one or two decisions that would be debatable in some circumstances but one particular decision has left me almost speechless, and as you know, that doesn't happen all that often.
Bernard who is coaching the team today has prepared a substitute. Bernard shouts to the referee, the substitute goes to stand on the touchline and the linesman raises his flag. The referee ignores the shout so Bernard shouts again ... and again ... and again. Eventually the referee turns round, sees the activity on the touchline and shouts across to the bench "it's too late now!". I just don't understand this at all.
And there's another incident involving the referee that has me scratching my head. The referee blows for a foul and the Charensat no4 thinks that it is in his favour. When he learns that it is against him, he kicks the ball away downfield.
He was right in front of the referee about 5 yards away from him but all that the referee can manage to do is to give an enigmatic smile.
Meanwhile, back at the footy, Charensat are still having problems with their concentration in defence and make yet another dreadful mistake. A couple of the defenders stand around and watch each other as the ball rolls between them.
Not one or two but three Pionsat players pounce on the loose ball and one of them blasts the ball at goal but the CHarensat goalkeeper makes a really good block ...
... but the ball rebounds back into play right to the feet of another Pionsat forward. He too tries his luck but once again some real heroics from the Charensat keeper saves the day and he manages to scramble the ball out of play for a corner. But it was really close. You can't blame one of the Pionsat forwards for thinking that the ball has gone in.
But be that as it may, a goalkeeper with a good command of his defence would not have let that situation arise. He would have yelled at his back line to deal with the ball as soon as he saw them go to sleep.
Christophe, who played in goal today, will be the first to admit that he is no goalkeeper but what he lacked in technique and experience he made up for with his command of the area, his control of his defence, his good positioning sense and his courage. He dived at the feet of several Charensat forwards today - positions from which an more-experienced goalkeeper might have shied away. Mind you I'm still glad that it was Charensat that the 2nd XI were playing today and not Pontaumur, who stuffed Pionsat 8-0 even with a real goalkeeper between the posts.
And another thing worthy of note is that this is the first time this season that I've seen a glimpse of the "old Pionsat 2nd XI". Of course one swallow doesn't make a summer but it is a sign of optimism.
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