 | FOOTBALL CLUB |
| FOOTBALL CLUB |
AS SERVANT v FC PIONSAT ST HILAIRE
16th September 2012
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.
If you have enjoyed or profited from these pages, please make your next puchase from Amazon via one of the links below.
FOLLOW ME
ON FACEBOOK
I had a bad day at Servant.
Pulling onto the ground and driving behind the goals, Caliburn and I were in the wrong place at the wrong time when the Servant team was warming up, and Caliburn received the ball full in the side, with an enormous clang.
And then, somehow, I contrived to lose my dictaphone. No idea how and no idea where, but it wasn't in my pocket when I took my place on the touchline for the start of the game. Running back to Caliburn to see if it had fallen out in there, I missed the kick-off, and also the opening goal that Pionsat scored right from the aforementioned.
I really wished that I had stayed in bed.
Anyway, I'm here, so I suppose I had better carry on and introduce the team before I lose anything else.
Up front are Jonathan and Cedric, midfield are Nico, Julien, Vianney and Frédéric, defence is Gaëtan, Sébastien, Alex and the other Sébastien, and Matthieu is in goal.
On the bench are Malik, Vincent and Valentin.
I had a good chat too with Michaël and Michel, who filled me in with a little more detail about the Battle of Montel last April. But seeing as this is a family-orientated website, I shan't be reproducing their comments here.
So having already missed one goal, I try my best not to miss another. This was a glorious high ball into the Servant penalty area and Cedric beats the keeper to the ball.
He sidefoots the ball into the empty net but the defender in the photo has other ideas and races back, sweeping the ball away off the goal line. Cedric is quite incensed with the linesman, convinced that the ball has crossed the line, and remonstrates but to no avail.
We stopped for a drinks break last week at Clermont seeing as how the weather was so hot, and you can't complain about the weather that we were having here today either.
When the ball goes out of play for a throw-in midway through the first half, the referee stops the game for 2 minutes to give everyone a breather. I can't say that I blame him, even if it isn't allowed for in the laws of the game. It can't be much fun out there in that heat
And a couple of minutes after the restart, we have a carbon copy of the previous incident in the Servant penalty area, although on the right flank this time. Again the high ball into the area but this time it's Jonathan who wins the ball and slots it cleanly past the keeper.
This time the defenders are quite easily beaten but as wicked bad luck would have it, the goalpost dashes out of its position and kicks the ball away to safety.
Ohh cruel and wicked fate, what?
Nevertheless, Pionsat do manage to score a second goal which I suppose they deserve because they have been having the better of the play so far.
It stems from a Servant attack that is broken up in the Pionsat half and the ball is played quickly forward with the Servant players out of position. Cedric is the first to react to the loose ball and shoots but his attempt is blocked. Nevertheless he reacts quickest and tucks away the rebound as Jonathan looks on ready for the loose ball.
We almost have a calamity after that as Servant go on a rare foray forward. The right-winger puts in a cross into the area but Matthieu, who has had very little to do so far, mistimes his punch.
The ball spins across the face of the goal to the Servant left-winger who, with the empty net at his mercy, shoots back across the face of the ball but puts his shot well wide when surely it must have been easier to score. Something of a let-off there for Pionsat.
The action switches to the far end again. Malik, who has come on for the injured Gaëtan, takes one of his spectacular long throws right downfield to Cedric. He runs the ball downfield to the by-line and then puts in a good high cross to the centre of the penalty area.
Frédéric comes steaming in like a freight train and gets his head to the ball but it's deflected away by a defender who I suspect knew nothing at all about any of that.
The calamity that we have been expecting in the Pionsat penalty area arrives sure enough, just as everyone was expecting that it would. There's a break on down the Servant right wing and as the flying winger cuts inside, Malik mistimes a desperate tackle.
"Inside the area" deems the referee, and the Servant n°10 sends Matthieu the wrong way with the spot-kick.
This is the kind of lucky break that could bring Servant back into the game and so Pionsat will need to concentrate after the break, which will come up any minute now, I reckon.
So having spent my half-time break turning the cab of Caliburn upside down looking unsuccessfully for my dictaphone, the action restarts.
Once more, it's Pionsat on the attack as they win a free kick just outside the centre circle. The ball is pumped high into the Servant penalty area and Cedric's header into the centre is whipped off the head of a Pionsat attacker by a desperate leap from one of the defenders.
And like almost everyone else, I miss what happened next. The ball went out of play from that clearance and Malik, running up, takes the throw-in quickly. The ball lands right at Cedric's feet on the 6-yard line and he taps it into the net before anyone else, Yours Truly included, has realised what has happened.
Yes, I really ought to be paying much more attention.
Pionsat continue going forward and as usual it's Cedric at the centre of all of the action. It's another one of these high balls forward out of the Pionsat defence that has been causing the Servant defence so much trouble all the way through the match and once more, Cedric reaches it first.
He has a good half-a-yard on his defender as you can see but he can't quite manage to put his header into the bottom corner of the Servant net and it goes narrowly wide for a goal kick.
It's a long and lonely walk for a goalkeeper when he goes to pick up the ball that has just come rolling back out of his net.
You may remember last week when Cedric tried that audacious lob from the centre circle against the Clermont goalkeeper . Well, here we are again, and Cedric, in the centre circle with the ball, has just looked up, seen the Servant keeper about 10 yards off his line, and has tried again with a lob from extreme distance.
This time there is no mistake and the ball hits the back of the net from all of 50 yards, with the keeper nowhere at all.
So we had Servant 1, Cedric 4 for our final score. But despite the scoreline, it wasn't all that much of a match because while Servant didn't offer very much at all, Pionsat were rather subdued again and the 4 goals represented something of a flattering scoreline.
Certainly, the two opportunist goals late in the second half were goals that you probably won't ever see again if you watched football for another 50 years, and so perhaps 2-1 would have been a scoreline that was a more realistic reflection of the progress of the match.
Then again, of course, the sign of a really good striker is that he can spot the opportunity and make the most of it whenever and wherever it arrives, and they all count, no matter how they go into the net.
Anyway, let's all hope that Matthieu and Michaël are able to play next week, to add more of a cutting edge to Pionsat's forward line.
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 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
©
