Emerald annihilate England 8 goals to 1

After our 3-0 drubbing by a very good Japan side last week, we decided to change our tactics and play to our strengths, which is very much an attacking style of football. Within the first minute, Henrique Braun and Tim Wilson (our two starting strikers), managed to catch the English defence asleep, with the former smashing the ball home from close range 1-0. Little did we imagine that this would be one of best games ever, with Henrique grabbing a second goal five minutes later from some great work down the left wing by Steve Curry 2-0. Then to Luca Ballini’s delight, his corner curled into the top left of the English goal to make it 3-0 a few minutes before the end of the first quarter. Despite the score line, England should have had a penalty just before the end of the first quarter after Dariusz Rojek scythed Andy Galley (England’s midfielder) in the Emerald penalty box, but quite surprisingly the Ref waved on play! Well we all thought ultimately that Andy (who is one of our committee members), probably deserved to have the call go against him as he really should not have been playing for England!!!
Next quarter, with a couple of substitutions, Joni broke his seasons duck to take his first goal for Emerald for quite some time with a beautiful driving shot from 20 metres out! Giles Henman then came very close to heading in from a great Luca cross, but missed by a whisker and ended up in the goal himself. Not perturbed by his miss, he then watched a powerful shot go just over the cross bar. Cory Williams who came on for Tim, then took his chance and scored a beautifully set up goal assisted by Henrique, 5-0. England did force our goal keeper Pedro into action on a few occasions with a couple of great saves, so despite the score line, the English team had very fast, young strikers who threatened our goal throughout the game, but for whatever reason found it difficult to score. Henrique then latched onto a wonderful through ball by Luca Ballini and scored his hat-rick 6-0, just before the 2nd quarter finished.
Heading into the third quarter with further substitutions, England tried hard to fight back, they on a couple of occasions should have scored but for one reason or another the ball did not cross the line, until finally they broke their duck and scored to make it 6-1. Tim Wilson then latched onto a great through ball by Joni, and smashed a shot that unfortunately hit the cross bar, this was then followed up by several more attempts on goal by Henrique, Steve Curry, Luca and Joni. England though pushed hard to build on their one goal, but Emerald’s defence, who were superbly marshalled by Simon Maynard all afternoon, kept their cool, and along with a couple of fabulous saves by Pedro, England could not build on their efforts.
Going into the last quarter, again with a few substitutions, Emerald again fought back and with Henrique in formidable form, he passed the ball to Cory who side tapped into the English goal within 5 mins of the start of the last quarter, 7-1. Now it could have been more, but with yours truly now on the pitch (scoreline was safe enough), I managed to miss scoring three times after all the hard work by Henrique, Luca and Joni who all tried to set me up! Henrique then decided to take his goal tally to 4, and cooly dribbled around the English defence and their goal keeper by walking the ball into the net. Scoreline ended 8-1 to Emerald.

David Brady