TEAM: Kris Mercelis – James Philpot, Ben Thom, Nils McGrath, Jean Minne, Andrew Hodgson – Adrian Vasquez, Luka Novak, Richard McGeehan – Daniel Donner, Dries Heerkens

SUBS: Shinichi Yakeda, Thomas Kellerman, Kevin Deroeck ready to come on.

After 2 games in which RBBFC gathered 6 points (3-2 win, 3-2 win), the boys in white had to face Choule Auderghem. In preparation to the match, we were made aware that Choule have an old professional on the pitch and Captain Richard told us during the speech that we should take this game very seriously since Choule Auderghem was one of the top teams, just a few weeks before the match.

The game kicked off at 12:30 and from the beginning RBBFC were the dominant side. RBBFC had a lot of ball possession and didn’t let Choule play the ball around, most of the times it took less than 5 seconds before the ball was back in our possession. However, we had problems in creating big chances in the first quarter of the match, the narrow pitch made it difficult to find the right positions on the field and the diagonals to the front didn’t come in to right directions for the strikers.

After 15 minutes Daniel had a good opportunity to score after Luka crossed the ball, but he didn’t get his header on target. A few minutes later Richard gave a perfect corner kick, but Dries missed the ball at the first post. With the score still being 0-0 RBBFC increased the pressure. Dries thought he was going to score when he took the ball from the last defender, but the referee whistled him back.

The 1-0 came after 25 minutes, when a move on the right found the feet of James. James was on the edge of box and gave a very smart pass through, the ball surprised the Choule defense and found Nils who read the pass and moved to the backline of the pitch. Just when the keeper thought he could catch the ball from Nils’ feet, Nils come up with a genius move, he heeled the ball in the feet of Dries, who scored in an open net. What. A. Goal.

The 2-0 came shortly after. Again it was James who made a move on the right side, with a lot of space around him he had the time to search for the right pass. In two attempts he found Dries, who didn’t hesitate, and scored his second of the game.

Just before half time, Choule created their first big chance of the game. The striker thought he scored when the ball passed our goalkeeper Kris, but Jean came to the rescue and kept the ball out of the goal, while rescuing his face.

During half time John pointed out that the first 30 minutes were good but we looked lost in the last five minutes, Richard mentioned that a goal against us could be fatal.

The spaces became much bigger in the second half. This led to a big chance for Andrew, but he failed to hit the target. The next big chance was converted in the 3-0 when a corner ended up in the goal, Daniel was sharp after the goalkeeper dropped the ball.

Although RBBFC were the dominant side, Choule got some break-outs in the second half. After two potential big chances were being dealt with by our defence the third one ended up in the net. The striker lobbed the ball over Kris. 3-1.

With Thomas for Daniel, Kevin for Adrian and Shinichi for Andrew RBBFC kept playing the ball around. The game ended with a 5-1 win, after James scored the 4-1 (and his first for the first team) and Dries completed his hattrick. The score could have ended much higher, when we would be more careful with the opportunities we get.

With 9 points out of the last three games RBBFC is back on track. It has been 6 matches since we kept clean-sheet, so there is definitely room for improvement! Next week: MTM 15:00, Rosières.

Reporter & MOM: Dries Heerkens