Line-up : M. Puig; A. Dunn, N. Dubois, D. Spada, W. Ouellette ; S. Ashimwe, S. Friedrichs, D. Claudino, D. Mineo; L. Miniucchi, A. Gary.

Subs : K. De Roeck.

For this very important match, 2s were back to the Field of Dreams in Rosieres, a pitch famous for letting the best future football talents express themselves (rumor says a kid named Lionel L. started here…).

However, our team was a bit handicapped this weekend, and some of its finest players were missing: while Fernan was facing consequences of the severity of Belgian fall, Patrick couldn’t play because of some administrative problems and Massi was still facing extreme severity of ABSSA. Captain Dani therefore called Kev and Nico to the rescue, and it was 12 extremely motivated warriors that entered the pitch this day, all moved by one motto only: #jimmycantscore.

The match started pretty evenly, and nobody could detect any difference between Royal British 2s and the team ranked 3rd in the league at this moment. Due to the pitch conditions, the game was mostly taking place at midfield, where Diego, Steve & Stefan were controlling the weak attempts of our opponents. Defenses both seemed cool as cucumbers, and only 1 big chance on each side was to be noted. For JP, it was after a free-kick stopped brilliantly by Marc that Jimmy had a chance to score, but he fortunately saw his volley flying over the crossbar (we knew he couldn’t score). For the whites, it was after a corner that Gary fired a powerful strike, deflected by the keeper on Nico who tried to push it in the back of the net with a header. The keeper however was attentive and stopped this second attempt. These were the only noticeable facts from a first half that was more or less dominated by the 2s but goalless.

The second half was quite different for the boys, as the pitch continued to deteriorate. In order to counter this situation, both teams decided to come back to the roots of the good old kick & rush and started playing more deep and in the air, making it difficult to play a structured and beautiful game. Both squads were neutralizing each other, and we were obviously working forward to a plain 0-0.

It was only after a throw-in on the left side of our defense, an uncalled foul from the Gravesen look-a-like on Stefan, a no visibility cross and an incredibly lucky shot that our opponent were able to deflower the scoreboard. This opening put a good blow to morale of the our entire team, and we had a few hesitating minutes right after, to the point that JP almost scored a second goal from the corner of the box, luckily only flirting with the crossbar.

After this, our warriors had their spirit back, and had many attempts in the last minutes, with a lot of corner-kicks, but none of the boys were able to make a decisive move. The game therefore ended in a regretful 1-0 for our opponents, which was quite flattering for them and really irritating for the 2s. However, people say that top level football is only decided through details, and this lesson would only make our team stronger for the next matches coming. Looking forward to next Saturday !

Reporter and MoM : Nico, le nick c'est chic !