With the desire to stay in the fight for the top of the league, the 2nd Team had a very important duel that would show the resilience of the team against the 3rd position team in the league ranking. It was a typical cold Sunday of November and there had been rain in the previous days, making the grass pitch a bit muddy and slippery, although a very good grass pitch. Therefore, it was up for the second team to end the Saturday in a nice way taking the 3 points home.

The match took place somewhere between Uccle and Forest and the starting eleven was (3-5-2):

Damien

Nico-Martin-Andy

Gary-Victor-Alessandro-Dani

Nacho

Charlie-Kosta

Bench: Ben, Loic, Sjoerd

The team started off greatly, there was a big pressure from the mid-field and attacking players leaving with no options but only to play long balls for which the defence was in a great shape and did a great job winning all the duels in the air. With this great start the hard work pays off and the team start to get their chances, but no goal yet. After a good recovery in the midfield Nacho takes the ball and assists Kosta who already inside the box then passes it to Charlie and with no keeper and after a great team play Charlie scores! GOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL, 0-1 For the 2nds, the team is in ecstasy! But continues to stay focused, and pressure is aggressive for what a discouraged supporter of the other team yelled desperately "ils ont tous les ballons !" (They have all the balls).

Since the start of the match there had been some incongruences with the ref's actions but after the 1st goal of the team, the ref went crazy. It seems he was feeling powerless that his favourite team was losing so he started giving the 2nd team yellow cards and not calling the heavy fouls that rained on them. After a few more chances, the team went to the half time with hunger for more goals and many yellows. The team realised that they had to redouble their efforts because the balance was not clearly equal for both teams.

Half-time - Gary goes off, Sjoerd goes in.

On the second half, the team restarted with a great energy knowing what was about to come they started very concentrated. The team is playing good football, connecting nicely the ball and pressuring very hard on the other team so that they had no options but just to kick the ball forward. 5' in the 2nd half there's a great recovery in the middle and Kosta takes the opportunity running towards the goal of the other team and leaving the goalkeeper hopeless. 0-2 GOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL.

The ref after having refreshed himself, his right arm felt very powerful and continued rolling out yellow cards as if they were candy on Halloween, then the 1st red card arrived for the team. Andy who in the first half got a yellow card for just telling the ref "the ball was outside", got a 2nd Yellow for "wasting time" when he went to pick up the ball to make the goal kick, with no previous whistle from the ref this decision seemed made no sense. The team continued to play football not caring about the ref decisions, but unfortunately the team suffered a goal. 2-1.

After some time the 2nd card arrived, Kosta who had been doing a great match went to challenge a ball and crashed with the keeper in an unlucky play, who having received a yellow card before for saying that in a previous play Nacho touched the ball with the chest and not with the hand, received a 2nd yellow sending him off, and leaving the team with 9 players.

At this point the team adopted a very defensive position trying to maintain the score and take the 3 points home. It was a great effort that the team did, everyone was very exhausted and the great entrances from Loic and Ben give us a bit more air to continue to fighting towards the end of the match. The team had many great chances during the match and unfortunately these were converted into goals which put the team in a very difficult position having the ref on the other side of the pitch.

When the team had the balls they kicked them away and Nacho and Dani were trying to collect those to make an opportunity to make another goal but all the team rested behind to try to keep the score.

With 3' to go the team gets a corner and it's just Nacho and Dani with the full team behind to try to keep the ball as much as possible, then Dani plays it to Nacho and keeps it, he manages to pass the defender and centres in but Loic is not managed to hit the ball and then he runs towards it to recover it, and Martin making the last run and half injured gests the ball from Loic and with pain takes the shot, the ball smashes the top post and goes in! AGONIC GOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL FOR THE 2NDS 3-1, ABOVE ALL THE PAIN, TIREDNESS, ANGRYNESS COMES THE HAPPINESS!!! THE TEAM'S GREAT EFFORT WAS REWARDED!

Finally, the ref whistles for the last time and the match is over. Against all the odds the 2nd team managed to bring home a great win, with 3 points in and keeping their 6th position but just 2 points behind from the 2nd team in the league. It was a remarkable match and great team effort, showing the character and what the 2nd team is capable of if they put all their efforts in!

Kind regards,

Ignacio.