Cosmos Bruwolf came to Rosieres as runaway league leaders - and 9-2 winners from the game in Molenbeek last October - but they hadn't reckoned with a totally inspired Vets2 performance.
The bookmakers gave Vets2 little chance of success on this cold February Saturday. Bruwolf were riding high - unbeaten in 2023 and 6 points clear of the 2nd placed team with a game in hand. And their only recollection of Vets2 this season was a poor performance back in October which they won 9-2 - but only because of our goalkeeping difficulties (they scored with every shot). Indeed, they probably forgot that we had led 1-0 and 2-1 in that game.
Coming into this game off the back of a disappointing, referee-dominated, narrow loss, Vets2 faced the top of the league without Captain Rog. After negotiating the tablet (so stressful), Captain for the day Carl felt he had already won the match completed without error! Thanks too to délegué Fernando, making a welcome return to the changing room.
Even without Roger and Ian, we had a strong squad - and a cunning game plan Sylvester Stallone would have been proud of. To let them come at us, and then hit them on the break in the second half. Speaking after the game, Captain Carl said: "Our tactics were clear. Based on the 1st match against them, we were sure they would struggle to play their normal ´tappy-tappy’ stuff on the hallowed turf of Rosieres. With our 4-4-1-1 formation, we played narrow without the ball and didn't allow them any space; so that with the ball we could break swiftly through our midfield and forward line using our pace to cause their older and slower defence problems." Wise words indeed!
We started brightly making a couple of good moves, mainly down our right. The match was fairly even through the 1st half with our defence snuffing out most of the danger they were creating. After 15 mins, Vets 2 created a lovely move with Mikey picking up the ball on the edge of their area and slipping it through accurately to Nic. He controlled well and tucked it away superbly, only for our (1st ever female) referee to give offside. A harsh decision!
After that, Cosmos started getting their game flowing and created more chances. Luc pulled off a great save from a free kick just outside the area, and made another sprawling save from their forward to push it round the post. They also had 2 appeals for penalties turned down. The 2nd one in particular could have gone against us, but the ref gave a foul just outside the box. The opposite of the previous week. Maybe the football gods were with us this week (for a change).
The 1st half ended as it began with Cosmos looking dangerous, but Vets 2 hinting at dangerous counter-attacking potential.
Halftime 0-0. A decent performance so far, but Vets2 knew we had to improve to get anything out of the game.
The second half again started brightly, with us creating a couple of half chances. After 5 minutes, Simon made way for George, Simon explaining that he couldn’t breath after 'eating one of Luc's dates at halftime'!! [You weren't expecting that, were you?]
With his speed and energy, putting their defence under pressure, George immediately started creating problems for their back line. One such occasion resulted in a free kick just outside the area. Up stepped Mad Mike who confidently curled his free kick high into the top corner. 1-0.
Their mood immediately changed from being jovial and friendly up to that point, their true colours came out, dark arts et al! Vets 2 stayed solid and comfortable, for the most part.
After 15 mins, with Cosmos pushing more and more, we robbed the ball off them in midfield, passed it out to Thierry who picked out a glorious ball over their central defender with Nic running on. Nobody was going to catch him. As the keeper came out, he calmly and cooly slotted it in the left corner. Great finish. 2-0!
Five minutes later, with Cosmos in disarray, we put together the best move of the match, involving Nic and George. Nic put Brian through down the right wing, and with perfect timing, he passed swiftly onto George. From a tight angle just outside the 6 yard box, George controlled, turned and shot in 1 rapid move, surprising the keeper. It slid past him into the bottom left corner. 3-0.
Vets 2 were in dreamland and starting to believe we could actually win. Again, Cosmos were getting more and more frustrated, giving needless fouls away all over the pitch. With around 15 mins to go, we made a nice move down our right. As Cedric passed it into the middle, a nasty late challenge caught him on the ankle. Painful! Unfortunately Cedric couldn’t continue. This left us down to 10 for the last 15 mins.
They threw everything at us from then on. They had a few corners, but barely had a shot on goal and when they did, Luc’s handling was superb! As the match drew to a close, there was a little ‘spat’ between their supporters and Benoit. On the final whistle, the war of all handbags wars broke out with Benoit coming out of it looking like he’d been attacked by a cat! This slightly soured the glorious result and diluted our deserved celebrations. However, to a man, Vets2 were magnificent and throughly deserved the win.
Man of the Match voting was a close affair, with a lot of votes being shared around. However Cedric and George tied with 3 each, leaving George the victor after a secret ballot!
What an afternoon, this is why we play! Onwards and upwards for Vets 2.
Squad: (4-4-1-1) - Luc Tholoniat; Cedric Cabaret, Benoit Priest, Ben Egan, Milan Sverepa; Nic Northcote, Carl Ledbury, Brian Lewis, Thierry Levionnais; Mikey Gutierrez; Simon Fallon (George Panagiotidis);
Délegué: Fernando Criado.
Reporter: Carl Ledboots
