The mission on fire!
Thursday 28th June 2007, Stadium of CERN
Pitch in good condition, still a little too big the titubeurs's taste.
UK MISSION - CELTIC DE G. : 5 - 0
For Celtic : Super-Sub'Thierry (Carlitos 40') - Super-Sub'Cubit Granioux, Super-Sub' Remy Raffut, Bibou, Nico-Tsmen - Cristobal, Carlitos (Super-Sub'Thierry 40'), Rem's, Gandalf, Super-Sub' Bob least but not Last.
For UK MISSION : Adrian - Martin, Danish Steve, Eoghan, Mark - Dentistinho, Jérome, Dave Powell, Serkan, Michael, Daryl, Panos, Matt
Goals for UK MISSION : Serkan (11', 57', 59'), Martin (61') and Panos (70')
Etoiles FF : Cristobal pour sa belle prestation au milieu, Nico-tsmen et Thierry pour avoir fait la route
Scandal! Infiltration! Frottage! Just some of the terms bandied about to describe the shenanigans which went on in the build up to the match.
First, Eoghan 'I'm far too busy to be checking my email all day' O'Pad happened to stumble across the Celtic de Geneve (C de G) website where it seemed as if the well-laid plans of the managerial marvel that is also known as Big Ron, had been laid bare for all to see. How had our opposition got their sweaty mitts on the masterplan? Had someone taken their 30 pieces of silver? We were all left wondering, until in the post-match analysis, some bright spark pointed out that Marc 'Judas' Brondex, our sometime keeper and utility player, just happens to also be their main strike force. And also just happens to be on the Mission mailing list. Whoops! And so, 'Gandalf-gate' was born.
In another masterful display of managerial manipulation, Ron shuffled his cards and with the opposition only featuring 9 regular players, Littlebobbylast did the decent thing, and volunteered to become the latest Mission player to join the ranks of SuperSubs for C de G, (he'll also be appearing on a blog near you soon, in glorious technicolor - sic).
And so to the game. Despite operating under reduced circumstances, the boys in green in white played their usual flowing football, at times leaving the UK Mission chasing shadows and getting just a little panicky. Even so, we did contribute to some highlights in the first half, including Mighty Mark Murphy appearing so far upfield in the first few minutes that he was left needing oxygen;Dentistinho bursting out of midfield to beat three (just don't ask what happened next);and yes Eoghan, I haven't forgotten, our Devil-haired defender dribbling (controlled falling over?) the ball towards the C De G area for Serkan to fire in the first goal. One-nothing the Mission.
Apart from these, the only other things I scribbled down, were a good run from Gandalf which was ended by Eoghan coming across him in front of goal, and then Mighty Mark Murphy's defensive header which went for a corner, but certainly had the boys a bonc laughing nervously as it sailed past the upright.
The second half saw a bit of reorganisation, with Panos dropping back to bolster the midfield. It worked - kind of, alhough it did take some time for the extra man to make his mark, during which Adrian 'My Ball!' Comer was called on to make his first real save of the game. Just minutes later, the Mission won a throw. Panos took it, it went to Serkan, the boy turned, looked up and unleashed a lovely little lob which ended with him adding a new move to his growing repertoire of gestures, as he ran back celebrating his second goal holding his arms aloft as if he was hanging wallpaper!
By now, the Mission were beginning to look more dangerous, and O'Pad and Jerome 'The Stare' Frenchbloke broke down the right. As they hurtled along the line, Jerome kept the ball. And kept the ball. And then kept the ball some more, leaving us with the amusing sight of imagining Eoghan saying 'chase me' as he minced towards the corner flag.
A minute later, the one-touch movement which got our second goal worked again, in the same combination as before. This time, to add a little Turkish delight, the Ace from Ankara volleyed in Panos' throw in to record his second hat-trick in three games.
By now the Turkish Terror was rampant. Every time he got the ball, the clever money was on him doing something special, and to be fair, it was as a lovely bit of control and skill down the left finished with him laying off a ball past the keeper for Martin to make amends for his miss of last week, by stripping the leather off the ball as he smashed it into the empty net to bring up the fourth goal.
Another hat-trick for Serkan
The Mission kept the pressure on with Serkan making a final foray by knocking a ball back for Panos to shoot over before he made way for Dentistinho to assume his rightful (!?!?!)place at centre forward. The boy produced a header straight at the goalie and a near post flick on to no one in particular which obviously impressed Matt to such an extent that he tried the same thing right at the death. The only problem was, it was down our end of the field and left Christobal free with only Adrian to beat...fortunately for us, the otherwise excellent Spaniard whacked it well wide.
Yet, there was still more action. The Odd Couple were not finished with their fun and games, as they did a bit of role reversal (Sous chien for those who made it to Charly's after the match!) and this time O'Oirish galloped gaily after The Stare in much the same manner as five minutes earlier, with much the same result! To be fair though, Frenchbloke did produce one great unassisted (!) run in the 68th as he rounded the keeper and fired in a shot from an acute angle which zipped across the face just before Panos gave the coup de grace to finish the scoring and rack up our biggest win of the season.
A result which this correspondent feels rather flattered the Mission but the result is the same. Mission win the Gold League by remaining unbeaten in the second phase. Next up, GoZo, Wednesday 4 July at 18.00....and what price a rematch with C de G in the final, once they are back up to strength?
Ce résumé très complet, mais qui omet de signaler que le Celtic a remporté haut-la-main la 3ème mi-temps au Charly's, a été amicalement rédigé par Paul Mullins alias Big Ron