Wounds licked and hard truths laid bare on the table, the Durties regrouped after our mauling at the hands of the early league leaders and title rivals the Baku Boys. Iain Macleod, he of lanky frame and (recently recovered) dislocated knee, proposed homework for us all; as a result, 5-a-side articles were pored over and tactics videos studied. Consequently, we had some semblance of a structure going into gameweek 2 against the Bamboo obsessed Disco Badgers. We had leaked 33 goals the previous week: we decided to create a dam of 2 Durties, who would be back at all times, with 2 up top-a box formation.
A blow was received on the morning of matchday however, as our highest profile vegan-Janek (he had a brief stint in the Strathclyde 3's)-pulled out due to a combination of PTSD from last week's horror show and meat deprivation. An emergency loan signing was granted by the SFA: enter Gonzalo, a product of La Masia, but like Iain was practically one-legged due to his rehab process still ongoing from a fractured ankle. His only spoken English during his time with the Durties was 'playing football is very simple, but playing simple football is the hardest there is'. Emboldened by this mysterious Spaniard's wisdom, the football gods decided to send more blessings our way as when we arrived at Powerleague only 4 Disco Badgers were present. Kick off came and went, and still the 5th Badger did not arrive. With no other choice, they begrudgingly consented to start with the numbers they had, turning down the offer of one of our subs to be their extra man (they'd obviously watched us last week). This allowed the Durties to impose our total football style of play on the hapless Badgers, and we swiftly went 1-0 up as my long range sighter deflected off our striker's arse and trickled in. Overly excited by the combination of scoring a goal and going in front, we conspired to restore natural order, and restore it we did-1-1 followed within seconds. The Durties continued to dominate play thereafter-triangles were worked, hard lines ran, and the two cripples Gonzalo and Iain linked up with aplomb. 2-1 to the Durties. With our genius tactic of playing a team missing a player paying dividends, a draw or possibly even victory looked like it was on the cards. But then the 5th Badger arrived.
Adorned in a Brazilian shirt and looking like he meant business, he glided onto the field. Within seconds it was evident he was the Badger's x-factor player-two footed, graceful, and with a wicked strike-and he restored parity within seconds. 2-2. Demoralised by actually having to play against 5 men and with a raft of substitutions disrupting our flow, the Brazilian sensed our unease and went for the jugular. Unplayable on the night, the man banged in goal after goal of all sorts-tidy finishes, screamers, insane solo dribbles: he had them all in his locker. We produced a better response than against the Baku Boys but it still wasn't enough-the match was petering out to a 19-8 final score and our thoughts had turned to next week. However, step forward peg legged Iain at the 11th hour to produce a piece of magic that had even the Brazilian in awe. The keeper on the ground due to making an initial save, Iain had the coolest head on the pitch as the ball came out to him at pace, producing a chip straight out of peak Berbatov's locker to seal his title as Durty of the week. It would have been a goal worthy of winning any match, but for us all it did was reduce our goal difference hit to -10 for the night. Much improved over the previous week but still a lot of lessons to be learned. If only we could play against 4 men in every fixture...
instagram:murtysdurties55
Links: http://www.5-a-side.com/tactics/5-a-side-formations/
Comments
Post a Comment