Kowloon Cricket Club - French Kiss

It is not that I only write reports when we win, but it is more fun of course. Sunday evening, King’s Park, great weather, new shirts and a French Kiss team ready to make its mark. Our friends from KCC, who snatched away OUR title on the last game, looked very much ready as well. Although announced as an easy game by an overconfident coach, we all knew it was going to be a tough one.
A good warm up, a nice picture, and a team ready to rock and roll started with some 10 minutes delay.

End result: Kowloon Cricket Club - French Kiss: 2 - 3

The team:
Simon in goal, Fabio and Adrien in central defense, Captain Miguel on the right back, Ken on the left, midfield Angel and Etienne in the center, Paolo on the left and Julien on the right, Jackal and Henry in attack.
On the side, ready to replace dying, injured or just tired starters, Davido, Nacho, Lewis, Tim and Evan.

The first minute, the coach got scared, as French Kiss seemed to be sleepwalking again. An early scare woke us up, and the game started to develop the way we liked it. With French Kiss playing nice football, avoiding long balls and pass the ball from player to player, we started to create some chances. On our side, we found an extra defender in the linesman, who helped us out on a couple of very doubtfull occasions. Still, we looked solid at the back, flowing in the midfield and sharp in attack. That resulted in a first goal, resulting from a short free kick, 2 nice passes and a great goal from Etienne. Halftime, French Kiss was leading 1 to 0. Ken was replaced by Nacho on left back, Rudy joined Henry in attack, to replace the injured Jackal.

KCC clearly did not give up and had a go at our defense. We countered well, and got us some chances. Still, a rare mistake at the back cost us the equalizer. KCC happy, but Fabio downed their spirits with a missile from about 35 meters away. 2-1 to French Kiss. Lewis came to join attack, replacing Julien, with Henry dropping back to midfield. KCC started pushing again, but the French Kiss counters made them pay. 3-1 TO French Kiss, with a great lob from Lewis, after a great counter attack involving Paolo and Angel. KCC lost it, said Davido, and he was absolutely right. But, instead of finishing them of, by scoring one out of 5 crystal clear opportunities, we handed them a life line by missing them all. Tim came in, to replace Etienne, and KCC came back to life. They pushed forward, scored a well taken goal, and came so close. Simon saved us, risking everything he had, and the rest of the team was battling as well. In the very last minute, we battled so hard that we made about 6 penalties at the same time. On the other hand, they probably started by making 8 attacking fouls. The referee singled out Nacho, and awarded KCC a penalty. FK not amused, to say the least. Some mind games with the penalty taker, involving mainly Adrien and the coach, made the taker nervous, when confronted with the impressive Simon. He missed, the referee blew his whistle one more, and our third victory was a fact.

Next game, Spartans, this sunday, 6 PM, in King’s Park. Training first, see you there.