Sunday 24 January
YC&AC Old Boys (YOBs) 0 v Yokohama Seniors (40s) 4
YC&AC Slightly Older Boys (SOBs) 5 v Yokohama Seniors (50s) 0
YC&AC win 5-4 on aggregate
YC&AC’s senior footballers bravely split–with a creative interpretation of the meaning of “Over”–into two sides for the visit of the Yokohama Seniors Over 40s and Over 50s. The first report, of the younger men’s match, is written by me, Alex Hendy. The second report, of the Over 50s match (scroll down), is written by One Kevin Carden.
A good side, Yokohama Seniors Over 40s. Second best in the prefecture two seasons ago, fourth last year, they might be considered an excellent yardstick as to our own level in the local vets game.
In the early stages, by and large, there wasn’t too much between the sides. Blessed with many technically gifted players, the Seniors enjoyed plenty of possession, but looked to have little chance of breaking down a big and resolute YOBs defense. With the likes of Tim Williams and Rob O’ Grady coming in from the Seconds, and the calming influence that is Buddha joining our regular stalwarts at the back, the Fives looked to be in little real danger of conceding, which is not to say we were in any way threatening at the other end.
Disaster struck late on in the first quarter, however. The whistle-carrying Yokohama Seniors guy in the red tracksuit, standing in for our late-arriving officials, suddenly and unsmilingly awarded a penalty against us at the SPE. It was, readers, truly harsh, and we weren’t happy at all, because there’s no way even our regular refs would have given that! 0-1.
Their second, too, was controversial, scored as it was with the last kick of the second quarter. Fair enough, it was an outrageously good last kick, beating Greg Lyon all ends up from 30 yards, but the same red-tracksuit would receive more warranted abuse when he blew the whistle for half-time a mere demi-second after the restart. Sir Alex Ferguson would have been impressed.
As so often when the game drifts away from us, so too does my memory of it. I seem to recall, however, that the Seniors registered with a couple more belters from distance in the final quarters, and that these goals rather caused our heads to drop, or become lost, depending on one’s personality.
The mood in the Water Barrel Enclosure after the match was that we were outpassed by a team that knew how to let the ball do the work, but which despite their possession did not get away too many shots. When the 40s did strike, however, they seemed each time to hit the back of the net. Or the post. Or the crossbar… By contrast, our forward line offered practically nothing at all.
Well beaten then, on the day, but by no means were we disgraced. The aforementioned yardstick, when held at a distance, indicates that we might just be a mid-level team in the Kanagawa Senior Soccer League First Division, on present form. Personally, and I accept I may be in a minority on this, I would dearly love us to join that League one day and find out for sure, but that is a discussion for another time.
Squad: Gordon Deas, Chris Harrington, Gregory Lyon, Andreas Hirl, Patrick Newell, Peter Yang, Andy Chambers, Buddha, Tim Williams, Ed Nishiie, Petr Vyvial, Karl Hahn, Gareth Surname?, Will Brady, Rob O’ Grady, Alex Hendy
On to the SOBs!
Like the Over 40s, the Yokohama Seniors Over 50s play in the Kanagawa Senior Soccer (Over 50s) League, and again like their slightly younger colleagues, they finished fourth last season in the top flight. How would the YC&AC’s Slightly Older Boys fare? Kevin Carden reports.
0-0 after the 1st quarter. The SA, promoted to skipper for the day, was obviously uncomfortable in his new role and delegated the Q1 team talk to Steve Taw.
“We are much better than this lot but we are showing them too much respect! Midfield get further up the pitch and close them down earlier. You don’t need to play so deep with this back four”.
At this point the right back’s ears prick up, being one of the aforementioned back four.
With these words still ringing in our ears, we set about achieving our orders.
Goal 1. Big clearance just inside our own half by Mark Van den Bosche, who gets to the ball just before our number 21, who was also closing in on the clearance. Probably due to the imposing danger from his own right back, Mark gets so much power on the ball that it flies into the opposition penalty area and bounces over the GK, who slips as he tries to jump for the ball. He can’t blame the sun being in his eyes because he had his back to the sun. Our conclusion as we sipped on the post-match refreshment was that it must have been the glare off our newly appointed skipper’s head that caused him to slip.
Anyway, the ball bounced towards the unattended goal, and the poacher striker denied Mark his goal by tapping in himself. 1-0 (Plater).
Goal 2. Buddy gets in a shot after a flowing move, but it cannons back to him off an opponent’s head. The dazed defender then tries to complete the clearance but–not to be denied–Buddy bodychecks him and slides out a leg to make the connection that results in 2-0.
One other incident of note when still 0-0. Russell strikes a supreme free kick around the wall which cannons off the left hand post. The ball rebounds towards both Ippei and Karl [Ed. Karl also turned out for the 40s]. Karl is in the best position to pass the rebound home, but there is no call and Ippei stretches to get to the ball first and steers it wide of the post. Lots of German expletives follow.
HT 2-0
“More of the same please, no need to change anything,” snarls Mr. Taw.
Third quarter we are no longer playing into the sun and SOB class takes over.
Lots of slick passing and movement, reminiscent of the Portsmouth team that won back-to-back championships in 1949 and 1950.
Goal 3. Great defence-splitting through ball from young Andy Chambers (one of the many examples of the Over 35s’ flourishing youth policy) [Ed. Andy also played for the 40s] to our shy newly appointed skipper, and he does what he does best… 3-0.
Another of our youngsters, Phil Denham, enters the fray for the final quarter, and belies his tender years by scoring goals number 4 and 5. The first, a low drive into the right-hand corner from outside the box; the second, a crisp shot following a good passing move involving Boz [Ed. Boz also played for the 40s] and our reluctant newly appointed skipper.
Final score 5-0. A good lunchtime’s work that erased the misfortune of the previous game.
Spare a thought for our goalkeeper, Simon Litster. It was a good job that the weather was kind, because apart from the odd back pass and clearance he had nothing to do all game. Such was the dominance of the SOBs solid back four that the opposition did not get one shot all afternoon. Surely a new YCAC record?
The back four had more than 200 years know-how between them (perhaps another YCAC record?) and they all played all four quarters.
So well done to Messrs Hosogai, Taw and VDB, especially as they also had to cover their younger, less experienced member on the right on several occasions.
Squad: Alan Plater, Sadao Hosogai, Kevin Carden, Russell Brown, Steve Taw, Dennis Stanworth, Ippei, Simon Litster, Buddy Ferrie, Mark Van Den Bosche, Ryuji Matsumoto
