Match Review: Casuals FC vs Swiss FC

• DF David Phelps
• DF Frazer Young
• DF Mark Stead
• MD Andy Dyne
• MD Callum Dunne
• MD Kevin Wagner
• MD Will Patz
• ST Joe Cadden
• ST Nick Verrill
• -- Mark Sherwin
• -- Sean Hoet

• MD Marc Siegfried
• ST Andy Woodbridge
• -- Oliver Stultz

5ive

“Baby when the lights go out...” one of the many hits popular boy band 5ive released back in 1998. Reaching no. 4 in the UK singles charts, guaranteeing them a place on the 90’s has-been-bands that are touring Singapore this weekend. Cue everyone going onto SISTIC after reading this... Weirdly this travelling troupe also include none other than 911, the number Frazer demanded we called at the 80 minute mark so he could be resuscitated. Unfortunately it took Andy 5 mins to put his boots on, too long for the exhausted gaffer to make a change. In part this was due to Andy acting like a 5 year old and playing on the Firefox swing while the match was going on, an experience he reported as epic...and indeed it was! Notable moments in the game include Fraze kicking all 5 of his attempted clearances out of play, Wags avoided heading the ball on 5 separate occasions, Callum tried to shoot from 5 straight corners, and Captain Dyno got a 5 out of 5 from Urs for his dive in the box. In other news, Casuals hit 5 past the Swiss inside the box, outside the box and from set pieces. With 12 goals scored and none conceded in two games, SCC will be reading this report with dread that they will be our next opponents. In fairness to the Swiss they are much improved from our previous match, despite the score. With their 11 and 5 in the middle of the park and their young keeper it’s surprising they’ve not picked up points yet. MoM: Steady - solid at the back, despite being 5kg overweight. MoM Swiss: 5ive 5ive minutes of pure joy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpdcKmaHk_s

• Cyrill Binder DF
• Nice De Mello DF
• Hamza Ben Naceur Gharfane MD
• Paul Le Helloco MD
• Felix Reike --
• Heinz Braegger --
• Gabriel Nuessli --
• Hilo Fujimoto --
• Urs Brutsch --
• Gordon Cyr --
• Matty Mbuale --

• Matthias Bertl DF
• Laurent Brutsch DF
• Hassen Kared --
• Herwan Nulhaqiem --
• Takayasu Yamamoto --

Lights out

Ideal conditions to play football on Friday night at UWC. The opening 20 minutes saw Casuals with more ball possession, but not creating any chances, Swiss likewise. Casuals then took the lead: It was an unfortunate misunderstanding in the box between two Swiss players, the ball bobbling around, and then finding its way with a deflection over the goalkeeper into the net. Not pretty, but they all count. Casuals kept up the pressure and were particularly dangerous from corner kicks. One of them bounced off a few players before the striker stabbed it home for a 2:0 Casuals lead at the break. We had our (half) chances, particularly when Hamza was called back from a most dubious offside position - he was ready to take on the GK 1-on-1. The mood in the Swiss camp was fine, we were not outclassed by any stretch of the imagination. But a total lack of concentration led to the Casuals scoring the third goal within 45 seconds of the restart. That was goal, set and match. Casuals added two more, with their young guns out-sprinting our defenders. Casuals probably should have a penalty as well, but the referee saw a dive. If it was a dive, then it's a yellow card. Swiss were probably also lucky not to have one of their defenders shown two yellow cards. Perhaps the referee thought on reflection that the first yellow card was harsh (in fact, there was no contact). Be that as it may, Casuals were the better side, and no doubt they deserved the win. The groundsman probably had some other commitments, as the lights went out at 9.40 pm, with 9 minutes to go. After an initial wait for a few minutes the pitch stayed dark and the referee called an end to the game.