A hot Sunday morning, a game was being played at Westwood Secondary. The game was between 16 Rascals against Al-Caliph. Al-Caliph’s turnout in terms of attendance was low in numbers, but, that didn’t dampen the sprits and morale of the team.
1st Half The game kicked off in traditional Al-Caliph style of football; going for the first early goal.
Al-Caliph pressed hard and pressurized the opponent’s defense. The break came when good passing in the opponent’s half saw the team breaking their defense. Hardworking Bul took the opportunity to capitalize on the opponent’s defense lapse and slotted the first goal.
Not sitting back Al-Caliph pushed for the 2nd goal. As the team pushed forward, the ball was intercepted by the opponent and they launched a counter attack. Taken aback by the sudden attack by 16 Rascals, they managed to get past our defense and lay off the ball to their player who shot ball in to the net. An equalizer was all Al-Caliph needed to motivate the team to take the game to the next level.
Not letting the conceded goal bring us down (as always), the team looked even more determined to win this one. A good build up play from the team’s own half saw Leonard free on the left. He took on a defender and avoided the challenge. As only the goalkeeper stood between him and the goal he lobbed the goalkeeper who blundered. GOAL no: 2 for Al-Caliph.
Being a goal down saw the opponent’s launching attacks at our goal, but credit to our solid wall of defense as 16 Rascals could only manage to shoot from far which didn’t trouble our goalkeeper Shy even though the opponent has some good effort on goal which rattled the cross bar a few times.
Once again a good build up play and a cross from the left saw goal number three scored by Zj who out jumped above the defense and scored with his head which even eluded the goalkeeper. You could see it on Zj’s face and everybody in the team that it was going to be our day and nobody can stop us from playing the way we were. Half time 16Rascals 1 – 3 Al-Caliph.
2nd Half The 2nd half started just like the first, going in for the kill and scoring more goals, Al-Caliph launched attack after attack in to the heart of the opponent’s team and found it difficult to handle the enormous pressure. A long cross in the box looked like the ball was going out of play, but our tireless midfielder Sharil was there to heads the ball back across the opponent’s goal which was met by a brilliantly executed overhead kick by Zj. No chance for the keeper to save that one. 4-1 Al-Caliph.
During later stages of the game, Tyrus was brought in the game. Our young speedy Gonzales chased and pressurized the opponent’s who had the ball. Unable to cope with his undying determination to chase down any loose balls, taking an elbow to his face led to 16 Rascals down to 15 Rascals (if 16 did turn up) due to the player being sent off.
This meant Al-Caliph could get more goals and true enough the fifth goal was scored. A counter attack from the right side saw Al-Caliph getting a corner. Our man Omar (credit to him for able to make it from his busy schedule to play) stepped up to take the corner, a brilliant ball into the box. A head rose among the many who tried, and met the ball and the rest was history. A classic goal from Bul (guess it was just his height) and his 2nd for the day.
The game came to an end and everyone from the goalkeeper to the strikers to our coach to the supporting and excited sponsor a wonderful game. Like Mr Din said “Better than having sex”.
Guys, let’s keep momentum going. Supporting one another. Playing as a team. Winning as Al-Caliph.
“Al-Caliph! Let’s make it our season!!!!”
by Deva