Ragtag Rebels vs "War" GP

8-4. We won a football game in Sparta.

It was crazy today. From the first half we could see tension from them, they got out of their minds and the referee (the old guy) let them.

We started scoring (David), then they equalized, then us again (Fernando), afterward 3-1 (Stefan) and we reached the second half. At this moment the atmosphere was hot, but not that bad.

The fight came in the second half with some actions over Digo and David. Their captain (the oldest and the craziest) got a green card after a dirty tackle to David's knee. Minutes after Digo made a friend (small, blond guy) and their friendship lighted up the whole team.

It was like we were in a fight and nobody told us!.

Then 4-1 after a great move from Carlos! but they were lucky and in two very close actions they made the 4-2 (second line guy entered alone) and 4-3 perfect shot from the last defender (that we didn't cover) . It was from quite far and it went right into the top corner.

Luckily we quickly made the 5-3 (Stefan) and that gave us oxygen. From here on I'm not sure of the order but I think it was, 6-3 (Fernando), 6-4, then David see's a green card for finally pushing back Nigel de Jong (both players saw it) and during his absence Francesco made 7-4 with a great move. Finally counter attack and Francesco made 8-4, that cooled down the people and the match.

It was a freaking street fight. They were responding to small back faults with extremely rough game.

Funny thing was that the "crowd" and the "waiting teams" were cheering for us!!, I guess this team makes friends along the way.

US: GREAT attitude, until we got involved in the fight in second half (3-1 leading). We pressed well and very close to their goal, followed our guy and we occasionally did very nice combinations. Also we were very focused in defense most of the times, big improvement with respect to the last game. We sort of learn the lesson. That, together with nice actions from Francesco and Carlos, was the good side.

The bad side though was that we fought back. Don't get me wrong, I like to show that they wont push us down but we went too far, celebrating the goals on their faces (Digo making friends) and even physically fighting back (which cost us the green card of David). Understandable in these conditions but still a mistake.

THEM: Good team but insane. Here is a video of another game of them, to get an idea. By the way, the referee is also the same.

Their captain is limited as a player but he is the craziest, I think he is the guy in 0:44, always provoking, kicking, shouting... now that I'm thinking, not even when he is like this, I would feel safe playing against him. Their striker (Digo's buddy, short, blond, chunky guy) is technically quite good and very dangerous in one vs one. Today the good news was that he also has that mental decease, so he wasted all of his energy "dancing" with Digo.

Goalie is good, has nice reflexes but when he goes out he looses quite a lot. He is also infected big time, by the way.

The last defender is by far the best, defending is not bad but his strongest point is that he is very dangerous coming from second line. We should always follow him. He protests a lot but he is not violent.

Bottom line, if they would just play, they are a very strong team.

Great attitude, very decent play, understandable mistake of fighting back.

First leg of the league is now over and we still leading the league. Anecdotal but sweeeeeet.

Goals: David, Fernando(2), Carlos, Stefan(2), Francesco(2).

Linesman: Fernando and Jelmer.

Issues: Besides the pain I have in the elbow and in the knee, my ankle is pretty swollen, I'm typing with my foot on the table and with ice on it. I don't see myself playing next week.