| FMF's Toon Army Spiderman and member of the Writers Crew Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: wiltshire Posts: 2,479 Thanks: 308 Thanked 633 Times in 605 Posts Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTW/F/M Award(s): 0 | 
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Initially Thursday morning passed without any incident. The first team squad took to the training pitch and after four circuits, came in and split into two groups of attackers, and two groups of defenders, three teams of six, and Maduro had seven. I then announced that the winners would be the ones after three 20 minutes games, had won the most amount of games, if it was tied it would come down to goals scored by defenders or goals conceded by attackers. We made our way over to the state-of- the-art 6-a-side pitch.
They started the games brightly, and the attacking team led by Edgar Davids won round one, defeating the defenders team, led by John Heitinga 5-1. Jaap Stam's defending team also won their game against team Maduro, though it was so close to call, 2-1. Round two saw Stams side storm into the lead 4-0 after just ten minutes, and the score finished 5-1 to them, the big man himself netting a hattrick. Meanwhile Ever Banega, on Maduro's side had the misfortune to net an own goal right at the death, losing them the game 1-0 to team Davids. So it was all to play for in the final game, after Maduro v Heitinga finished 3-3 and then went to an exhausting 11-10 shootout in the penalties.
Team Stam, level on points but with a goal extra cutting the difference between the two sides, started awfully. Huntelaar, showing his class, nutmegged Emmanuelson with ease, and fired home the opener after just 40 seconds. It got worse when Luque made it two, albeit a deflected effort, but just before halftime, Vito Wormgoor smashed home after Urby's shot came back off the post. Stam's side still needed to pull back two though, and in the second half he himself came out like a man posessed. He got their second just two minutes in, powering home from close range, before Emmanuelson provided the goal of the mini tournament, shooting from inside his own half, and left grasping at thin air, Stekelenburg could do nothing about it.
Davids went ballistic at his keeper, Stam urged his team on to make the final assault, with just over a minute left. Davids side played keep ball, looking to try and get round the wall of orange vests blocking their path to the winner. Out of nothing, Kennedy Bakircioglu let fly with a screaming effort, which Gentenaar could only parry. The ball skidded across the astro, loose ball and suddenly two of the most unforgiving forces in modern european football collided going for the 50-50...Davids and Stam.
There was an almighty crunch as Davids met Stam's right shin with his outstretched left, and both players went crashing to the plastic turf. Almost immediately Stam was back on his feet, collecting the ball, with Davids in hot pursuit. At that point Davids had no idea until he had taken two steps, that he had fractured his tibia in three places, such was the ferocity of his challenge. Of course as soon as he put his weight down on it, he realised in that fateful second he'd done serious damage.
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The ambulance arrived 15 minutes later. Davids in a lot of pain but being hard as nails, tried shrugging and joking it off, but the lads were still concerned, all understanding that the play match had gone a bit too competitive. I now had the new headache of picking a new captain, until Davids was well again. He would be out for at least 3 months if not more. I was to get the report back from the specialist later that day; at that particular time however, I had no idea how bad it was.
Then some stupid argument that had started on the pitch between Banega and Maduro escalated about twenty minutes later in the dressing room. I arrived in there having just got off the phone to Keizer telling him about the accident, to find Banega with his hands round Maduro's throat, hanging on grimly while Maduro punched him in the side of the head. Both guys had three players trying to pull them off each other. I got right in between the pair of them, only to receive a crack in the ribs for my trouble, thankfully it was more handbags than anything else. 10 minutes later they were both hauled over the coals in my training ground office and both fined a weeks wages for their mis-conduct. They agreed it was a stupid fight, and shook hands, though I had nagging doubts that this was the last of it. Despite it being only 4pm, I decided to call it a day and dismissed everyone home. I left at 4.30pm, absolutely exhausted.
I got home to find Tam kicking off at somebody down the phone. I was to discover later that the boiler in our old house we were now renting out had packed up, even though it was still under warranty. Tam was onto the plumber who fitted it, only to be told that it would be at least a week before he had time to pop round and have a look at it. More expense, more aggro. The perfect end to a perfect day.
Last edited by Hartynips; 21-04-08 at 06:24 PM. |
