As the players arrived at Gabe East in the morning, a light, but steady rain was turning the pitch into a muddy skating rink. Footing ranged somewhere between treacherous and non-existent. The worst conditions were in the two 18-yard boxes.
The Plough took the early lead when the Bohemians left back decided to play a lovely cross into his own penalty box. Rusty newcomer Adam Faughnan jumped on the opportunity and nodded a header into the far corner of the goal.
The lead was short-lived as Kurt Spreyer lost his footing in the mud and slid nearly 20 feet across the field. The Bohemian’s nefarious Xin Jin took the opportunity to also lose his footing and claim for a penalty. Said claim was awarded and the Bohemians tied the match.
The idea behind the 4-3-3 formation adopted by manager Wekwerth was to score early, which the Plough did, but it soon became apparent that the poor field conditions in the middle of the pitch, exposed the Rusties’ single center mid (despite his best efforts).
Shortly after the PK, the Bohemians charged down the Plough’s right side. Keeper Forsyth was shouting that there were two players at the back post with only Jose available to mark them. They also had an attacker coming through the middle. The Bohemians’ left wing sent a great cross to the far post that, somehow, went over Herrarte’s head and into the path of one of those two unmarked players who hit a perfect volley back into the back of the Rusty net.
Now down two, The Rusties tried to be aggressive. Roberto Viveros intercepted numerous Bohemian attempts to play in through balls and delivered some amazing passes to put the Plough on the offensive. But the Plough could not capitalize. The Bohemians were playing with two up front and, regardless of which two they were, they were fast. That, combined with the fact that the single ref refused to call offsides, lead to the third goal. The Plough held a good line and one of the Bohemian strikers was behind it, but the infraction was not called, and they had an easy goal to make the score 3-1.
The Rusties were not done however. Emeritus player Moriconi was on the pitch when Spreyer fired off one of his trademark long throw-ins. Giovannetti flicked the ball over to his Italian compatriot who acted with calm and poise. His arms extended as if he were dancing on a beach in Hawaii, he planted his left foot (not an easy thing to do in these conditions) and hit a beautiful controlled shot towards the net. His shot hit the crossbar, came down, and then bounced over the line bringing the match to 3-2.
The Plough had other opportunities and continued their good play during the final 10 minutes of the half. Weinstein took a long shot that curled just wide. Faucette made several attacking runs, but couldn’t find an opportunity to score.
In the second half, Wekwerth conceded that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks and he returned the Plough to their more typical 4-4-2 formation. That change did not pay immediate dividends as the Bohemians almost scored again with a shot that hit both posts before bouncing away for a clearance.
Shortly thereafter, the Bohemians were again clearly offsides as the Rusty defense aggressively and effectively stepped forward as a line. However, once again, the ref was not persuaded and the Bohemians short striker had another easy score.
The Plough was now fuming and they came at the Bohemians full force. Waranoff, a terror throughout the game who kept challenging the Bohemians’ talented center back, had a great opportunity when he juked the keeper and had an open goal. He needs to discuss poise and Hawaiian dance moves with Franco as he rushed his shot and missed the target.
But Waranoff was not done. As had occurred to the Plough in the first half, a Bohemian defender lost his footing near Andy. Was Andy touched? Was he pulled? Did he slip? Did he flop? Only Andy knows for sure, but the Ref saw a penalty, and Giovannetti was Jeremy on the spot and calmly brought the Plough to within 1.
With the match now in reach, the Plough continued to push hard. Freddie Delgadillo almost evened the match with a long curling effort that sailed just a bit long. Not long after, the Plough moved the ball smartly through the middle and the ball found Freddie, who cleared his feet and hammered a shot low and hard to the back post. The Bohemian keeper had no chance.
With the game tied, the Plough pushed for a winner. Hudson cleared the ball up to Welch who had caused havoc on the left side of the pitch all day. Welch danced his way down the side, drawing in defenders. It is unclear if he crossed the ball or passed it to someone else who crossed the ball, but the ball skidded across the Bohemians penalty box. Waranoff was in the right spot and deftly turned the ball into the net (was it a back heel?). The Plough had the lead!
This turn of events seemed to piss the Bohemians off and they immediately changed formation and put three up top. The Plough did not drop a forward into the defense and so had a hard time marking. The Bohemians quickly earned a corner kick that was turned away. On the subsequent corner, the ball flew over the penalty spot and was cleared out by the Plough. Two Bohemian players crashed into each other and fell to the ground, screaming and writhing. Both Hudson and Forsyth looked at the sobbing mass of humanity wondering if anything serious had occurred. But the unmarked Bohemian mid-fielder steaming in from the side could not have cared less about his teammates. Despite the precarious nature of the field conditions, he planted his foot and, although he had never before, and never will again, laced the ball absolutely pure and true. Before anyone realized what happened, the Bohemians had tied the match.
At this point, Eric Kuehnl, who had played in numerous great crosses and kept the Bohemians at bay on his side of the pitch in the second half, asked, “How do we tie every game?”
The answer to his question was, we didn’t. With but two minutes remaining, the Bohemians committed a foul in a promising spot in their half of the pitch. Emeritus Knight took the free kick and almost all of the remainder of the Rusties were in the box trying to win the damn game. Unfortunately, the Bohemians won the header and cleared the ball. The Plough were exposed. Faster than you can say “contropiede”, three Bohemians were racing towards the goal. Steve Weinstein, who
looked like Y.A. Tittle and played an amazing match, was in hot pursuit. But, alas, the
Bohemians could not be caught and, despite all of the great play throughout the match by keeper Forsyth, this time, he could not deny the opponent as they snuck the ball in at the near post for the game winner.
Despite the result, the Plough showed grit, heart and determination. It appears that the theme for the season will be, great effort, poor result.
Post match, the executive committee of the Rusty Plough Football Club noted that there would be an inquisition as to why the Manager left before the end of the match, why the assistant manager was not in attendance, and why the former manager, who was still basking in the glow of his goal, was left in charge. A second inquiry about the threat to deny post-game Trumer Pils if a win was not achieved was abandoned when it turned out to be a false threat.
Golden Boot
- Jeremy Giovannetti - 3
- Freddie Lopez - 3
- Andy Waranoff - 2
- Peter Welch - 1
- Jason Yeo - 1
- Franco Moriconi - 1
- Dale Webber - 1
- Adam Faughnan - 1