Basement 2 - 1 Upper Levels

Kennington Park

During a blusterous dark night in Kennington Park, the much anticipated 2nd leg of Dare’s FC latest football outing was decided thanks to ambitious forward Phil Wright and his 2nd half wonder goal - delivering a second successive knockout to the Upper Levels in the space of just two weeks.

The thinking-man’s Gascoigne was in good form last night, as Wright’s clever turns and use of space were the highlights of what was a scrappy tense affair to begin. The first half remained bleak throughout, the mood matching the weather well, with the dark windy conditions. Each team we’re sporting new signings after their previous encounter, and this proved evident as both squads were slow in forming any kind of break thorough early on.

Caco Vaccaro, the new much talked about Brazilian signing, enjoyed his first outing for the basement squad; and after a nervy 15 minute period of adjustment to the English game, the tricky Brazilian shone – answering most of his critics that he might be past his best after his disappointing World Cup campaign last summer. In all black, and just as deadly, the influential midfielder was the first to strike successfully at goal, with a decent effort narrowly screwing past the top-corner of the Upper Levels’ goal.

With Captain Green keeping things steady at the back, the game headed to a frustrating goalless draw at halftime. The teams quickly exchanged halves, and the wind would now favour the Upper Levels. Would this be the turning point?

Both teams remained surprisingly unchanged after the interval, and the welcome first breakthrough came with the determined Kit Suman finishing an assist from the new Brazilian Caco, after a scrappy clearance from new Spanish signing Dave Boleas.

The goal seemed to act against the Basement and was the perfect tonic to wake-up the disappointing Upper Level squad, who soon responded with a range of direct passes down the right flank from Stu Peddie - neatly ending with Greg Sines scoring with a convincing low drive. With the game nearing an end and heading for luckless draw, the Upper Levels pushed further forward ruthlessly in hope of sneaking a second decisive goal.

Peddie had rediscovered his form after his blunders in the previous game, and was spreading the ball with ease – linking impressively with both the two wide men Captain Firth and the Spaniard Eduardo. However, the Basement squad we’re able to counter this move, and having been impressive all season on the counter-attack, a fantastic individual effort from Wright was to win the game for mighty Basement.

Having received the ball outside the Upper Levels’ area thanks to important tackle from Kooch, the Brazilian Vaccaro was able to find Wright neatly hovering with intention. Once the tenacious Wright received the ball he was able to turn Leijon and Ashley with a delightful change of direction and finally capped the move with cool finish into the low-right corner - below the normally reliable hands of keeper Will Rose. Phil went on to celebrate his goal in his usual cool reserved style of simply raising one finger to the sky, as he was paraded by his fellow successful Basement team mates.

With the game won, and the next party of people looking anxious, the Basement celebrated a second successive victory - increasing their dominance further, and adding yet more pressure to Captain Firth and his underachieving Upper Levels squad.

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Basement Captain Jamie Green:
"The goal deserved to win any game and I can't wait to see Phil score another like that. Also Caco and Kit bring world-class quality and I believe they’ll show that all through the season.

"We've got a pretty good record against the Upper Levels and we'll be looking forward to the next game and hoping to do well."

Upper Levels Captain Firth:
"We were never under pressure and we had lots of chances to score, but we didn't take them.

"It's difficult to take over the two games. We needed to be ruthless, but we were also bit unlucky over the two matches with decisions.

"With Eduardo’s trip in the first half it looked a clear penalty."

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Basement
9 - Caco
8 - Jamie (c)
8 - Kit
10 - Phil Wright
7 - Dan Vaughan
7 - Amy Whittaker
8 - Kooch
7 - Matt Collins

Booked:
Collins (for mocking his captain).

Goals:
Suman, Wright.


Upper Levels
7 - Firth (c)
6 - Stenzhorn
7 - Peddie
8 - Sines
7 - Leijon
7 - Eduardo
6 - Elliot
7 - Boleas
6 - Ashley

Goals:
Sines

Att: 17.

The Debut of Dare FC

European Basement 8 – 7 Rest of the World (Upper Levels)

Kit Suman’s late strike helped European Basement to win a close encounter, during what was highly memorable night of drama in Brixton, South London. Suman opened the scoring with a low drive under the body of Greg Sines, after the opening 10 minutes had been a tense period of players adjusting to the fast attacking tempo.

Rest of the World quickly replied on the counter attack with captain Matt Firth finishing a impressive counter-attack to low beyond Kooch, currently operating in the Basement goal. European Basement went into the match in confident mood, and were quick to recover the lead with their attacking 2-3-1 formation proving overwhelming early on to the Rest of the World’s static defense.

With team Basement missing their experienced midfield general James Cooper in the early stages, this clearly began to show as the Basement failed to maintain their lead and were caught with another swift counter-attack, ending with a neat finish from Greg Sines. Eduardo, Sines and Caroline we’re forcing back the Basement formation, and playmakers Firth and Rose were able to pick out these players with ease, via a combination of subtle direct passes and delicate through balls. The pair followed with threatening forwards runs into the flanks which added to the heightening pressure on the Basement goal.

The attacking Swede, Caroline Leijon, was keen to make herself known to the opposition also showing some darting forward runs and some strong tasty challenges, on a occasion flooring Captain Green at one point and making a strong point of intention to the rest of the Basement squad. With the evident arrival of James Cooper, the team basement midfield received a much needed boost of experience and the midfield was once again balance and running steady. Coop’s inclusion quickly paid-off and allowed Kooch the time and space to grasp a loose ball, and drive it neatly home to raise the score to 3-2 with half-time looming.

After the break, Captain Green elected to bring some youth into the team with the two recent Dare school signings of Elliot and Luke entering the field. Rest of the World also made some tactical changes which soon proved effective with Stuart Peddie and Will Rose bombarding the Basement with strong long drives from distance. The Basement’s failure to close down these shots we’re proving fatal, as Rest of the World recovered their lead with two quick goals in succession from Leijon and Peddie. The Upper Levels pushed forward in numbers to try and dominate the fixture, but also left themselves vulnerable to a counter attack.

With imminent substations lurking, Rose crossed in low from the left to Firth just behind Green, who managed to deftly flick the ball with his heel and send it in off the post. The lively Caroline almost added to Rest of the World's advantage but was twice denied by Elliot as the Blues started to dominate again.

The Basement lacked a threat up front, with Collins off the pace, and a lone Phil Wright as forward, Captain Green recalled an eager Kit back to the action. Suman’s strong, ‘Maradona-style’, forward runs and the neat linking play of Phil Wright and Cooper were proving too much for Upper Levels to contain.

Shortly the Basement we’re able to get back on level terms, with Peddie failing to react sufficiently to a timid effort on goal from young Stenzhorn of Dare School. Phil Wright later added to Peddie’s woes, scoring from 20 yards with a confident low strike. Suman’s inclusion proved defiant and after Green had equalized with an exquisite late shot to level from the left flank, the score was leveled at 7-7.

With the next party banging on the fences to remind us of our running over our playing time, the next goal prove decisive in this thrilling encounter between the basement and upper levels. With seconds remaining, man-of-the-match, Kit Suman was somehow able to skip past some ruthless challenges from Rose and Firth to neatly slot the ball past a desperate Rest of the World defence.

This goal was final nail in the coffin, and with the final whistle soon to following, the Basement recorded their first victory in what was to be a thrilling and memorable night of a 6-a-side football.

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Basement captain Jamie Green:
"Kit's strike was a very important goal for us. At 7-7 the game could have gone anywhere.

“I’m delighted with the win and think we showed good spirit to come back 5-3 down.”

Upper Levels captain Matt Firth:
“We were not able to affect the game and dictate the pace of it as we would have wanted and some the players are disappointed because we had a real chance at getting a result.

“Obviously I’m disappointed we lost, and I think our decision to place Peddie in goal may have well been the turning point, but we’re able to move on.

"We were lacking physically because some players were unavailable to us but some of them will be back soon and I am sure we will produce a different performance in the anticipated rematch."

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European Basement:

Jamie Green 9
Luke Stenzhorn 7
Elliott Ryan 7
Kooch 8
Matt Collins 7
Kit Suman 10
Phil Wright 8
James Cooper 9

Goals: Suman 3, Kooch, Green, Wright, Stenzhorn.

Rest of the World:

Will Rose 8
Matt Firth 9
Eduardo de Felipe 7
Caroline Leijon 7
Stuart Peddie 7
Ashley Browning 7
Greg Sines 7

Goals: Firth 3, Sines, Leijon, Peddie, Eduardo or Will? (Not sure)

Att: 15