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