Goals galore and glorious sunshine at Brockwell Park…but where was Anamul?

Two of my toes have gone purple and it hurts to walk after playing football- I guess they were digging into my trainers or something…ooohh the pain. Moving swiftly on…(although I’ll probably be hobbling somewhat) on this beautiful Monday afternoon, a specially selected group (basically as the Klaxons would say “If you’re not on the list, you’re not getting in”-or whatever those new rave kids say these days) of footballers gathered in front of Brockwell Park Café. We then went to the other side of the café and set up goals posts- although there were two goal posts already, one of them was down a hill which didn’t make for a very good pitch. It took a while for calm to prevail as people were shouting and whistles were blown, and for the teams to be chosen. I nominated Adam and Shaz as team captains and they picked us off so the teams looked like this:
Team Gumball
Shaz (oh my god, the spell check has turned itself onto Spanish and I don’t know how to fix it, it is suggesting Shan, Shaw, Shad, Shag and Shah)
Mike
Danny
Chris
Teague
Izzy (aka by Spanish spell check, Dizzy, Tizzy, Fizzy)
Will (he’s back…in the outside world, good to see you Will!)
Joe
Joe (in the second half, friend of Dan’s-more on him later)
Emma (every now and again!)
Simon

Adam’s team
Adam
Danny (in the second half-traitor!)
Anton (Antón and Canton)
Dan
Ashley (Hazles and Hazle)
Arthur (Arturo and Hartar)
Marina
Craig (no spelling suggestions)
Jake
Peter Craig

The match got off to a quick start…sorry it’s hard to know what to write when I’ve been playing in it myself and I’m still recovering from it too!... With a blasting header from myself which then gave me what felt like concussion for several minutes. Team Gumball were certainly dominating in the first half with Mike, Danny and Simon passing nicely and getting the ball up to the goal. Teague was a heroic goalkeeper too, making several impressive saves. And without blowing my own trumpet, I played rather well in the first half, at one point I made quite a run down most of the pitch and was in front of the goal where I crossed it to Chris but he was tackled, but by the second half I was exhausted-I’ll have to work on my stamina-playing 90 minutes is hard work. Having procured many goals, mostly scored by Mike-he made it a hat trick at least I think, team Adam were lagging behind, until the arrival of Ashley who found the net with ease and grace. Adam himself throughout the match was a key player for his team in acquiring the ball and creating chances and was therefore closely guarded by myself, then Teague and then Shaz who did some brilliant defending by break dancing in front of Adam as a free kick was taken. It boggled his mind I’m sure! I have to apologise to Adam and Ashley and everyone else on team Adam for my grabbing of them-I don’t mean to I promise, I’m just trying to get the ball, in future I will try to make less physical contact.

In the second half team Gumball had the honour receiving a player on the just opened transfer market. Young Joe, a friend of Dan’s, joined out team. Someone said he was a professional and plays for a team and while I think this may be a slight exaggeration, I believe that he probably plays for his school team, but if he does in fact play for Arsenal or Man United youth team many apologies and I’ll eat my words-and hook us up puuurrllleaaseee! He certainly added a little je ne sais quoi to the team, playing up front and scoring some brilliant goals, of note in particular an amazing header which made Peter Crouches look pitiful! He also set up other players nicely, at one point he did a lovely cross to me for my moment of glory and I missed it-I can’t remember what happened! And don’t want to think about it any more! However, although with this great addition to the team, the Gumballs were slightly outclassed in the second half by a determined Adam’s team who went on, with the help of Ashley, to narrow the goal difference with the score at full time reading 9-7 to the Gumballs. Ashley played brilliantly today with amazing driving shots into the corners of the goal (he probably got a goal in each corner, top right, top left, bottom right, bottom left, I wouldn’t be surprised!)-they were truly outstanding, and for this I award him man of the match. But really everyone played brilliantly today and it was much fun playing with you all. What a master class in football, what text book playing, everyone had their moment of class and skill, such as Mike’s twirling and spinnig with the ball which would have done Ronaldo proud, and when I was lying on the ground (having fallen over-not just for the sake of it) and still managed to kick the ball-how cool is that?

After the match (with the 30 minutes injury time-which I sat out for for quite a bit, I mean 30 minutes, on top of the 90 just played-that’s just crazy!) we then practised our skills for a bit which was fun-those Ronaldo set overs and one twos with Ads and Ashley which is super fun! And that hitting the crossbar game, with Danny and Joes hitting it 3 times, Teague twice…Shaz and I then went breezing down the hill on our skateboards-this you have got to try-it is a long long, slightly curving and sloping concrete path and is beautiful to skate down. You can slalom and cruise to your hearts content and it is such a wicked feeling (like when you score a goal!), and it’s really like snowboarding. We went down three times but stopped in case the euphoria wore off after a while! The drunk people at the bottom even cheer you when you get there-if you can call it cheering-sort of grunting sounds I guess-no disrespect.
Much love,
Thanks to all!
Got the mention the referees: Orun, Patricia, Louise-big up yoselves!

We missed you Anamul, I think we forgot to tell you as we were handing out the leaflets on Friday lunchtime and you’d gone to the computer room with Kevin-but just wait for the summer!

I was horrified to find that no one had watched Match of the Day and seen some of the best football I’ve ever seen! But then Emma came and she’d watched it so we could talk about Arsenal, Vidic etc. Guys you have got to see it-never before have I seen such thrilling matches in one weekend-Chelsea and Watford, Man U and Blackburn, Arsenal and Liverpool and Tottenham and Reading were looking pretty lively too! Ooh and Champions League this week-I love Champions League, down the pub I go to watch it if it isn’t on ITV.