Forbidden City FC 故宫足球队

CUP QUARTER FINAL MATCH - 9th December 2007

The Afrikans were determined to slaughter us in this match and were confident before the match had even begun. They weren’t so sure after only 2 minutes as Macia made a superbly weighted cross from the right wing which Nick Otto gracefully volleyed from about 35 yards out to lob it over the keeper while dipping it under the cross-bar in to the back of the net. A glorious goal. It made the Afrikans angry and they fought back hard, but gave away a penalty. Having just scored the opening goal Nick confidently stood up to the spot, but as Sam said on the sidelines, “when he misses this, the glory of the first goal will soon be forgotten”, or words to that effect. The keeper had no chance, but unfortunately the ball ricocheted across the face of the goal after hitting the right post low down, and went out for a corner. Despite the miss, City confidence was running high and FCFC controlled the first fifteen minutes of the game. Philippe was fighting all over the right-side of the pitch and stormed out of the back at one point going Hans Solo in to the African half, unfortunately the race back to his defensive position was too much for the guy who’se been ill in bed all week and he knackered his ankle and came off limping to be replaced by Robbie.

Similarly to how alcohol addles the brain and weed gives you short-term memory loss, standing on the sidelines on a cold December day in Beijing doesn’t only make your feet like blocks of ice, it can also make your brain like a breeze-block and not so lucid. Luckily there was both alcohol and weed (as well as Annie’s Pizza for the Summer Palace team who’d just lost on pens to the Russian’s in their quarter final game) to keep the supporters smiling against the cold. Those of us on the sidelines weren’t too sure what happened for the next 20 minutes on pitch and I’m not sure those in the City defence were too sure either. Afrika’s shortest player scored with a header against the leagues tallest defence and then again with a lucky? knock-on header from a corner, then raced through the middle of the pitch to score again and again. At the other end, City were awarded another penalty and this time Luca slotted the ball home safely. Half time didn’t come soon enough and Afrika had changed a possible 0-2 after two minutes into a 3-2 lead after 45 minutes.

In the second half the Afrikans upped the tempo and were playing the ball around the centre of the pitch comfortably with a bevy of players coming through the ranks to battle the City defence. It was a strange match, but quite a typical Beijing cup match and worth the frost-bite for the few still on the sidelines. All sorts of strange ref decisions, stupid mistakes and moments of inspiration occurred. City had their share of counter attacks and Phil ‘the volvo’ Fughe was awarded the Man of the Match for his solid performance, passion and play down the right side of the pitch, teaming up well with Gianni and Rob, feeding well on to Nick and Macia. It should also be mentionned that Phil did the double, by not only playing in two games, but winning both the donkey and man of the match awards. As Diane (Kelly Lynch) said in Drugstore Cowboy, “Sometimes bad luck can be good luck”. The lucky fella got to drink both a large Kro shot of Vodka and Tequila! A few chances were missed which would have reduced the goal-difference and perhaps culled the Afrikans attack. Macia did however score a great goal late in the game and in between other Afrikan goals to help keep the City players battling on. Unfortunately the Afrikan’s weren’t missing the target and the shots were being so well placed Jason couldn’t stretch to the far corners to save all the chances.

As usual, you can see more details of the match and goals on our webteams page.

LEAGUE MATCH - 2nd December 2007

Top of the table clash against Athletico (in third position and a game in hand). Winning this game would keep us top of the table over the winter. Which we did, WAAHAY, although at times it looked like we could’ve slipped up. We started off well dominating their half and Nick was quick off the mark to chase up their keeper after he fumbled the ball to give the City an early goal, within 5 minutes as Stefan predicted! The rest of the half was goalless, but that’s not to say either side weren’t trying, although to be fair the City had more of the chances, Nick coming close again as their keeper yet again fumbled the catch but it wasn’t to be. At the other end, (more…)

LEAGUE MATCH - 25th November 2007

The Strollers are getting better with each week and Forbidden City needed to win to stay top of the table as both Athletico in 2nd (by default in most likelihood) and Sexy in 3rd would win their respective lower division clashes. From a defensive angle the City did all they needed to (all be it the Blade gave away a shocking pen that ‘Magic’ Tim McHanwell missed in a way not seen since the Strollers Kirky missed a pen in Bangkok, or was it Hangzhou?)… Simon scored a great header from Luca’s cross to ease the pressure but in the second half the City defence had it all to do to from a determined Strollers attack which were ultimately disappointed to give away three points. The City’s formation was not at it’s best and on many occasion the defence were put under sustained pressure as there was no avenue through the midfield and width of the pitch to feed the ball out of our danger zone. It was a hard fought game against a good opposition but tactically the City had the better game plan and used their assets to an advantageous three points. (more…)

LEAGUE MATCH - 18th November 2007

A cold day and it took some time for the City to warm up, but by the second half they were playing some nice attacking football against a weakening Viking team and the goals were flowing. (more…)

LEAGUE MATCH - 11th November 2007

A scrappy game overall. Fortuna went ahead with an early goal after a poor FCFC free kick was given straight back to them and the counter attack caught the City defence off guard and a sleeping keeper. Fortuna weren’t fielding their strongest squad and at times City seemed unsure the best way to utilise the extra time on the ball in midfield. After a spell of good play young Luis found the back of the net to the delights of the team and supporters, especially his father and two sisters. (more…)

LEAGUE MATCH - 4th November 2007

Great match between too determined sides. Muhlesy hit the post, Simon had a goal disallowed in the second half (offside?) and Jason kept the African Strikers at bay. (more…)

LEAGUE MATCH - 28th October 2007

Dear Players,

Well done for this weekend picking up 6 points for the club in difficult circumstances and being short on numbers. It was top work by City this weekend. From past experience in football, teams can often be made or broken when put into a situation like we faced on Sunday. I’m glad to say that everyone out there on the field battled hard and really worked unselfishly for each other. Its great to see true belief out there in peoples eyes, no matter what needs to be accomplished. I’m glad to see everyone was very positive and had the mental strength that we need to see again next week against Afrika where everyone has to believe we are better than them. So lets take it easy the night before so we can focus on the game properly.
The club was short of players this week, but because of this we have a couple of new faces around with those coming back as well, this will mean its going to be harder to get into the team. So this will mean that players going training will be far more likely to play matches when the decision is close. Get yourself training, I will be taking it and it will be plenty fun.

Thanks
James Mckay
Manager FCFC

LEAGUE MATCH - 21st October 2007

Great result to put City top of the league! Well done this weekend for a great night of hot pot and 6 points for the club.

I would just like to say in term of FC’s game on Sunday we played well in some patches, but would just like to throw in a bit of feed back after the game. I thought there was a lot to be positive, and a lot of things we can believe. I would just like to look at a couple of things we can definitely improve on.

Firstly if we are going to perform well, and under pressure we have got to be a lot stronger mentally. We have got some great players and we have got to realise with hard work we can do well.

Secondly we need to mark early from defending corners, tell me who you are marking early and theyll be no problems. For some reason we all drift of somewhere else when you should be picking up players, when a corner kick has been decided.

Thanks for your time and hopefully see you on Wednesday for training

James Mckay
FCFC Manager

LEAGUE MATCH - 15th October 2007

Good result against a tough opposition!

Special mention for Puketastic Pikey for spewing his way off the pitch!

GO CITY! (more…)

LEAGUE MATCH - 23rd September 2007