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YC&AC Sunday 9th January.
The Geckoes kicked off the year with a hard-fought victory over FC International. Boosted by the Clash's last second victory over the Celts 2nds just before kickoff made us feel that fortune may have been with the club on the day, and indeed it was.
It helped that the Geckoes have corrected the problem that FC Int'l faced, that being not having players turn up on time. They started with only 10men and not their regular goalkeeper, however they still started well putting the Geckoes under pressure from the start and the Geckoes couldn't take advantage of the numeric advantage as various players started to show up and Jorge came about 10min in to take over in goal.
A moment of madness from the Int'l defender as he decided to try to clear the ball across his own goal and it went right to the outstanding Hiro who slotted the ball into the net, past Jorge with ease. It was pretty even from them until the end of the first half with plenty of challenges and not many clear changes to speak of.
The Geckoes had a good start to the 2nd half and should have doubled their lead after a couple minutes. Not for the first time, Hiro got behind the opposition defense and squared the ball to Jonus who hit the ball into the ground and it then seemed bound for the upper corner only for the keeper to make a fine save and tap it around the wrong side of the post for a corner. FC Int'l took hold of the game and probably deserved a point based on their play and the chances they created in the later part of the 2nd half. They should have converted a well-taken corner which was headed wide from only a few yards out. Also, they were celebrating early when they thought their top striker hit a ball bound for bottom corner, I heard someone start yelling, "GOOOAA...." ah sorry, not quite as Goro made the save of the match diving to his right to put the ball behind for a corner.
The defending for the Geckoes, as it was in the previous game, was outstanding all day, again starting from the front, and it seems like I've written this before, probably because I have, Jonas holding the ball up and putting the defense under pressure was instrumental to us keeping a second clean sheet in as many games. Hiro did equally as well and will tip the top player award for the day by being in the right place at the right time to score the only goal in the first half. Also notable were Paul and Yu in defense, Yu basically marked the current top scorer in the league out of the game, and he rarely threatened aside from his aforementioned shot.
Other notable performances were Masa Hamada in midfield, especially good 2nd half, getting a hold of the ball much more and excellent distribution. Originally down to play for the Clash but had to change to the Gecks as the Clash kick off time was changed to an earlier time mid-week, Simon Sanders, had an excellent game in defense, getting some great tackles in and didn't seem to put a foot wrong all game. Also, thanks to Jin and Yasu staying and playing after putting in two thirds for the Clash.
Great win for both clubs to start the year. Both teams now on to tough tests, the Clash playing div. 2 Jetro on Sunday and the Gecks will have the Hibs to contend with the following weekend.
Report by Pete Zollar
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