A view from the Back.

With 19 on the team sheet but 10 at the ground 5 mins before kick off some serious questions were being asked of the commitment level from the missing 9. Wooly, Mohammed, Grant, Jun and Kenji quickly redeemed themselves by showing up just as the referee called the teams together. The Marinos staff presented us with a bag full of at least 8 footballs for the warm up but with the lack of a keeper to "welly" them at most of them remained in the sack... shame.. we really could have gone to town.

Sendo took the honorable step between the posts (he's always got a pair of gloves on him) and with talk of enjoying the day we went 3 down quickly after the first 10 minutes (none of which were particularly anyone's fault especially Sendo-san.) Once we had fully appreciated that the Marinos didn't actually tackle you and that you had considerably more time on the ball (Stephen emphasised this 20 times) we able to settle into a nice defensive pattern. By the end of the first 30 mins we were only 4 down.

Talk at the break of simple passes, taking your time and tackling sent us out with a game plan for containing the oppo... this was soon crushed after the current Marinos striking coach taught us a lesson in world class finishing, a cross from their left winger drifted perfectly over Rob, Stephen and Dhino on to the right boot of the afore mentioned striker who dispatched it into the top left corner (approx age 43). Mohammed and the rest of the defence just stood around debating how good that finish actually was... has to be a contender for goal of the season. Another 4 conceded and 0-8 at the end of the second third. Special mention to Dhino for twice overlapping down the left flank and giving the rest of the defence a breather... that's teamwork.

Tired but determined we resorted to some good old British basics in an attempt to salvage something, simply put from Stephen, "get close and at least try and clip them or leave a foot in." This appeared to be working and the forwards took it to heart, Sami dispossessed a defender on the edge of the box and slipped a pass to Wooly on the edge of the box who bundled it into the keeper, the rebound hit him on the jaw and beautifully bounced over the keeper into the net. For a moment talk of actually winning the final third murmured amongst the midfield and defence.. 4 more from Marinos quickly put us back in our place and we settled for a 12-1 reverse.

All in all it was a very worthwhile experience, we were able to learn how the game should be played on astroturf, the defence and midfield became extremely well organised and worked well until the final whistle. Nothing to be ashamed of and our next opponents Tokyo Lions will be a very different prospect with the Embassy even more confident we can take our League winning streak to 3 and threaten a top 3 finish.

MoM - Kenji - tireless running in the middle of the park.
Team: Dinho, Tomo, Rob, SimonC, Biffa, Stephen, Sendo, Kenji, Jun, Sami, Andeee, SimonW, Makoto, Grant, Mohamed.