Week 9: Game of the Week

Littleton Rovers v Oakland Park Angels (Division Three)

David Jeffery took his Oakland Park Angels side to Moss Road hoping to continue their recent fine form. With three wins and a draw in their last five games, Mr Jeffery was keen to push for a promotion spot. Meanwhile, Allan Moss was looking for a much needed victory from his side after only taking goal scoring bonus points recently.

German keeper Jens Janusk was again the only non-South African in the LittletonRovers team. His command of Afrikaans is improving every week and slowly the side is getting a more solid look with defenders able to communicate with the talk German international. OPA made one change to their starting eleven with Jhersson Zea replacing the now retired American stalwart Josh Heartland.

Playing in cold, wet conditions, the game started quietly. With both sides looking very tentative, the early action was dominated by the respective defences who managed easily with all the long balls played towards their penalty areas. The 36,000 crowd were beginning to get restless has the half hour mark approached when the most lively player on the field, Moses Karoo literally took off his gloves and started to play. One second he tossed his woolen gloves into the crowd, the next he won an beautiful sliding tackle before hitting a long range drive which beat Diego Lopez Garcia only to crash off the post before being cleared by Aztec Escondido.

Following the example of Karoo, Rovers started a period of lengthy pressure which as OPA penned back for the remainder of the first half. Dante Kruger missed two relatively simple chances to open the scoring in the space of five minutes. While, Cedric Ba saw a looping header from a corner cleared off the line by the impressive Cristian Lucà. The half ended with Lucà making a last ditch challenge to stop Karoo breaking through after a clever chip pass from Gabriel Ba. The crowd were convinced the young Italian committed a foul and while both players received treatment the pressure was firmly on referee Youssef Mohammed. His decision to award OPA a free-kick was met with almost silence, the Egyptian official indicating Karoo deliberately handled the ball as he fell. Half-time TV replays proved him 100% correct.

Half Time: 0-0

The second half started in driving rain and this coupled with the break seemed to take the edge off the Littleton game plan. Slowly, Washington Beagle & Alexandr Voinov started to take control of the game and a succession of half chances fell to OPA’s attackers. Finally, the possession advantage for Oakland produced the opening goal. Voinov latched onto a clever through ball from Lucà and using his strength to hold off the challenge of Kopano Thandiwe, he calmly slotted the ball into the far corner.

With the lead, Angels continued to have the majority of the ball. Not wanting to risk conceding an equaliser, they were content to try pot shots from long range which caused the Littleton defence no real problems. Showing their frustration at the lack of possession, the Littleton players were on three occasions lucky not to see yellow for clumsy tackles.

The game was meandering to an end when Man of the Match Karoo managed to beat two players before being up-ended on the edge of the area. The resulting free-kick taken by Karoo appeared to be harmless but Lee Peterson’s wild clearance went straight up in the air. As the ball was coming down to earth, Peterson in his haste to made amends clearly blocked off Marty Kearns and the ref pointed to the spot. To make matters worse, the experienced Swede was booked. It was no real surprise that Karoo stepped up blast the ball past Garcia to level the scores.

A lengthy goal celebration followed with the referee pointing to his watch clearly indicating he was adding the time on. As the Littleton payers jogged back to their own half a scuffle broke out as sand sub Kites Hardwick was suddenly on the ground clutching his face. Replays showed he clearly said something to Peterson as the two players passed each other, exactly what could not be made out, but the resulting shove from the Swedish forward was enough to see him earn a red card.

Littleton saw their chance to press for an unlikely winner in the final few minutes and probably deserved to get their goal. Karoo again hit the woodwork from 20 yards with a stunning drive and Garcia made three smart saves to earn the visitors of draw.

Full Time 1-1

This entry was posted on Friday, January 1st, 2010 at 9:11 pm and is filed under Game of the Week. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.