Bangkok Veterans League

Season #5, Event #14

— Annual Traditional Friendly Derby Match —

• 3rd Annual “Bangkok Veterans -vs- Bangkok Japanese” •

23/Aug/2009 • Patana School

Japanese take back the Permanent Cup with Ninja-like precision

Report Date: 15/Aug/2010

After exactly a year later, the Bangkok Veterans met the Bangkok Japanese (a mix team of stars from BU Japan, Japan FC and Japan Allstars) once again with the aim to bring home this annual traditional friendly derby’s Permanent Cup.

In the past 2 years, the Permanent Cup had changed hands back-&-forth, and the winner of this year would gain an upper hand in the rankings. Feel free to read through the previous years’s epic battles at the following links in the Traditions section.

A quick e-mail went out to all the Vets on the VetsLeague mailing group, and in a flash, we had a team:
■ Veterans League
♦ Eralp (M)
■ LeCoq French
♦ Keith
♦ Gonzague
■ Southern Cross
♦ Bruce
♦ Martin
■ Crossbar Southerners
♦ Craig
♦ Martin
■ Foster Masters
♦ Guy
♦ Graham (C)
♦ Craig
♦ Fraser
♦ Dave
♦ Paolo
■ British Club
♦ Vern
♦ Martin
♦ John
♦ Darren
♦ Sam
♦ Peter
■ Blue Lightning
♦ Bence

For the Veterans, the most active Veteran, Foster Master’s Graham, was given the reins to Captain the team in our typical defensive 4-4-2 format and the following Starting-11.


Fwd.	Martin		Keith
Mid.	Guy	Graham	Gonzague	Craig
Def.	Vern	Fraser		Bruce
Def.	Martin
GK	Martin

Substitutes Bench:
■ Dave
■ Paolo
■ John
■ Darren
■ Peter
■ Sam
■ Bence
■ Eralp

1st Period:
From the very start, the match seemed an even balanced game, with the Veterans playing carefully to spread out on the field, and the Japanese with precision passing.

About the middle of the period, Veterans’s speedy Martin broke through from the center circle, and carried the ball all the way to the Japanese penalty box, losing and winning the ball several times along the way, finally tipping it in after rounding the goalkeeper. [Score: 1-0]

■ First Break ==> Veterans 1 - 0 Japanese

2nd Period:
After a cool teamtalk at the break, the Veterans return to Period-2, only to be completely mesmerized by the Japanese.

Right from the kickoff, the Japanese took a speculative shot that slips off Martin’s fingers in for an unexpected goal. [Score: 1-1]

On the next attack after the kickoff, Veterans defence bungled the ball and left it fully free in front of the Japanese strikers for an easy tap in. [Score: 1-2]

A couple of attacks later, almost a mirror replica of the previous goal, and the Japanese striker is present to tip it in again. [Score: 1-3]

By the middle of the period, when the Veterans though they were making a comeback, Hiroshi’s long range shot beautifully curled around Martin to the top left corner. Nothing Martin can do! [Score: 1-4]

The last 15 min of Period-2 turned out to be the complete opposite of the first part, when the Veterans took the game to the Japanese, and in the process missed literally dozens of chances from the legs of Keith, Martin, Eralp, Fraser, et-al. And, when we all heard the whistle ending Period-2, the Veterans were totally baffled by the scoreline as they walked to the sideline for the 2nd break.

■ Second Break ==> Veterans 1 - 4 Japanese

3rd Period:
A brisk 2nd break teamtalk brought some clarity into the ranks of the Veterans, hoping at least a draw would serve as fairly to take the match to penalty-shootouts, as was the case in the inaugural edition in 2007.

Once again, Period-3 was mostly in the possession of the Veterans, again displaying plenty of missed chances.

In one of those chances, the newcomer, Paolo, brought the ball in from the left wing and made a wide pass to Sam who didn’t forgive from close range. [Score: 2-4]

This mid-period goal increased the hopes of the Veterans who worked hard for more goals, only to hear the agonizing sound of the final whistle ending the match.

■ Full Time ==> Veterans 2 - 4 Japanese

Overall:
Overall, another wonderful annual traditional friendly for the Vets League lads who all seemed to be enjoying the outing in great spirit. The Veterans worked hard, but succumbed to the Japanese onslaught at the beginning of Period-2, and had to let go of the Permanent Cup back to the Japanese .

Sincere thanks to our pointman with the Japanese community, the influential Wakana San (who also made a successful return after a year of recovery from his injury in the very same game a year ago) for organizing the Japanese teams again this year. We are delighted to continue this new Bangkok tradition for many years to come.

We are eagerly looking forward to the 4th annual “Veterans -vs- Japanese” friendly match in 2010.

Kind regards,
-Eralp

Photos:

Picture 1 — Japanese usually make this annual meeting a family day to the enjoy Bangkok's great outdoors.

Picture 2 — A strong looking Bangkok Veterans team assembled for this 2009 annual traditional friendly with the Bangkok Japanese.
● Standing: Martin, Peter, Sam, Dave, Martin, Graham, Keith, Bence, Frazer, Darren
● Front: Eralp, Martin, Vern, Paolo, Bruce, John, Gonzague, Guy, Craig

Picture 3 — Bangkok Japanese, true to themselves, bring a heavy presence to this year's annual traditional friendly.

Picture 4 — Captains, Graham and Shingu San, shaking hands for the cameras at the beginning of the game.

Picture 5 — Graham in control of the midfield, while Craig and Gonzague offering options.

Picture 6 — Bangkok Japanese substitutes closely watching the action on the pitch.

Picture 7 — All the silverware, raring to go!

Picture 8 — Vets Captain Graham receiving the Runners-up trophy from Ohtsiku San, with plenty to drink from.

Picture 9 — Eralp the Organizer presents Hiroshi San's Goal of the Day trophy.

Picture 10 — Veterans's stalwart Graig steps up to hand over the Winners trophies to Japanese Captain Wakana San.

Picture 11 — Eralp the Organizer fills up the trophies for Wakan San.

Picture 12 — Can he do it, . . . . . can he do it?

Picture 13 — Oh, yes, he can!

Picture 14 — and, a final family picture to cap a truly friendly football day for Wakana San.

Contacts:

Feel free to e-mail to me (contacts at the footer), if you would like to voice your take on the above event report, or have more photos from the event to be posted on this page.

Veterans		-vs-		Japanese

Martin	1	-	0
		-FB-
	1	-	1	[?]
	1	-	2	[?]
	1	-	3	[?]
	1	-	4	Hiroshi
		-FB-
Sam	2	-	4
		-FB-
	2	-	4

Legend:
● FB: First Break
● SB: Second Break
● FT: Full Time