Friendly
Bedfont Recreation Ground, Bedfont
Admission: £10.00 online (plus mandatory £1 donation for ConIFA member association of one's choice)
Programme: £5.00 (covering entire tournament)
Attendance: 70 (rough head count)
Match Rating: 3
For the final day of the ConIFA World Football Cup, I booked my tickets in advance for two games today, one for the final this evening taking place at Enfield Town, and one at the other end of the spectrum, for the 15th/16th Placement game (aka the wooden spoon play-off). However, the latter game was scuppered thanks to Ellan Vannin pulling out of the tournament after an unsuccessful appeal against an alleged ineligible player fielded by the team they lost out to in the group stages, Barawa. That resulted in opponents having to be found for the teams that Ellan Vannin should have been playing in the placement rounds to play friendly fixtures instead. Fortunately the Chagos Islands were able to step in at such short notice to provide the opposition. Originally, I had considered seeking a refund and going to another game instead, with £11.00 an awful lot of money to pay for a friendly game between two of the weakest ConIFA teams. However, once Tuvalu were confirmed as taking part in this fixture, I decided to go, as they were one of the teams I had targeted to watch in this tournament, and whose participation in this tournament was quite remarkable, travelling all the way from their remote tiny islands in Oceania, located between Australia and Hawaii.
The Bedfont Recreation Ground is about a ten minute walk from Hatton Cross underground station, and has been significantly upgraded since my last visit in 2010, mirroring the host club’s rise from starting their second season of senior football, in the Step 4 Combined Counties League Division One, to achieving promotion into the Step 4 Isthmian League Central Division for the coming season. Spectators enter via a turnstile block next to the main clubhouse building, which is really pleasantly fitted out and decorated inside. Immediately beyond the turnstiles there is a tea bar hatch, and towards the corner flag there are three uncovered metal steps to stand on, but without any rails, is a little precarious to stand on. There is cover in front of the clubhouse straddling the half way line, which has some seats scattered around and even a couple of table footballs. Towards the furthest corner flag there are a couple of rows of covered seating attached to the clubhouse building, with the nicely decorated player’s tunnel located in the corner. A further couple of rows of covered seating is located beyond the corner flag, and then a modern metallic stand behind the goal, which is quite nicely decorated. Narrow cover against the perimeter fence stretches around the corner, then along the middle two thirds of the length there are two rows of cover. Along the remaining length, again there is some narrow cover, the middle two thirds having two rows of seating along it. A nice touch is that each area of seats has “Welcome to Bedfont Sports” spelt along them. One thing that hasn’t changed about the ground is its location right under the flight path for Heathrow, with planes regularly taking off and passing close above the ground.
Tuvalu themselves were not originally scheduled to take part in this tournament, but took the place of Kiribati in March, when the latter had to pull out for financial reasons. Unfortunately, but perhaps unsurprisingly, Tuvalu have struggled in this tournament, losing every game in the group stage – 0-4 against eventual semi-finalists Székely Land 0-4 and Padania 0-8, and then Matabeleland 1-3, and in the placement matches they lost 0-5 against United Koreans in Japan, and finally Tamil Eelam 3-4, despite being 3-1 up with four minutes of normal time remaining. The Chagos Islands lost 0-1 against Matabeleland on Thursday in their other friendly match.
On a warm afternoon – but certainly not as hot as last Saturday – this was an entertaining game that was generally, as expected, low on quality but was not as one-sided as the final score would indicate. Tuvalu took the lead on 7 minutes, rather fortunately, as an attempted clearance ricocheted off a Tuvalu’ striker Okilani Tinilau and went into the net. They doubled their lead on 18 minutes, following a lovely clipped ball forward which sent Matti Uaelesi clear before delivering a composed low finish past the keeper. Chagos Islands came close to pulling a goal back on 20 minutes when some good footwork inside the box by Jimmy Degrade ended with a close range shot being parried low by the keeper. Tuvalu should have made it three when Taufaiva Ionatana burst through the middle clear of the defence, but as he approached the keeper, he laid the ball off to his Uaelesi, who was offside. But they did make it three on 25 minutes, when a corner was headed by Afalee Valoa amongst a crowd, heading just inside the near post and although there was a Chagossian player on the line, the ball bounced off the top of his head and into the roof of the net. But Chagos Islands were given hope of getting back in the game when they were awarded a penalty on 28 minutes following a trip in the box on Degrace. The ball was dispatched from the spot into the bottom right corner by Leonce. Despite some huffing and puffing, the score remained 3-1 at half time, with Tuvalu in control, but Chagos Islands not out of it yet, especially considering how Tuvalu blew a two goal lead late on in their previous game.
After a fairly quiet start to the second half, it was Tuvalu who scored the crucial next goal. After winning possession in their own half, probably thanks to a foul by the Tuvalu player, they quickly attacked and an eventual short pass inside the area allowed Tinilau to clip the ball past the keeper and into the net. Chagos Islands defender Dylan Digobert was then shown a green card for dissent, followed by a red card when the dissent continued. Chagos Islands were looking a beaten side now, not helped by multiple substitutes being made, and on 70 minutes, Tuvalu scored their fifth. A ball forward was laid off beautifully by a back heel by Uaelesi to team mate Sosene Vailine, and he drove the ball low across the keeper and into the net. On 80 minutes Tuvalu made it six, when an initial shot was blocked and the loose ball was struck into the roof of the net by Uaelesi. Tuvalu were also reduced to ten minutes in the closing minutes, when a player had to go off injured after they had already made all of their substitutions. With the last kick of the game, Chagos Islands came close to a second consolation goal, when a free kick right on the edge of the area by Hansley Sagai was well saved low to the keeper’s left. But it was Tuvalu who finished their campaign very much on a high, and enjoyed some reward for their long, long journey of well over 9,000 miles to participate in this tournament. As for Chagos Islands, full credit to them for taking part in fixtures with precious little preparation time and just a few days notice, and they deserved a narrower defeat today. They will hope the two friendly fixtures were a taste to build towards qualification for future tournaments.
Although this was a very low key game, with quite a small crowd and none of the atmosphere, noise or colour of many other games in this tournament, it was still a most enjoyable game to watch, with both teams contributing to a competitive game, generally played in very good spirits, with it quite clear how much it means to play for their respective countries.
No comments:
Post a Comment