Football is a game of Luck

Even the best of teams can come up against the worst of luck and there have been so many cases of injustice in the history of the game. There's Maradona's Hand of God; Geoff Hurst's disputed World Cup final goal; Revolution's second half performance against Spartans on 16 December 2006.
The thing is with luck, apparently, is that in the long run, it evens itself out. Revolution have been darned unlucky in the recent past, so we deserved to be lucky this weekend.

The Revolution squad dwindled from an unmanageable 18 players on the Tuesday to a much more manageable 14 come matchday. It was the BoC's that turned up with huge numbers or was it just an illusion? It felt like they had 12 on the pitch at times with the amount of ground they covered. Anyways, the big BoC squad might have contributed to their ultimate downfall, as players were constantly juggled around. It was a tough job for BoC's manager, Charles Man, but being my elder brother, he has the pedigree as well as the experience to manage these things!

From the outset, it looked like an even match. Both teams knew it was going to be a grind. Both teams set up with tough defences. The back pairing of Eddie Hau and Kehinde for BoC's appear to be worth every fantasy point they have earned for clean sheets. El Tel was revelling in his new role as sweeper for Revolution behind a rejuvenated Chris Marshall fresh from his Asian Games trip to Doha.

Little things were going to decide this game. Revolution successfully pinned BoC's in their own half and were hassling the BoC's backline and midfield into mistakes. One such mistake led to Revolution's first opportunity - an open goal opportunity for Vinny Rowse after 10 minutes which he uncharacteristically put over the bar when it was easier to score.

It felt like Spartans all over again and I thought Henry's pre-match prediction was going to haunt us.

There were very few chances created for most of the 1st half as the play became compact in the centre of midfield between the BOC penalty area and the centre circle. Scouse Jesus had a shooting opportunity but opted to try and put Fast Eddie through instead.

Then, quite unnecessarily, BoC's concede a foul about 30 yards out - Jonny Wilkinson range in front of the posts. Dave Jessop, in goal scoring form for USRC, confidently placed the ball down and curled a left footed special up and over the wall into the bottom corner of the net to open the scoring.

At this point, some key Revo players took a breather before half time, whilst yours truly came on for a cameo, nearly pulling off a Cristiano Ronaldo backheel dummy, but only succeeding in dummying myself.

Revolution went in at half-time, a goal to the good and feeling confident - but it was important to realise that the lead was slender and BoC's were not going to roll over and surrender. There was some discussion on tactics as to how to monitor Jason Lee's movements, which was getting increasingly difficult given the amount of yellow cards the defenders had picked up. How on earth did Revo pick up so many cards when there appeared to be so little in the way of bad challenges? More on this later.

The second half simmered slowly to a boil. BoC's dominance of the second half was not immediate but gradual. Ever so slowly, Revolution drifted into auto-pilot mode whilst BoC's ground away with their possession and territorial advantage, although few clearcut chances were created if any.
From about the 45-minute to the 55-minute part of the game, Revolution could not get past halfway and there only looked like one team who was going to score next. I was on the touchline, desperately looking for a leader on the pitch for the Revolution to take the game by the scruff of the neck and turn the tide, but, again uncharacteristically for the Revo, fatigue looked like setting in.

Revo did have one chance midway in the second period. One streaky punt upfield left Fast Eddie Chambers one-on-one with the BoC goalie. A hushed silence descended Po Tsui Park for what had to be a game clinching second goal. Eddie had too many options - Chip? First time blast? Slot it in the right corner? Left corner? Stepover? Take it round the goalie left? Or Right? Eddie decided instead on pushing it 6 yards sideways to his left leaving himself with an impossible angle to get a decent shot on goal.
Thoughts of 16 December 2006 came flooding back.

Jason Lee, who had a quiet game, woke up. Dropping deep, he hit a 30 yard screamer which Hudson comfortably punched over the bar. A "sighter" as they say in the business. BoC's then won a succession of corners. Jase got up to win a header against Jessop but the ball sailed over. Another sighter.
Then another corner from the other side. Jase, in typical fashion, jumps early ahead of Jessop, hangs in the air and gambles that the ball is going to arrive. He can't have seen the ball until the last moment as Hudson's 6 foot 7 inch frame must have been in the way. The ball is missed by Hudson and it connects with Jase's head for the equalising goal. Revolution's collective heads drop and my brother is rubbing his hands with glee on the touchline. I slink off to the Po Tsui Park stands, tail between legs, pondering how the Revo are going to turn the momentum around.

Inspiration came from an unlikely source on the pitch - the ref. The Vinster goes for a loose ball wide right on the halfway line. He's trying to take the defender's space but ends up colliding with the defender - who in turn collides with Vinny. The defender goes down and stays down.
There's no malice involved. It's 60% foul - 40% shoulder barge and the Rowster is half expecting the ref to blow for the foul against him. There's no whistle so Vinny plays on. What else is he to do? A 40-yard solo run into the BoC's penalty box is finished off with a blistering, unstoppable right footed rocket inside the bottom of the near post. The goalie got a finger to it but it needed a body or strong wrists behind a shot like that.

Revolution made some tactical changes, ran the clock down and closed the game off in a very professional manner to record a deserved but lucky win.
"Deserved but lucky" - is that logical? BoC's will get their turnaround in luck I'm sure.

The only other moments to note were when play was called back for an awful offside decision - against Revo's Jase Edwards after he put Scouse Jesus through, who in turn put the ball in the net - and the plethora of yellow cards brandished out by the inconsistent ref (or was he consistently bad?).
I figure it's the same official who gave out cards during the Legals / Monopoly fixture. I will ask Mr. Li for a full roster of refs and if the standard of officiating does not improve, we can decline any particular referee. At the end of the day, we all pay good money for decent refs..