Presents...
The Football Fallacies
with Graham O'Doherty
DO WE DARE TO DREAM? HOW DARE WE TO DREAM?
Two sets of fans, two reactions to the end result of this game.
Hello guys, and welcome back to another edition of The Football Fallacies with me, your gay Irishman Graham O'Doherty. As you've probably guessed through the pictures above, we have finally avenged not only to avenge our loss against Kavagrad in a previous Independents Cup, but we have also made them pay for their insolence and willful ignorance by making sure that they will remember the name of the nation that has beat them. Of course, all this could very much be a moot point as it appears very likely that neither Abanhfleft nor Kavagrad are going to make it to the playoffs of the 8th Independents Cup, but as I have mentioned in an earlier post, this is all about pride and nothing else. Our poor start to this tournament saw to that.
Still, it was quite nice to hear our fans letting the Kavagrader fans know just what we thought of their country. I especially liked that chant right about the end of the ninety minutes where the fans said, "Who dat say them Flefts commit apple theft?", an obvious reference to one of the deliberate misspellings that that Kavagrader rag published way before. People will see this and say that we Fleftics are absolutely petty and vindictive. And at this point, I think the fans have absolutely decided that they will be exactly just that, extremely petty and vindictive. It's not like there's a whole lot else they can do at the moment, do they?
One has to wonder though: where in the world was this kind of heart and fightback in the earlier stages of the competition? We all know how Britt Hanokssen has been pretty much leading by example, and it was indeed her goal that finally got us over the line against the Redhearts, but where the fuck was this urgency from all the other players in the previous games? This is all very much a study at what could have been, something that we Fleftics have been through lots and lots of times already. But you really have to think: a ray of sunshine, an open goal, a properly timed tackle, and we could very well be wondering who we're going to face in the next round. But instead we are looking at yet another wasted cup campaign. What a difference a goal does indeed make.
I have said before that Abanhfleft needs maximum points in our final three games if we are to even stand a chance of sneaking into the playoffs. That goal came undone at the first of those three games though, that 1-1 draw against Fujai where we switched off for just one moment and allowed two of their players through on goal. As soon as the final whistle blew on that game, I knew that this Independents Cup was now a lost cause. Everything else we did in this competition from that point forward was now just for pride. We did achieve that against Kavagrad, and here's to hoping that we can achieve that against Britonisea as well, but for a team of our stature, this is simply beneath our level. We should not be aiming to gather pride in dead-rubber games. Our goals should be at the very least loftier than that.
One other positive that I can take out of this game against Kavagrad (aside from the schadenfreude of watching those commies cry their eyes out) is that we have finally started off strong in the first half. Goals from Kelly McGinnis and Elene Liner, perhaps a potent partnership in front equal to that of Chelsea Stuart and Alexandra Rousseau, in the first twenty minutes set the tone of the first half, and really we could have and should have been at least 4-0 up at halftime. The downside to all of that first half positivity though is that everything almost fell apart for us in the second half. Conceding a free kick and then a penalty in the space of five minutes does not a great team make. You've just given the red bastards a way into the game with that free kick, and of course it's a banger of a goal, and then you give up the penalty as well? Honestly, I feel like this team thinks that defense is overrated! And we almost paid the price for that, and I truly believe that if we hadn't brought on Britt for the final fifteen minutes of that game, there's no way that we're getting all three points.
Now we are on to the final game against Britonisea, the team with which we were fighting to not have bottom spot in the group for the last few games, and at the moment things are looking up for us. We've finally got a win in the cards; surely we can carry this minuscule bit of form into the next game and get another three points? And, as a few people out there have begun to think, could there be the possibility of a very unlikely qualification with only seven points to our name? First of all, I say to those people, bollocks! We haven't even played the game yet and you're already thinking ahead to three points!? Are you idiots watching the same team I am? For every fightback that this team has in them, it kind of feels like they've got at least two fuck-ups to compensate. Our team right now is a team that looks like world-beaters one moment and minnow fodder the next. Fuck, they don't even look like world-beaters when they're good. That's how far we have fallen behind on the ball. We just plain fucking suck right now. So guys, please, please take that into account before you try to make predictions and projections of who gets who and how before the opening whistle has even been blown. This hubris is going to be the death of me, and of all of us.
Besides, there are a hell of a lot of other factors that need to fall into place before we can even begin to think about the playoffs. Not only will Fujai have to lose their match but there have to be at least two other teams in third place who have done worse than we have to sneak into the third-place best teams, and frankly I just don't see that happening. Time to book those tickets back to Riuwiee, girls. Better luck next time. No, really. I really do wish the girls better luck in the next time that they take to the field, which I believe is the next World Cup qualifying campaign. Maybe we'll finally get something worthwhile out of that. Hopefully not a Cup of Harmony though. I'm just so sick and tired of it all. Why even take part in a "best of the rest" tournament if we aren't even gonna put in the effort to look like we belong? Oh, life as a fan can be stressful. But when it all works out, it all becomes oh so satisfying. XOXO from Graham....