Last Saturday, the small crowd that gathered under the bright sun to see a football final had what they came to see, goals, spectacle, fight and drama.
The EDA side wanted to clean their faces from the two crushing defeats suffered during the regular season, especially the last week match, where they had lost 10-1. And they showed early in the game that this was a mission to take seriously – the first match goal came from Harris in the earliest minutes of the game.
The team was feeling it. Still, the Racing players were, as expected, young, fast and good with the ball. That’s why, albeit a solid game plan and performance by the EDA boys, the Racing side was able to score twice in the first half – a volley well executed by number 11, their most dangerous player, and another easy touch following a great run on our left wing, again by Racing nr 11. Still during the first half, problems for EDA – Noby got injured after fighting for a ball with an opponent. It was not light, he had to visit a nearby hospital to better check his left shoulder area (thank you Hans-Jõrg for the support). We wouldn’t come back to play (but nothing was broken, after confirmation from the x-ray results).
EDA went to the halftime pause certain that the victory was there for us to take. And so, after an extended refreshing pause requested by the EDA coach, the team came in with everything, fighting every ball as if it was the last and not allowing the Racing team to score. The midfield was controlled albeit João Rocha playing injured at least half of the game and after many attempts EDA was able to score by Christoph following an insistent play.
Then a high-risk bet could have thrown everything down, when Emanuel, central back, fouled Racing striker and got a red card. The fault was outside the box, but the Racing player still managed to get her into the nets. 3-2, Racing was leading with not many minutes more to play. But then it happened, Cornelius, playing after coming from a long playing pause (didn’t play the second half of the season) scored the equaliser which would send everything to the penalty lottery.
After a battle of 90 minutes, in which even the coach Rapha helped vigorously to fight in the second half, all came to be decided in a shootout from the 11 meters. João, Jason, Harris and Christoph (after repetition) scored. Nick had the cup at his feet, after Racing failed their 5th penalty, but unfortunately missed the chance. Then Lukas, under tremendous pressure, failed too. The dream of the cup was over, but the dream of cleaning our faces in front of our opponents and supporters was accomplished. Next season, watch out for the EDA boys! Allez!
Emanuel Lopes
