Greetings!
For those of you familiar with our summer championship, the title of the above article should spell in bold lettering the name of this unfortunate giant who valiantly fought all the way to the very end: BARCELONA.
That is right boys and girls: Team Barcelona who had an undefeated record vs. top-notch teams such as Seneca College, Burundi, Senegal, Iraq, Cameroon and High Park United, finally met its match in the championship game vs. Club Mexico. It was, as many of the players put it, an honorable loss given that the score was barely 1-0 for Mexico.
It had been an exciting set of semi-finals that resulted in penalty shoot-outs for two of the matches. Read on…
Barcelona and High Park United, two teams that proved to be of comparable ability, had the pleasure to dispute a match which resulted in a 1-1 draw. Rather than deciding a victory by penalties, it was decided that a full re-match would take place the following week-end. The result of that second match? You guessed it: 1-1 draw again!
At that point it was debated whether there should be a re-match, a golden goal, or a penalty shoot-out. After a lot of bickering and arguing, it was decided by majority rule that a penalty shoot-out should ensue. And it did! But not a smooth penalty shoot-out by any means.
After High Park United missed a goal that went out of bounds (compliments of Carlos, Chiquito), one of our star-players, Mario Morales got stopped on his tracks when High Park United’s Colombian goalie stopped his shot.
Subsequently, an incredible dive from our agile Wilhelm Rodriguez stopped a shot for Barcelona.
It was then Barcelona’s turn to score the winning goal. Acting Captain, Pedro Badilla rushed to seize the ball, nervously placed it in his kicking spot, took a few steps to gain momentum and without waiting for the referee’s signal, fired and….missed the net!!!!
The crowd went wild. There was an uproar that seemed to last forever. When finally we could make sense of things being said, conflicting statements could be heard all over the field:
Referee: “I had not blown the whistle. It’s a retake!”
HPU Coach: “We start from scratch or we walk out and keep your trophy!”
In the end it was decided that the penalty shoot-out would begin again. And this time, we had a winner: Barcelona!!! Yes!!!
The following afternoon, kickoff began by a showdown between the two losers: Senegal vs. High Park United. It was an exciting match resulting in a 3-3 draw, followed by the agreed-upon penalty shoot out. Unfortunately for our High Park United friends, Senegal had the upper hand snatching the bronze medals and the 3rd place trophy.
The next match, the championship game, kicked-off just before sunset. It was a rather unexpected turn-out of events with Mexico scoring its first and only winning goal in the first three minutes of the match.
The rest of the match was a well-balanced contention with neither side making spectacular attacks past each others’ defense.
Additionally, Barcelona suffered an unexpected loss when their key-midfielder, Pedro Badilla, was sent off the game after earning himself two yellow cards for fouling.
Despite the five-minute overtime, Barcelona lost 1-0. Its first loss in a championship match. Nevertheless, the team has built an identity, chemistry amongst the players is at its highest, and there is lots of hope that in the future season, challenges for Barcelona will abound.
Its victor, Mexico, will likely transform into the Costa-Rican colors this upcoming season as 90% of its force was fresh and young Costa-Rican blood.
It shall be an exciting match Summer 2004!
Till then, Adieu!
It’s been my pleasure being your fearless leader and coordinator!
Alfonso Cárcamo