saturday 29nd may, yangsan asian games stadium ~ pusan cup final

real busan 8 dmz 1 (ht ~ 3-1)

(sebastian cabrera 2, mark williams 3, gino nini, marcelo gortari, jonah jones)

Very hot and humid out there today for the Pusan Cup Final. Just waiting for the game to start was an effort, and we were all up there in the top of the stadium getting ready ~ in the shade. Not exactly football weather, to run around in this was no big fun, and you got to hope it rains a little this summer ~ already predicted as the hottest in Korea in ten years. What do you do about that? Korea's already hot enough in ther summer ~ ~ ~

Here's our line-up. Jim swept, Gino stopped, and everything else was all as usual.

The game got going. DMZ gave it a go, and the first ten minutes were a decent fight for every ball. Every guy knew it was an important one, because who wouldn't want to win the Pusan Cup? This is a hugely respected piece of 'air' silverware.

But Real Busan took the lead, with a fine goal from Seb, who'd already gone close with a similar shot a few minutes before. He took a short pass and struck a high shot over the goalie and just under the bar, and Real were 1-0 up.

More tussle and fight between us and DMZ, and our midfield triumvirate was great here. Seb was all energy, buzz, focus and ability; Scott was all movement, turning in no space and clever passes; and Marcelo was full of darting runs and deft crosses. Super football in fighting conditions.

Then Mark collected a through ball and smacked it in, for 2-0. But DMZ replied with a goal themselves, when they drove it into the box and two of our guys handballed it. Can't really complain about the penalty. In fact, I'm glad the ref gave it, because it proved the whistle-shy fellow wasn't dead. Stephen Tourish smacked it into the corner and they all ran off delighted with themselves and their comeback.

And round about now it was a tussle. Their centre-back was dictating their back line, getting all pissed off at his guys, and round about now DMZ went for it properly. They hit the post round this spell, and it was a tense game. A bit warlike. In the hot sun. Our team was suffering in the heat too, and all through the team guys were venting, and getting pissed off at each other. Relations were less than smooth, and it's a struggle to think of someone who didn't lose it with someone else at some point. Such a pleasant coming together. So it was a relief when Mark collected another great through ball and put it in for 3-1, and a strong suggestion that Real would win this one.

Half time. We had a rest. Then came out and soon a beautiful pass from Scott to Mark and it's 4-1. A run from Marcelo, who puts it into Scott and wants the return ball but Scott somehow swivelled and found Mark, running into the box, to smack it right in there. Great goal ~ Scott was really surounded by about three defenders, yet that pass went through them all and put Mark into leagues of space. Amazing. DMZ's sweeper yelled out "Ah fuck, we're shit!" but that sort of skill is hard to defend against.

Right there, the game was over as a contest. We were buzzing and winning 4-1 now. DMZ kept at it, in the way they do, but the writing was on the wall now. Seb scored soon after to make it 5-1 with a buzzy, brilliant goal ~ a run and a shot. In fact, how many runs did Seb make today? He was unbelievable ~ picking it up just inside their half, he'd get a yell for the ball from Scott or Gino, but see soemthing else that we don't see ~ a way through all the bodies and a way to do it. Again and again he'd burst all the way through the bodies and come away with the ball, and either shoot or lay it off. And here's how he says he does it ~ "You make him think you're gonna go one way, but then you go the other way..."

Ok Seb, we'll all try it. Next a Marcelo screamer makes it 6-1, collecting a ball from outside the box, he drives it into the corner like a dream. Soon it's 7-1, as Gino scores, but I have no memory of this goal. I think he kicked it in from inside the box, from a cross from the left. Finally Jonah scores a comedy goal, as their defender scoops it over their own keeper and Jonah puts the thing in for 8-1.

Enough. A very solid and admirable foul five minutes before the end from their sweeper Gary on one of our guys gave the footballing message ~ stop scoring goals, ok? A respectable message.

And that was that. The whistle blew and Real won the cup and now the double for this season, and are the champions. Very deserved ones too ~ this season, our team have been a great sporting organization and a pleasure to be a part of, individually and collectively. We achieved fine things ~ these last two seasons we won every game, and hansomely. It's been a real pleasure, and we should be happy we achieved that.

Are we pleased with ourselves? It felt a bit we lost after the game, not won. Perhaps too much silly fighting earlier? Next season it'll be different. We're losing guys, it'll be a more level playing field in Pusan. Interesting for everyone. Anyway, well done everyone. Shall we take a one week break now?

man of the match ~ sebastian cabrera

Busy with skill, skill and skill. Buzzing all day, bursting through the other team whenever he wanted, scoring two great goals, setting up loads of goals, kept at it with power and stamina, what a top performance from Seb. And kept a classy smile on his fact all day when the rest of us were getting too hot ~ super match winning cup final performace from the guy.

saturday 22nd may, yangsan asian games stadium ~ pusan cup semi final

real busan 3 jinju 2 (ht ~ 2-0)

(james glanville, pedro o'donnell 2)

Quite the occasion today, as Real played Jijnu in the Busan Cup semi-final ~ in a real stadium, on grass, in front of thousands of empty seats, in the hot sun. Before the game we walked onto the grass and it felt weird ~ like this was important, the grass was amazing, when you kicked the ball it would hover over to where you wanted it to go ~ amazing.

DMZ had just beaten PSV on penalties to get to the final in the previous game so our game would produce the other finalist. Here's our line-up, which was a little thin on quality and quantity ~ just eleven guys and this try-out guy on the bench who no-one had ever seen before, and noticeably, no Scott or Marcelo ~ that's two out of our Holy Triumvirate out.

But it didn't matter, as the little guy rose to the occasion today. After 3 minutes, a long cross from James, playing against his old team today, floated into the top corner for a lucky opener for us. Well they all count. In fact Jim played amazing today ~ smart running, lots of flicks, tricks, poise and even crunching tackles. Poise ~ do we have a replacement striker for Mark here? On today's evidence, it looks like it.

We're enjoying the grass, both teams. It's a tough game ~ meaning, the challenges are tough, it's a battle, and we all appreciate that. All over the field lots of one-to-one battles are emerging, but as soon as the final whistle blew (a whopping six minutes late ~ can we buy Sen a stopwatch?) everyone rushed to congratulate each other over a genuine friendly battle, it was so refreshing compared to the sulky bow you get when you've just played a Korean team!

Seb is clicking and dictating stuff, doing his dancy Samba stuff and putting through balls in for Kenny and Mark, who looked a bit disturbed not to have scored his usual two goals today. Well you can't ALWAYS score. Mark, think of John, who can't EVER score. Today after 10 minutes the ball rolled to Johnny so beautifully, 5 or 10 yards outside the box, everything perfect for a great drive into the top corner, on the grass, in the big game ~ he hit a great drive, that, sailed just over. Well one day, maybe.

After 20 minutes Real took a 2-0 lead, through another unlikely scorer, the ball found Pedro on the edge of the box, he swung his leg and the ball rolled into the bottom left corner and the score looks better now.

Although Jinju are Jinju, and they got well rattled around now. Their lefty winger Namoo was charging around like a bull on the left, and he got a cross over that someone turned onto the post. Nice escape. Later in the half, from a corner, a bit of pinball and someone cracks one onto the post again ~ another nice escape. At times, we panicked out there and booted it out instead of trying to assert our game.

We wasted a few chances ourselves, and then there was somewhat of a game-turning moment as Joel pushed up, did a one-two, was through on goal but fouled so spectacularly, he sort of flew up, then down and landed on his shoulder, and dislocated it, and had to go to hospital. By the final whistle he was back with his arm in a sling, but he might be out for 6 weeks now. His replacement was a try-out guy who we stuck up front, pulling Mark back to defensive mid and Gino to sweeper. We didn't score the free-kick, and the half-time whistle blew.

Second half, and Jinju score right away, making the game very intriguing ~ the goal was impossible to stop, as they played a perfect one-two right through our defence and stuck it in. Very intriguing indeed, as they start pushing harder still, and our attack now lacked the hold-the-ball-and run power that Mark brings to us. Scary!

But time for a miracle. Kenny chases a long clearance and retrieves the ball at the corner flag. He swings a cross in and Pedro arrives out of nowhere at all to do something he has never done before ~ head it in! It was quite a long-range header too and anyone who knows this team knows that that was a miracle, and 3-1. Football, bloody hell. That goal really asserted the lead just when we needed it most, getting us through a potentially sticky patch. That, and oh my God, a header!

The rest of the game was Jinju pushing and us creating chances. Seb almost scored a wonder goal, beating about five or six guys on a long run, but well ~ you got to go for goal after a run like that, but his shot was charged down. It would have been a miracle goal, but even then, it wouldn't have topped Pedro's header. Then Seb put Kenny through with a ball from heaven but he missed ~ that's football.

Right near the end Jinju scored again, and made the last five minutes very hair raising. Our defence was forced to cope with this nervous onslaught, and Tim was magnificent. The ref made it far, far worse than it should have been with all his added minutes but what can you do? Just go nuts, is what you can do. Then he blew the whistle and that was that. A lot of handshakes and that was one bumpy ride to the final because Jinju pushed us all the way.

man of the match ~ pedro o'donnell

The little guy rose to the occasion and those two goals won it for us. But apart from that, he was gutsy and tigerish all day. What did Pedro give us today? Spirit and resolve, grit and determination, and a vital win with the two goals ~ now we're in the final because of this guy. And doesn't this send a message out to all the stars on our team ~ ~ ~ ~ you got to trust the little guy! See, you look after the little guy, and the little guy looks after you!

sunday 16th may, pusan sanggo ~ busan cup, group a

real busan (2) 4 gonggang chukku (1) 3

(mark williams, sebastian cabrera, scott jolly, kenny munn)

Finally the Busan Cup gets going. The first Busan Cup, consisting of 7 teams ~ us 5 league teams, plus Jinju and Gonggang Chukku. It was supposed to be 12 or even 16 teams but holding these teams down to a promise is a bit like holding a slippery wet fish ~ the week before the tournament began, team after team pulled out, and we were left with an underwhelming 7 teams on the day. I bet FIFA don't deal with this shit at the World Cup.

Our group contained Gonggang Chukku ~ the tournament's wild card team, and BLC, who finished 4th in the Busan League. The other group had 4 teams ~ DMZ, B-Metro, PSV and Jinju. No-one wanted Gonggang because of our fear of the unknown ~ and this proved fair enough, as Gonggang were great! They came out, a team of twenty, thirty and fortysomethings, in white shirts, on this surface from hell ~ dirt, after several days of rain. Just walking onto the field and their shirts got dirty.

Here's our line-up ~ Gino was back, from S/E Asia. In fact, everyone was back. No-one pulled out today, so we had a full house.

And away we went. Just a few minutes and we're 1-0 up, thanks to Mark Williams, running onto a through ball to stick it in there. Very good. Another through ball after 20 minutes and Seb rounds the keeper and it's 2-0. Cool, because we notice this team are all right. Great left winger, all pacy, and all over the team, synergy. They've clearly been playing since birth.

They pull one back, when the ref gives a foul against Hugh which was a harsh call, and even harsher when they played it quickly into our box to cause mayhem, a bit of pinball wizardry, and it goes in for 2-1 and we have a match on our hands.

Up we go, and tricky stuff between the Holy Triumvirate of Seb, Marcelo and Scott gives Marcelo a half-chance outside the box ~ he lets fly a great shot which beat the keeper, hit the inside of the post, and rolled almost along the goal line and out. Wow! Then they go upfield and hit the post themselves. 2-1, a real cup match, and Gonggang are pressing us all the way ~ for 20 minutes we weathered this storm.

Personally I think we panicked a little. Usually we're winning comfortably by this stage, and to have this monster breathing down our neck felt funny. And on this surface that was like playing on a big cream gateaux. Sludgy. Normally we build it up nicely from the back ~ Jonathan rolls it to the defense, who find the midfield, who work their holy magic. But today, huge boots upfield, away, away from the goal, anywhere, get the thing out of here! Quite amusing, looking back ~ we're Real Busan! And we were a bit scared!

Half time came and went, and we made a few substitutions. Then Gonggang equalized. 2-2 ~ what a cup tie! From this point on, it was an even game. At 2-2, it was Real again to do the pushing and them to do the defending, and Scott turned in the box to put us 3-2 up about halfway through the half. Fair enough, we were creating chances again now. And how good it felt to score here. Normally, our goals keep going in ~ this was a valuable one.

But one goal down, the Koreans pushed and pushed again, and equalized again ~ although not that deservedly, it was an admitted howler from our bendy man between the sticks Jonathan. And how bad he felt too! Anyway what do you say? Goalies make an error and you concede a goal ~ high stress job! Anyway, just to make the man feel worse, here's what happened ~ a corner came over, and instead of catching it, he palmed it to their striker, who kicked it in. 3-3 ~ and Jonathan was so sick, it was sort of worth it just to see his face!

Cause we all got faith in the Real cause. Long ball through to Kenny, who scores the winner. And you should have seen all these Koreans then ~ they started petitioning the ref to cancel out the goal, because of an alleged handball one minute earlier that wasn't given. The thing was by OUR corner flag anyway, and as innocuous as can be. It wasn't even handball. But they gave it a proper go ~ all of them bawling away ~ ~ I stand by what I always say about Koreans, they are the best actors in the world. It goes without saying that the goal stood, but I've never seen a people so versed at acting all "sinned against" in my life. They play the victim card very well.

They also called for fouls a bit too much whenever they were touched. I haven't made my mind up about this team. They pushed us all the way ~ in the last minute, we're 4-3 up and defending a corner for our lives, and that felt good, like a real change ~ so we want to play them again. But they were kind of assholes too. Anyway, we survived and I think we'll play each other again for sure.

man of the day ~ marcelo gortari

Consistently great all day. Ghosted past players on the right wing so, so, so many times ~ like they weren't there. Passes into Seb, or Scott, or through to the strikers ~ a weavy player, and just about the member of the Holy Triumvirate (Seb, Marcelo, Scott) in midfield that kept doing it consistently today. Inbetween games, he even found the time to change into this cool Puma outfit with some blues and reds in there, it really picked up his hair and eye colours in just the right way. Marcelo Gortari ~ always playing good AND looking good.