East Algarve FC (EAFC) over 40s took on BVV Barendrecht over 40s from the Netherlands in a friendly on 18th June at the Guia FC stadium (Estadio Arsenio Catuna), Guia.
Under sunny skies and a warm temperature, EAFC’s squad warmed up to face the touring team from Rotterdam.
Under the watchful eye of manager Andy Smith and his assistant Michael Coleman the team started confidently; playing a 4-4-2 formation we were able to contain and suppress the opposition in midfield and defence, not allowing them many shooting opportunities. In the 21st minute we were awarded a free kick just outside the opposition’s penalty area; up stepped our free-kick specialist Adilson Morais, who produced a perfect set piece into the top right-hand corner.
As the first half progressed, we realised that the opposition’s game plan was to play high balls (the reason, unsurprisingly, being they had a lot of tall players) and so to counteract this we worked on not allowing them to play high or long balls. Equally when we were awarded a corner we chose to play short rather than into the box as their defence were very good at headed clearances.
The first 10 to 15 minutes of the second half continued in more or less the same vein as the first half; however, the opposition did seem to be making small errors allowing us to capitalise, and this paid off in the 59th minute when Adilson again worked his magic, teasing the defence on the edge of their penalty area and his crisp right foot effort perfectly found the corner of the net to increase our lead.
As the game continued we maintained our strategy of playing short with a slow build up. In the 66th minute a perfect pass from Tom Leamon found the feet of Calum McGrath who outwitted the oncoming goalkeeper to place the ball in the corner to make the score 3-0. At this stage the the opposition were starting to wilt and slow a bit, allowing us to control the game at our own pace. Our wonderfully eccentric goalkeeper David Devito again performed very well to keep a clean sheet.
The final result was a 3-0 victory to EAFC.
Very well done to everyone who all put in a fantastic effort.
Huge thanks to our main sponsor, The Old Barrel in Cabanas, for supporting us and providing the beers after the game. Cheers Clive.
[Thanks also to Steve Johnson for the match report and the photos]