There was suspicion of a BEFC and King George conspiracy love-in, as a dark knight returned thrice to do battle at the George’s home ground in deep dimly lit Saitama - this time in the FootyJapan Plate. This was the third meeting between the two sides this season (the first called off halfway due to lightning), and this particular match straight after BEFC’s victory over King George before Christmas. With one more league game to play between the two sides, could this be a record for the most match ups against the same team in a season? King George must be sick of the sight of them!

Riding in high from the previous win over the George, BEFC survived the first challenge, the journey to the pitch, with a full and mostly unchanged squad intact. King George however were somewhat depleted, calling up their third choice goalkeeper and noticeably without the fleet footed Winston Pool in attack who had been motivating BEFC’s Captain Ben Palmer recent personal best in sprint training. Furthermore there was going to be an interesting reunion for Tim Marchand, ex-BEFC stalwart and treasurer who having moved to Saitama, turned out to buoy the George’s men against his old team.

The game started brightly, unlike the lighting, with both teams testing each other with probing movement and through balls. BEFC slowly began to dominate possession putting attacks down the wings through Jorge Marenco and Ewan Walton, with Marco Alonso and Moctar Diouf causing trouble for the central defence. King George responded with quick counter attacks and James Bates trying to release their striker Ben Steinson into space, who was unable to find a way beyond BEFC’s Ben Palmer, whose sprint training to stop Winston Pool had clearly paid off. With the line of attack stifled in the battle of the Bens, BEFC turned up the pressure on King George’s goal, relieved by the very impressive performance of their 3rd choice goalie.

Then like the lightning which postponed the first meet, drama struck! Switching flanks King George put through their fast winger who took advantage of a conversation just inside the penalty box between Ben Palmer and James Pounder over who was going to punt the ball into the stands. This giving King George enough room to get a run onto the ball into the box. Like lightning again Pounder put in a firm tackle clearing the ball with Palmer standing directly behind admiring the handiwork. This didn’t stop King George’s striker from continuing his run onto the ball and into Pounder - which the only outcome would be to fall over due to the impressive difference in physics. The cries for a penalty went up and the referee concurred much to the surprise of the BEFC defensive duo.

King George stepped up to take penalty, tucked it goalie’s left and was parried away by BEFC’s cat-like Keith Crowley. As the rebound went left of goal the ever diligent Rich Sciver ensured karma was maintained by clearing into touch from the on rushing strikers. King George later stated it was their striker's first penalty miss since he was 13, while Crowley stated he owed his save to watching the World Cup and learning that it is actually allowed to move laterally along the goal-line before the kick is taken. Hopefully this will ensure more balls saved from now on. 

The penalty let-off, or justice, depending on who you ask, had fired up BEFC who went on a high pressure goal assault, winning a number of corners and dangerous balls into the box. And they finally broke through the chink in King George’s armour as a crossed ball fell kindly to Moctar Diouf whose shot barrelled into a mix of King George bodies, but then carefully steered safely and calmy over the line by BEFC’s silent goal mouth assassin, Torsten Weber.

The break-through in score and reverse in fortune, noticeable took some wind out of the George, and BEFC pushed on again with wing backs Rich Sciver and Taka Yoshida contributing to forays forward and sustaining pressure.

With another won corner, the sight of BEFC center back Cael Husband going up for them is a common occurrence. Him returning with anything however is not -- until now! BEFC Captain Ben Palmer likes to point to statistics implying corners are not goal scoring opportunities, especially from headers, and more often result in loss of possession and getting countered against. He was also happy to be proved wrong, as Husband leapt high above the rest of the players onto a beautiful Ewan Walton delivery, to sail a looping header into the top right corner.

At this point King George must have been wondering if the Ghost of Christmas Past was making an appearance too as the scoreline and game was starting to play out very similar to the last. However James Bates was having none of it and stirred up the George to get back into the game and pushed them on through the center of the park. King George started to threaten a little more finding space and BEFC began their own challenge of keeping form and discipline, which earlier in the season had caused their undoing. However the midfield force-field of Pounder and Webber held firm, and as players began to tire towards the second half the sprightly Diouf continue to traumatise defenders with his quick feet and silky skills, keeping the George under the pressure they were looking to escape.

With BEFC back to pushing forward, more room opened behind them, but King George couldn’t yet find a path through, and as they went to exploit this with a strong counter, they got the seemingly inevitable riposte from King Jorge Marenco. Closing down King George’s own counter, BEFC swiftly threaded the ball back into the opponent’s half and onto the toes of the previous game’s terror. Skipping past one defender and then inexplicably riding through two tackles, Marenco cut in on goal and finished with aplomb from a unerringly familiar position and performing his ‘T’ for Teresa celebration to the BEFC camera. The other King George looked like they were happy to see half time in order to regroup and plan their comeback.

At half-time BEFC made use of their full bench with wholesale substitutions, looking to wear down their opponent who did not have the same luxury of numbers. However the George made good use of their large team spirit as they came out fighting and much of the second half was good end to end battling football from both sides. This started to even things out more as BEFC began showing they were being troubled by committing a few simple fouls allowing James Bates into firing range. Fortunately for BEFC just enough out of range, and Keith Crowley was able to keep the ball away from the net without the added use of FIFA rules.

As the game drew on, BEFC exploited their larger bench bringing back on their rested, high-speed trouble makers and took advantage of a tired George in a high tempo game. There were a few very close runs in on goal, and again King George’s stand-in goalie impressed with a string for fine saves and rushing out to beat strikers to the ball.

However not to be outdone by Jorge Marenco, and to keep fitting with the deva-ju nature of the match, Moctar Diouf, on the end of a fine cross field passing movement, cut inside and from the top of the box fired in an almost identical looping miracle strike into the net.

And that was pretty much the final word, as BEFC confirmed that King George must truly be sick of the sight of them!

Final Score
British Embassy FC 4 – 0 King George 
Weber,
Husband,
Marenco,
Diouf

By Ben Palmer, Winner of the BEFC Clubman Award 2014