Adecco MVP BEFC vs BFC - Nils Simon

  • Adecco BEFC Most Valuable Player - Nils Simon

It was show time for BEFC as they prepared to challenge the classic old rival BFC in the Footy Japan Competitions Cup for a place in the Final! This match had a lot of history, especially with BFC originally formed from BEFC in the early 80s. They are both the original British Football Club of Tokyo, with BEFC reforming itself again in the late 90s. That was previous history, but recent history had BEFC knocked out of the early stages of the FJC Cup by BFC last season in a rather controversial and heated match. With BEFC's promotion to division 1 this season, BEFC had two chances to enact some revenge but each time were thwarted and badly beaten, not in performance but scoreline. This led to some frustration but a lot of belief that if everyone worked on the little achilles heel from this season's matches BEFC would emerge triumphant!

Having beaten bogieman team Sala the week before for the first time in over 4 years, BEFC were in the mood for a double header of demon slaying. However the usual hand of fate was enjoying throwing a few obstacles in their path. After rousing encouragement to player to get in shape for this match, defensive lynchpin James Pounder's reassurances of wrapping himself in bubble wrap failed by going Wednesday futsal and subsequently injuring himself. Something the 'Glass Wrecking Ball' is very good at doing with important games on the weekend. An irony not lost on us. If that wasn't bad enough, regular star goalkeeper Sei Katori became unavailable midweek as well as all BEFC's designated goalkeeping back ups. So to top it off last season's TML Division 2 Golden Boot Winner Kentaro Takahashi also then had to be out of contention for something called 'work'. It was a very good effort by the hand of fate to derail BEFC's cup run, who already had key midfield lynchpin Soutaro Kirihara out of Tokyo for the weekend. But this time BEFC simply were not going to accept it.

With a strong squad depth, a bit of reshuffling and a solid gameplan BEFC knew that if they kept their discipline and played their best game, BFC would lose. They had to, because in previous losses it was self inflicted. If BEFC just focused and communicated they would win. Even with James Pounder making his debut as goalkeeper, semi-injured!

The match started well, and BEFC did stick to the plan. The difference was huge with all players performing their roles as agreed. BFC struggled and struggled to get any penetration through the midfield, and when that failed any penetration by lobbing it over the top. All the time BEFC were talking, passing messages up and down the lines, and in that strong pressure the BEFC attack had the platform to generate plenty of meaningful attacks, going close but never over-extending and leaving the gaps BFC were hoping to exploit as they had done before.

The second half was simple. Keep doing the same thing! The domination was BEFC, and the threat to score was BEFC. BFC were on the backfoot and the team knew it. The danger always was being too hungry for that goal, but BEFC controlled that hunger and waiting patiently as BFC ran out of ideas, energy and belief. After some tactical subs, Noki 'The Vision' Tanabe came into his position as a deep lying playmaker. And it was perfect timing for him to do what he does best, dropping a beautiful ball through onto a surging blind side attacking run from Jorge Marenco. As the ball landed onto the onrushing Marenco it was only going into the net as he smashed it past the BFC keeper with a striker's instinct.

The celebrations were huge, because it felt like that meant victory. BEFC only needed to keep playing the same way, and they did. Shutting down the expected energy surge from BFC looking for a comeback and then going close to scoring more goals three or four times. BEFC didn't need to know how much time was left because as long as it stayed the way it was going, there was only one winner, as BFC look increasingly more tired and desperate.

At the final whistle even the usually restrained members let out howls of glory as BEFC made it into the FJC Cup Final for the first time in 14 years. More importantly they finally beat the classic olde rival and proved to themselves that just by fixing a small team bad habit BEFC are more than capable of besting Division 1 calibre opposition.

An important position for this game was the space left absent by Soutaro Kirihara at defensive midfield. The role is highly disciplined to not be dragged out from shielding the back line, but also picking up the strikers who drop off the centerbacks looking to play between the lines. A lot of debate about who could play there resulted in fullback Nils Simon taking on the vital role. And vital he was indeed!
As written DM is hugely important not just in making the challenges and distribution of the ball, but especially in keeping position, discipline, communicating with the back-line and guiding the midfield positionally in front. Simon was excellent on all acccounts, and his presence in linking the defensive and midfield shape was integral to the way BEFC contained BFC and as a platform for the midfield to initiate meaningful attacks. It also seemed a sometimes frustrated Simon when at fullback was much more in his element, communicating centrally back and forth between the defence and midfield to ensure the BEFC machine was running in sync.

This game was a huge team performance and it can be said all the players deserve Most Valuable Player. However there can only be one Adecco BEFC MVP, and after the match while many players were recognised for great performances and collective group play, Nils Simon was pivotal in taking up the DM role and playing it with excellence to the benefit of the team.