2008 ROUND 7
LUSC Old Boys vs Monash University 1 - 0

Goals:
De Bon, Alf (38)

Go Back to Old Boys Team Page here


The Flight of the Bald Eagle

The clash between the LaTrobe Bald Eagles and Monash Uni was never going to be easy. Monash had only narrowly lost last week to ladder leaders Brunswick and they showed a lot of spirit again this week. They are young and fit, but in the end it was the experience and skills of the Bald Eagles that gave them the win they deserved. For the second week running, the Bald Eagles found themselves making some key positional changes up forward. Paul Cif and Patty were unavailable (We think Patty had a cousins 21st birthday!) this week. Fortunately, Wilko had finished signing his international transfer papers and flew back in to join the squad. Still requiring an additional striker, the Bald Eagles managers were burning the midnight oil trying to secure a temporary loan transfer from the Bangkok Rammers. The deal for the Superfreak Alf DeBon was finalised and he earned his transfer fee costs in his first game. He will tell you he is 30% Italian, 30% Brazilian and 110% Thai but really he is 200% freak. Coming off the bench part way through the first half, Superfreak pounced on a loose ball just outside the Monash box and with a superb half volley put the Bald Eagles 1:0 up. This is why he is one of the most wanted players in his native Thailand.

The game was a see-sawing clash with both teams having a number of scoring opportunities. Paul “Grobellar-Zoolander” Umina showed that you don’t need both hips to pull off fantastic saves. Two clinical saves in particular will go into this weeks nominations for Play of the Day. The Bald Eagles defence proves week after week why it is considered the best in the league. In fact in order to stay 100% focused they find it necessary to randomly challenge themselves by creating situations out of nothing. For example, Frank decided that creating a simple attack was too easy. Instead, he decided to back heal it the attacking Monash forward to see if Zoolander and Co were mentally focused. When it comes to forcing the best out of his fellow defenders Frank is so far ahead of his time that many European clubs are now looking at developing similar tactics in their coaching.

Staying fully focused is always a challenge for the La Trobe backline. This was noticeable when Gerry decided to fine tune his sky-diving maneuvers in the second half. Using the Monash forwards arched back as a launching platform the Flying Dutchman pulled off the perfect sky-dive and managed an awesome hangtime of 9.6 seconds. If it was a 100mm sprint it would have got him the world record but unfortunately it was still fractionally off his PB time (and current Provisional League Record) of 10.4 seconds achieved way back in 1994. With Gerry on a high after the Dutch knocked off Italy in Euro 2008 we wait with abated breath as to what he does next week in front of a parochial home crowd.

Robbie Slater was strong up front in his new role and created a lot of run. With Gab and Mat Umina (supported by an attacking Jimmy Zap) creating havoc on the wings we were unlucky not to get on the end of some magnificent wide runs and crosses. The loss of the experienced Laurie to injury in the first half made it difficult for the midfielders to keep the pressure up all day but they held strong to the final whistle. In the end it was a good tough battle that the Bald Eagles will be able to take some heart from, with all players make strong contributions.