The Flight of the Bald Eagle

This round saw the Bald Eagles play Brimbank on the synthetic grass. La Trobe was in crisis mode after 3 consecutive losses saw them drop down the ladder. With the ranks looking a little thin, calls were put out for the great O’Cif and Wilko to return to the squad. Although their international commitments make it difficult to find time on a Sunday we still hold hope of a return. Supercoach Gabmeister has been throwing up some ideas about on-field formations. The old 4-0-4 Donut formation was brought up initially but in the end it took a crazy idea from Bruno to go for the unconventional 3:5:2 formation. It’s this thinking outside of the square that sets this team apart from others. The only challenge remaining was to find enough players to try it out. With 10 minutes to kickoff and only 8 players, the Donut formation was looking more and more tempting.

With the great Senor Lorenzo and the G-train turning up at the last minute, the Bald Eagles were ready to kick-start their season. When one of your key defenders is out suspended what better move to make then to remove your sweeper and play him up forward instead. Sava was thrown back into defence to help out Baxterama and the Zapman. The General did a fantastic job up front as a lone forward with Ronaldo playing an attacking midfielder. Franks blistering runs had the Brimbank defence stranded and his hard work was rewarded with an early goal at the 29th minute. The midfield worked tirelessly and the defence was solid. La Trobe had numerous opportunities, with Ronaldo, Slater, Gabmeister and Boz all narrowly missing the goals in the first half. The boys went in at half time with a 1:0 lead.

Straight after the break, Ronaldo went on a scintillating run down the left wing to cross it into Gab on the back post for the JBI Goal of the Day. Score 2:0. Ronaldo continued to worry the opposition and missed a number of great opportunities. He ended up dragging himself off in shear frustration. Meanwhile, down back, Sava was having an engrossing conversation with a fellow medical student who happened to be running the lines. They discussed in depth the procedure of being able to view someone’s internal organs without opening them up. (Editor Note: That is my understanding of “shoving your eyeballs up your rectum”).

Fortunately, the referee was of a decent quality this week. The Brimbank players have a similar verbal game style to Altona but with much more hand movements. Senor Loz was specifically brought into the squad as an Italian translator however he struggled to understand what they were saying/gesturing. Whatever it was, it worked for them, as they scored two quick goals in the second half to level the score with 10 minutes to go. Dejavu Altona?

Slater was absolutely livid and ripped into his team mates with a verbal tirade that shut the opposition up momentarily. Then he remembered his many years of anger management classes. “Take it out on the ball! Take it out on the ball!” he was heard telling himself on the sub kickoff. He chased that poor ball all the way up to the Brimbank goal crying out “Take that you bastard!” as he smashed it past the keeper. With the scores 3:2 in their favour, the Bald Eagles did their best to cop a penalty in the last minute but fortunately they scraped through for the first win in a month.