Hattrick United

The coach was as good as his word.

Young Bobby Williamson joined Bruno Anulo at the pre-match press conference this morning, following his arrival last Monday. There was little time for introduction before the midweek opener in the Copa España, in which he played the full 90 minutes of a facile 7-0 victory. Have his feet touched the ground yet? “Aye, it’s been a busy few days but I’m looking forward to improving as a player here. The management were very clear in their plans for the future, with me as an integral part of that so, what can I say, I’m delighted to be here. It seems that I’m the first Scot at the club so, yeah, bring it on!”

The coach went into a little more detail. “I think it’s only fair to pay tribute to both Luís Perfeito & Víctor Gareca. The two lads were brilliant servants between the posts for us but we need to plan for the future. And Bobby is part of the future.” But does the lack of a back-up keeper not worry him? “We are playing with fire a little bit but the boy Llátzer Deig, we feel, fits the bill as back-up keeper. The Youth Academy coach knows this & is prioritising his training so hopefully it won’t be long ’til he’s ready for the step up.”

The challenge today is likely to prove a smidgeon more difficult then the cup opener though, as Campillo de deleitosa pay a visit to Bull Meadows Arena.

“We know what to expect from deleitosa but that’s not to say we’re about to underestimate them. We’ve turned Bull Meadows into a fortress & we’d hope to keep it that way. We’ve a clean bill of health so let’s try & get ourselves off to a solid start. The sun is shining so I’d urge all Metro fans to join us this afternoon to kick off what we’re hoping will be a successful season.”

Amen to that. Go Metros!

No rest for the wicked. Nor for Metro’s coach Bruno Anulo. The Argentinian – heading into his 3rd season in charge – has plenty to work on.

His maiden season in management saw him catapult the club through a cup charge to the 5th round & ended with a league title (albeit followed by a promotion play-off dead-end). The sequel didn’t go as planned however, with a 2nd round cup exit followed by a 3rd place finish in a tension-filled league race.

Can the summit be climbed again? Anulo was bullish in his response. “Absolutely!”, he snorted whilst washing down his third maté of the morning. “That’s not to say it’ll be easy, mind you. Sarrià (league champs last time around) will be there again. GOBLINERA have the potential to top the table too. We have coaches compiling reports on the two clubs that have promoted from VII. One of them looks to have plenty in their locker so it has all the elements for serious battle. It’s competitive but you have to believe. We’ve got real ability in our squad too, you know.”

The close season has seen departures but not the ones rumoured. Both goalkeepers have been somewhat surprisingly moved on to pastures new. With the clock ticking on the start of the new season, is the coach worried that a replacement hasn’t been signed? “We’re working hard on it & I’d be hopeful the next 48 hours will produce a result. We have a number of candidates in mind. Obviously I’d prefer to have got our new number one in before both our keepers had been sold but the budget is tight enough. We had to sell in order to buy. Not ideal but there you have it. We do have a promising Youth Academy product but I’d much prefer to leave him where he is for now & let the guys their work their magic.”

The suave main man had one more juicy morsel for us before our time was up. Benet Font has done, for want of a better term, a Paul Scholes! “Now, for the record, this has been at my request!”, piped up Anulo. He’d have hung up his boots last week if he’d had his way! Nah, I’ve just asked him to continue training with the squad for the time being. Being honest with you, his Set Piece ability & experience are second to none here. The average age of the squad is around 24 so his know-how could come in handy at some stage so his boots haven’t gone up on eBay just yet!”

Hope for us all, perhaps? (That’s a joke, by the way)

A day of raw emotion ended with CP Sarrià crowned champions by the width of a post. A dramatic end to what has been a dramatic season. The unfortunate part being that our beloved Metros were forever at the periphery on this, the last day of the season. Let’s rewind….

For the Metros to live happily, ever after – or at least to end the day with the league title – they needed to condemn Naino Knights to defeat, Sarria to lose & GOBLINERA to come away with no more than a draw. All three title contenders had to travel away to complete the mission. No easy task.

While the Metros were locked in battle, news filtered through that GOBLINERA were fast making mince meat of their opponents. With our title chances effectively ended by the 45 minute mark, the game took on much less significance.

Of much more significance was that with Sarriá locked in a 1-1 draw v Dodge F.C, GOBLINERA seemed poised to complete a smash & grab only for Sarrià to hit the front with 16 minutes remaining. With two minutes remaining, Dodge almost managed to find an equaliser. However, it was not to be with the post denying both them a draw & GOBLINERA a late shift in the table which would’ve seen them crowned champions.

And yet, our heroes bravely battled on. In a game of few goal-scoring opportunities, Dermot Spira pounced on a defensive error 12 minutes from time, thus ensuring a winning end to the season.

Coach Bruno Anulo was fulsome in his praise of the players at the post-match press conference. “Hugely proud of every one of them, yeah. We finish third but with 3 points more than when we won the title last season. We end as top scorers in the division. We took 19 of the 21 points on offer at home. It’s very hard to be critical of them on the back of all that.”

And of the outcome of the title race? “Look, whoever tops the table at the end deserves the title. Sarrià dug deep today from what I’ve heard & I wish them well in the promotion play-off.”

This report wouldn’t be complete without a mention of Benet Font. The veteran winger, who had already announced his intention to retire at the end of this season, was given a huge reception by the away support when substituted at the 70 minute mark. “We felt it was apt to give Benet his individual moment to sign off with 20 minutes to play” explained Anulo. “His experience will be very hard to replace but the team is in constant evolution. That’s the way it goes. His name will go down in Metros history, that much is certain.”

Font himself was pragmatic upon the end of a career that comprised 325 appearances & 57 goals. “I’ve loved every minute of my time here and to have played every minute of my career at the same club makes me very, very proud. I was very eager to depart on my own terms & this is what I’m doing today. Much better than getting crocked for 7 weeks & never recovering! The club is in a strong position with a young squad so I’m sure they’ll be pushing for promotion again next season.”

Most of the key members of the squad are already headed for the airport & a well-earned break as I file this report. The message from captain Boaz Shavit was simple. “Whatever you get up to, keep yourselves out of the tabloids”! If only it were always that simple….

It takes a strong gut to be a Metros fan these days. And, as matchday 13 proved, these Metros players have a strong nerve. Their opponents (Fernan Nuñez) will have a distinct, bitter taste of déjà vu following this most recent encounter between the two clubs.

A quiet opening half had the away side in the lead, thanks to a 21st minute strike from frontman Koryciak. And Bruno Anulo appeared to have blundered massively on the tactical front when the half-time stats showed the Metros with 53% possession. Not ideal when you’ve sent your team out with instructions to counter-attack.

And yet somehow this driven bunch of men in blue proceeded to turn the tide in their favour in the final 20 minutes. First midfield man, Dermot Spira, dashed down the centre in the 72nd minute to tie the game up. And then Alessandro Palacios – on as a 70th minute sub for Benet Font – sent the home crowd bananas when he fired home a long range pass in the 75th minute. There was to be no way back for the gallant losers, the final whistle being greeted with a standing ovation for the home side. The visitors, meanwhile, will be left wondering what they have to do in order to break their duck at this venue. In the corresponding fixture last season, they found themselves 1-0 up with 20 minutes to go. That was before Dermot Spira and – yes, you guessed it – Palacios popped up to give the home side the three points!

The win proved vital in the continuing race for the title, what with both the other sides in the race securing three points.

Alessandro Palacios was a relieved man in the post-match press conference. Did he feel hard done-by in being left out of the starting XI? “I was disappointed, certainly. But the main man makes these calls for the benefit of the team & certainly conditions were never going to help my cause. But I’m delighted that I still got a chance to show what I can do & to score the winner was fantastic.”

Coach Bruno Anulo paid tribute to both sides. “Fernan Nuñez are a serious outfit & I always felt they were going to be sticky opposition today. But our lads were ice-cool beyond belief really. They were in a really tight corner & they were so, so clinical when it really mattered.”  And as for the title race? “Look, we’re still in there with the final hurdle to come. We’re third in a three-horse race but all three clubs are going to be away from home on the last day & I can’t see all three of us winning. It’s a big ask but we’ve the week to prepare, dig deep & go at it one more time.”

Time to break out the valium.

Matchday 12 may go down as the day that Dodge F.C dodged a relegation bullet by squeezing home with a 3-2 win. Only time will tell if it was a day that the title hopes of our beloved Metros took a fatal shot or not.

The opening half was one to forget for the visitors as Dodge hit the visitors with both barrels, opening a 2-0 lead in the process. However Michel Brochu gave us hope by firing home from an opening down the left after 31 minutes.

And yet, try as they might, the visitors challenge seemed doomed to failure until the Hattrick gods decided that another Metros game needed a breathless finish. This one though had a sting in the tail. First, on 85 minutes, Dodge found themselves reduced to 10 men. Then Brochu – that man again – found himself on the end of a clinical counter-attack. Clinical, that is, until it came to the strike. Crossbar, up, over and away. Game-changer? You betcha. In the blink of an eye, Dodge extend their lead within 60 seconds. And yet, the away side still had time to respond once more, this time José Paz pouncing on a mix-up in the Dodge defence.

Coach Bruno Anulo struggled to hide his disappointment at the outcome. “Eh, it feels like a kick in the cojones to be honest with you. I thought we would have coped better defensively but, in fairness to the lads, we battled on.” So where does that leave us now? “Three points behind the leaders with two games to play”, shrugged the Argentinian. “There’s no room for manoevre now. We need to do our very best to pick up six points & see where it takes us.”

The chink of daylight came in the form of a surprising, heavy defeat for league leaders CP Sarrià. Matchday 13 awaits. Lucky for some, we hope.

Phew!

It’s probably fair to say that the 32,000 souls who steered themselves to Bull Meadows Arena yesterday will recall this one for many a day. In what proved to be one of the most nerve jangling 90 minutes for the Metros that this reporter can recall, the home side managed to pull themselves back from the brink to finally hit the front with 11 minutes left on the clock.

With a minute to half time, the visitors had shown the audacity to have pushed into a two-goal lead. First, a “lunatic dribble” from Jose Paz on 35 minutes left a deleitosa winger clean through on goal (0-1). This was soon followed by the clinical despatch of a corner three minutes from half-time (0-2). However, cometh the hour, cometh the man. Or in this case, the Frenchman. Michel Brochu managed to head home in the 44th minute to put some badly needed fire in Metro’s belly (1-2).

With 54 minutes on the clock, Benet Font struck home from a free-kick. Cue bedlam. But not for long. What is it they say about being most vulnerable after you’ve scored? Deleitosa play in their lethal front man, Routhier, on 57 minutes. No mistake. 2-3.

It was at this point – with 16 minutes to go – that José Paz decided it was time to right his earlier wrong by raiding down the left & firing home (3-3). Bedlam. Again.

This time there was to be no reprieve for the gallant visitors. Michel Brochu took matters into his own hands, breaking down the left & firing home what would prove to be the winner. 4-3. You guessed it. Complete bedlam.

The win, coupled with Sarrià’s narrow win over GOBLINERA leaves the Metros in 2nd & three points off the lead with three games to go. All to play for.

Captain Boaz Shavit was justifiably proud of the team afterwards. “Hugely proud, yeah. Defensively we made life difficult for ourselves but the lads just kept coming back for more. And the fact that deleitosa went with the plan to press and yet we continued to open them up says a lot. We weren’t going to be denied out there today.”

Rumours that coach Bruno Anulo was considering joining the priesthood at various moments in the game were laughed off by Shavit. “Although I was considering the foreign legion at 2-3 down.” We hope he was joking. A visit to Dodge F.C. awaits.

Good news and bad news since our last report.

First, the good. A solid performance on matchday nine saw our beloved Metros condemn the league leaders to their first defeat of the season. Nemesio Vizcarra, rewarded with a first league start of the season by the management, settled the early nerves by firing the home side into the lead after just six minutes. Dermot Spira & leading goalscorer Alessandro Palacios added to the lead before GOBLINERA managed to grab a late consolation.

Now, the bad. Try as they might, the Metros trip to take on CP Sarrià proved a frustrating exercise. This nip & tuck battle ended in a 1-0 win for the home side. The one clear-cut chance created by the visitors fell to captain Boaz Shavit but he could only look on in dismay as his strike rebounded off the crossbar with just 11 minutes remaining.

A watershed moment in the season, perhaps? The Israeli, however, chose to emphasise the positive. “Ah, maybe the chance just fell to the wrong guy. Michel (Brochu) or Alessandro (Palacios) would probably have buried it. But, in fairness, Sarrià hit the woodwork too so they could’ve been further ahead by the time that chance dropped to me but we’re still in there battling. The fact GOBLINERA were held to a draw has helped us too, I think. It certainly looks like a three-way fight for the title now.”

Coach Bruno Anulo took some criticism about team selection on the chin. Key midfield man Dermot Spira was surprisingly left out of the starting XI. “We had our reasons. Our counter-attack strategy was definitely a factor in leaving Dermot out. I felt we soaked up the pressure well but I’d be lying if I told you one goal-scoring opportunity in 90 minutes was satisfactory.”

So, yet another key game next weekend? Do or die? “Not quite, but almost!”, the Argentinian replied with a cheeky grin. “Obviously with Sarria squaring up to GOBLINERA the onus is on us to try & gain ground. We have to get the final GMC Cup group game out of the way first though!”

And so with back-to-back tussles with bot Davand out of the way, normal service undoubtedly resumes next weekend. And before that, a GMC Cup group game tomorrow (Wednesday).

With a healthy 20-goal boost to the coffers the mood,  you’d imagine, would be one of supreme optimism. However coach Bruno Anulo couldn’t hide his frustration with the trio of injuries picked up on league matchday eight.

“The club doctor expects Galcerà & Paz to resume training within a week but Stuzmann’s injury is more serious. But we’ll just have to get on with in, won’t we?”  The German defender – a crucial lynchpin for the Metros – managed to miss the away encounter with league leaders GOBLINERA through suspension & is now a certainty to be absent for the return meeting this Saturday at Bull Meadows Arena.

Club captain, Boaz Shavit, made clear what’s at stake this Saturday. “We really need to take three points here. There’s no point in saying anything else. It’s a big ask, sure, but we need them in order to stay in the title race. GOBLINERA have been the form team thus far & deservedly top the table but we need to try & ask a few questions of them.” One fears that may be easier said than done.

First up though is the opening group game of the GMC Cup. The Metros travel to Holland to take on Southwick Meerkats. Goalkeeper Luís Perfeito is set to captain the side. “We’ve failed to get past the group phase in the last three stagings of this cup so we’d obviously love to change that statistic.” Media reports suggest that the Meerkats are preparing a hot reception for our beloved Metros. “That may well be the case”, admitted the Brazilian keeper, “but to be honest it can hardly be worse than what we had to deal with in the league match last Saturday, can it?”

Let’s hope not!

It is said that a week can be a long time in politics. A fortnight can be an eternity in the world of Hattrick.

Week 6 proved to have more downs than ups. With a clash looming with then league leaders GOBLINERA, an apparent boardroom struggle over transfer funds led to Polish defender Slawomir Maslowski being snapped up. The swift smash & grab on the transfer market can only be interpreted as a knee-jerk reaction by management to the upcoming suspension of top defender Henny Stuzmann. Sadly the effort to plug the gap failed spectacularly as the league leaders gradually wore down Metro’s resistence over the 90 minutes, galloping away to a 3-0 win. And, as if to add insult to injury, coach Bruno Anulo made an appearance from the substitutes bench with 15 minutes to play. Cue much eyebrow raising among the travelling support and, one would imagine, among the club’s directors. You may not win much with kids but you’re even less likely to win anything with 37-year-old full backs.

Fast forward seven days, into week 7 & a meeting with bot Davand FC ended as encounters with bots generally do….Alessandro Palacios helping himself to two goals, solidifying his position at the top of the golden boot for division VI.830. The other positive this week was that GOBLINERA encountered their first speed bump, in the form of Naino Knights FC who held the visitors to a no-score draw. A six-point lead remains a daunting prospect however with all eyes already fixed on the league leaders visit to Bull Meadows Arena in week 9.

Our sources within The Dublin Metros insist that the club remains financially secure & in the black despite the unexpected €1.2m plunge into the transfer market. The same may not be said of the coach’s position if top spot in the league slips out of reach well before season’s end….

In other news, Club Secretary Manuel Pulido was delighted to confirm the club’s involvement in the upcoming GMC Cup.

“We’ve a long association with this cup so we hope to bump into a few familiar faces along the way over the next few weeks. I’d urge our fans to embrace the competition…..and lump on the Metros for the 1st group game!”

Good to see Manuel has got over his gambling addiction from his playing days. Oh, well….

A sense of doom hung over Bull Meadows Arena upon the sounding of the final whistle on Saturday. And with good reason.

Predictions of a tough afternoon came true in a pulsating league encounter with CP Sarrià hitting the front at the 15 minute mark. However the lead was wiped out 16 minutes later when Benet Font fired in the equaliser. The second half proved to be one to very much forget for Alessandro Palacios as the striker spurned three decent opportunities to win it for the home side. Indeed, the 28-year-old seemed intent on testing the consistency of the turf following his miss when clean through on goal in the 87th minute (think of Samuel Kuffour’s pitch-thumping at the end of the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final and you’ll get the picture). And as if to compound a bad day, news soon filtered through of Goblinera’s narrow away win which enabled them to maintain their 100% start to the season. And, just like that, a three point gap became five. Next up? A visit to Goblinera. Gulp.

“It’s hard to feel positive about that result, especially when you take into account results elsewhere”, was the honest verdict offered by coach Bruno Anulo. “We had our chances but Sarrià weren’t without goal chances either. I just felt we were going to have enough to edge it but it wasn’t to be. It’s the first time I can recall the hatstat count matching both sides perfectly so maybe the draw was written in the stars. But look, we have to pick it up & go again. It’s not a disaster because we haven’t even reached the halfway point in the season yet.”

And hot on the heels of all that comes the news that the club has made an unexpected move in the transfer market. Club Secretary Manuel Pulido confirmed that Pole Slawomir Maslowski had passed a medical at the club this afternoon & is likely to make his debut in the midweek friendly on Wednesday.

“The management felt strengthening was needed in light of the challenges ahead. Both player & first team coach will be present at the press conference on Friday ahead of the next league game.”

Rumours abound however of a boardroom struggle over the release of club finances to secure the signing of the player. Obviously Bruno Anulo has got his man but at what cost? Amid much scurrying to & from the club carpark this evening, no one from the club was making themselves available for comment. Curiouser and curiouser….