3.15am Cold morning, Luis and I bundle into friend’s car off to Gatwick at rendez-vous point.
circa 4.00am, arrive at airport, meet up with the Dades, Luke, the Rudd family, and Anthony. Slurps in the Wetherspoons, they’d been up all night.
6am Take off, strange smells coming from one of the Dades.
Hoorah! Almeria, warm and sunny.
10am Met by Ian ‘the Gaffer’ and hire car rep. Luis talking Spanish in full flow.
Climbing the mountains, past the Spaghetti Western film sets, greeted by a waving cowboy, empty wood front towns and wigwams in the valley. No signs of any Injuns.
Luis driving the hire car
The barren mountain landscape
A waving cowboy at the Spaghetti Western film set
12noon Arrival at our B&B: the Barrio, Cantoria. Our Walsall hosts make us feel welcome then a leisurely stroll around the mountain village to loosen our muscles for tomorrow’s games.
12.10 Hit the bars. Shandy’s seems like a good place to start.
…
…
Luis displaying his trophy napkin
Watching the local talent
Local dolly bird, goldfinch
Deep thought...An eventful evening: Killer Pool, cash Euros changing hands, some great tapas, several local wind-up merchants, a story about a local dog, we head off for an early night...
Saturday
9.30 Full fry up in El Barrio followed by team talk. Ah, sounds like when Liverpool won the European cup in Israel in the late 1970s.
11.20 Head off to the neighbouring village to the sports ground.
11.42 Warm up and pitch inspection. Its warm and sunny, the pitch is erratic. The teams arrive.
12.15 Shite. We get the worst draw. We play the first two games of the tournament back to back. Its getting hotter. 8-a-side. We recruit Carlos, a left-back from Ecuador.
12.30 Kick off: Accies v Ex-pats. Anthony in goal, Luke centre-back, Carlos left back, Andy Dade right back, Luis right wing, myself left wing, Dave centre mid and the Gaffer forward. Stuart shouting encouragement and instructions from the touch line.
0-1 After several great saves, another aerial challenge sees the first goal of the day squirm past Anthony.
[Its getting hotter and the pace of the game is making my breakfast come back.]
1-1 WOW! Fantastic opportunist goal by the Gaffer. The ball breaks lose and Ian takes the ball first time and lobs the keeper.
Result: 1-1. A hard fought draw, but deserved.
15 minutes rest. We are all exhausted playing 40 minutes at full pace. Next up, the local Spanish side.
1-0 Brilliant goal. Quick move and the Gaffer buries the ball in the back of the net as he runs at the Spanish defence.
[It’s getting hotter still and we are all slowing.]
The Spanish team are physical and well organised, playing the ball through the middle of the park. Then they equalise, threading the ball through the centre.
1-1
We re-convene for second half and they are attacking our goal again. The Gaffer limps off with calf injury, Werewolf moves into forward position and Stuart goes in goal. Anthony moves into midfield.
1-2 They score a second. Then great block by Stuart to deny third but collides with the brave Fallon. Luke taken off injured. Down to 7 men. One of the ex-pat team joins us. 1-3. Another neat goal through the centre.
Result: 1-3. We lacked subs.
The final match between the Spanish and ex-pat team ends 2-2, with a cameo role for Dave Rudd in the ex-pat team. Local Spanish team win the cup.
Good celebrations as we drink beer and eat wonderful tapas in the sports bar provided by the generous Spanish team. Then reconvene in the Casino bar in Cantoria for more drinks and a curry [superb], then a night on the town. Pub crawl of the local establishments until we drive back down the mountain.
Arrive at airport at 8am [thanks to Luis], for flight back to Gatwick.
A brilliant few days in the sunny mountains, good food and drink, and some great football, not to be forgotten. Thanks Ian and the Lads in Spain!
No comments:
Post a Comment