IC win in Cup
LUSL Cup days – the highlight of any IC footballer’s career, more magic than the FA Cup and more grit and determination than a drunken iNuge verbally attacking a granny on a night bus after the union.
We were facing off against Kings Medics 2s, who we overturned in the Semi Final on our way to winning the cup last season. We face their 1s, who won the LUSL league last year, later in the campaign, and we needed to send a message to them, much like we did to UCL’s 1s earlier in the season (By thrashing their 2s 13-0 in a friendly). Murphy was noticeably missing, as was Crawford. Suspicious. Rumour has it they were on a romantic getaway together; neither were available to comment as they were both ‘busy’. The football was fast flowing from IC and the midfield trio of Cherif, Ayanwale and Hill were keeping the ball well in midfield and hitting the channels well. Dale was beating his man all day for pace on the right and Prestinoni’s dribbling skills meant that Kings Medics didn’t see much of the ball, and when they did, the back four’s militant back line caught them offside. The goal came as quickly as an over excited fresher in bed. Dale got down the right, eating his man for breakfast (that’s not the only thing he eats, ladies), playing the ball square through the CBs legs, and directly in the path of Captain Robinson who opened his body out in a Nugent-esque fashion and slotted the ball in. The keeper was once again left sprawled, legs open and dominated (Robinson, 2013). Rumour has it Captain Robinson snapchatted a picture of their keeper to all his friends to gloat. Not that he’s done anything like that before. We went in at half time 1-0 to the good. Our lead was quickly doubled as Prestinoni’s tight dribbling saw him maze past several players before wading into the box and being hacked down by their CB. Captain Robinson stepped up to take the penalty, and he grabbed the chance by the balls and squeezed as hard he could, thrashing the ball in to the bottom left corner and sending the keeper the opposite way. 2-0, advantage ICs. From an absolutely huge goal kick from Wells which bypassed even their centre backs, Captain Robinson drifted in from the left and in behind the defence to take the ball first time on his chest, instantly putting him one on one with the goalkeeper which he easily dispatched via a wonderful volley in to the back of the net to round off a hat trick. The tie wasn’t over yet though as King’s Medics pulled one back from a corner. We did well to hold off any more pressure and contain them following their goal. Beasley’s introduction saw the game settle in our favour and his warm up was so quick he actually got out of the illustrious second gear. Nielsen and Nugent took it upon themselves to bomb up the pitch and try and reclaim some much needed fantasy points. Shamsi had other ideas though, making a good run down the middle allowing Dale to play him in, however he did his best to put the ball anywhere but on target. 3-1 was the final score and saw IC 1s progress in to the next round of the cup.
