An unbelievable finish should allow the fantastic Paprikas to finish the league in the 4th position
Qui s'y serait attendu apres une premiere partie de saison (et de début de deuxieme partie de saison) calamiteuse...
Who would have expected this after our horrible first part of season...
Congratulations to everybody!
Match reports (Written by the incredible Jerome):
RH Paprikas 4 - 0 NYP Shamrocks
Ratio Homini were also a big mover in the table as they steered clear of relegation with their biggest win of the season which also coincided with their best performance as a team. A 4-0 victory over NYP Shamrocks, was the latest in a series of good results as they attempt to avoid relegation. In the 1st half, Ratio thought they had opened the scoring from Sylvain Treguer, the lightning Brestois right back but was disallowed for off-side. The score remained goaless at half-time but in the second half that was all about to change. Ratio continued to push the Shamrocks defence backwards and got the goal they were after. A lovely one-two between Jeremy Montesinos and Jerome Rattoni set the former through to round the Paul Ensor in the Shamrocks goal. 20 minutes later, Rattoni doubled the score with a left foot strike from outside the box . From then on the Frenchman started to relax and played with more fluency and notched two more goals. The third goal was scored by Zoltan Suhajda who was back after a 2 year absence. Substitute Tamer Darwish was brought down inside the penalty area and dusted himself off to convert it and finish the scoring.
RH Paprikas 5 - 3 Vikings
Despite the crap weather (strong wind and freezing rain), I think we actually did our best game for years!!
Based on last week's confidence in our playmaking, we decided to use the same smooth passing! The wet pitch gave us the needed speed for secure passes and Vikings,apart from long balls and the capability to create a big chance on a individual move, couldn't follow our pace!
We were even better in winning challenges (great fighting spirit, everybody was tackling like hell)
So, the score went as described below :
First half:
1st goal: 10 th min
Tamer Darwish (who started the game this time :-) received a nice ball just on right hand side and shot on the near top corner who surprised completely their GK (he anticipated a crossed shot on the far post) . 1-0
Equalizer from Vikings : 12 th min
Our defender Erwann (who was again absolutely brillant depsite this action) couldn't clear the ball properly and their striker immediately took advantage of it to crucify Jean Rontes (who replaced David Bajomi-Lazar for this game) 1-1
2nd goal for Ratio : 35 th min
An fantastic skilled and elegant lob at the 25 metres from Inigo, just under the bar. Just brillant ! His 5th and last goal of the season as he won't be able to play vs Manager United.Great season from Inigo!!
It was also the reward of many challenges won in the midfield! 2-1 at half time
2nd half:
3rd goal for Ratio : 55th min
This goal represents our entire game. We played "one touch" in the midfield and this action settled Jeremy Montesinos in the box, he created himself some space on the left hand side and between 3 defenders shot with his left on the near post to beat their GK. 3-1
As usual, Vikings don't give up and on a corner (60th min), the wet ball bounced like in snooker to finally made Yann scoring an unfortunate OG. 3-2
4th goal for Ratio : 80th min)
A long ball from Inigo above Viking defense, couldn't be slown down enough and allowed me to use my speed & have a face2face vs the GK. By pushing the ball a bit too strong (with this slippery pitch), I had to run faster than both defenders behind me and GK in front, and by doing so, I finally slided and tackled the ball just under GK left side and put it in the back of the net. A real "british" goal :-) 4-2
Vikings came back again with real motivation, by pushing hard on our left back and crossed brillantly for a cracker where Jean Rontes couldn't do anything. 4-3
=> The big moment came with this fanstastic save from our substitute GK Jean Rontes. He sacrified himself (he got a big knock on this forehead) but jumped in the Viking striker's feet and cleared the ball with real authority! This save kept us up front!
5th goal for Ratio: 90th min
I shot a corner right above their GK and a bad clearance made the story pefect for us and especially for Yann-Eryl Mer who balanced his OG by giving us the final advantage to seal this very nice victory ! 5-3 final score !!
RH Paprikas 5 - 2 Managers UTD
It was the last chance for Manager United to save their spot in the A Liga and so they deonstrated great motivation to keep it alive.
With Inigo absent + some several injured guys (Christian Delbove or Gerald Mouysset for example), we had to think about some slight changes.
First half :
- We couldn't start the game better with early score opening by Jeremy Montesinos who is enjoying this defensive midfield position to go deep in the defense and finish the good work of the team . 1-0 (3rd min)
The game was pretty tough with a lot of talking to the ref (a young one quite lost) and rough tackles from both sides (I got booked for one quite tough...) but it remained 1-0 at half time under big sun and heat!
Second half:
- Manager United equalized on very harsh penalty (the ref actually offered them one after not blowing the whistle for them on 2 obvious handballs during first half: compensation)
Their little hungarian midfield ("Joe Black" on his shirt) converted it. 1-1 (55th min)
- Jeremy Montesinos (who's currently on fire) foudn again the back of the net after a great pass in the box from Rodrigo Cartacho. (His 8th and final goal of the season) 2-1 (60th min)
- We even had the break through when I could deliver a nice assist to Tamer Darwish after passing the last defender and avoid the keeper. Tamer was fast enough to push the ball in the empty goal. 3-1 (65th min)
- Joe Black again reduced the score when David Bajomi-Lazar did a very nice save but could do anything on the rebound. Joe Black pushed the ball in the empty goal: 3-2 (70th min)
- After several attempts, I could finally score my goal. I ran on the left wing, arriving in the box, avoided the last defender to come back to right hand side and crucified the GK at the penalty spot. Solo effort for a relaxing 4-2 (80th min) (it was caught on video, hehe!)
- Tamer Darwish, finished the show by adding a nice 5th goal for us and scored 4 goals in the last 3 games ! 5-2 (87th min) Final score
It was time for celebrations after this impressive run of 1 draw and 4 consecutive wins (13 points out of 15) with champagne, photos and nice atmosphere with all the friends came to support us!
=> It was also the perfect "Goodbye" for 4 Paprikas "legends" who will leave us now:
Sebastien Pierre (he played his first game after his ruptured knee ligament) / Yann-Eryl Mer (he was the Captain for his last appearance) / Fabien Eymas and Corentin Gouret!
We will have to replace them and it won't be easy.
But we are very happy and proud of our performances in April / May and I hope we will continue the improvement for the 2010-11 season!
See you all soon!
