For a change glorious sunshine greeted Almaty Athletic on the opening
day of the new season and a rip roaring contest, reminiscent of Arsenal
v Liverpool at its craziest, saw both sides depart with some credit
after a spectacular 4-4 draw. Almaty's squad bore little resemblance to
the title "Invincibles" of 2008. In a cull of Fergie circa summer
1995-esque proportions out went "Lamps" Butler, "SP" Espey, "Axel"
Foley, "Tiger" O'Connell and "Tricks" Galvin and in came Marco "Van
Basten or Boogers? We're not sure yet" Machado, Niall "Stopper" Murphy,
Shane "I wanna play in midfield" Smith and John "not quite as solid as
Billy" Murphy. Other new signings, including the Smith brothers,
"Raphael" and "Fabio", were also absent as was Senor Dawson who remains
in quarantine after his recent trip "home" to Mexico.
Senor Dawson (3rd from the right)
In fact, only "Safehands" Sweetnam in goal, "Gaffer" Spratt in central defense, Gav
"Crouchy" Jeffery in a new deep role, remain from last year's all
conquering squad. Would this be enough to rediscover that elusive Almaty
magic?
Almaty started the brighter and created some early chances but in
typical fashion Almaty conceded first after only 5 minutes. The scores
were level shortly after when "Crouchy" finished well after a mazy run
by new signing Marco "Van Basten" Machado. The defensive solidity which
was the cornerstone of the 2008 title success was sadly absent though
and it was no surprise when some poor defending again saw City Ramblers
take the lead soon after. Almaty bounced back and equalised again
through a neatly taken goal by Marco "definitely Van Basten" Machado.
Despite creating a host of great chances Almaty were unable to press
home their advantage with Marco "Boogers" Machado and "Crouchy"
particularly wasteful. Indeed, Almaty actually found themselves 3-2 down
just before half-time as the ever dangerous "Tim" (the lad in the Barca
jersey) found the net again.
Almaty largely failed to find their rhythm in the second half and were
4-2 down after a long punt forward was flicked on by the Ramblers
striker. Antony "shouldn't have eaten dinner before hand" Spratt was
caught napping and "Tim", who had proved a thorn in Almaty's side all
night, raced away before volleying home from close range.
Almaty's new Portuguese whizkid
Things would have gotten far worse for Almaty if not for a string of
fine saves by "Safehands", particularly when he tipped a rasping shot
onto the post. Despite a disjointed second half performance, Almaty
continued to make chances but too often a lack of composure in front of
goal would be their undoing and when they did find the target they just
couldn't find a way past a useful Ramblers keeper.
Indeed the most notable action of a pretty poor period in the second
half came when the normally benign "Crouchy" took particular exception
to a high elbow from the touchy Ramblers centre half. That said,
"Crouchy" was hardly blameless himself, having launched himself
seemingly in slow motion at the Ramblers' defenders feet. Thankfully the
ref indicated, in time honoured tradition, that they were "both at it"
and the game resumed amidst some consternation and confusion.
As time ticked by and with things getting more and more desperate it was
left to an Almaty stalwart to rescue a point. "Crouchy" had been
wasteful all night but all credit to the lad, the mark of a true striker
is a willingness to continue to create chances because it will come
right eventually etc. and so forth. And so it proved as he bagged two
goals in the final 7 minutes to level things, one in particular a fine
strike from distance into the top left and corner of the net to complete
a bizarre hat trick, which could have been 4 or 5.
It will be some time yet before Almaty can consider this a point gained
or dropped but Ramblers were a decent outfit, and Barcelona Tim in
particular will punish bad defending in other games this season. Roll
on next week.
Has anyone seen Alex?
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