Match Reports
British Council football team: Controversy mars Eagles draw
039 days
The British Council Eagles showed steady improvement, but still lost 2 points in controversial circumstances in the Stolichna Amateur league. The Eagles conceded a late equalizer to end their game against Delta in a 2:2 draw. Overall the Eagles showed great battling spirit and were well served by all their players despite missing key performers Botty (suspended) and Bobby. (more…)
British Council football team: Eagles go down fighting against Lux El
046 days
The British Council Eagles showed some flashes of brilliance but lost 5:7 to Lux El in the Stolichna Amateur League. The BC side got their noses in front on three occasions but unfortunately were unable to take a firm grip on the proceedings.
Player-manager-goalie-coach-kit man etc Eddie went between the sticks, Anton and big Davie got the starting slots in defence, Bobby was the lone midfielder, and Alex and Botty were counted upon to support him as well as attack down the wings.
The first half was really breathtaking stuff as the two teams traded blow for blow right until half time. Lux El were first out of the starting blocks, availing themselves of a ball lost in midfield by the Eagles to take the lead through a low finish at the near post.
The Eagles responded by pressing higher upfield, winning a few balls in the opposition half. On one such occasion Bobby controlled a bad clearance, sold a dummy to a defender and teed up Alex for an angled finish between the goalkeeper’s legs. And the Eagles soon scored again to make it 2:1, Bobby doing the damage with a crisp diagonal grass-cutter.
Lux El didn’t take much time to respond though. A red-clad player sliced the Eagles defence in two before picking out a team-mate for an open-net finish. A sweeping run by an El Lux wing-back down the right flank allowed his team to score their third after his low cross was tapped in at the back post.
The Eagles didn’t allow their heads to go down and soon after Pancho and Rumen, both of whom came in from the bench, executed perfectly a two-on-one break, with the latter getting the equalizer.
The Eagles were on the ascendancy now, a long-range effort by Alex forcing the opposition goalie into a toe-poke save. The BCE managed to regain the lead moments before the break when Bobby tried his luck from outside the area, the ball struck the post and ricocheted in off the keeper. Still Lux El found a way to finish the half on level terms, scoring directly from a corner to make it 4:4.
The Eagles again had the upper hand in the early exchanges of the second period. The BCE took another one-goal lead when Botty held onto the ball in the middle, then picked out Bobby who had made a run on the right wing. The latter went past his marker and played a return pass, which Botty sent home first-time.
The Eagles had some chances to extend their lead, as Alex had an effort saved and Big Davie just missing the target on a half-volley after a corner. A great triangular move could have brought the Eagles the goal of the match – Rumen finding Bobby on the left, who in turn set up Botty – but his attempt went wide.
Instead of running away with the spoils the Eagles conceded an equalizer after a corner, before Lux El’s counter-attacking style brought them more dividends. The reds scored twice more to take a 7:5 lead.
Botty was sent off before long for what the referee saw as a deliberate kick against an opponent, so the BC side was constrained to play five of the remaining six minutes with a player down.
Overall the Eagles showed some great examples of one-touch football and mustered a handful of slick moves, but came up a bit short despite probably playing their best game for a while.
British Council football team: Shorthanded Eagles go down 5-11
051 days
The British Council Eagles showed some skill in the face of adversity, but lost their concentration a bit in the last few minutes under the floodlights to go down 5-11 against Jim Team in the Stolichna Amateur League.
It all went wrong for the Eagles even before kick-off time. Minutes prior to the start of the match player-manager-goalie-coach-kit man etc Eddie found out he was missing three players from his projected squad. The BCE lost two players to injury and one due to delay of his lesson at school, and were left one player short.
Eddie started in goal, with bigDavie, Toni, Bobby and Alex being the outfield players.
The Eagles played a decent first half, but for a few lapses of concentration, in which they managed to go 2-1 in front for a brief period. BigDaviesuccessfully joined the Eagles attacks from the back on two occasions to score his first goals for the team in the competition. He got his first goal via an angled first time finish after being teed up by Bobby, and the second came after a downward header from a foot-taken throw-in.
Jim Team created more than enough scoring opportunities at the other end and the half finished with the score 2:4 to the Eagles opponents. Jim Team profited from sloppy marking at set-pieces to score twice and added a long-range goal (while the reporter contrived to miss the fourth one).
The Eagles tried to hold their ground after the break and managed to score three more goals through Bobby (2) and Alex. But BCE players began to tire and got frustrated as the match unravelled so the exhausted Eagles lost concentration and shape in the final stages. This allowed Jim Team to get some easy goals towards the end of the match, which was looking pretty close until midway through the second period.
British Council football team: Eagles lose 0-5 to Sofiantci
066 days
The British Council Eagles lost 0:5 against Sofiantci in their last game of the first stage in the Stolichna Amateur League. The BC lost any chance of finishing 5th and qualifying for the Premier League competition before the start of the match, as Verve had won their game to build an unassailable lead over the Eagles. The BCE settled for 6th place and will participate in League One instead. The Eagles lost heavily in their second official match after the break-up of the squad during the winter break, but could have at least easily scored some goals, as they again hit the woodwork on several occasions, just as in their previous game against BLFZ.eu.
Player-manager-coach-goalie-kit man-match organizer etc Eddie again went between the sticks as his efforts to sign an emergency goalkeeper failed. Tony and Botty formed the defensive pairing at the start, with Pancho and Bobby trusted upon in the engine room, and forward Alex beginning as the lone striker.
An Eagles defender was caught out of position early on and Eddie had to make two sharp saves in quick succession. Unfortunately this proved to be a sign of things to come, as the Eagles again struggled mightily in front of their own goal, losing the ball too often when trying to build up play from the back and failing to impose themselves on the attackers. Wayward passing in their own half led to another close shave, before a great Sofiantci diagonal pass lofted the ball across the defence and set up a forward to send a fine volley against the post. Tony then cleared another shot from the goal-line.
A sliding tackle by Botty after the umpteenth Eagles careless pass led to him being booked. Some sloppy marking in turn allowed Sofiantci to take the lead after the ensuing indirect free-kick.
A smartly taken pass from a “throw-in” teed up Alex for a first-time attempt that struck the woodwork at the other end. Sofiantci immediately forced the Eagles to pay, doubling their lead on the next attack. An opposition forward scored with a virtuoso chip, which Eddie managed to get a fingertip on, but just couldn’t push it over the crossbar.
A sweeping BCE move ended with another shot crashing against the post before long. Another dazzling Eagles chance went begging when the final delivery found Alex off-balance and he sent the ball wide at the near post. A long-range Bobby effort was saved by the Sofiantci goalie and the half ended with the Eagles two goals down.
Sloppy marking by the BCE was punished again by Sofiantci in the opening exchanges after the break. The opposition was now three goals in front and there was no coming back for the Eagles. The British Council side was caught out by another Sofiantci counter to lose a fourth, at which point manager Eddie took his time-out. Each side is allowed a minute time-out in the match. The Eagles switched to a free-flowing 1-1-3 system in a desperate attempt to hit back, with Tony and bigDaviefrom Forfar having more defensive roles behind the three-pronged attack formed by Rumen, Botty and Bobby. The BCE mustered a couple of decent chances without managing to put one in the net, before Sofiantci’s clinical finishing and swift counterattacking game on the day was highlighted in the move which resulted in them scoring the fifth and final goal of the match.
British Council football team: Eagles snatch a point powered by 5-goal Iliyan
0162 days
The British Council Eagles showed remarkable resilience to snatch a point against Don Corleone in the last match-day before the winter break of the Stolichna Amateur League. (more…)
British Council football team: Eagles fight back, beat Lufthansa 4:3
0167 days
The British Council Eagles beat Lufthansa 4:3 in the Stolichna Amateur League. The BC side showed courage in the face of adversity to record a nail-biting victory, which can still prove to be invaluable in their bid to make the Premier League come spring.
Todor started in goal for the Eagles, defensive Alex and Hristo were deployed in defence, Pancho and Ibrahim were the starting midfielders, with forward Alex beginning the match up front. Iliyan, Iliya and Pavlin were providing the necessary from the bench.
Lufthansa were first out of the blocks in the freezing conditions at “Mir I Druzhba”, but BCE goalkeeper Todor produced a double save to prevent the opposition from taking an early lead. The BC side created a couple of decent chances before breaking the deadlock. Iliyan set up Ibrahim, who kept his cool to give the keeper no chance.
Still, some sloppy play in midfield allowed Lufthansa to level the score before long. The Eagles seemed to remain on top, creating the best chances. Iliya’s toe-poke flew over, the Lufthansa keeper somehow got his fingertips to a Hristo howitzer from midfield and and two more good opportunities went begging, but in between Lufthansa took a 2:1 lead on a classic counterattack.
Some positional changes were made by player-manager-goalie-coach-match organizer-etc. Eddie at half time and the Eagles were clearly the more focused side after the restart. Defensive Alex was moved to midfield to add some steel in the centre of the park, while Pavlin took his place at the back. The BC team managed to steal the ball deep in the Lufthansa half on three occasions, before Pancho scored with a precise header after a Hristo cross from the right. A low Ibrahim centre then incredibly evaded all the players in the 6 yard box, before Todor thwarted Lufthansa at the other end. But the Eagles kept throwing wave after wave at the Lufthansa goal and defensive Alex duly fired them back into the lead at 3:2. Still, the BCE couldn’t profit from their dominant spell to kill off the game and were punished when the opposition made it 3-all after a stramash in the box. The scene was set for a tense finish as Lufthansa were proving a tough nut to crack despite some chaotic defending on their part.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Predator Iliyan didn’t have many opportunities under the floodlights, but again proved to be a deadly finisher by scoring the Eagles fourth goal of the match, which turned out to be the winner after the BC held firm to avoid trouble late on.
Player-manager-goalie-coach-match organizer-etc. Eddie was happy to take all the points against a rival who had beaten the BCE 5:1 a year before. At the same time, the comeback effort on Saturday partially made up for the disappointment suffered a weak earlier, when the Eagles went down 2:4 against bookie’s favourites Telegraph in spite of holding a 2:0 lead at the break.
Aram Potourlian
at “Mir I Druzhba”
British Council football team: The Eagles roar back, score eight vs Red Star
0184 days
The British Council Eagles tore Red Star apart 8:1 in the Stolichna Amateur League. The Eagles bounced back in style after the previous week’s disappointment to register their biggest win from the start of the season. (more…)
British Council football team: Eagles win two games in three days
0195 days
The British Council Eagles came out of their mini-slump in style to take 6 points in three days in the Stolichna Amateur League. After winning only one point in their previous 2 matches against Antilopite and Daemon, the Eagles are flying high again. They beat Mladezhite 7:2 on Saturday, after defeating Sky Pharm 5:0 on Thursday. (more…)
British Council football team: Goalie steals 2 points from the Eagles
0205 days
The British Council Eagles drew with Demon in the Stolichna Amateur League in a competitive game of six-a-side. The black-clad opposition grabbed an early lead from the penalty spot, but the Eagles forced a deserved equalizer after the break through a Demon own goal. The BC side then won the penalty shootout, which is to be used as a tie-breaker, should the two teams finish level on points. (more…)
British Council football team: Eagles score six after the break
0216 days
The British Council Eagles scored 6 goals in less than 25 minutes to thrash rivals Reading 6:0 in their 3rd game of the Stolichna Amateur League. Last season Reading won a very close game, decided by the odd goal against the Eagles. That result, and a couple more narrow losses, prevented the British Council team from challenging for the top spot in League One last spring, but there was no such heartbreak this time around. The first half was tight, but afterwards the Eagles took control and never looked back.
Todor started in goal for the Eagles, defensive Alex and Desso were deployed in defence, Pancho and new signing Petko Minkov took the two midfield positions, with forward Alex starting up front. The Eagles were also counting on their formidable bench, which included proven stars from last season in Miro, Ilian and Ibrahim, returning after a lengthy spell without playing competitive football, as well as another new signing – Ilia.
The first half was a nerve-wracking affair under the pouring rain. What is more, the Eagles resolve was seriously tested by the red-clad Reading players, who adapted better to the wet artificial turf. BCE had to overcome some difficulties in trying to build from the back, their midfield suffering for prolonged spells before half-time. Goalkeeper Todor rose to the occasion magnificently though, to keep Reading out on numerous occasions, while the Eagles created a few half-chances using long-balls and trying to catch their opponents out on the counter.
The British Council side started the brighter after the interval, showing more attacking intent, while Reading, who didn’t have a single substitute, lost their grip on the proceedings. And the breakthrough came when forward Alex managed to push a difficult ball into the opposition goalkeeper to win a corner, which he took rapidly. His cross found Petko Minkov at the back post, who opened the scoring with a looping header to put the Eagles in front for good. The second BCE goal was also a thing of beauty. Ilian, Pancho and Petko crafted a move worthy of Iniesta, Xavi and Messi, as Petko laid the ball perfectly for Ilian to finish. Midfield maestro Pancho scored the third to wrap up the game with a cleverly-taken angled free-kick. Petko added two more via a half-volley and a cheeky back-heel, while Ilian wound up the scoring in his typical predatory manner with his second of the match.
The Eagles may have shown some really breathtaking moves in attack against Reading, but the statistic that stands out after their third game of the League is the goals conceded – a solitary goal, which unfortunately cost them 2 points in the match versus BBQ the previous week; but the BCE are showing an early ambition to repeat their achievement from last season when they finished the second stage of the competition with the meanest defence of them all. This year keeper Todor already boasts two clean sheets, which, of course, has much to do with the combative spirit shown by the whole team. Still, this week the Eagles are facing their toughest test yet against Rapido-Antilopite, who were among the best teams in the Premier League last season.
Aram Potourlian
at “Mir i Druzhba”