Under 17s Unlucky Against Pieta'
by Jonathan Spiteri - 9th April 2013
Birkirkara Under 17s were left to curse their ill luck on Sunday at the end of their 2-1 defeat against Pieta' at the St Patricks' Stadium in Zabbar. They had all right to do so as they were denied three times by the woodwork, not to mention an incredible refereeing decision just before the last kick of the game. That is football though, and although it is the result that counts in the end, our boys left the playing field with their heads up as they knew they gave all they had during the whole match. This defeat sees Birkirkara failing to keep hold of fourth place, with two games to go.
The first fifteen minutes of the game were simply one way traffic. A person who would have not taken a look at the standings before the match would have thought that Birkirkara were the ones challenging for top spot rather then Pieta'. A series of smart saves by their goalkeeper, shots ending just wide and a thunderbolt by Kurt Zammit that had the bar shaking for a few seconds were the reasons why the game was not already almost over as a contest by then. After all this though, the unforeseeable happened. A long ball by the Pieta' rearguard was misjudged by two Birkirkara defenders. The Blues' forward, in a suspiciously offside position, was through on goal, but what seemed as a fair tackle by the Stripes' goalkeeper was deemed as a foul by the referee. The ensuing penalty was dispatched to give Pieta' the lead against the run of play. This goal, together with the drizzling rain, did not dampen the Stripes' spirits, and could have equalised immediately when Leon Zammit was put through on goal, but, with only the goalkeeper to beat, his low shot hit the far post, much to his own and his team mates's dibelief. As we now unfortunately have got accustomed to, Birkirkara conceded another goal when another defensive imperfection let one of Pieta's strikers through on goal and slotted the ball past our goalkeeper to make it 2-0. Once again, the YellowReds refused to lie down and deservedly managed to reduce the gap thanks to Kurt Amato following a corner kick, one of the many our team had in the first half. The goal was followed by an incident were a Pieta' defender was given marching orders by the referee, thus the first half ended with the Blues leading 2-1, but with a man short.
The second half saw Birkirkara trying hard to get back into the match, but Pieta' re-organised themselves very well, defended with a lot of players and still managed to get the ball forward on the counter attack. This was the pattern for the firs half an hour of this second half, but the last ten minutes saw Birkirkara piling up the pressure on the opponents' defence, who were now pegged back into their own third of the pitch. Birkirkara got unlucky once again as Leon Zammit hit the post with a beatiful shot. More shots were either saved by the goalkeeper or ended wide by a whisker. In the last attack, one of our boys was fouled just inside the area, but the referee was not alert enough and ordered a freekick from outside the area. The ensuing cross was cleared by Pieta' and the final whistle was blown, with everyone in the Birkirkara clan feeling a sense of injustice as the opponents celebrated like if they had won the league.
Mr Marko Glumac, the Under 17s coach, could not blame any of his players for this negative result, as the performance was a really good one against team who is challenging for the title. “It was a game where luck was definitely not on our side. My boys worked hard and well during the whole match, but they were not rewarded by more goals. I am sure that in our next games we will score more goals and get better results if we manage the same performance, and of course, if we are helped with some good luck.” We all hope in a change of fortune straight away, and that would be the next match in line against Hamrun Spartans on Sunday 14th April at the Luxol Grounds, kick off 15:00.
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