Nice effort, but you need MORE MUSCLE!

Yet again, the 2nd year PBL students (The Seniors) from the Faculty of Medicine insisted on avenging their bruised egos by challenging the 1st year PBL students (The juniors) for a football match this past Saturday (14th May) at Nsibirwa football field.

Unfortunately, I missed the first 35 minutes of the match, however, word is that "supposedly" both sides were working well and none of the teams seemed to be dominating the match. Opportunities did exist for the seniors to gain some dominance, yet again, the strikers failed to see the space that existed between the two wooden posts!

The rest of the first half reminded me of a very long lecture, where one cannot appreciate the information being presented. Likewise, on the pitch, neither side looked particularly interesting nor had a stranglehold on possession of the ball. As such, the second half ended uneventfully and scoreless.

The second half began with a lot more energy from both sides. It must be mentioned, that I was very impressed with the juniors because they had uniforms that unified them as a team. Furthermore, they had amazing team spirit as demonstrated by the amount of supporters who came out to see the team play, and the amount of noise they generated was eye-catching. In truth, I feel that the team spirit demonstrated by the juniors, in some subconscious way, may have had an affect on the game of the seniors.

Despite the loud noise coming for the 1st years, the seniors were surprisingly composed during the first part of the second half. They were often splendidly measured in the passing, forcing the juniors to run for the ball. The defence looked comfortable, which at times frustrated the juniors. And the tackles were well played and executed, which tended to disrupte the 1st year rushes.

Sadly, between the 70th to the 80th minute of the match, the seniors defense looked a bit edgy and there was an excess of silly fouls which allowed the juniors to dominate the game. This domination became threatnening because their existed many shots on-target. When the seniors managed to enter the 1st year half, the juniors brilliantly set-up many offside traps that halted the senior penetration.

Despite that, both teams played at gentlemanly combative distance, but I couldn't help but wonder if the juniors would be able to humble their seniors!

The last ten minutes of the match was a nail-bitter. There was continuous nervous defending on both sides that created mind blowing moments of "how could you miss that shot!" reactions. Neither team seemed to be confident enough to tap the ball in the net when the ball was practically served to them in front of the net!

Unfortunately, the game ended in a 0-0 draw with both teams looking happy that the match ended.

I must admit, that the seniors looked more fit and more organized compared to their first match. However, it seems that they did not entirely follow "Ramullah's Formula for Winning Football Matches".

Lets just hope, that during their four weeks in their respective COBES sites the 2nd years will add more muscle to their game (and body) so that they can be ready for the recess term matches :-)