It was like watching Brazil, er I mean Ecuador, er no sorry I meant Columbia!

With nine new players today things could have gone horribly wrong but in the end we ran out comfortable winners and played some Samba football to boot!

After waking up at 7am still drunk from the night before I somehow knew that this game would be interesting and my feelings were confirmed as we pulled up at the Bush Ranger to be greeted by a whole posse of South Americans, all of whom looked bright eyed and well up for the game.

Initially I thought we would only have five South American players after our friendly with them last Sunday so I was somewhat surprised when nine of them turned up, especially as it was 8.30 in the morning!

This meant I had a squad of 20 players to choose from which must be some kind of record and I spent most of the drive to Farnborough wondering how I was going to give everyone a game.

 We arrived in Farnborough at 10am and the opposition were already changed and on the pitch warming up. After introducing myself to the South Americans and taking name checks I had a fair idea what position everyone played in and decided to play the first half with as much as a regular team as I could and we lined up as follows

GK : Carlos in goal as Woody was running late 

RB : Weeman

CB : Orville

CB : Tina

LB : Task

RW :  Nick

CM : Brian

CM : Donny

LW: Slouch

CF : Sharkey

CF : Camilo AKA Limey

We kicked off slightly late as Tina / Orville and Nick were lost somewhere around the back streets of Farnborough with the kit, thankfully their GPS kicked into action and they rolled into the car park around twenty past ten which gave us just enough time to get everyone changed and warming up on the pitch.

After a few minutes strecthing the game began and things started well after Camilo slotted our first goal with a nicely taken shot to the keepers right hand post. Sharkey soon followed that up to make it 2 - 0 nil and it pretty much stayed that way until the second half with ASB dominating much of the play.

It was at this stage that my management skills were tested to the full as I attempted to give everyone a game. Tina came off for Rodrigo, Brian was rested for Robinson,  Anderson came on for Nick, Manuel came on for Weeman. With so many changes I was worried we may have disrupted the side but in all honesty we just got better and some of the one touch passing and movement from this point on was simply sublime.

The back four looked solid and played the ball out to feet, feeding the midfield who were all making various penetrating runs all over the pitch.

Most of this half is a blur to me as it was attack, attack attack, almost all of which resulted in a goal. memory and me have never been best mates so I cant really recal the nature of each goal.

Things that do stand out for me however was Robinson scoring a hatrick on his debut including a 40 yard lob of the keeper, Sharkey linking superbly with Camilo and scoring a hatrick, Camilo getting his second, indeed he could have had four or five, Julian scoring another 40 yard lob this time from an acute angle and then watching Woody who was bored to death in goal swap with Frange to play left back. It was total football and a pleaure to watch. Camilo, Anderson and Robinson all danced their way around defenders in the box attempting to set up Rob but alas his finishing deserted him and he just couldnt slot the ball home. If he had he would have gone home with a hat trick.

 Our new South American additions are all very tasty players with great attitudes and if we can keep them playing this season we should all be in for a treat! Our connections with South America are growing, what with Diego the Brazillian last season we can now add Paraguay, Ecuador and Columbia to the list. If the Swedish Rs had come over like they promised ASB could have been mistaken for a UN footy team.

So in the end the result was 10 - 0 and you had to have some sympathy for Farnborough who worked their socks off and never gave up and played some decent stuff of their own when they had the ball, but in the end it just wasnt their day and to be honest we were simply on fire!

Special mention must go to Immy who drove all the way to Farnborough only to get himself lost two streets away and then give up and go home!

Man of the match for me was a toss up between Sharkey, Robinson and Camilo, anyone of them deserved it if I am honest.

See you all next Saturday for the cup game against Hampton.

Cheers

Inga