Walking Football Spain - Benalmadena

Woohoo football is back.. not the stuff played by millionaires on TV ! WFS-Benalmadena, ok we might have a few millionaires but we’re not on TV 😉

After 8 long weeks for those who didn’t play over the summer we were back with a bang… it was great to see and catch up with lads we hadn’t seen because they don’t let the riffraff into their gated communities 😉😂 but we spoke, shock hands and chatted about the World Cup, the Championship and stuff…

Then we played some footie.. Your match day referee was John 🧑‍🚒

The teams lined up as follows -

The Reds
Steve 📢 in goal, Dave 👑, Darren 💴, Prak 💈, Mark ⚽️, Kev 🌲, Keith 👻, Yoza 💻, Majid 😊

The Blacks
Eddie 🥅 in goal, Fez 🐶, Tommy 🔫, Mark 🐦, Henning 🇩🇰, Pete 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿, John ⚡️, Kevin 🔨 , Paul 🚂

It was a hot morning at the Poli and the teams looked a little out of balance in terms of ball players, the reds clearly had the overload across the pitch… but the blacks had grafters and a willingness to chase shadows…

it was a 9v9 affair so there was little room on the pitch for manoeuvre hence the Reds advantage playing some lovely 1 touch football and keeping possession… the Blacks kept grafted away..

However it was the blacks that opened the scoring with a well worked corner, played short to Mark 🐦 who let off a shot heading towards the bar, Dave 👑 decided to get in the way and it took a looping deflection over the keeper Steve 📢 and into the net…

1-0 Blacks

We then played a few quarters with no change in the score but some neat and tidy beginning of the season football being played..

Corner to the Reds it was flashed across the box and up popped Dave 👑 with a first time finish passed Eddie 🥅, 👑’s description after a few Victoria’s in the bar included how he ran and smashed the ball home 😳..

1 - 1

The Blacks tried to play some football from the back, but the Reds high press was good and a poor across the box fell to the feet of Darren 💷 and he calmly slotted passed Eddie 🥅 - this was Darren’s 4 game of the week 👌

Ok so the Reds now in front 2 - 1 and the ref John 🧑‍🚒 spots a Black player entering the box… 🫣 Up stepped Mark ⚽️ surely he scores… Eddie 🥅 save it !

The game opened up a little and the Blacks had a number of break always Fez 🐶 on his return from a long term injury had 2 guilt edge chance one on one’s with the goalie but spurned both…

With time ticking towards the end of the game the Blacks were awarded a corner Fez 🐶 nipped in front of Yoza 💻 the latter in an attempt to get in front entered the box… The Ref 🧑‍🚒 didn’t hesitate and pointed to the spot..

Controversy as Majid 😊 (also a ref) vehemently disagreed and in doing so was shown a 🟨 then 🟥 🤯

The penna stood and Fez 🐶 dispatched it 2 - 2.. So the Reds played the better football and it was good on the eye.. the Blacks dug in and got a decent draw..

Everyone played their part today and it was an enjoyable game other than a small blip right at the end, it was played in the ‘Spirt of the game’ which was good to see and play in and set the standard for the rest of the season, players will quicken with a few games as the rustiness will be gone…

Rightly or wrongly the refs on field decision is final let’s have another great season at the Poli accept and respect that decision..

Hopefully there will be gas to pump the b**r next week 🤣🤣 but the cans / bottles of Victoria refreshed the lads partaking in the after match social…

Dates to remember Wednesday 16th September beach party ! Details on the website and chat pages.

See you all Monday for another game of what we all love ‘Footie’ UTB

The season opener brought 33 players out with game 1 hosting a few game 2 regulars to balance out the numbers

We lined up 8v7 with reds having the extra man, but blacks had more of those game 2 players

A good game of football was played out with not too much running and lots of respect for each other and self declared fouls that the ref missed, Spirit of the Game at its best.

Unfortunately for reds their keeper was restricted to his area which led to blacks first goal. The ball was heading to keeper Sean but without enough pace, this allowed Paul to collect it and score 1-0 Blacks

The next 2 phases were goalless with some missh*t shots, good saves and general back and forth

Eventually more goals were scored with Dave 🦉bagging a brace and the game ended 3-0 blacks

It was good to see Dave 🦊 back as ref following his replacement hip op during the Summer, hopefully we'll see him playing again.

Shout out to Bambi who managed the whole game without one complaint and unlucky not to score for reds

How Malaga returned to La Liga after dropping into Spain's third tier After tumbling from the Champions League to the depths of Spain's semi-professional third tier, Malaga are back in La Liga after almost a decade away.

The final game 2 of the season was a warm one, a hastily rearranging of players saw Sean shoved kicking and screaming across the divide to balance the teams.

Dasher was also drafted due to being a bit too quick for game 1, though at 80 he certainly should be proud to be moving at such pace.

Blacks lined up with Prak in goal initially, Mark G sweeping, 🚖, Colin and Mark 🌲🌲 across the middle with Alan and Dasher up front.

Reds started with Keith in goal, 🐝, Maj, Kev, Sean and Danish duo Henning and Henrik all interchanging their positions

The goalscoring got underway, not sure how. I seem to recall Keith with the ball in his area and then 🚖 had scored. 1-0 blacks

Sean, now in goal, well that's where he should have been, saved a Dasher shot giving away a penalty, but a goal post, Seans leg combo kept out the penalty and follow up.

This whole report could be subtitled "The Dasher Show" he had multiple shots at goal and was successful on 2 occasions making the score 3-0 blacks.

The game ebbed and flowed with Sean earning the Golden Gloves for his sterling display between the sticks, a post match decision was made by the tall glove man to ditch all of them given the petri dish qualities of them.

So we reached the end of the match with no more score and a few b**rs were consumed to mark the end of the season

The 🦊 summarises the last game 1 of the season

Monday June 29th.
The Line Ups.
X Blacks X
H 👮‍♂️
Ton 👨‍🍳
Steve 🎸
Terry 🦹🏼‍♂️
Cesar 🥗
Steve 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
Geoff 🦔
Mike 🐊
X Reds X
Fred 🧩
Bambi 🦌
Garry ✈️
Ian 🔬
Pete 🐟
Graham 🍽
Dave 🦊
Martyn 🩺
Ref .... Fox

With Mark ⚽ dropping out due to maintenance requirements on his apartment the grumbling Big Irish man 🍳 moved to game 2, which meant once again 🦊 had to step into Game 1, and this time, staying in goal.

Looking at the size of Black Team, I thought the Reds were in for a tough game but it didn't work out that way for a while.

Both keepers, Steve 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 and 🦊 made good saves in the 1st period, keeping the score nil nil at the drinks break.

Into the 2nd period the Reds took the lead and in fact went 2 nil up.

I've no idea who scored, possibly Garry ✈️and or Martyn 🩺.

However the Blacks pulled one back through Terry 🦹🏼‍♂️.

The 3rd was being played with some good football by both sides.

Notable in this period was the Reds had 3 attempts on goal in 3 seconds, with Steve 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 in the Black goal making a triple save by his torso, hand and face.

Into the final period came the goal of the game.
The score by now was 5-4 to the Blacks.
The ball was played to Geoff 🦔 on the edge of the goal area. His effort, hit the near post bounced of the far post and came to the feet of the 🦹🏼‍♂️. 🦊 made it back across goal. But 🦹🏼‍♂️ simply dragged the ball back and flicked the ball into the net from behind him. Nice goal Terry.

No doubt all his customers got to hear about it in great detail too...😉

The game ended 6-4 to the Blacks, with pretty much everyone knackered. It was hot out there.
A good game, a good goal Terry🦹🏼‍♂️

But MOTM goes to Ian 🔬🥇
He played well out on the right for the Blacks. Nice touches, good one twos. Tracked back and worked well...

Post game b**rs were drunk and Maria of Grada8 Sport Bar was presented with some flowers for looking after us all season

Hope to see you all in September.

ROAD TO THE FINAL 🏆

England now know exactly how they can get to the World Cup final having topped Group L. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Can they go all the way? 👀

25/06 season Game 1

The season almost over and with an afternoon of frivolity to look forward to in the Dog with 2 Heads (San Juan celebrations) some minds were elsewhere 😳

A 6v6 turned into a 7v7 when Henning arrived unannounced… 🦊 who was just reffing pre KO reffed and played for the Reds..

So we now had 7v8 😉😉 if you know what I mean.. The side show was Gary ✈️ just making KO having flown an Easy Jet A320 in from the UK… still wanting to beat Fez 🐶 a 5€ bet was shook on !

Fez opened the scoring and registered ⚽️⚽️..

Gary replied with ⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️ and walked away with the 5€ well done Gary !

Henning smashed in a number of long range shots to keep the scores bouncing along and it could have been anyone’s game..

Bambi put in another good performance and scored a good goal…

🦊 playing and reffing made sure the game remained in the favour of the reds 😳😁 doing his injury no favours he marauded round the pitch showing his pre injury enthusiasm…

Ton stayed wide and scored another superb top corner goal probably keeping up the average of 1 per game throughout the season..

H normally dependable between the sticks was left as the last man on many occasions and with Gary fired up to out score Fez his goal was peppered with cannons from Gary’s right boot with little chance ! His on field play was good passing out from the back..

Pete had another smashing game down the right for the reds getting in last ditch tackles, moving the ball forward and following up for a lay off which lead to his fine strike and goal..

Mexican Cesar making his debut started well for the blacks but faded after 30 mins in the Spanish heat of walking footie he thoroughly enjoyed it and will go from strength to strength when acclimatised to the pace of the game.. welcome amigo 👍

Graham put in his usual performance working hard to win the ball back twisting and turning and setting up team mates..

Steve again another really solid reliable high energy performer rounded of his game with a fine goal..

Dasher for the reds was pulling the defence left and right making room for Gary’s thunderbolts scoring a fine brace himself..

Sean spent a fair chunk in goal and Gary owes him at least half of his winnings as he kept out a lot of Fez’s shots taking one on his tender bits at pace from close range.. the outcome should have been a penna as a Red player entered the box 🤷‍♂️ come on ref 🫣

Finally Kevo another fine display in goal, defence & midfield topped off with the goal of the game. Playing one twos he advanced towards goal when over the halfway line let fly into the top left hand corner… the reporter directly behind watched the ball arrow top bin !

With Gary’s total of 7 and Henning on 5 and goals from almost every one else the game finished Reds 12, Blacks 10.

It was another pleasurable game with players all playing within the spirit of the game and making it enjoyable for all..

Thanks lads my last game of the season, albeit one left as I head off for wedding anniversary celebrations with my wife.. yes H I know you don’t need to details 😂

It been a very fast season and we’ll soon be back in 8 weeks.. get your rest then build up with some exercise to the start of the season… also enjoy a few 🍻🍻🍻 UTBenalmadena

Ref/goal keeper/team selector/match reporter Dave 🦊 brings us match 1.....

Lets just write the things I can remember.

Picking the teams , I made a mistake of getting the 2 Martin/Martyn mixed up. So up stepped the Fox to play in goal for the Black side keeping it a 5 aside game whilst Martin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 played in Game 2.

Dasher 💿 made his debut for the Reds. An 80 year old record producer, so Steve 📢 told me, showed some nice touches and neat turns. Possibly a little to much running but I guess that's why he's named Dasher 🤷🏼‍♂️

So what do I remember about the game....!

Graham 🍽 missed how many goals....?
At least 6 im sure... in fact he ran into the goal on one occasion.

Steve 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 looked panicked at what was about to hit him, when Graham put the ball wide. I say wide, did it go out for a throw in? He fell to the floor exasperated. That in it self measured 4.6 on the richter scale!

Fox made a few good saves early on for the Blacks and as did H 👮‍♂️who replaced him.

Ton 👨🏻‍🍳 hit a shot at goal only for H to punch it away. NASA called to say it was just passing over Australia.

Terry 🦹🏼‍♂️ and Ian 🔬linked up well going forward for the Blacks.

Steve 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 in goal for the Reds made good saves, especially the pile driver from Graham, leaving him gasping for air.

Fish played well with the space he was given as did Bambi.

Goal of the game came from Ton. He picked ball up on the right, took two steps and blasted the ball across the face of goal, into the top left corner. H 👮‍♂️ simply asked his team mates. "Were did that go?".

The game ended with the Blacks worthy winners by 10 goals to 6.

I honestly can't remember who scored the goals. I think everyone did except Steve 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 and the Fox.

A fun game played it great spirit.

Just a note worth making. Bambi plays a much better game when he's not shouting at players.
Keep it up Bambi....
Dave 🦊

The temperatures raising and the numbers gradually falling as we enter the last few games.

Sean was moved to the fast game so it was a balanced 6v6 and once everyone was wearing the correct shirt colour we kicked off with reds playing some controlled keep ball.

Reds lined up with Daves 🚖 and 🐝, Alvin, Alan Tommy and Steve

Blacks lined up with Sean, Keith, Prak, Martin, Colin and Kev

With the heat and multiple water breaks the early exchanges were a good advert for the game without too much running.

The scoring was eventually opened when Keith scored. 1-0 Blacks

The second goal was simple if not by an unexpected source.

Colin having found himself up front and missing hadn't returned to his usual defensive position when the ball suddenly was at Keiths feet who passed back up field to him in an unmarked position with only Steve to beat, which he did on his second attempt 2-0 blacks

Its fair to say that for all the blocks Colin makes when it comes to football skills he still lacks many.

Reds were back in the game when a pass out from Sean to Colin in the middle, who waited for the ball to arrive, invited Alvin to nip around the static defender and drill the ball into the net 2-1

Sean had come out of blacks goal, but the man whose kit looked like it was assembled from lost property topped off with his knee protection held together with electricians tape returned there due to knee twinges.

Reds were passing with confidence but shots on goal were either off target, blocked or saved by the outstretched legs and arms of Inspector Gadget Sean.

Keith was having a game to remember having scored one and assisted one, he eventually secured the match ball with a further two, sandwiching a goal by Kev.

He even had time to be bundled to the ground by Tommy who was binned for 2 minutes.

Alvin in reds goal had a moment of panick, he saved, but that momentum keepers seem to find, brought him out of the goal with the ball somehow avoiding his arms and managed to scramble himself and the ball back into safety.

It ended 5-1 blacks