Adecco MOM BEFC vs El Diego - Ben Palmer

  • Adecco BEFC Man of the Match Award - Ben Palmer vs El Diego

In the last match of the season and sayonara game for two BEFC legends Cael Husband and Rafael Moyano, the BEFC's irregulars crushed an undermanned El Diego in blazing sun, a 'double rainbow' and possibly the fastest BEFC hat trick in memory.
The build up to the final game became consistently farcical with many players unavailable and followed by a last minute reshuffle with availability changing at the speed of a Swansea FC manager.
On the day, the realisation that El Diego shared the same shirt colour caused panic with away kit lent to the Ladies team. Thankfully Jorge Marenco was able to pick up the away kit after work but just to up the ante of chaos a power line had fallen onto a major train line forcing the match in 30 degree heat to kick off 30 minutes late!

Thankfully all of BEFC's team managed to arrive as planned, but it seemed that even with the later kick off time the opposition was under-staffed with around an 8-man squad. Playing with 8 men in normal circumstances is hard enough, but under blazing sun one can imagine it was going to be a bad day for El Diego. Also with both men upfront for BEFC that day not known for giving out any mercy, BEFC cruised to a 15 - 1 hammering with El Diego's only goal given by the referee as a penalty for a rather dishonest hand-ball claim from the tired out and sole Diego striker. While it was nice for them to earn a consolation goal it was one without much dignity...

When it came to Man of the Match nominations there was the prospect of deciding how to do this sensibly considering the match circumstances. However due to a somewhat statistically unbelievable performance almost as mad as the pre-match circumstances it came down pretty easily to not require much in the way of the nominations. The team laughed and waved in their captain's direction with the comments of 'you can write whatever you like'.

A few days before the match Ben Palmer was marked down as taking on 'Captain's Burden' in the absence of a true keeper and playing in goal, before regular keeper Yusuke Ino became available last moment. This moved him to the subs bench until he could figure out better placement. Then the day before, unfortunate circumstances caused BEFC to lose the league's top striker Kentaro Takahashi, propelling Palmer to then take up the mantle of leading the line of the most potent attack this season in the TML!

BEFC Manager Keith Crowley had always said Palmer should play striker, but the ability to prevent goals always positioned him beneficially for the team at the back. Not many current BEFC players remember Ben Palmer's debut at BEFC as a winger, and third top scorer behind Ryota Ito and James Pounder. Having played regularly stopping strikers as centerback and also numerous times as back up goalie Palmer was relying on his knowledge of knowing what he really hated when trying to stop goals -- and use that on the opposition defence in his new striking debut. In an even further addition to the comedy circumstances the day before at the BMW International Golf Challenge, Palmer had related to James Pounder the match situation and having to take over from Takahashi unto which Pounder replied 'Go and score a hatrick'.
--- Palmer didn't disappoint with possible the fastest hat trick in BEFC.... Twice!

With nothing like the silky skills of Takahashi, Palmer is more like the 'Hound of the Baskerballs', hungry for goals and stalking defenders as prey. From the opening whistle Palmer and Alo Sakk decided to practice the concepts of high pressing, defender harassment and bursts of channel running. The first goal came as Sakk challenged for a header in the box with two defenders, and Palmer waited to pounce on the anticipated knock down toeing it past the keeper before anyone else could react. This shortly followed by Sakk pressing a defender, with Palmer lurking nearby 'sharking' for the defender's reaction. The defender under pressure didn't notice the 'shark' and the moment he passed back to what he believed to be the open keeper, Palmer was already sprinting through onto the ball and blasted it beyond the Diego goalie. Then with more sustained attacking from the hard working Katase and Walton on the wings Palmer got his shoulder onto a driven mid-height cross that flashed through the six yard box as he challenged the keeper for position. No glamour here... just goals.

With 20 minutes more to play and feeling a little embarassed with the carnage Palmer subbed himself before coming back for a short stint as a leftback 5 minutes before half time. Not restarting on the pitch after the break it was around 15 minutes into the second half Donald Freeke subbed himself off and Palmer replaced him at right wing. It was an almost instant repeat of the first half with a hat trick in less than 15 minutes but with better goals. Picking up a switched ball on the right with space in front Palmer went for the Gareth Bale kick and rush special, getting enough speed to pull full olympic sprinter style dash to get to the right of the box. With defenders trying to position and the BEFC attack screaming in looking for the final ball the El Diego defence opted to give him enough space just to cut inside and power a curling strike into the roof of the net from just inside the area. Then followed more great build up play down the flanks from Marenco, Kuroda and Katase before Palmer made a late arrival in the box to stab in a cutback. The attacks continued unrelenting and without mercy, with again great work from Katase on the left wing to trouble the full back and get the low cutback in. Palmer who arrived to attack the box on a dummy run was calling to Katase to cut it behind him to Sakk who was lined up for a clear strike. Katase instead decided to cut the pass to Palmer who reacted instinctively crashing it with his off-foot to the right of the goalie. That was the second hat trick (aka The Double Rainbow) in the space of 15 minutes. After that Palmer retreated back into a defensive position and then once again subbed himself off the pitch before the final whistle.

Now to be clear, there is nothing particularly remarkable about beating a team with a 3 man disadvantage. However it's the statistics for Palmer's second appearance ever as a striker for BEFC that makes silly reading. One hat trick in each half, in the space of 15 minutes each would give something like a goals per minute ratio of 1 goal every 10 minutes. He took six shots and scored six goals adding to that a 100% strike rate. Then considering he the spent most of the rest of the match on the bench is why his team laughed when it came to nominations.

For the 'Double Rainbow', the fastest BEFC Hat trick (twice) and a 100% shooting percentage all from a regular center back, the Captain leading by example: Ben Palmer is the Adecco BEFC Man of the Match against El Diego in the final match of the season.