The Byki Over 30 Team received a serious jolt last Saturday when Gato Verde administered a clinical 6:1 thrashing at Montrose & Cumberland. The Byki could hardly find any positives to bring back from a match where almost nothing went right for them on either side of the ball. The Byki are 2-1-7 for the season.

It should have been a day for the Byki to take the field with confidence. “We had a very productive training session on Thursday,” said coach George Gorecki. “The guys played with intensity and we showed very well in scrimmages with the Senior teams. I don’t know if we have ever been more ready to play.”

The rehearsal looked a lot better than the performance. Gato Verde needed just three minutes to take the lead, dominated ball possession and played a harassing defensive style that put the Byki on the back foot for the entire match. The oldboys are starting to set higher expectations for the team, but are those expectations realistic?

Gato Verde broke out on top in simple fashion. A fullback blasted the ball downfield, sailing over everyone’s heads. The Byki defense scrambled to gain control of the ball, but a Gato Verde striker got there first and slid the ball past Dean Fukar to give his side a dream start after just three minutes.

The Byki needed only four minutes to reply. Delfino Zacarias sent the ball to Eric Tower, who spotted Jakub Banbor open at midfield. Tower played the ball quickly and Banbor attacked the Gato Verde defense head-on. He floated a pass for Maciej Kekus, who had gotten behind the defense. The keeper came hard to make a play for the bouncing ball, but had no chance. Kekus neatly flicked it over him into the empty net. Kekus leads the Byki in scoring with five goals and five assists.

But that goal was like fool’s gold for the Byki. Rather than play the patient ball-possession style that the team has been working on at practice, the Byki played the long ball at every opportunity, hoping to spring Kekus or strike partner Chris Cardenas. Other than some brief flurries, the Byki attack was mainly toothless, giving the ball away easily.

Gato Verde’s pressure certainly had a lot to do with the Byki turnovers. As the Byki sprayed errant passes all over the field, the gap between the defense and the midfield got larger and larger. Gato Verde exploited this expanse and kept the Byki on the defensive for long stretches.

The match settled down after the early scores, but the Byki always seemed to be chasing the game. Gato Verde made it pay off right before halftime. The Byki were unable to close down a striker as he came down the left side of the area and slammed a shot past Fukar to make it 2:1.

The job facing the Byki in the second half was plain and simple. Better ball possession would be the only way to get back into the game. The Byki came out with renewed purpose after the interval and changed the momentum in the early going. Some smart, incisive passes turned Gato Verde defenders inside out, and Kekus and Banbor were not far off target on two occasions.

But Gato Verde kept their nerve and then added to their lead in the 46th minute. They came fast on the counter and the Byki were slow to react. Fukar made a great save on a point-blank shot, but was powerless to stop the rebound.

Gato Verde came knocking on the door in the 56th minute. A free kick from 25 yards whizzed past the wall and Fukar’s sharp reactions allowed him to get a hand to the ball. Three minutes later, the poor marking of the Byki came back to haunt them yet again, as they were slow in reacting to a Gato Verde counterattack. A shot from short range made it 4:1.

Gato Verde hardly slowed down, as the Byki looked like a beaten team. They sliced through the defense and scored two easy goals in the final minutes to give them their final margin. Just when they needed to find the energy to fight back, the Byki appeared to have no fight left in them.

BYKI LINEUP
(4-4-2): Fukar – Klimaszewski, Pedlow, Moore, Gorecki – Tower, Zacarias, Treter, Jedrzejowski (c) – Banbor, Kekus. Bench: Cardenas, Cooper, Silverstein, Tsipris.

BYKI SCORING SUMMARY
Kekus 5 (Banbor); 7th; 1:1.