Scotland (6)* v (6) England
By Judith Kirszbaum
REIGNING Homeless World Cup winners Scotland beat England in a penalty shoot-out to advance to the semi-finals of this year’s tournament.
Federation Square saw one of the closest games today as the Scots upheld their reputation, winning after a 6-6 draw at full-time.
The game started off extremely fiercely with both teams determined to win. Inside a minute of the first half, English captain Ryan Nash and their start striker Dominic Holvor had scored the first goals to put England on the board.
These early goals forced Scotland into an immediate strong set of attacks which made English goalkeeper Martin Hall duck and dive around the net, resulting into some tremendous saves.
Scotland's Michael Branna was putting in some hard work, pelting the ball at the goals but just skewing his shots wide. His attempts paid off when he scored Scotland's first goal with a beautiful shot into the corner.
Scotland's Kevin Begley was pushing England back, forcing for another goal by Alec Wade. Shortly after, Stuart Black took advantage of Hall on the ground and pushed the ball past him straight into the net bringing the scores level at 3-3.
England's Holver scored another goal as the buzzer went for half time, taking the lead by one goal.
After half time, it was a battle of goal scoring that left the crowd in anticipation of who would score the next ball and the players worried as the game could go either way. Holver and Branna were the main goal scorers for both sides.
England's Abdinasir Said Ghese Gaal and Nash put up a good defence by making a wall just in front of goalkeeper, preventing the ball from passing. England's goalkeeper was brilliant and quick on his feet, pulling off some near impossible saves.
And as the rain came down, so too did England's hopes of securing a place in the semi-finals of the Homeless World Cup.
At the 6:45 mark of the second half, Holver scored a goal, taking the lead for England again by one goal. Just when it was thought to be England's game, Scotland scored a final goal at 6:55 to force England into a penalty shoot-out.
Pressure was high for both teams as the shoot-out is sudden death. Nash scored the first penalty shot for England and Wade followed suit by punting the ball in for Scotland.
Unfortunately for England, Holver stumbled and missed his goal. Scotland's aim was near perfect and managed to push the ball past Hall, making the game theirs.
Photos: Photoworx
