Island Bay United AFC

Kia ora all and welcome back to Shark Park for this weekends senior games which pit La Bella Italia IBUAFC against Miramar Rangers 2nd XI in the Capital Premier fixture whilst the IBUAFC reserve team play a key fixture in Capital 2 versus another team who like to, and can, knock the ball about in the Waterside Karori 3rd team.

This week's instalment of A Word from Gunez (AWFUG) is brought to you by the letter S and the number 4. S for shark park time folks and 4 for the number of goals it would be nice to score this weekend. As always we bring some light hearted banter at the senior lads and various others' expense, this week we highlight the MULLET of Josh 'Lomu' Notman.

It's just friggin awesome!! Looking at the older players (JB, Dave Wiggins, The Masters and Ferruccio's motley Mob) of our club glimpse his way in retro angst-envy at its Lomu mullet-ness and the modern modification tapered in to give it that 2008 cutting edge only possible thanks to the emo generation of upside down mop haircuts is absolutely hilarious, and sensational.

This great hair piece is complemented in turn by Giuseppe with his Gianluca Vialli hair style (Vialli you will remember had the polished baldy dome, only Italians make this classy) and 'Seppe is mentored by the guy with the rare yet sensational Italian Afro Mike (Moose-o) Musso. His hair is just ginormous and has been likened to a Jewish Afro; similar to one BORAT would grow. Mint!

With the exciting games on show this weekend it is, well, pretty exciting stuff really. This is what football is all about; the hard work at training has enabled the top three IBUAFC sides to get out there and shark attack the net on frequent occasion so far this season, already an impressive 97 goals combined from 37 games. This has allowed the lads to be competitive week in and week out, pretty much all Deano, George and Rusty can ask for really. All is spiky in Kina world.

So lets hope this kudos doesn't jinx the lads this weekend and with this weekends' opposition, we have two opponents to respect yet beat through hard work and an attitude to playing good footy in the process.

Last week, Rod Knee Varga slammed in a late penalty versus Wairarapa to give the first team a lifeline, then an even later into the game penalty saw the milkman, milky, two milks, steve-ooooo remain as cool as, well Scott Styris his twin albino brother and slot home the equalising goal, yeyeah!!! Nice work under pressure fellow sharks, and good fighting spirit shown by all players as well.

It was good to see a large crowd @ Shark Park and the lads didn't let them down effort wise against a Wairarapa team who were very sharp, quick and unpredictable in attack. The flair Rabo and Seulemon provide for Wairarapa is challenging and good to play against, indeed the Polynesian and Melanesian style of football is one AWFUG feels we need to learn from and intermingle with the other qualities that make athletes from Aotearoa good at sport.

With Lai and Petero donning the Shark Shirt for us, we have also the chance to experience the skill and strength that accompanies the flair in our little south coast community, this is cool. Watching other Pacific Island players such as Benjamin Totori and Alex Maemae you can see why these guys (and girls) have heaps to offer footy in Aotearoa.

We progress to Euro 2008. A fantastic tournament with deserved winners and most teams endeavouring to play an exciting brand of football ala Spain, Netherlands, Turkey (*cough cough* Dave Plowright), Russia, Croatia and dare it be said the Germans who AWFUG feels created a lot of chances, were involved in some good games and played at times some great football. Or soccerrrrrr as our Yankee Doodle cohorts like to call it.

A rare confession and a correction for a typing Goose (moose, Bruce? No, MOOSE-OOOO), an apology goes to Mr. Cruz who it was said last AWFUG issue missed a hat load of chances. It was in fact Mr. Gomez from Germany. Mare, who writes this article fit for reading while on the bog eh!?

The hairs may not be full mullet material these days, but the warhorse (sea-warhorse) and our editor in chief and all round superhero Paul Muollo fired up the other week. For those who may be unaware, for the guy with 360+ 1st team appearances is not one to rise his voice is about as common as All Black World Cup wins.

AWFUG has no idea what this was about actually, but a rumour has it that when Petero stole his party trick and ripped out a mean bicycle kick last week Muollo was gutted as he wanted to show all why he still rules the south coast. Probably the biggest roar at Shark Park in seasons came post that overhead kick!

Actually no, that honour was reserved for the naked run of none other than the bays favourite can of Fanta pants, the ginga ninja some years back. Apparently doing a helicopter and hanging upside down like batman on the cross bar at midnight is awesome fun!! Hey whatever rocks your boat!

Shout out to one of our international readers, 2006 reserve squad player of the year Marty Montague Junior, good to see you cuz and safe travels. Also a speedy recovery to past IBUAFC footballer Illya McLennan, who climbed a tree at his mates' house, fell off and broke his back, bad buzz. In typical Illya fashion AWFUG reveals he has written a story on Spacebook about how, when he can move again freely, he will get his can of gasoline and burn the tree in a ritual ceremony. Heh, some things never change eh!

Remember it is nearing the end of the season, don't forget to have a night or two down at the clubrooms and have a quiet think on if you can spend 3-4 hours, 3-4 times next year and volunteer in some capacity at our club. If you have idea's for functions or whatever, see Lisa (Gibbon, I mean Gibbo) or either of Sammy boy Hooper or Sonya especially the younger lads at the club who wanna party and socialise, fair enough too! Kudos to Sand-shark Sandy Pawson for organising IBUAFC Hoodies.

Good luck to all IBUAFC teams playing this weekend, the women's 1st team have a tough away clash against North Wellington away this weekend, go girls! Can Rusty's crew win again, will the 2 teams in Capital 9 win and leap up the table, and in Capital 13 will the Piglets and Vauxhalls play and win ala Spain this weekend? All will be revealed folks after 90 minutes so get out there and have some fun, go hard and see you in the clubrooms afterwards.

Peace
GUNEZ

Labels: july