Peña Compadres 5 - Marbella Paraiso 0

A great performance by the Los Compadres team against the visitors from Marbella Paraiso, who put on a good battle, but only had one real shot on goal thanks to some great defending by Yousef, Moreno & Miguel.  This came from a free kick in the second half, which was well executed, but the goal was denied by a fantastic save by Benito.
German opened the scoresheet after just a few minutes, followed by an incredible free kick conversion by Yousef.  John did a great job in the midfield, despite being closely marked throughout and Jorge made some good attacks up front.  Sergio was also marked tightly, but put on a great performance and lined up a couple of great passes in front of the goal, converted by Moreno and Juampe.  Manzano also scored a brilliant goal from a fast ball down the right wing.  The whole team gave it their all from start to finish and definitely deserved to win these important 3 points .....well done! 

Half time : 3-0
Full time : 5-0
Goal scorers : German, Yousef, Moreno, Manzano, Juampe

Tiro Pichón 0 - Peña Compadres 3

A well contested match, which went into half time with no goals, although Peña Compadres had mostly dominated but with a few missed chances. Sergio Esteban opened the score sheet by scoring from a penalty shortly after the start of the second half, and then scored a second goal as the Compadres visitors started to find their form and put together some good attacking moves.  The third goal was a cracker from Antonio, to secure these important there points for Compadres.
Half time : 0-0
Full time : 0-3
Goal scorers : Sergio Esteban (2), Antonio

John does well at the Centre of Excellence 2010 in Colchester

After a busy four days of football in Colchester, John came back happy to report that the training and match had all gone very well.  He made some new footballing friends and really enjoyed the experience of the English game - and playing on grass... with metal studs as the ground was very soft and muddy.  He really enjoyed the drills in practice and was delighted to be chosen to start the match on Sunday against Wycombe Wanderers.  It was 9-a-side, so another new experience, and the match was played in four "halves" of 20 minutes each.  Colchester have invited John back in the Summer to do some more training, so watch this space for more news!

Colchester United 5 - Wycombe Wanderers 3

A great result for John's first international invitation! 
He was very pleased to start the match, and made a worthy contribution - as well as being involved in some great team moves, he did a spectacular save to keep a clean scoresheet to keep the lead at 2-0 after the first 40 minutes.
Half time : 2-0
Full time : 5-3

John trains at University of Essex

John heads back in from a great training session on the grass pitch of the University of Essex in Colchester, on a very bright but cold day.  The training was taken by an official FA coach, which was a fantastic experience, and as a Man Utd fan, John was very impressed when he heard that he used to train Wayne Rooney! 
By chance, the official photographer was also there for the Saturday training so John got some mug shots taken - we will post them on the blog when we receive them.

Peña Compadres vs Malaga CF - Suspended

The match had barely started when the clouds opened and torrential rain soon flooded the pitch.  After just a few minutes, the decision to suspend the match was an easy one to make.  John was in England this weekend to train with Colchester, and was sorry to hear the weather in Marbella was so bad, but delighted to not have missed the match!

New boots for the grass!

John needs some metal studs for playing in the grass ..... don't suppose they will look that nice and shiny for long!

Shrub End Community Centre training

The Centre for Excellence U11 coach Phil welcomed John to his first training session with Colchester United.  As always, John couldn't wait to get started, even though he had just flown in from Málaga.  It was cold, but clear, and the two hour training went very quickly.  Unfortunately it was getting dark, so there weren't many photo opportunities!

John Wallace heads for Colchester

The Colchester United Centre of Excellence invited John a few weeks ago to go to have some trials, do a bit of training and play a match with the U11 team, so John is heading off to England today on an exciting trip!  He will go straight from Stansted airport to the training ground at Shrub End this afternoon, and then train again for two hours on Saturday, before playing a league match against Wycombe Wanderers on Sunday.  Good luck John & play well!

John writes about the match against El Palo

When we got off the bus all of the Compadres team were looking forward to a hard opponent on a very wide and short pitch. The pitch wasn't like most pitches that we play on because it was made of dirt. Not just the pitch but also the ball was not the ball we would normally play with.The ball was black and white and it also was an old fashioned ball. Anyway when we got off the coach, we got relaxed as we watched some of the little kids play 7 a side and that got us relaxing for about 10 minutes. We then walked up near the changing rooms and we also watched some shooting from the younger kids. 5 minutes after that we were in the changing rooms having a quick talk to relax the team. The coach said to get our shorts and your socks, so we did that. We all put on our shinpads, our socks. our shorts and also our boots,but there was one thing missing that was the shirt. The coach Ramos then said the shirt numbers - I was number 4. After we got our kit on we jogged out on the pitch for a warm up so we could really feel how the ball moved and how to run on this pitch as it was a pitch that we didn't usually play on and one that we weren't used to. Kick off was coming closer and closer as day went into night. For a moment the pitch wasn't that bad it was just dirt but when you fall it hurts a bit. The match was 4 minutes away as we did our pina. Pina is when we shout and it gets you more enthusiastic. The next minute we all got in a line and we gave a high ten to Ramos and when we did that we would jog on to the pitch. The first one in the line was Javi because that night he was going to be captain and I was in 2nd.

THE MATCH       
1st Half
 
The match got underway at 7.00pm at night. The crowd were cherring it was amazing. The game went on as El Palo got away with a good and decent start. El Palo had a couple of early shots which didn't test our brilliant goalie Leon. That wasn't just it but Los Compadres had some shots which weren't on target. Suddenly in the early stages of  the match El Palo got the ball from the centre of the pitch and went round one of our players then he hit the ball with all his strength as it hit the post and went into the back of the net, as some of the Compadres players were shocked to see the ball go into the back of Leon's net with his dad behind the goal. 1-0 to El Palo. As the time was approaching to half time El Palo got a second which made the Compadres fans unhappy. 10 minutes before half time one of the Compadres players switched the ball to the other side of the pitch as a mistake from one of the El palo defenders left the ball right on the penalty box for Mr Wallace to strike it in the back of the net which beat the El Palo goalie, it was a brilliant goal which John got for Compadres to get them back in the game.

2nd Half

As the 2nd half got underway Los Compadres came out as they would win the match but that didn't happen as the ball came to the left wing where one of the El Palo's players skilled 2 of the Compadres defenders Moreno and Yousef as the left winger slotted a nice toe punt into the right hand corner of the net which beat goalkeeper Benitez. In the next 5 minutes El palo got another. then another. Then another in the space of about 13 minutes Compadres seemed to sleep. Then misery for Compadres as Javi had to come off after he got hit by the hard black and white ball but it was nothing it was just really really painful as Javi came off. Then the 6th came from El Palo which got Compadres really worried. On the other hand with about 7 minutes to go a pass from Moreno to Sergio Esteban as Segio slotted the ball to Manzano which got Compadres a goal but it was just a good goal that didn't really much mean anything but for some of the Compadres fans it did. As the ref blew the whistle the score ended El Palo 6 Compadres 2. As Los Compadres went in the changing rooms they were upset how they played but they all have to have a clap for competing against a strong side on a dirty pitch which didn't really suit Los Compadres. As they all got on  the bus they all looked shattered after they played well on a hard dirty pitch.There are still games left and also points so it's all to play for. Next  Compadres game vs Malaga at home.