Casuals played two games yesterday evening against Scarborough College from the UK. Against the College’s U18 Girls team, the Ladies established a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes; Scarborough came back strongly in the second half but, despite reducing to 2-1 from a penalty corner 5 minutes from time, they were unable to find an equaliser.

The U18 Boys then played their Scarborough counterparts and, despite having more of the possession, found themselves a goal down just before the interval. Casuals increased the pressure in the second half and managed to squander a quite amazing number of scoring opportunities: they were further frustrated by some very good work by the Scarborough keeper. It was only 3 minutes from time that they finally put the ball in the net for a 1-1 draw.

It was therefore a great shame that tonight’s return match had to be cancelled because of torrential rain.

The U15 Mixed team played their first match against Casa Pia A this morning. Although Casuals had most of the early play, neither side were able to score before the interval. Halfway into the second half Casa Pia opened the scoring and, when they made it 2-0 five minutes from time, things did not look promising. But Casuals pushed hard and earned themselves a 2-2 draw with two goals in the last 4 minutes.

In the afternoon the Men had a torrid time in their match at Futebol Benfica. They were 1-5 down at the break, with their only goal coming from a penalty corner. Even with their keeper saving a penalty, they were unable to get their game together in the second half, and Futebol Benfica managed to score four more.

It was a busy weekend for the Casuals, with four matches and a surfeit of goals! In the newly devised joint Ladies and U18s league, the two Casuals teams played each other yesterday morning and, although the Ladies played well in patches, they were no match for the U18s who won 6-0.

In the lunchtime Men’s match against CAMIR, the Casuals were simply too strong for the visitors, winning 11-0. It was good to see more imaginative forward play from the Men, with goals coming from several good passing moves and the scoring shared between 6 different players.

The Veterans went down 2-4 to Belenenses in the afternoon.

This morning the U18s played their second match, this time against Viso Ladies. They clearly found this game easier, slotting 11 goals for a convincing win.

The Men travelled to Lousada today for their second league fixture. Against strong opponents, the game got off to a bizarre start: after 5 minutes the score was level at 1-1, from two own goals. After 10 minutes, Lousada had pulled 2-1 ahead, only for Casuals to level again with a great reverse stick shot from the left side of the circle. Despite several chances on either side, there were no further goals before the break.

Lousada started the second half strongly and, after breaking the deadlock with a fierce penalty corner, they stretched their lead to 5-2 on 53 minutes. But it is a sign of this young Casuals team that they then took the game to their opponents: they finally converted one of their penalty corners and were unlucky not to be awarded a penalty stroke for a fairly blatant foul on a forward about to shoot with the keeper stranded. Even a diving shot as the final hooter sounded was unable to narrow down the final 3-5 score line, but there were many promising signs in this display against last year’s champions.

Lisbon Casuals Men’s team played the first league match of their new season against Viso today. In persistent rain at the Estádio Nacional, they opened the scoring when a finely judged diagonal ball to the far post was converted with a spectacular diving tip-in in the 8^th minute. The same player was on hand to make it 2-0 when the keeper’s save allowed a close range shot from the rebound, but shortly before half time the visitors pulled a goal back from a loose ball in the circle.

It was 15 minutes into the second half before a fierce Casuals cross into the circle found a defender’s stick for an own goal to extend the lead to 3-1. An excellent free hit from just outside the Viso 25 found an attacker at the post for a cool tip-in and, despite several chances going begging, the final score remained 4-1 to the Casuals.