Catch the last two games of the World Cup at the Annandale Hotel this weekend. Turkey plays South Korea in the third place playoff on saturday night, while Brazil faces Germany in the Final on Sunday night. Balmain Rovers will also be there for a post-match beer from about 5pm on a Saturday afternoon. Come and have a beer with us and support one of the best pubs in Sydney.

For a full rundown of weekly activities at the Annandale, including the great food Drew and the team at the Nosh Pit put on, click on the image below -

Balmain lined up for this game with a few old faces making welcome returns. Browny was back in goals for the first time since 1982, and Glenn was back to shore up the defence, not having played since just before WWII. He lined up beside Old Man Fackerell, fresh from the Veteran's march that morning, with Mrs Nicholas cutting shrubbery on the right and Potter Yeung mowing the lawn on the left.

Fortunately midfield were a youthful bunch. Bamford, Mackie, Jones and Haining were fresh from playing in the Under 11s game that morning while up front were the husband and wife team of Mr and Mrs Liney-Agafonoff.

The game started well for the rag taggle mish-mash of former mushroom smoking jebogies known as the Rovers, with Mrs Liney-Agafonoff combining well with the forceful running of her husband and opening holes for the youngsters in midfield to exploit. Indeed it wasn't long before Mrs L-A (Roberta to her friends in the AWCA, some of whom were on the sideline swooning over the substitutes) scored a typical net busting goal. She celebrated in customary style, planting a big kiss on her husband's cheek.

Young Mackie, whose voice was in the process of breaking, then rattled in a second for the Rovers (actually it was Rob Liney - ed.. Jones, that adorable little tyke, was causing mayhem on the sidelines and was soon to scream in another goal. The youngsters, ably assisted by the father and mother team up front, were running rampant. Indeed young Jones was to be horrendously tackled by the opposition, causing puberty to set in three years early! His assailant was suitably reprimanded by the referee, who dismissed him with a wave of la carte rouge.

Meanwhile at the back, Old Man Fack and Sergeant Bacic were keeping a tight ship. Browny's sciatica was playing up again, so was playing out the second half in a wheelchair, while Mrs N was doing a lovely job on the rhododendrons. Potter was rambling on to anyone who would listen about how things were different when he were a lad. Potter being Potter Yeung was then removed from the field by men in white coats, and led off in an ambulance, grumbling about how this shouldn't be done to a man of his standing. Soon after, Mrs N came off, having broken her shears, but left us with a job well done on the rhodos. Glamour models Mikee and Pier made their entrances to the rapturous applause of the AWCA.

Quickly the new arrivals started strutting their stuff, and Rovers slammed in a couple more goals thanks to the boyish enthusiasm of Haining and the endless running of Bamford. Mr Liney-Agafonoff was inspirational, although without the attentions of his wife, who had been substituted, he became a lot more flirtatious with the opposition's cheerleaders. He finally scored on the pitch, after making more than one move off it, and also set up toddler James for his second. Ally, in between smokes behind the sheds, scored twice to bring his personal total for the season to seven and Rovers' total for the game to be likewise. The old fellas at the back did themselves proud, not only with the gardening, but another clean sheet kept.

The Pele Points go to:

If football is the beautiful game then we were playing something else at Callan Park on Saturday. At times it resembled that game played in India or Pakistan with the elephants and the giant ball. One of the opposition players even ... nah, I can’t say that, can I? That’d be un-sportsmanlike.

We created a couple of early chances, but all too often were caught offside, and in general, the opening 20 minutes will not be remembered fondly by anyone there to witness it. We were still the better team somehow - or the lesser of two evils if you like - and after some good work down the right by Clem, and some comical errors in the opposition defence, the ball found its way to Paul Millard, who slotted home the first goal.

The second goal came not long after, when Patrick raided down the right hand side. The goalkeeper - whose style was reminiscent of Manuel from Fawlty Towers - gathered the ball, and the attacking move seemed to have broken down. His clearance, however, went to an unprepared teammate on the edge of the box who was dispossessed, and the ball ended up ricocheting around the goalmouth, eventually falling to Martin Hofman who volleyed home from close range.

Not long before half time we conceded a free kick about 30 yards from goal. One of the opposition defenders strode up and curled a lovely left footer beyond Ammon’s reach into the top right hand corner. It was a goal the moment it left the boot, and was totally unbefitting such a poor game.

In the second half we went forward plenty of times early on, but the offside bug was well and truly caught, and we hadn’t the guile on this particular day to find a route to goal other than the long ball - apart from one barnstorming run out of defence by Eddie, who then put Millard through on goal with an incisive through ball, only for the day’s other malaise, poor control, to ruin another good chance. It was endemic throughout: poor control (and passing), and only Kon really looked in touch for anywhere near the full 90 minutes.

The opposition then had a period of dominance, and from another free kick we were saved by some brilliant keeping from Joey, who replaced Ammon in goal at half time. Not long after, we had a corner which wasn’t cleared, and the ball looped up high around the six yard box. Martin was on hand to out jump Manuel, and it was 3-1, eventually the final score.

I thought the game couldn’t get any uglier, but was proven wrong when one of the opposition players punched Ammon in the face, pushing his front teeth back where they don’t belong. After the dust had settled, he seemed not to think he’d done anything wrong and refused to leave the pitch. Surely a punch to the face has long been a sending off offence in football, so I’m not sure why he found it inconceivable that he’d been red carded.

The Pele Points go to: