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 Hachioji Park, Sat 26th April.
Two goals from Keisuke propelled BFC to a 3-1 win over Sala, sending them into the Footy Japan Cup final and keeping them on course for the double.
BFC even spotted Sala a head-start, courtesy of some batty defending. As sweet a corner as it was from the right, Toby Long could have brewed a cup of Earl Grey and cracked open the Garibaldis such was the time he was afforded to head Sala in front, albeit somewhat against the run of play.
 BFC were without a goalkeeper for this game and stand-in Phil Lowes (not so much sticking to his goal line as two feet behind it using the net as a hammock), at least looked the part fishing the ball out and punting back towards the centre circle.
BFC's reply finally came midway through the first half, Carlos Aranda's curling free kick beating Sid Lloyd, who went up like Worzel Gummidge and wafted a straw hand at the ball, only managing to guide it in off the underside of the bar. Two hands surely better than one, Aunt Sally.
The league leaders, only playing in the semi-final after the Swiss had fielded an ineligible player in the quarter-finals, then took a deserved lead when Keisuke snaked between two defenders and calmly rounded Sid (at this point literally on his knees pleading for Allah, Buddha or anyone remotely divine to rescue him) to score.
Jon Day could have made it 3-1, heading a teasing ball from Taka over Sid, who got some intervention this time from the crossbar.
Driven on by Guido, Sala made a fight of it but BFC's defence were giving little away. Set pieces looked Sala's best way back but BFC survived several free kicks despite an inability to hold the line on the edge of the box, a glitch which could yet prove costly in the team's remaining games.
 Pablo Pomares, taking over from Lowes in the second half and looking for all the world like a toddler wearing his dad's pajamas, was spared the ignominy of picking the ball out of the net at least.
Some wonderful one-touch football from BFC in the second half threatened to blow the floodgates open, Day firing wide and Evans dithering at the end of a fine run with players lining up for a shot to his left.
Keisuke added a third for BFC with a goal reminiscent of Nani's rocket against Liverpool at Old Trafford this season, cutting in from the left to slam the ball past Sid, who could have done little had he not been momentarily dazzled by the tail-lights of an alien spacecraft.
There was little of the fire and brimstone of previous BFC-Sala meetings, Paco sagely pointing out this could have something to do with the absence of Yamagishi and Himmer. OK, Yamagishi wasn't mentioned.
 A potential flashpoint arrived late on via the unlikeliest of sources, Brian Doyle, who launched Sala's substitute into touch with a British Rail tackle -- very late and really quite dirty (stale crisps and old Bazooka bubblegum down the backs of the seats, mouldy dandruff flakes on the head-rests).
How Doyle escaped yellow was a mystery, although his reputation for sending birds home by taxi at 2 a.m. instead of frog-marching them to his bedroom in a half-nelson may have saved him.
BFC move on to play Hibs in the final, the men in green ending the fairytale run of Steve Taw's young YCAC tigers after coming from behind in a 2-1 win.
A league and cup double remains in sight for BFC but they will have to do it the hard way with Hibs in the final and Sala to come again in their final TML fixture. Pot pourri!
Report by BFC
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