Hi everyone,
Hope you’re all well.
On Saturday 9th September - one of the hottest days of the year! - the Sidemen hosted their annual charity match against the YouTube Allstars. The past two times I attended the matches they were held at Charlton’s The Valley stadium, but with an increase in ticket demand this years was held at the 60,000 capacity London Stadium home of West Ham United.
The main objective of the match was to raise as much money as possible for the selected charities – Teenage Cancer Trust, Rays of Sunshine, Brightside, Calm and M7 Education.
The Sidemen began these matches in 2016, with their most recent being in 2022 after a few years break. Last year they raised over £1 million, with this year’s match being on a larger scale they would’ve been hoping the money increased too. As well as the Sidemen themselves the match attracted big YouTube such as ChrisMD, Filly, Chunkz, Mr Beast, Theo Baker, and even a few relatives in Manny and Deji. Along with the main mission the charity matches give rare opportunities for YouTubers to play on Premier League pitches, with the London Stadium being even more special for West Ham fan Ethan aka Behzinga!
I’m going to pre-apologise for the length of this match report, there were a lot of goals!
SDMN FC leave their charity match victorious after a 8-5 win over YouTube Allstars, raising a whopping £2.5million on the day!
It was the Sidemen who got the game underway, with Miniminter taking the first kick of the game. Though it was the YouTube Allstars who had the opening chance!
TBJZL had his pockets picked in the middle of the pitch before Theo Baker was released, on route to goal he played a quick one-two with Kai Cenat but the rest of the work was purely by him. His eventual shot after a drive towards the box went narrowly beyond the far post.
The previous Allstar duo linked up again, this time Baker playing a through ball to Cenat. The American Twitch streamer did convert his shot past KSI in the Sidemen net, but he was seemingly unaware of the rules with the flag up for offside keeping the scores level.
One of the Sidemen’s own WroeToShaw, began their first attack of the afternoon picking up the ball in midfield. Their number 77 found Behzinga who with Zerkaa’s support worked his way up the pitch, he got past Max Fosh and Jidion at ease before coming up one-on-one with XQC. Despite the quality increase with the goalkeepers, the West Ham fan got the best of the keeper at his home stadium and buried the ball in the far netting to begin the scoring. The shirt came off and his arms automatically went to the classic ‘Irons’ position as the whole stadium erupted with happiness for him.
It didn’t take long for the Allstars to find the equaliser. ChrisMD who had rebecome a red this year received a fantastic long ball from Yung Filly, the number 10 weaved his way past multiple men in black and white (even through the legs of CalFreezy) before finding space for a finish into the bottom corner.
Unfortunately Theo Baker had to be stretchered off with a hip injury, so hopefully he has a speedy recovery!
As it was a charity match some moments it was clear they were YouTubers, but other times both teams played some great football particularly Angry Ginge and ChrisMD.
Just before half time last years Man of the Match Miniminter got onto the scoresheet to put the Sidemen back ahead. Receiving a ball over the top from Manny, Sidemen’s number 7 managed to hold his run staying onside before taking a good touch and finish into the bottom corner.
During half time there was a performance on the pitch from Manchester’s own Aitch to get the crowd hyped up.
Early into the second half duo Chunkz and Filly linked up with the latter originally trying to find room in the box for his own shot, but opted for the better option of playing the ball to Allstar’s number 21 on the edge of the box. After taking a single touch Chunkz took a shot and with the help of a deflection found the back of the net bringing the score back level.
Much like their quality last year, the Brown brothers came alive in the second half with Manny in particular being a key player for the home side. Just one minute after Chunkz’s goal Manny used his pace to get down the wing before playing the ball to Miniminter in the box, the number 27 continued his run receiving the ball back in tons of space on the edge of the box and found his finish to put the Sidemen ahead once again.
Miniminter was again involved in the next attack and the goals continue to flow. Expressing his skills the number 7 knocked the ball over the head of Jidion to create space for himself, Miniminter went for goal himself but his attempt was blocked, only into the path of Manny who on the follow up got his second goal of the day.
The drama kept on coming, this time in favour of the Allstars. Danny Aarons got past Mr Beast near the biline where ChrisMD picked up the ball, he did well to keep the ball on the pitch but was brought down by WroeToShaw and awarded a penalty. Just to make it a bit more dramatic Allstars manager Mark Goldbridge subbed IShowSpeed on to take responsibility, the teenager – whose name echoed the stadium - ran up to the goal with only KSI in the way, but his shot was weak and was an easy block. The American - who was already on the floor upset - got violated even more by a Ronaldo style ‘Siu’ by KSI himself.
From the subsequent corner Allstars did manage to pull a goal back from an outside the box wonder shot from Fosh.
KSI, who was in goal due to his upcoming fight, started to get bored between the sticks and venture outside of his box. He was almost caught out after losing the ball and leaving his goal empty but the recovery from Cal Freezy prevented IShowSpeed from scoring in an empty net.
Manny picked up the ball on the edge of the box and played the ball up field searching for his older brother, his pass was a little too heavy going into the path of XQC. The goalkeeper made a mess of his clearance knocking it into Jidion, in stepped Tobi to knock the ball into an empty net.
Just a few minutes later the Sidemen hit the Allstars on the attack again, Fosh similarly made a mess of his clearance playing it straight to Tobi. Moving up field at pace the number 21 linked up with younger brother. Manny, who was arguably the best YouTube footballer, finished the move off after creating room for himself and finishing into the back of the net for his hattrick to be complete!
Despite his many (and I mean many!) chances, including tackling KSI in the box and only being able to hit the post, IShowSpeed couldn’t score regardless of the support he had from both fans and fellow players!
Linking up with his fellow Beta Squad member Niko, Chunkz worked the ball into the box before taking a shot. A shot which seemed simple enough for KSI to collect, but the number 69 dropped the ball and on second attempt rolled over the line with the ball in his hands. Despite his protests an own goal was awarded to the Allstars making the score 6-4.
KSI was called to action almost immediately as ChrisMD sent a powerful shot towards goal, for not normally being a goalkeeper the sideman made a fantastic save to stop the scoreline being changed.
With just over ten minutes on the clock and everyone on their feet there could only be one man on the ball in a dangerous position, Vikkstar123! Being played in down the wing by Tobi, he drove into the box before pulling the ball back into the path of WroeToShaw, with a lovely finish he found the back of the net from just inside the box.
Although he wasn’t able to get on the scoresheet himself, Allstars’ IShowSpeed assisted the real mayor of London Nico for their fifth and final goal of the afternoon.
Manny was almost gifted a fourth goal as ChrisMD’s clearance went straight into the path of Manny, but making up for his mistake the Allstars number 10 cleared the ball off the line.
The final action of the game saw the Allstars once again mess up a clearance allowing Tareq to score the final goal of the afternoon, seeing the game end 8-5 and SDMN be crowned champions.
After the game ended there was a trophy ceremony on the pitch where the Sidemen were given the trophy for the second year in a row. Overall a great afternoon in the sun with lots of goals and an entertaining match! To top the day off it was announced over £2.5million was raised on that day alone which is absolutely incredible.
After such a great turn out I’m sure the charity match will be back next year, but until then my next game is Aston Villa away on Saturday so look out for that post.
If you’ve got this far, I thank you very much!
Ellie Xx
