The good news? 1) Matthew’s knee, while swollen after the game, held up just fine. 2) Team played better, a few signs of improvement could be seen.
The bad news? 1) We lost 3-0. Still no offense to be found. 2) One of the goals against us can be largely pinned on Matthew.
I’m not sure of the exact order of these three photos; the first two are by one person and the last one is by someone else…..
Played Center Defense most all of the game; didn’t come out of the game at all in the first half. Did well, made one big mistake (the ball was between him and a teammate, and instead of calling it he hesitated, and his teammate hesitated, and the Canton player took the ball and went right by Matthew for the wide open shot on our goal.
You’ll note the blue wide receiver gloves….it was a cold cold day on top of the hill at the soccer complex.
Matthew has really gotten good at misdirection; he can totally look one way and kick it on target another. Here, I think it was kind of silly, he was taking a free kick and was racing up forward to take the kick….and then faked it and with the heel of his foot passed it back to his teammate.
Aside from the misstep, I was pretty happy with Matthew’s play. We had talked about being more physical because the other teams were; he had a few instances of holding his own as they were shoving and pushing and was called for a few pushes of his own. We talked about doing what his coach wanted; if he was on defense he needed to move up (and move the defense up) to support them….he did OK here…the coach still had to yell out a few times to remind Matthew about this….
He had a few nice possessions that could have ended with some nice passing and didn’t…..oh well….wish he had made some nice passes because passing is an issue with the team right now….
Gave him my cap for when he was on the bench…..he wore it on the field in the 2nd half and dropped it off at the bench after his head got warm.
One more game, next Saturday, and then 2 weeks off before the playoffs, where we have to be odds-on-favorites to be out after the first game. I guess, in the end, am I happy with Matthew’s development this fall?….yes I am. Does winning matter?….no. It’s a nice plus though….
