We are slowly making our way through the Vardar Soccer Club this spring; lost to their A team 3-0 last Thursday. Play their B team, Vardar Red, today. Play their affiliate, Vardar South, later this year.
Anyway, we played these guys last Fall and won 4-1 (Matthew had a goal) and I’m hoping we come out and just control this game like I think this group of boys needs to start doing.
Not so much. We win 2-0 but we score the two goals in the last 5 minutes.
(we always like when Matthew is in the middle of the field with the ball; here, he has worked his way past the four kids behind him and the kid closest to him is about to foul him from behind for the free kick)
The bright side? Last year we lose or tie this game…..because we, I guess, are 12-13 year old boys we play, a lot, to the level of our opponents. And the other team did some different things to negate our strengths. I guess the good news is our new coach seems much more willing to switch things up on the fly in response to the other team’s actions and we did pull it out in the end.
Will give Matthew high marks for his work in this game. Thought the boy worked hard and helped to get his team into some very advantageous positions. Still playing, when he is in the game, the #10, the attacking center mid.
TEAM: 02 Boys blue VS Vardar MI RED
RESULT: Won 2 0
ATTACKING
ATTACKING STRENGTHS
The determination we showed towards the end of the game. We continued to get players forward, created a couple of half chances and whipped in a couple of dangerous balls in to the box.
ATTACKING CHALLENGES
Exploiting the sweeper that Vardar Red had. With 1 v 1 situations in the wide areas, we had to find away to use this situation to move the sweeper out of position. They had a deep line, which meant clever build up play was needed to draw the opponent out of position. We showed some good examples of this, but didn’t do enough.
DEFENDING
DEFENDING STRENGTHS
I thought the two centre backs were defensively sound today. #4 and #5 (the outside defenders) were left exposed during the final 15 minutes as we pushed to win the game. But I felt they defended well and I was pleased for them and our #1 that we kept a clean sheet.
DEFENDING CHALLENGES
Vardar Red played with two strikers for much of the game which meant the #4 and #5 needed the #6 to hold and screen as well as the #3 and #2 to tuck in and outnumber the pair of strikers. As I said previously, we left the #4 and #5 exposed and I was disappointed with the way we defended as a team today.
OVERALL COMMENTS
Today I felt the team started poorly. We sat back and invited pressure towards us and struggled to connect passes together as a team. I think Thursday evening’s efforts contributed to the slow start and the first half was certainly a difficult watch. However, credit must go to the players, they found a way to win the game late on and this could prove to be a very important win. During the game I felt the effort was there but It was one of those games were our best efforts were simply not good enough and to reflect on the game and see a 2 0 score line in our favour, we can count ourselves lucky.
