One of the things about the upcoming year that excites me is that Matthew’s new coach apparently has no life…..he sends out detailed post-game reports on how the team performed and sometimes scouts his team’s opponents.
Wasn’t hard for him to scout ( T ) since we play games in the same town; heck, we saw him at two of the games. I have a copy of the scouting report, and wanted to post chunks of it here so that, like many other things, I have this for all time. Matthew hasn’t seen it (he has heard about parts of it) so I’m sure sometime later when he reads it he will find it interesting.
OPPOSITION TEAM ANALYSIS
TEAM NAME: ( T ) 02 Red
GAME DATE: 2 games in late April and May
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Game one hard Rain and Game two sunny and no wind! MOST notes from game two as this will be closest too this weekend game (Hopefully)
FORMATION:
2-4-1 / 2-3-1-1 (sometimes Center midfielders played attacking and defensive depending on the pairing up).
KEY PLAYERS:
(26) Central MID (Matthew) Arguably their best player. He has nice feet and tries to get the team to play the game the right way. Is not the fastest must get tight with out diving in and he wont easily beat you. Must apply pressure and make him play on his left foot as often as possible. Scores goals for them
(13) Central MID (Jake) Similar to 26 tall and strong and likes a shot. Not as skillful but must try to force him to play wide and not bear us going forward.
(10) STRIKER (Cam) is s clever little player upfront but we just need to make sure we get tight and make him play backwards. He is happiest when running forward. Good at stop starts and fake shot’s…. don’t dive in!!!
(4) Central Defender (AJ) Probably their best defender especially the way they set up as two central defenders. Doesn’t deal well with the quick one two’s and is not as fast as our attackers. If we can drag him out of position is will leave the other defenders (not as good) isolated then we will have success.
(3)(6)(1) WINGERS (Henry, Nick, Zane) All fairly athletic and can take players on! Like to fake and then beat you and like to run downhill (be direct). Must stand them up and force them to use their skills rather then athleticism. However challenge their first touch by getting tight and forcing them backwards by arriving as they get the ball!
INDIVIDUAL PLAYER ATTRIBUTES:
· Direct style of play. They like to run at opposition. Generally a very direct style to the wide players.
· Most players can shot and cross the ball well if given time on the ball.
· Fake shots and turns to create goal scoring chances (must stand players up)
PATTERNS/STYLE OF PLAY:
The team plays a pretty direct style of play and looks to get it wide as quickly as possible. Centre mid (because there are two) can move up the field and they seem to create a lot of goal scoring chances from finding them higher up the field from crosses or diagonal balls into them. If we play a high line they will also try to hit a direct ball in behind or across field and try to stretch the field with their athleticism.
SET PIECES
· Kickoff they play direct and look to hit it on between our defender and midfielder and run at us. Be aware of this and win that ball into the channel.
· Corners and free kicks (did not see many) They look to hit the back post and have tall athletic players that can head the ball. We must mark up well and make sure we have an appropriate player to mark! Preferably tallest players on tallest and leave others free to attack ball and find it to clear!
AREAS OF STRENGTH:
· Fairly athletic. Can shoot from distance.· Speed in the wide areas.· Two strong and tall players in the midfield.
AREAS OF WEAKNESS:
· Play with two defenders. Very vulnerable to balls into strikers feet and then back then wide! VERY vulnerable to the ball into the channel for the striker to run onto!
· Players are quick-(ish) but do not react well to 1-2s. If we do this higher up the field we are in for some exciting attacking soccer.
· Strikers can’t hold up the ball very well and want to turn up and face players. Must make them play backwards.
· Goalkeepers punting and Goal kicks. Defender will sometimes take goal kicks, If this is case leave striker high and look to get it to him as quickly as possible. Punting tries to play wide but will miss kick a lot must attack balls in air quickly!
· GOALKEEPER. Good at crosses but poor at everything else. Spills shots and miss judges long-range efforts. We must follow our shots in! Very obvious he has not GK training so we must play on this fact! If we win kickoff we will shot from first kick just to wake him up
KEY POINTS FOR GAME DAY:
Defensively
· Must keep our holding shape from the midfield and watch the late runs into the box as we are dealing with one more attacking player then we are used to!
· High starting position from goalkeeper, as they like to play long balls in behind. As they get closer must drop a bit to be set fro shot.
· Force the striker and wingers to go backwards by stepping up to them. They are not as confortable knock the balls around as us.
· Don’t dive in on number 26 he is tall and athletic and can move the ball quickly for a big guy. Stand him up and force him to use others around him how are not as good on the ball.
Attacking
· Know where we want to go before we receive the ball.
· As last week playing into the channels will be eye today! This will expose their two defenders and cause them to not be able to mark the weak side and force them to waste energy in quick transitioning back.
· Must swing the ball quickly through the midfield, as we will not have as much time on the ball centrally today with playing 2 central midfielders.
· Play forward backwards and forward again. This will help expose their organizational faults and hopefully help us show off our more athletic attacking play!
