Travelled to Midland for the first game of the fall regular season. Being excluded from DA means that many of these games might not be that competitive, but, this is one of the exceptions. I’m expecting a good game.
And it was a good game; we won 1-0.
Wasn’t the most satisfying of games; the boys had been practicing some strategies for offense and didn’t put any of that practice to use during the game. It might have helped; the scorekeeper had us with 21 shots on goal and our goalie with only 2 saves….
(no camera for this game, so, photos taken from the video. I liked this field; set downhill from where the parking was, so I set up the camera on top of the Odyssey and stood up through the sun roof to get a nice angle…..looking at the video I was zoomed out too far at times though)
(these two photos are one right after the other…Matthew plays the through ball to Nigel on the left there)
Matthew played center mid in the first half, spend the first part of the 2nd half at center back and then moved up to center mid when he came back in. Had his best chance of the day early in the 2nd half on a corner….he ran into the middle, and then circled around to come in again on the far side…..and the ball made it all the way through the box and he one-timed a shot right into the post!
One more interesting thing…you learn something new everyday...and Matthew and I learned something new about soccer rules today. We score in the 2nd half, and the teams line-up for the kick-off….and the ref calls for Matthew and walks over and talks with Matthew and Coach Stu. I see the ref make a gesture that makes me think that Matthew has over-celebrated after the goal and the ref is delivering a warning…so I’m not very happy as the game is ending because I am a firm believer in ‘act like you’ve been there before’ when you score.
Turns out the story is a bit weirder than that….the ref (an old crank who is the kind of ref who wants to be the center of attention….always talking to the kids and thinking his job is to teach the game not enforce the rules) is warning Matthew not to say ‘mine’; there was a ball in the air in the run of play before the goal and Matthew called it by yelling ‘mine’……and well, I guess, by the rule, you’re not allowed to do that…you need to say your name or something.
The rule actual says something like “….it has never been a "foul" to call out "mine" when going for the ball, but it is misconduct and subject to a caution and yellow card for unsporting behavior if, in the opinion of the referee, the player's action was intended to deceive an opponent unfairly. Just calling out "mine" is not misconduct.”
Matthew says he wasn’t trying to deceive. Coach Stu was trying hard not to lose patience with the ref.
Coach Stu Says:
| 1ST HALF SUMMARY |
| We did not pass the ball around the way I had have hoped in perfect playing conditions. Everything was very rushed and we tried to play the ball in behind the opposition and play forward quickly instead of playing the ball side to side and backwards when it wasn’t on. We were way too direct and that is fine to do every now and again against teams when we are under too much pressure but we didn’t do the direct style very well either. Every ball we played was under-hit and we coughed up possession too many times. As the half went on we created a few good chances when the full backs got involved going forward. However most of the chances we created were from one or two quick passes and being pretty direct. |
| 2ND HALF SUMMARY |
| The movement off the ball was much better in this half with our spacing and positioning being much better. However we still did not pass the ball to feet, too many passes in front players, especially in the middle of the park and this again lead to us giving the ball up. We made a few mistakes in the central defense as when one defender stepped the other must drop and we let the opposition in behind a few times. We created three or four chances with some good through balls after we switched the formation to a 4-4-2 and got the goal from the two strikers linking up and what a finish!!! After we scored we kept the ball for the most part but the boys need to learn a little more gamesmanship. If its 1-0 with a minute or two to go we shouldn’t be sending our center back up for corners and we should be able to play short throws and hold the ball in the corner. These are little things we must be able to do at the high level we want to be able to go. |
| OVERALL |
| Not a very good performance from the boys. We MUST be more patient with the ball and play forwards and backwards and Switch the Ball. We have so much athleticism and we know that we can beat teams 1v1 so we are trying to force the ball. This us not the style the boys or I want to play, however we just are not patient enough right now. The boys seem afraid to switch the ball or getting open 20 yards away. We are crowding each other out to much with our movement too the ball. The boys need to have the same confidence we had in each other at 8 v 8 and give each other more time (less defenders drawn in) by giving better options off the ball. |
| GOALKEEPER: A good save when called upon. Needs to demand the ball more and get us playing through him more. |
| DEFENDERS: Gave away the ball too quickly and didn’t open up to switch it as well as I would have liked. Also a little off with when to step and when to drop at times. |
| MIDFIELDERS: Sloppy in possession and tried to force the ball too much, the levels of communication where not at the level I want and we need to trust our skills and keep the ball for longer periods during the game. |
| FORWARDS: Movement wasn’t as sharp as I would have liked and didn’t play the ball backwards quickly enough. Need to get better at the check, lay off spin. |
