A lot of league games to start the year; both Saturday and Sunday games for the first 2 weeks. Sunday’s game is at home against Laforza.
Everything the team didn’t do right on Saturday they did do right on Sunday…..lots of passing, combinations, crosses, and teamwork results in a 6-1 win.
Again, no nice camera at the game…..so pictures are from the video.
Matthew spent the whole game at center-back…and played 90% of it…never came out in the 2nd half. One of the points of focus for this game was obviously switching the ball across the field…Matthew has just received the ball from Zane on this throw-in (backwards, as opposed to my CASL instruction of always throw the ball forward….enough skill to do that now…but, oh, what I wouldn’t give to have a do-over on some coaching at an earlier age) and is about to send the ball all the way across the field to begin the attack.
Matthew had an assist, off a corner kick, on the third goal of the game. The picture is of him celebrating with the goal-scorer, Austin. Click on the picture above for the short video.
(These two pictures are of the same sequence in the second half. Matthew has stepped up and relieved that brown-haired kids there of the ball….and the brown-haired dude and his friend in front of him are now trying to get it back.)
Well, the 2nd picture shows how that worked out….Matthew has beaten both of them (one kids is now fixing his shin pads as the play has gone by) and has passed the ball upfield (you can see the ball on the midfield line and the guy he is playing to do behind the blue kid on the far right….). I clipped out these pictures and then had to go back and watch to see how the pass turned out….Matthew hit it strong (if you read the notes from Saturdays’ game, Coach Stu was not happy with under-hit balls) so that kid and another kid ran onto it and we ended up with a decent chance on goal that went high.
Matthew was on the field and may have been a little at fault for the one goal we gave up; I’ve mentioned to Matthew that we will be watching that video so he can see what I was talking about….
Coach Stu Says:
| 1ST HALF SUMMARY |
| Well we started as we left off the day before. Sloppy in possession and did not pass the ball around with any composure or purpose. After we made a host of substitutions we played much better. The boys on the bench could see what we were doing wrong and executed much better. We became more patient with the ball and this helped us open up the opposition more. We scored a few nice goals from set pieces and a very good goal when we swing the ball one way then cut back in and played it across the other way to the open right midfielder. The boys seemed to be communicating a little better as the half went on and looked in control. |
| 2ND HALF SUMMARY |
| Started the half off very well. Moving the ball around well and players were buzzing around showing for the ball and we created a few chances. We conceded a very sloppy goal where we allowed the to play in to the box to a striker who was allowed to turn and get a shot off. I was more then disappointed with this. Then we played some good stuff resulting in us scoring from another set piece where we played the ball off the left back to a shot. The game got a little sloppy as we stopped moving the ball around with the same urgency. Then we picked it up again and started driving from the wide positions and cutting inside and setting up chances and goals. |
| OVERALL |
| Much better performance. The boys are going too take time put it all together and it is such a big field that at times we are going to just lose are style but its how quickly we can settle back into it. The boys just need to be more patient and be willing to keep the ball more without forcing the play. |
| GOALKEEPER: Good job and two or three very good saves. Still want you to be more mobile and moving underneath the center backs to help s switch. |
| DEFENDERS: Switched the ball much better (aside from first 10 minutes) and started looking to move up and help us build. A few mental errors that we will address this week. |
| MIDFIELDERS: Much better movement off the ball and the boys were a little more patient. I still think we need to swing it through them more and we need a little more creativity in there at times. Also need more quality shots from distance here. |
| FORWARDS: Good movement off the ball and recognition of when to pass it and when to drive at the opposition. Got some great crosses from the wide forwards and the link up play with the striker was much better. |
