What a difference a week makes!
Today we played the State teams at Thunder and it was fantastic football for all to see. The Under 14s started off really well. We possessed the ball brilliantly and the skillaroos were on the chase from the outset. Shannon, Agim, Jordy, and Liron worked hard in defense and Tom Rotin in the 10 was fantastic. Ray was dangerous up front and Lovel was on fire! In fact two wonderful crosses from Oscar found Lovel in 1 V 1 situations and he was fantastic - putting two goals in the back of the net in the first 20 minutes, both from about 20 Metres out. We were dominating but for some reason after a 2-0 lead we relaxed? We gave the skillaroos the opportunity to break back and they did with precision. As soon as it was 2-1 they gained great confidence and stared to use their 7 and 11 well. Within minutes it was a 2-2 game and all that great work was wasted!
I was a bit upset at the half - as we had let them into the game because the passing had stopped due mainly to the fact that the talk had stopped. Was this tiredness or lack of fitness? We started off slowly after the kickoff and made some bad errors in distributing the ball out of defense and they scored a 3rd goal. We made some changes and I put it fairly on our forwards to work better. We then had a great shot from Oscar and we were at 3-3. Now we seemed to be more confident and AJ was working so well with Lovel, Tom Rotin, Oscar, Ray, Agim and Jordy. Our defenders tightened up on their opponents who now were not getting any easy kicks. With about 5 minutes to go Oscar scored a brilliant goal to put us 4-3 and we held that lead for the game. A much better performance and maybe this will kick start the season after last weeks miserable showing against Nunawading! Even though we have 5 or 6 players playing below their capabilities we are improving as a team. Well done boys!
The U18s took on the senior NTC who had almost won the league last year. They had a few younger folks but they moved the ball very well and were extremely confident on the ball especially in 1 V 1 situations. But we started like a runaway train - almost within 5 minutes we missed 3 goals from (literally) directly in front. It was very frustrating. Our midfield with Nanton, Alex and Nate were working very hard as was Nic who always gives 100% of himself. I admire that lad for his work ethic. We were tending to use the central corridor too much and taking too long to shift the ball laterally - something we had worked on in training. This meant we were wasting our 7 and 11 and not getting them into the game. Eventually Alex scored a great goal, but, as I said, we were leaving our 7 and 11 high and dry. We went in 1-0 at the break and I reiterated that we had outside runners who were in open space but not getting any service at all. Then once we did make the transition and follow these instructions we had three assists from George and Leigh as Nate, Charlie and Leigh all scored. It was 4-0 but NTC did not quit. Miscommunication between the keeper and centre back gave them a gift goal and it was 4-1. Its a win, but next time they will be so much tougher at Darebin! Its game two and we played better than the first week so its positive in that regard!.
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