What a woeful pitch we had to play on! It was a disgrace! The U14s started first and after last weeks great possession game we tried to do the same. But the ball was bobbling up and down that the game turned into a 'flying ninja kicking competition!' The ball was bouncing everywhere and it was just a poor opportunity for both teams to show any class. Lou, our keeper, worked really hard to play it out from the back but some guys just don't talk loud enough, if at all! Then we have some players who call for the ball without checking behind them to see if they are open. Simple basics that seem to let us down week in and week out! Eventually we got a great goal from AJ who slammed in a wicked left footer. AT the half it was 1-0 our favour but we had plenty of players still down. Jordy H and Jordy B were both doing okay, Tom L and Tom R were serviceable; Ray, Shannon and Liron were struggling with the opponents' outside runners and Oscar was far too quiet and not having much impact! We lost Lovel to an ankle injury and some simply had no effect on the game. Up front we were really struggling! SWE scored almost immediately and now had a good breeze behind their back. We missed opportunity after opportunity and could not put a goal away. They scored another after a mistake in defense and now with 10 minutes left we faced our second defeat - and I knew we were much better than how we were playing! Against the breeze AJ put in a second goal and we were 2-2. For the last 8 minutes we were all over them as they held on grimly for a draw. We could just not get that winning shot in!
It was embarrassing to have our 18s playing on this pitch but we did. It really hurt our game and forced us to take care with first touches which normally we could move along quickly. This slowed our game down considerably. We did not have Alex as he had left to go to Germany and Nate was on camp so we gave Connor, Kane and Andre the midfield jobs. Kane tried particularly hard to move the ball quickly but was trying to go to direct and not utilising the 7 and 11. Andre, when he played tended to pass across his body and not the way he faced. He did some clever things and theres lots of room there for improvement. Connor and Nanton started off very well and took control of the game. Connor in the air was superb! Elia, Nick, Anthony, Chico, and Wahed were working so well, that they gave the SWE no hope at all. Within 10 to 15 minutes we worked the ball into the 7 and 11 better and it instantly paid dividends. George got a great assist and Leigh with a score gave us a start. We had another by the half and it was plainly obvious that we were much better than this team even with the atrocious condition of the pitch. George and Connor were on fire all day and we would have had more goals if the ball wasn't bouncing up all over the place. We made another communication breakdown error and conceded a goal - we need to learn from these mistakes and not replay them. Dal played well in defense, then Elia got some time up front, with Charlie and Tucci, who got his first taste for the season - 15 minutes on the pitch but gees he played a great 15 minutes and scored a great goal. We are getting better weekly and everyone is starting to step up now. Next week we play Port Melbourne which should be a great game, too.
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