Dear patients,
Here is the report from the medical check-up done by Japanese Leaguers & Co.
I hope you enjoyed your visit to the hospital.
Saturday May 2nd 2011
Happy Valley, Pitch #6
Goodfellas 0 - 0 J. Leaguers (0-0)
The medical staff lined up in 4-2-3-1
Mullenz (Intensive Care Unit)
Shiuy Bear Flo Garrow (Emergency Room)
Justin Howard (Physical Examination Room)
D-Cheung Ced Spencer (Operating Room)
Leo (Surgeon)
______________________________________________
Mark, Sandro (Waiting Room)
Team talk
Team talk done by yours truly who was warmly welcomed after having recovered from injury
7 weeks had past since the 3-1 victory against Men United on March 5th
After that day the Goodfellas were in good shape as they were 3rd in the league with still a chance to qualify for the Champions League semi-finale. The heart was beating hard.
But that same day they were also worried as they had lost their 2 most prolific goal scorers : Chris who was transferred to the US and myself who had dislocated his shoulder.
And so 7 weeks later, after 4 games & 4 losses (0-2 vs Force, 0-1 Legal Head, 0-1 Spartans, 0-1 Mes Amis), 4 goals against, 0 goal scored. Goodfellas circulatory system was affected and there was no pulse. The Goodfellas didn't looked so good indeed in the charts as they now ranked 6th with no chance of survival in the playoffs.
J.Leaguers who had beaten us 2-1 in the first round were ready to send us 6 feet under.
Would this game be another little death or a full recovery ? Let's find out.
First Half
The J.Leaguers were deploying their usual game by relying on their back 4, passing the ball around in the back and sending some long balls forward hoping that their target man would manage a lucky deflection. Long balls, to which our back four responded by clearing them and sending another long ball to the other side with less clinical precision as they were uted under pressure. We had a lot of difficulty to keep possession ; we either missed our first touch, our dribble or our short passes or opted for a long pass giving birth to an uncertain 50/50 challenge. And so J.Leaguers had more ball possession than us as they were putting more pressure on our midfield and defense. We were wasting a lot of energy chasing the ball around and going for those 50/50 challenges and when we finally had the ball ... we lost it in no time. Very frustrating.
That basically describes the scenario of this entire game really. Our team was in severe pain and with shortness of breath.
During the first half I remember one well taken corner from Howard on which I had a free header but the ball went well over the bar.
One their side they had a very dangerous free-kick: a powerful strike from their #4 which went straight on the cross-bar
The advantage was to J.Leaguers in this half but the score was even. Lucky us we were still alive in this game.
0-0 at half time.
Half-time break
The team needed an urgent blood transfer and so Leo took a rest and Mark came in.
New line-up was
Mullenz
Shiuy Bear Flo Garrow
Mark D-Cheung
Howard Justin Spencer
Ced
Second Half
Same scenario for the second half except that I was now the one chasing their back 4 instead of Leo
In the middle of that half D-Cheung took a rest. Sandro came in (Howard dropped back, Sandro played as right midfield)
We had a couple of opportunities in this half too but no real threat to our opponent.
I remember one ball crossed by Shiuy that went over the keeper, pass in front of their goal but no-one was there to place a header.
There was also a very good more from Spenny on the left wing who go rid of the nurse in service and managed to cross for Howard who was denied access to goal by the last defender.
I also remember a nice through ball from Howard to me, on which the ref raised the flag for a very generous off-side call.
On their side they had their moment too with an amazing goal mouth scramble that saw several clearances on the line,at some point a J.Leaguers got the ball back and took a shot that Howie headed onto the cross-bar, then ball went back to another J.Leaguers whose shot got deflected by Flo for a corner kick. That one gave us some fever but once more we survived.
It's 0-0 at the end ; after all it was good recovery point for us.
Conclusion
First I would like to apologies because I have been shouting a lot during this game, I shout against my teammates, the opponent, the referee and even myself.
It was so frustrating to chase the ball all the time and to loose it so quickly that I lost a bit my temper. Sorry about that.
What is even more frustrating is that I know what we are capable of. Few months back we had a nice passing game ; we were the one in control, passing the ball between the back four, taking time to build in the midfield and then timing our runs to create opportunities up-front. More or less we have the same core players on the pitch so tell me: what happened? We can't even do 3 passes in a row! Why did we loose our football? I wonder.
That said there is one thing we do well is to never stop playing, never stop trying and that's a very good thing.
There is nothing to win and nothing to loose anymore so let's show some better football next time and finish on a high note!
There are 2 more games to go against Studz and BOC who are behind us ; let's keep it that way.
First Studz who will want their revenge from the 1st leg that we won 5-4 thanks to a hat-trick from Sam Tobin and a last minute goal from Paul Angell (another missed Goodfellas goal scorer). And then a final game against BOC who managed to beat us 1-0 in the first leg on the only shot they had on goal despite having started the game with only 8 players and having being trashed the entire game.
Here is some stuff to think about until the next game (especially point #2 which is about anticipation)
1) move when you don't have a ball to offer solutions, use the space
2) don't just look at the ball but look around (teammates & opponents) => decide what you are going to do with the ball before you receive it (after it's already too late)
3) the first touch is key, so concentrate on it even if you have plenty of time
4) keep it simple, prefer a short pass than a long hazardous one except when your are pressed with no one to cover you
5) when pressed don't just get rid of the ball, learn to shield it with your body and look for support behind you (it is not forbidden to pass back)
6) move immediately after having made the pass to offer options, use the space (I repeat this one because movement it key)
Look how those fellas are doing (continuous movement with passing and pressing)
Of course that's the ultimate goal but that's what we should be aiming for
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-57duMA_78
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41hJCXcXJxw
Now guess who is going to win the Champions League this year ...
