Saturday, October 08, 2005
Game over
What do you call finishing 2nd on the ladder, beating a certain team comprehensively on 4 previous occasions with a scoreline 8-3, only to lose in the finals to the same team 4-8? Its called a fucking ball breaking tradgedy. Without dwelling too much on yet another failure on the big stage of finals, we lost for one reason. As Sun-Tzu puts in the Art of War, "victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win." Soccer is a battle. Finals are war. We had a rough idea to cover Ronaldo but everyone just brushed it aside prematch. We didn't have a proper plan and they did. They won the game before it even started. We lost it before the ref blew the whistle. It was overconfidence and when it blew up in our faces, there were many just looking at each other forlornly for a missing plan B. Arrogance, lack of grit, acceptance of defeat - not the stuff of champions. Justice was served; we didn't deserve to be in the finals after playing like that.
The scathing attack aside, the final was perhaps an aberration from the season as a whole. We lost only 2 games this winter/spring and were perhaps the best defensive team of our division. We were consistent for the whole season and whilst we never crushed a team, we would hardly let them score. Up front, we had hard driving Simon who pot shotted blinders consistently and Quoc, who had the opposite philosophy of placement first over power. And despite their offensive exploits, these two were by far, our best players for the season. Simon not only for his knack for goals, but his hard work up and down the ground, harassing the ball carriers and running tirelessly to make space and help the defence.
Quoc was the man to kick the ball to when the pressure turned up because of his touch and superior ball holding qualities, and also for his excellent reading of the game knowing when to attack and when to drop back. And he should also be credited for showing the most leadership for the team when there was clearly none displayed this season, disputing bad calls with the ref, and taking the game up another notch when the pressure turned up, such as fouling the opponents, going in hard and ruffling a few feathers up. Simon won us more games but Quoc was the more consistent. Derek also gets a special mention for turning into bit parts keeper to match saving goalie before he busted his toe. Several man of the matches awarded by the refs were evidence of this. So well done boys.
To the rest of us, we deserve a blasting for the season's performance. There are always excuses like injuries, lack of match fitness, sleeping in, but in the end, this just doesn't cut it. As raised in the discussion post finals loss, there is a feeling amongst some of us that we are a caricature of the team we used to be. DBB of 2005 would have lost to DBB circa 2002. The latter was more organised, especially in defence and whilst we've never had an out and out striker, there was a much more even contribution in regards to scoring. In particular, Chops, Sanji and Dave have dramatically lost their scoring ability. Those three plus Henry have probably lost their role in their team in whether to attack or to defend. And Heng... he just needs to rock up. DBB 2005 would've got a royal ass whipping from DBB 2002.
So having gone backwards, its now time to move forwards. Its almost certain we'll spend another season languishing in division 2, not that we deserve to be in division 1 anyway. But as Average Chong's have shown, with a little application and team planning, a rag tag team like that can turn into division one finalists. This season should be one of fixing up all the ways our team has gone backwards.
Our team positions should be set in stone. We all like to think we're utility players and can go anywhere depending on who's on field but we are all suited best to certain positions. Its time to clear that up once and for all so this sense of "playing wherever" when coming on field is a thing of the past. It would also clear up the lack of accountability at the back. Whoever is in midfield and defence will be the ones to blame if there's one on one's with the goalie.
We should also be working on shooting as evidenced by our goals for and against tally this season. It suggests we lack major fire power up front. Too many times this season we dominated and had three times as many shots as the opposition only to walk away with poultry scorelines.
Finally, it time to work as a fucking team for once and start passing and learning to control the play. Arguably, the best dribblers on our team are Dave and Chops but they are not even close to Ronaldo's skill. And even he can be stopped with lots of defenders. So as evidenced by Quoc's drawing of defenders, good shielding and nice passes can split open the tightest of defences. Time to work on passing and making space for each other and less of this hero shit.
If all this can be improved, things are looking much brighter for us season 2005/2006. But its all good to be optomistic and have goals to win the title. You have to actually work hard for it too. May I suggest some training this summer break? Food for thought. Hope the read stimulated some of it. DBB premiers of div 2 next season!!!
The scathing attack aside, the final was perhaps an aberration from the season as a whole. We lost only 2 games this winter/spring and were perhaps the best defensive team of our division. We were consistent for the whole season and whilst we never crushed a team, we would hardly let them score. Up front, we had hard driving Simon who pot shotted blinders consistently and Quoc, who had the opposite philosophy of placement first over power. And despite their offensive exploits, these two were by far, our best players for the season. Simon not only for his knack for goals, but his hard work up and down the ground, harassing the ball carriers and running tirelessly to make space and help the defence.
Quoc was the man to kick the ball to when the pressure turned up because of his touch and superior ball holding qualities, and also for his excellent reading of the game knowing when to attack and when to drop back. And he should also be credited for showing the most leadership for the team when there was clearly none displayed this season, disputing bad calls with the ref, and taking the game up another notch when the pressure turned up, such as fouling the opponents, going in hard and ruffling a few feathers up. Simon won us more games but Quoc was the more consistent. Derek also gets a special mention for turning into bit parts keeper to match saving goalie before he busted his toe. Several man of the matches awarded by the refs were evidence of this. So well done boys.
To the rest of us, we deserve a blasting for the season's performance. There are always excuses like injuries, lack of match fitness, sleeping in, but in the end, this just doesn't cut it. As raised in the discussion post finals loss, there is a feeling amongst some of us that we are a caricature of the team we used to be. DBB of 2005 would have lost to DBB circa 2002. The latter was more organised, especially in defence and whilst we've never had an out and out striker, there was a much more even contribution in regards to scoring. In particular, Chops, Sanji and Dave have dramatically lost their scoring ability. Those three plus Henry have probably lost their role in their team in whether to attack or to defend. And Heng... he just needs to rock up. DBB 2005 would've got a royal ass whipping from DBB 2002.
So having gone backwards, its now time to move forwards. Its almost certain we'll spend another season languishing in division 2, not that we deserve to be in division 1 anyway. But as Average Chong's have shown, with a little application and team planning, a rag tag team like that can turn into division one finalists. This season should be one of fixing up all the ways our team has gone backwards.
Our team positions should be set in stone. We all like to think we're utility players and can go anywhere depending on who's on field but we are all suited best to certain positions. Its time to clear that up once and for all so this sense of "playing wherever" when coming on field is a thing of the past. It would also clear up the lack of accountability at the back. Whoever is in midfield and defence will be the ones to blame if there's one on one's with the goalie.
We should also be working on shooting as evidenced by our goals for and against tally this season. It suggests we lack major fire power up front. Too many times this season we dominated and had three times as many shots as the opposition only to walk away with poultry scorelines.
Finally, it time to work as a fucking team for once and start passing and learning to control the play. Arguably, the best dribblers on our team are Dave and Chops but they are not even close to Ronaldo's skill. And even he can be stopped with lots of defenders. So as evidenced by Quoc's drawing of defenders, good shielding and nice passes can split open the tightest of defences. Time to work on passing and making space for each other and less of this hero shit.
If all this can be improved, things are looking much brighter for us season 2005/2006. But its all good to be optomistic and have goals to win the title. You have to actually work hard for it too. May I suggest some training this summer break? Food for thought. Hope the read stimulated some of it. DBB premiers of div 2 next season!!!
# posted by Chops @ 12:22 pm 
