Monday, January 22, 2007
vs Shuuto
Sunday saw us pitted against Shuuto, one of our archrivals for the past few seasons having banished us runners up one season and some pretty heated encounters to boot. So whilst the contest may have been a dead rubber for us logically, as we can't really make the finals, there was sure to be some fireworks. Seeing the same opponents for the umpteenth time just added fuel to the fire. Familiarity breeds contempt.
The opening was a sign of things to come. Shuuto matched us evenly in many respects. But the one thing they definitely held the edge over us in was physicality. And their movement and hard tackling was tiring our players pretty quickly, particularly without our own bulldog Heng being away for work. However, Henry and Simon stepped up to the plate and more than manfully went in for the hard ball and began to hold the play up. Simmo was running around like a machine on a mission and Henry copping the full force of some rough house tactics from our opponents.
Indeed, it was Henry who was driving the ball up and shielding it from his enemies that began to dominate the play. And true to his hard work, he was rewarded with a great opening goal and then a somewhat luckier one in the first half. Such was the composure shown in such a wildly moving match that he received the first of many blatant fouls. Dave was showing his usual surges from the back but had no real luck as the opponents began to concentrate on changing the momentum by shutting up shop for the rest of the half.
As Shuuto began to camp again in their defence, we responded by trying to draw them out. If the first half was a brawl, then the second was starting out like a chess match. Each team trying to draw the other out and snipe a goal unassumingly. It was holding off in our defence that led to too much space for their tall striker to rifle one in from the wing. And then a combination of a wall that humpty dumpty could've broken and some lucky deflections led to the most bizarre equaliser. Sanji came on and provided us a target up front but our shooting was pathetic. Shots flying wide, shots dribbling in with no power, waiting too long to shoot. We had chances. Many chances.
Suddenly we were on the backfoot as Shuuto pressed hard again trying to draw us back out into war with some bone crunching tackles and hard running. A card was thrown in somewhere. The game was turning into slugfest in the middle with both teams not really pressing everything in attack. It was going to take a mistake rather than a moment of brilliance to win this game. Deep into the last three minutes of the game, their dribbler was scrambling back in D and turned to make a run for it. Chops luckily stuck a foot out and won the ball whilst his opponent lost balance. The ball popped up for a nice release of frustration at a bad day at the office. Fortunately, the ball went into the corner of the net. 3-2.
We scrambled and defended to starve them possession like our lives depended on it. And with Derek shuffling the ball either side of the circle, time eventually ran us out victors by the narrowest of margins.
A performance with a lot of heart and grit. But to only score 3 goals from how many chances is a worry.
Score: 3-2
Goals: 2 Henry, 1 Chops
Man of the match: Henry (all game dribbling and not losing it, copping tackles, winning the ball and two goals was the icing on the cake)
WTF award: Derek (wondering what would've been had the wall been set up correctly.)
The opening was a sign of things to come. Shuuto matched us evenly in many respects. But the one thing they definitely held the edge over us in was physicality. And their movement and hard tackling was tiring our players pretty quickly, particularly without our own bulldog Heng being away for work. However, Henry and Simon stepped up to the plate and more than manfully went in for the hard ball and began to hold the play up. Simmo was running around like a machine on a mission and Henry copping the full force of some rough house tactics from our opponents.
Indeed, it was Henry who was driving the ball up and shielding it from his enemies that began to dominate the play. And true to his hard work, he was rewarded with a great opening goal and then a somewhat luckier one in the first half. Such was the composure shown in such a wildly moving match that he received the first of many blatant fouls. Dave was showing his usual surges from the back but had no real luck as the opponents began to concentrate on changing the momentum by shutting up shop for the rest of the half.
As Shuuto began to camp again in their defence, we responded by trying to draw them out. If the first half was a brawl, then the second was starting out like a chess match. Each team trying to draw the other out and snipe a goal unassumingly. It was holding off in our defence that led to too much space for their tall striker to rifle one in from the wing. And then a combination of a wall that humpty dumpty could've broken and some lucky deflections led to the most bizarre equaliser. Sanji came on and provided us a target up front but our shooting was pathetic. Shots flying wide, shots dribbling in with no power, waiting too long to shoot. We had chances. Many chances.
Suddenly we were on the backfoot as Shuuto pressed hard again trying to draw us back out into war with some bone crunching tackles and hard running. A card was thrown in somewhere. The game was turning into slugfest in the middle with both teams not really pressing everything in attack. It was going to take a mistake rather than a moment of brilliance to win this game. Deep into the last three minutes of the game, their dribbler was scrambling back in D and turned to make a run for it. Chops luckily stuck a foot out and won the ball whilst his opponent lost balance. The ball popped up for a nice release of frustration at a bad day at the office. Fortunately, the ball went into the corner of the net. 3-2.
We scrambled and defended to starve them possession like our lives depended on it. And with Derek shuffling the ball either side of the circle, time eventually ran us out victors by the narrowest of margins.
A performance with a lot of heart and grit. But to only score 3 goals from how many chances is a worry.
Score: 3-2
Goals: 2 Henry, 1 Chops
Man of the match: Henry (all game dribbling and not losing it, copping tackles, winning the ball and two goals was the icing on the cake)
WTF award: Derek (wondering what would've been had the wall been set up correctly.)
# posted by Chops @ 10:56 am 
