Dutch Ball Breakers

The stage was set for what was going to be a momentous occasion. Possibly division 1 winners for the first time ever. As far as setting goals was concerned, this was the pinnacle. Something we'd set ourselves on winning since the halcyon days when we first started in 02-03. And after all the years of getting ourselves up to division 1 only to get smashed and demoted back to division 2, we had finally made it. The division 1 grand final. No more meaningless division 2 grand finals. This was it. Division 1. The big boys league. With probably our biggest supporting crowd watching on and all players on time well before the delayed kick off, the atmosphere was definitely electric. The sense of something special was almost palpable.

So we lined up as the team that was perhaps lucky to be in the grand final. And we faced a team who was on a high following their spirited and tactically astute game versus the Underdogs, whom we considered to be the favourites to take out the title. So our opposition must have been good to get there. Adidos was a hard running team. Probably not the most skillful on the ball, but definitely played as a team with tough tackling, fast passing and endless movement. Still, despite their strengths, which appeared perfect foil against our style of play, none of us were really concerned. We had Simmo. And that's where it all fell apart...

From the get-go, their fastest and perhaps toughest tackler held on to Simmo's shirt and shadowed him, everywhere. Up forward, in the middle, in defense. It didn't matter where Simmo ran, he'd follow. Adding to this was the fact that their players were tracking back quickly. Simmo was playing against a two man wall with the tagger yapping at his feet. In effect, this muted our attack completely and it was rare that an open shot actually got through to test either keeper. And perhaps cruelly, Adidos scored the first goal following a chain of deflections off Dave and Quoc that luckily landed flush for an open shot that Derek couldn't save. Ass. 1-0.

Adidos scoring the first goal meant their defensive tactics would be even more effective. Still, we didn't panic and played the ball around. But our opposition were really putting in the hard yards and hassling anybody on the ball. Every seemingly easy pass became a 50-50 which we nearly always lost. The were much stronger physically and easily brushed us aside. Perceived pressure began to be our worst enemy as passes went astray, first touch went out the window and fast counter attacks from us would fall down one pass in. It was frustrating, because our normal avenue to goal in Simmo had been so effectively shut down. Dave was probably the closest to score out on the left but nothing passed the keeper. Heng drilled a few from long range but none of our shots were really on target to give them any scares at the back. Still, we were pleased that we were only 1-0 down at half time. Some fine saves from Derek were the reason for this.

It was clear we needed to change our attacking approach at half time. But the beginning of the second half was met with more frustration, as our only real trusted option was bombing it up to Simmo and hoping for the best. Adidos were really working well to close down the space and hassle Simmo from all directions. And after saving some excellent shots when Adidos countered, Derek finally let another in when a save fell straight back to their winger and he scored. 2-0 was going to be hard to peg back. And when our failure to find another avenue to goal kept casting its ugly shadow on the game, a freak deflection off Dave from way out made the game 3-0. It seemed to be all but over.

Some hope began to glitter when Simmo scored one back but some slack defending gave them another goal in what was surely the end of the game at 4-1. Some late game scrambling nearly got us back level. Quoc began to find his scoring touch again. Sanji began to run up and had a ball fall to him off some ricochets in the corner but couldn't find anything but the ceiling. But the pressure was coming on. And eventually, we managed to get the game to 4-3 with some wild scraps in front of our goal and Adidos' foul count reaching over 5.

Suddenly we found ourselves in the same situation again with virtually two minutes left. One goal down with five fouls against the opposition. Scoring from a free seemed to be the only real way to score. And Simmo and Quoc tried valiantly to get them to foul us near our goal. Our protests fell on deaf ears to the ref who seemed too timid to call a foul that might decide the match. Some dubious tackles from behind were blatantly ignored and finally, with 15 seconds left, he decided to pay one at an acute angle from the goal. However, they'd be no after siren heroics this time as Adidos hung on for a most deserved victory.

Score: 3-4
Goals: 2 Quoc, 1 Simmo
Man of the match: Derek
Player of the season: Simmo
Thought for the season: It was pretty evident from today's game that we are a one man team. Simmo is an inhuman player and has pretty much scored over 90% of our goals this season. He's a machine gun.

But when teams like Adidos finally catch on to marking him, its pretty obvious we need another avenue to goal. He can't beat three guys.

When we attack, we need either:
- more shots from other people (someone wanna start pulling the trigger a bit more please? Even a deflection can create a goal)
- faster passes (too many times we stop the ball too much giving them time to run back)
- better control of passes (our first touch is crap and slows down our movement)
- use the fact people are going to Simmo to create space for a second striker

Some food for thought...

Overall, a good season to make the final. But we're not in the business of playing to make the numbers in the final. We want to win. I don't think we can get through to being champions until we start finding other ways of scoring.