Week 10 (7/06/08)
Goals: Dale 2, Charlie 1
Player of the Match: Nathaniel Zeckendorf
Yet another tough match, eventually won because the whole team stuck at it until the final whistle. Down 1-0 until late in the 2nd half, we never gave up and then BAM! three late goals. Strikers Dale, Andrew and Harry were busy with attacking opportunities throughout the match. Although we didn’t convert the opportunities in the first half, we exhausted the opposition with constant pressure and overran them at the end. Dale came away with a brace; one close in and one beautiful distance shot from a fine angle that floated into the net.
We controlled the middle of the pitch much better today and (after Tony’s comments last week) got to the ball first more often. Our attacking midfielders, Brandon, Joel and Thomas did a terrific job feeding lots of balls to the strikers, creating plenty of chances. Defensive midfielders Kadison and Nathaniel did a mountain of work and prevented many attacks getting to our backs. Nathaniel worked so hard and was so effective at controlling the midfield that he was an obvious choice for Player of the Match and received a unanimous cheer from the team.
Liam did a really solid job keeping goal in difficult conditions and that save late in the game was the difference between a win and a draw.
The defenders (Sammy, Christian, Jeremy and Charlie) had a lot of work to do and continually frustrated the opposition, bringing their attacks undone. Christian relished the responsibility of centre-back and capped it off with a spectacular, saving tackle that Lucas Neill would have been proud of. Charlie scored a sweet long-range goal, but seemed more proud of his bicycle kick!
Winning feels great; the important thing is that we are continually improving our skills and tactical play and becoming a better team. Keep up the good work!