Match report 22.11.21

On Monday 22th of November 2021, the third week of the St Paul's Year 10 league took place. Like last week, training took place before the games, but unlike last week there were three games, meaning we played all teams this week and over the league we have played all teams twice. The training session started with stretches, then we moved into training exercises, as shown in the two diagrams below. This week the subject of our training was control, which prompted our captain to design two activities on this theme; one simpler and one more complex. The simpler exercise is shown below; the orange circles represent cones and the black line represents the line the player follows. The aim of the drill is to control the ball enough to go around the cones without hitting them. It is similar to last week’s drill, just without the passing element. The weaker players in our team completed this drill, while the stronger players were completing the next.

The harder training drill, designed for two players to work simultaneously, is shown below. One player (Player A) would stand on the green circle, and he would stay there. The other three circles were for the other player (Player B). Player A would first kick the ball, along the red dotted line, in whatever fashion he likes, often in the air, to the red circle where player B would be. He would then kick the ball back to player A along the red dotted line. Player B would then run along the red dashed line to the yellow circle. The drill repeats until a player misses the ball, when they swap positions. Dotted lines represent the path of the ball; dashed lines represent where Player B would run.

The first game we played was against blue. We, the red team, had an advantage over blue due to the sun being behind us. This meant that when blue was going for goals against us, they would struggle to run directly towards our goal as the sun would be in their eyes. While this gave an advantage, it was unlikely we would win the game given that we had lost 5-0 last week. Early in the game, Jacob of the blue team scored, which made it seem like this game may well be a repeat of last week. However, it was the only goal scored for the entire game. The rest of the game was relatively uneventful, though there were some moments of interest. For example. Lesie of the blue team kicked the ball excellently during an attack on us, which earned him the man of the match. It could be argued that one reason for our loss was that Daniel, our kit man, was absent due to illness, which meant that a crucial member of our defence was not present for any of our matches.

From this game, it should be learnt that every member of the team is crucial. In the game against blue last week, we lost due to the absence of our goalkeeper, Louis. This week, it could be argued that we lost due to the absence of one of our defenders. It should also be learnt that every member of the opposing team must be kept track of, ignoring the perception of their skill. Leslie’s kick could’ve meant that we lost an opportunity to score a goal, or - although this was not the case - the opposing team may have scored because of it.

The second game was against the yellow team. We also played this team last week, though that game resulted in a 2-1 victory for us, so chances were looking better than the previous game. However, this thought was quickly put down as Gabriel took the ball from kick off into our goal within the first 30 seconds of the game. This was devastating for us, and it really spoiled morale for some of the team members. Some team members, mostly consisting of the defence, seemed to give up on the game when it was our turn to be attacking. This meant that the strikers did not have the midfield backup they needed to be able to have multiple shots at a goal. However, this did have a good side to it; it meant that we had a line of defence that was always around our goal, which was a flaw in the games we played last week. Despite the lack of backup from most defenders, Harry managed to score around the middle of the game. This secured a 1-1 tie for our game against the yellow team.

It is important we learn from the actions of our defence that a seemingly bad play can have positive as well as negative consequences. In this case, while the defence staying close to the goal had negative consequences in the form of less support for offensive players, there was also a positive impact of it being incredibly hard for the yellow team to get anywhere near our goal. We seemed to have the opposite problem to last week; too many people were in an extremely defensive position this week compared to the strategy of no defence last week. This week’s strategy is clearly an improvement over last weeks, but we should strive to achieve a middle ground in upcoming games.

The final game we played was against the purple team, which was the only team we did not play last week. Instead, we played them in the first week of the league, where we drew 1-1. This week, the game was fairly uneventful for the first half, until Adam of the red team scored for us. This meant we held a 1-0 lead, which prompted and interesting yet certainly effective strategy from some members of our team: do anything and everything to stop play, including kicking the ball out to result in a throw-in, hand-balling to take the time to prepare the free kick, and stalling when the game was not in play. While this strategy is definitely questionable, it did succeed in securing the only win of this week.

Overall, this week was very mixed for us. We lost, drew, and won a game. We also learned some valuable lessons - every member of the team is vitally important. As we head into transfer week next week, we should consider what every team member has done for our team, and whether or not they should be transferred. The points each team has should also be considered. Yellow has 21, purple 20, red (us) 19, and blue 18. This is significant as despite blue being the team we have lost to for both games, we are beating them in points. Every possible transfer should be carefully considered, not just on the players’ football skill, but also on their attitude; for example if they can play well but they lose a point every week due to kit, they may not be a good candidate for transfer into our team. Points are still incredibly close, so as we enter the 2nd half of the league we must play with just as much effort, if not more.

Kazoo, Red Team

https://sports.kazoome.me