Match report 29.11.21

On Monday the 29th of November 2021, the fourth week of the St Paul’s Year 10 league took place. Like all weeks except week one, training took place before the games, of which there were only two, meaning we did not play the purple team this week. This means that we have now played the yellow and blue teams thrice and the purple team twice. The training session started with stretches, then we moved into the training exercise; this week the exercise was based on shooting. This lead to a fairly simple exercise, which is shown below:

In this exercise, one player is standing at the origin (the blue circle), one in the goal (between the red circles), and the rest are equally spread at the shooting points (the green circles). The player at the origin starts by passing the ball to one of the two shooting points. This tests reaction times, which is a critical part of success in a game. It means each player should be ready to receive and shoot the ball, regardless if it is actually their turn. This is shown in the solid line. If the player at the shooting point is paying attention, they then have the opportunity to shoot the ball. This was initially done by shooting into the goal from the spot the player received the ball at, however some players later decided to dribble the ball backwards for a more difficult shot. While this was primarily an exercise to practice shooting, it also gave players time to practice goalkeeping, which proved to be a skill that requires improvement in the games. During the training, captains from all four teams met to discuss any potential transfers. However, nothing came out of these discussions and so every team stayed the same.

The first game we played this week was against the yellow team. When we have previously played against them, the games went well: 2-1 and 1-1. Therefore, the consensus amongst the team was that we should reasonably be able to win, or at least tie, this first game. However, from even before the moment of kick-off it was obvious the yellow team had the upper hand. Their captain, Mason, had evidently briefed his team on the plan for the match; everyone fell into positions immediately. He took charge directing his team through powerful commands shouted across the pitch. This led to Jake from the yellow team scoring the first of many goals for the yellow team. However, there was still hope at this point, which was shown by an excellent, amazing save from our goalkeeper, Louis. Despite this save, the yellow team’s striker, Wictor, subsequently scored 3 goals in a row. It was clear at that point that yellow would win; there was nothing we could do to stop that. This didn’t halt the yellow’s constant battering attacks however; Jake and Vincent both scored, which brought the final score of the game to 6-0 to yellow - a firm win for them.

There is always something to learn from a game, but in this game the lesson is obvious: when a captain takes strong and uncontested leadership of the team, success will follow. This clearly needs to be something that our team, and especially our captain, considers. If the team captain can be aware of all of his team and his opponents, he should direct his team to the best positions. The team should not be completely reliant on his direction, but stay to his word when he says something. This should be something that our team discusses and plans before matches begin next week.

The second and final game we played was against the blue team. This game was significantly less hopeful, as both times we have played blue we have lost against them: once 5-0 and once 1-0. This, on top of having just lost our game against the yellow team in a terrific manner, as well as the freezing -1c temperature, essentially sealed our fate for the game. Everyone on the pitch was completely aware that blue were going to win, no matter how much red managed to pull out of the nothing we had left after our previous game. However, there was a moment of promise and home when we were winning after Matthew scored a goal - though it may have been slightly against the rules of the game:

The diagram shows Matthew’s strategy of scoring a goal. He is marked by the red circle furthest to the right. We were in possession of the ball, and the player who had the ball passed it through the blue line of defence (the blue circles) to Matthew. This is resembled by the solid line. Matthew, now being behind the blue team’s line of defence, was able to run up to the goal and score. However, the blue team argued that this was offside. Whether it was offside or not does not matter, as soon after Denvah of the blue team scored, then Conal, then Conal again, then Denvah again, and finally Jacob. Our hope of beating the blue team was proved futile by this; we had firmly lost 5-0.

It is less clear what there is to learn from this game. Clearly there is something that the blue team is doing that we are not; whether this is because we are not putting adequate effort into our matches or simply because we do not have the skill to match the prowess of such talents as Leslie is a question that could be asked, however that is a question that is simply not constructive.

Overall, this week was thoroughly disappointing and unsuccessful. Our points are now undoubtedly far behind all other teams after losing both games, and our hope for a decent position in the final rankings becomes more hopeless as the weeks progress. Instead, we are on track to come in last place. If we wish to change that, we must take on the lessons we have learned from all previous games, especially our game against the yellow team this week. If our captain is able to take a similar charge to Mason it is far more likely that we will succeed in winning our games in the future. We are capable of achieving that, just the will needs to be put into it.

Kazoo, Red Team

https://sports.kazoome.me