Learn from our mistakes
I agree with ying lun, but not totally. Facing the firing squad is different from being the firing squad or standing WITH the firing squad. Especially if the squad is one with all guns blazing. Defending and attacking is totally different. As Shawn said, a defender making a mistake can result in a goal that cost the team, but an attacker making a mistake would not be blamed much. I dun think anyone and I mean anyone in the team can blame the defence. It was not as easy as you think to defend against the opposition we faced yesterday.
In the beginning they gave us respect, did not attack as much, with their back 3 or 4 still intact. But after conceding the first goal (my mistake), they thought, maybe it wasn’t that difficult to beat us. So, they poured men forward to pressurize us. I think Chien Ming said or someone in the team said that when they attacked us, there were only 2 defenders back in their own half, and those were 2 midfielders no one in the back line. What does that mean??? 8 strikers?!!!!! How can 4 inexperienced defenders counter 8 attackers???!!! Impossible. Even a central defensive partnership of John Terry and Fabio Cannavaro would never stop them.
I salute Jethro even though none of us played well. He tried his best to mark his man (I think Nicholas) for a while I thought where was Nicholas? He didn’t even touch the ball. That was how good the marking was. Also, Shawn and Jeremy. They were the most creative in our team. Made the best chances but to no avail. The rest let them down. I must emphasize it was not the defence fault. Even though a few times, defenders make mistakes, Reuben said no one is perfect. Every one make mistakes. Of course is true. If you dun make mistakes ever, you are not a human being.
The 8 vs 4 was crazy. Even then, counter attacking was one way we could have beaten them and counter attack not by using long balls that never crossed the halfway line. By using the wings. We should remain composed and calm. And not shout ‘Clear! Clear!’. By clearing ineffectively made things worse. When we clear upfield, they pick the ball up and attack, then we clear again, they attack again, clear again, they attack again and by the time we managed to clear the umpteen time, they would have 10 men in our penalty box, waiting for their chance to shout ‘ My goal!’ I was surprised we managed to hold them off for 90 minutes. 5 goals in 90 minutes meant 1 goal per 18 min. And it meant we were clearing the ball time after time for 18 min before they scored a goal and it started over again. All we needed was some one composed enough to hold the ball, look for some one in space ( no one was) on the wings sprint like mad and try to cut in to shoot or cross and we would have a goal. That simple. No one dared to hold the ball. No one was in space. When one of us ran down the flank with the ball, almost their whole team responded by moving nearer to the person with the ball. He just had to pass the ball back, pass it around midfield, and we would gain ground and composure again. But nothing of that sort happened. Coz when we attacked, we cheong like hell with no aim or skill to their goal and then lose the ball being outnumbered again. We should either shoot or pass to someone in space.
After each goal we concede, it was the opportunity for us to do some passing but the strikers like Kovan tried to solo through 11 people in their own half. Is it possible? Not against such a team. That’s why when professional teams, after kicking off, pass to the midfield or defence. Let your team mates touch the ball, get the feel, force opponents to come and pressurize, open up and there we have, SPACE to move into and the chance to tired them out comes.
Whatever it is, we have to work on…
1. Power [ to take goalkicks that would not ram back to opponents and clearance that would cross the halfway line]
2. Positional play [ finding a position near your teammate so that he can pass to you to receive the ball to support]
3. Skill [ to gain the confidence to hold the ball and wait for team mates to find space]
4. Heading [ get the first touch before it touches the ground to gain possession]
There were some times when Jeremy and Kovan had the chance to shoot right outside the box. That was the chance for us to score. That was when all the ball ramming sessions we had came into play. We specialize in shooting from there! Why no one shot? Instead chose to pass around their box that had suddenly so many dcefenders and then lose possession. When you have the chance, just shoot, we were already desperate. Adding more statistics, we had 0 shots on target, 0 corners, 0 freekicks near their box, 1 shot that went way off from halfway line all these result in 0 goals. Expected. It’s not that I want anyone to blame themselves, I emphasize it was not the defence fault, their attack was too good. Our attack need practice. This is still our first match. We need experience and learn from our mistakes. And we got the experience and now know what went wrong. I would not be playing soccer for another about 6 or 7 weeks. Only allowed to play after exams if get good grades so I think some of you also think we should stop for a while to do what we are suppose to do at this age- study. Hence, I would not be going for any match or training, but study and learn from our mistakes then continue training what we have to and win our first match.
[daryl]
In the beginning they gave us respect, did not attack as much, with their back 3 or 4 still intact. But after conceding the first goal (my mistake), they thought, maybe it wasn’t that difficult to beat us. So, they poured men forward to pressurize us. I think Chien Ming said or someone in the team said that when they attacked us, there were only 2 defenders back in their own half, and those were 2 midfielders no one in the back line. What does that mean??? 8 strikers?!!!!! How can 4 inexperienced defenders counter 8 attackers???!!! Impossible. Even a central defensive partnership of John Terry and Fabio Cannavaro would never stop them.
I salute Jethro even though none of us played well. He tried his best to mark his man (I think Nicholas) for a while I thought where was Nicholas? He didn’t even touch the ball. That was how good the marking was. Also, Shawn and Jeremy. They were the most creative in our team. Made the best chances but to no avail. The rest let them down. I must emphasize it was not the defence fault. Even though a few times, defenders make mistakes, Reuben said no one is perfect. Every one make mistakes. Of course is true. If you dun make mistakes ever, you are not a human being.
The 8 vs 4 was crazy. Even then, counter attacking was one way we could have beaten them and counter attack not by using long balls that never crossed the halfway line. By using the wings. We should remain composed and calm. And not shout ‘Clear! Clear!’. By clearing ineffectively made things worse. When we clear upfield, they pick the ball up and attack, then we clear again, they attack again, clear again, they attack again and by the time we managed to clear the umpteen time, they would have 10 men in our penalty box, waiting for their chance to shout ‘ My goal!’ I was surprised we managed to hold them off for 90 minutes. 5 goals in 90 minutes meant 1 goal per 18 min. And it meant we were clearing the ball time after time for 18 min before they scored a goal and it started over again. All we needed was some one composed enough to hold the ball, look for some one in space ( no one was) on the wings sprint like mad and try to cut in to shoot or cross and we would have a goal. That simple. No one dared to hold the ball. No one was in space. When one of us ran down the flank with the ball, almost their whole team responded by moving nearer to the person with the ball. He just had to pass the ball back, pass it around midfield, and we would gain ground and composure again. But nothing of that sort happened. Coz when we attacked, we cheong like hell with no aim or skill to their goal and then lose the ball being outnumbered again. We should either shoot or pass to someone in space.
After each goal we concede, it was the opportunity for us to do some passing but the strikers like Kovan tried to solo through 11 people in their own half. Is it possible? Not against such a team. That’s why when professional teams, after kicking off, pass to the midfield or defence. Let your team mates touch the ball, get the feel, force opponents to come and pressurize, open up and there we have, SPACE to move into and the chance to tired them out comes.
Whatever it is, we have to work on…
1. Power [ to take goalkicks that would not ram back to opponents and clearance that would cross the halfway line]
2. Positional play [ finding a position near your teammate so that he can pass to you to receive the ball to support]
3. Skill [ to gain the confidence to hold the ball and wait for team mates to find space]
4. Heading [ get the first touch before it touches the ground to gain possession]
There were some times when Jeremy and Kovan had the chance to shoot right outside the box. That was the chance for us to score. That was when all the ball ramming sessions we had came into play. We specialize in shooting from there! Why no one shot? Instead chose to pass around their box that had suddenly so many dcefenders and then lose possession. When you have the chance, just shoot, we were already desperate. Adding more statistics, we had 0 shots on target, 0 corners, 0 freekicks near their box, 1 shot that went way off from halfway line all these result in 0 goals. Expected. It’s not that I want anyone to blame themselves, I emphasize it was not the defence fault, their attack was too good. Our attack need practice. This is still our first match. We need experience and learn from our mistakes. And we got the experience and now know what went wrong. I would not be playing soccer for another about 6 or 7 weeks. Only allowed to play after exams if get good grades so I think some of you also think we should stop for a while to do what we are suppose to do at this age- study. Hence, I would not be going for any match or training, but study and learn from our mistakes then continue training what we have to and win our first match.
[daryl]
posted by Joga Bonito at 3:30 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home