Match review (Australia 1 - Spain 7) - 14 Jan 2010

The squad below turned up. We had a good run but (expectedly) lost to Spain 7-1. We welcomed Graham to the squad, and I think he played especially well in keeping possession and taking the ball up from the back. Almost scored a goal and gave an assist to Dezza (if I remember correctly). We had a handful of chances, many saved by their keeper. Of the 7 goals we conceded, a fair few of them were caused by defensive error (esp. poor quality passes at the back). We fixed that problem half-way when we either have Gordon botted upfield or have Graham taking the ball up. We should avoid conceding goals due to these errors in future games. Credit to Spain - they could have scored more than 7 however, we were saved by the post/frame many times (although a couple of those bounced back to their player who then scored). They also scored one or two spectacular goals through sheer individual brilliance. It was an equal game in the last 10-15 minutes when we played more offensively with Dezza, Graham, Varley and Leslie taking turns to push forward.

Another observation is that the solitary goal we scored was again from shot from very close ranger - our long range efforts weren't much threatening. We were most threatening when we took the ball up the wings and have a striker inside the box to receive the ball and shoot. Strikers would do a lot better had they been able to execute the shot quicker - This delay I think is due to the time taken to take control of the ball and we can improve this by passing on the ground (rather than bouncing/high passes) as much as possible.

Player of the week - Graham

1. Nick
2. Chris
3. Graham
4. Varley
5. Dezza
6. Gordon
7. PKM
8. Kelvin
9. Leslie

What we did well
1. We defended well as a team and when we had 4 players behind the ball, we made it very difficult for them. The goals we conceded were largely on counterattacks (esp. due to defenders (me included) losing the ball through bad passes).
2. Every one of us worked dman hard even if some of us may not be in form. I think this was evident in that we weren't beaten one-on-one on dribble much (but we were more beaten by fast counters/accurate passings).

What we could do better
1. Substitutions could be coordinated better - There were (long) periods of time when we played well and did not concede any goal but there were also periods when we leaked many goals quickly. Welcome any suggestions to fix this.
2. Passing at the back were too error prone. Perhaps we should reduce the number of passing at the back and distribute the ball quicker upfield.
3. When we have possession at the back, the forwards were too far forward, making it very difficult to pass (long passes were almost, without exception, intercepted) since none of us were good at control this type of ball in the air. We would be better off having the forwards more towards the half-way line, and give through-passes on the ground to be chased.