Match Review - Australia v Taiwan (4-2) 20 Jan 2010

Match Review - Australia v Taiwan (4-2) 20 Jan 2010

Excellent work to those who turned up yesterday. We won (in my view, convincingly) 4-2 agaist Taiwan, and it should hopefully shoot us up in the league table. It was an even game - nil all at the end of the first half. I think we had slighly more opportunities, but it was a fair result at half time. Shortly after half time, we conceded a goal, but we then got a goal back quickly and pretty much led the game with more goals right til the end. It was very exciting. We had the man of the match performance from Jeff in goal - he was absolutely amazing, saved a number of shots, including at least one or two one-on-ones (one of those shots was at bottom left corner, I was told). We were very tight at the back and man-tracking was generally good. Praises to the likes of Varley, Chris and Shiuy who made a number of interceptions in midfield and for tirelessly pushing forward. It was probably our best night so far in terms of attacking plays (as in the fowards creating chances for each other) - we are no Peru/Spain of course, but we should working on creating simpe goal scoring opportunties. I think we were even with them in terms of ball technique (and indeed none of us was as good as the afro guy they had - he was very good), but the main difference which won us the game was our stronger desire to win and the effort we put in to chase the ball/man (special mention to Neil in that regard). Kelvin was rock solid at the back and was good in keeping possession and made a number of great through-passes. If only our finishing were better, we could have scored perhaps 10 goals. They had more subs than us but we outrun them in the second half (and esp. the last 15 minutes - we had many 2on1, 3on1 opportunities). I can't recall, but I think the scorers were Varley and Shiuy (not sure if Chris/Neil had a goal). If only Graham didn't get injured, we would have more attacking options and no doubt the scoreline would be even better. Bottomline is we played and fought as a team - we very much deserved the victory. Well done all!

Man of the match - Jeff (but Varley would not be far behind)

ps- just been told that Jeff injured his arm from his heroic saves - thank you Jeff for doing this for the team!!

Squad
1. Nick
2. Graham
3. Shiuy
4. Chris
5. Jeff
6. Neil
7. Varley
8. Kelvin

What we did well?
1. We ran, ran and ran. Never once we gave up. We pushed forward and almost without exception tracked back. We punished them when their passes were weak.
2. Our ball control was improving - we made very few defensive error (in terms of marking and also possession at the back)
3. We took the time to pass it around and taking close shots rather than speculative shots.

What we could do better?
1. Sometimes forwards are too far forward for an easy pass. It woud be better if they drop back a bit and chase a through-pass.
2. Finishing could be better - we had many 1-on-1s and we should be converting more of these. Perhaps we should practise these next time.
3. Ball control (esp in air)/dribbling still need more work - we are starting to get used to the ball, but we are still not there yet.