Match Review
Well done all to those who turned up yesterday - as usual, it's very difficult to make it to a 7:30 game on a weekday. We only had 6 players against a better side (and who also had more subs than us). The scoreline looks pretty bad - we lost 13-3, but let's put this in context. We lost to Peru 10-0 in 1st round and 11-1 in 2nd round. So I guess 13-3 can probably be considered an improvement (not sure how we skipped 12-2!). Even Sierra Leone lost 13-1 to Peru in the last round, so arguably we did better than Sierra Leone! Not only that, of the 13 goals (we weren't sure whether it was 13 goals, but whatever), probably 10 or so of them were conceded in first half - i.e. the scoreline was about 10-0 or so in the 1st half. It was quite discouraging in the 1st half when we conceded a number of goals by our own errors - e.g. poor passing in the back, being overlapped etc. etc. They played their usual passing game and as expected was very efficient in their cutting in and team attack. They had a very good left footed player - very quick and has power shots (albeit very left foot dominated), but individually Peru probably doesn't have the individual flare/talents found in some players in Spain/France. We had a very rough/rocky 1st half and concded the first goal early, so there probably weren't much positives to comment on in relation to the 1st half.
At halftime, we decided to change our tactics (imput from our star tactician Rafa-Linus-Benitez).
- 1st observation was that in for most of 1st half we were 4 defenders against 5 attackers when we defended because their keeper played outfield as a fullback. We decided to match that with Gordon dribbling upfield (who incidently took a shot or two actually) and bouncing balls to and fro with the left/right backs. Their strikers didn't bother to chase these bounce passes so in most cases, we were able to slowly move the game in their half. I think we did lose maybe a goal because our passes were intercepted, but this tactic probably brought more advantages than disadvantages on balance. Because we spent a lot more time in their half and involved Gordon in the passing game, I think it helped Gordon to settle back into the game and made many excellent saves in the 2nd half.
- 2nd observation was that when we have the ball, people generally ran away from the ball which made it harder for make a pass (i.e. passes were mostly intercepted). Instead, we have more runners running towards the person with the ball, so we were able to make more short passes/return passes (as well as back passes to Gordon).
- 3rd observation was that we were losing the ball too easily upfield. To counter this, when we do have the ball, we had Chris, Andy, Dovan and Linus all holding/shielding the ball well when they win the ball and wait for the runners before making a pass. It probably also helped that because Peru team knew they were winning by a lot, they didn't really bother to chase the ball/run back so we had a lot of space upfield. Our (short/easy) passes were much more accurate than before.
Because of these, I think we played significantly better (certainly with a lot of more confidence) in 2nd half. The score was probably about even in second half. Amazingly, although we only had one sub, we ran hard both offensively and defensively - I think our work rate was probably higher than Peru (who was just lazy to track back at times to be honest). We created loads of chances - probably at least 1-2 good chance for each of us and it was our star striker, hat-trick hero, Dovan who scored 3 for us.
Man of the match - Dovan (a.k.a. Rooney) for clinical finishing and impressive work rate both offensively and defensively. Special mention to Linus for the game-turning tactical analysis as well as good midfield play.
Squad 1. Nick 2. Chris 3. Andy 4. Gordon 5. Linus 6. Dovan
What we did well?
1. Compared to the preceding weeks, our attack was more fluid and our passes were generally more accurate. Back passes were good in general.
2. We showed our progress - I think all of us are getting more used to the size of the pitch and our fitness level in general is improving.
3. Our ability to hold/shield the ball was better than before.
What we could do better?
1. Perhaps only Dovan excepted, all of us need to continue working on our finishing or even final pass.
2. We could be faster in tracking back - perhaps against Peru specifically - they were good at overlapping - i.e. playing a through-pass and have a quick runner running past our slower player. I think we will either have to work harder in running back or sit deeper in defence so that there's a "buffer".
3. We are still losing probably most/all high balls, and will need to remember playing the ball on the ground even if we are trying to do a longer pass.
Not really something we can just do better easily - we all struggled to get there on time this week and I think this is perhaps the main contributor to our shaky start/first half. Obviously it's beyond our control whether we can get there on time and certainly there's no absolutely blame on anyone, but I think it would help us settling in a lot quicker and make a material difference in our performance if we do manage to get there early.
All comments/suggestions welcomed.
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