Ragtag Rebels - Carpe Diem

3-3. Not yet (they say).

We made many mistakes yesterday but to my taste the league is over. We have +39 goals and Hunter boys +14. Two games to go.

We started well, more or less controlling the game and in one good action Carlos scores with almost no angle. 1-0.Then they press a bit and they manage to have a penalty, 1-1 and with that result we reached the break. The second half was pretty balanced, both teams had chances and Gianluca was, probably, our best player today.

It started well, counter attack from defense and Jelmer scores. 2-1. Then we had several actions like a shot on the post by Fer, but didn’t score… until Carlos dribbles a defender and scores the 3-1. Then in another counter attack we lose the ball, Digo and David(what a lousy game he did today) crash into each other, 3-2. At that point we had the possession of the ball because they were tired but we miss passes. We should have frozen the game.

And when we had one minute to the end (just one minute!) our last guy looses the ball, two on one with the keeper and 3-3.

US: Regular/bad game, like the previous one but against a stronger team. At the beginning we played decently but then we started to miss passes. Later we stopped following our man but luckily that didn’t cause any goal. Gianluca had more work than normally and he did it pretty well. Individually we made many serious mistakes that we should discuss. Not smart in the pressure and then misplaced on the pitch, not following our guy, not helping or moving when a team mate has the ball, etc.

THEM: As proven today, very dangerous team. They don’t defend very well but in attack they move a lot and in general they are taller and heavier than us. When the keeper was attacking, they found empty spots in our defense (left side mainly, right for us).

I think that when, with only one minute left, after being winning 3-1 and having the league already won, the ball came in, we all wanted to scream. Let’s learn from this for the next game.

Next game: Mikkers. They beated us 4-1 (our only defeat so far) and they are without any question one of the strongest teams in the league.

Goals: Carlos, Jelmer, Carlos

Linesman: Lorenzo

PS: Thanks Lorenzo for joining us and please get well soon, we need you in shape for next season.

A bit of math

Today we have our first match ball of the season. Funny isn’t it? This was our first season in second division and most of us (me first) didn’t think we will be at this position at the end of the season. Nice to see we were wrong.

I always say that making numbers is useless until the last three games… well this is it so let’s do some math.

The situation is like this:

1. Ragtag. We are first with 38 points and 15 matches. There are only 3 matches to go=9 points.
2. Mikkers with same number of matches (15) and 11 points less (27), that means they already cannot win the league.
3. Hunter Boys with also 11 points less than us (27) but only 14 matches, if they win their next game (I assume so because it is an easy one against the last) the difference will be 8 points.
4. Waar GP with 25 and 15 matches (no chances to win the league).

Bottom line: Eight points difference, 3 games to go and only one opponent. We just need one point, since our goal difference is pretty sexy (+39).

The next (and last) three matches are:

1. Carpe Diem (tonight). Together with us, they are the best team in the second leg. They have won around 10 games in a row, beated War GP and last week Mikkers 6-4. They were loosing 4-2 at the break and scored 4 goals in a row. On top of that they played some time with 4 players after a green card. They are currently in very good shape.
2. Mikkers, currently the second team in the league. So far the only team that beated us this season. Scored 4 goals actually.
3. Waar GP. We had a very rough and dirty game in the first leg. There are complains about their behavior from some teams. I would not feel confortable playing for the league against them.

These are the maths. Nice position needing only one point, suuuure but we often make the easy a challenge and the three next games are the most difficult ones. Let’s focus in tonight’s game and in what we individually have to do on the pitch.

Good luck.

Ragtag Rebels - De Witte Burgh

5-3. We just did our home works.

It was in principle a simple game. We started well and controlled the game for quite some time. We didn’t suffer much in defense. So all in all and then goals were came naturally. Well done pressing, etc. Very nice, we reached the break 4-0. Then a bit of relax, misunderstanding in defense and 4-1. Luckily soon we made the 5-1 but then we just stopped playing. No pressure, no offering, no moves, nothing. Digo even said he had the feeling that everybody wanted to score, could be, I don’t know. Anyhow the fact is that we had a serious problem of concentration and then they took control and scored twice in 3 minutes. Then we kind of woke up and cold down the game a little bit. Not so many chances anymore for any of us and final score 5-3.

In total the result was ok, but it really worries me the fact that we easily lose control of a very positive situation. This is not the first time it happens, see 2 games ago against High Tech Campus, also winning and losing control. Luckily today we had a very nice margin and their attack was not that powerful but one day we could pay for our relax time.

THEM: De witte burgh is a nice team, balanced with young and experience players. However they have problems when we press them. When they do counter attacks (at least today) normally it is only the guy with the ball attacking not followed by anyone else of his team so it is easier to stop. They attack also with the keeper but they don’t move enough to take advantage of that.

US: Nice first half, horrible lost of concentration and aggressiveness. Luckily we came back on time but this is not the first time it happens. We should definitely keep an eye on this.

Note: After today’s victory only 2 teams have mathematical chances to win the league: Hunter Boys and us. Mikkers and Waar GP cannot make it anymore. Carpe Diem is coming back but they wont be able to make in time.

Ragtag Rebels - Eindhoven United

5-0. Quiet and simple

From the very first second we had a clear chance and Francesco almost scored. Right after that Francesco scores the first goal after a lost ball from the keeper. Their keeper lost many but MANY balls today and some meant goals.

Gianluca didn't come and Stefan was the keeper, he wasn't very busy but still did his job very well.

I don't remember the second goal (Jelmer?)

Third goal was a cool one, Gareth get's in the pitch and the first thing he does is a pressure to the keeper, whom decided to shoot Gareth on the leg, rebounce and goal, first touch=goal: Veni, vidi, vinci (Julious Caesar).

Fourth goal starts in Fernando dribbling a striker in our area then he crosses the whole field but the defenders are more worried of his pass so he accepts the invitation to shoot and scores. Very nice long run and beautiful goal

I'm a bit confused with the goals but we reached the break 4-0.

One more in the second half (Carlos??) and 5-0.

US: Solid defense although we didn't have many difficulties today. To put a "but" I would say that it seems to be tricky when we have Jelmer and Francesco together, there are moments when none of them cover the last guy and we have some difficulties. In the second half we agreed not to follow the keeper (because he wasn't dangerous in attack) and we fixed that minor issue. Again, nothing serious today but something to keep an eye on. However in attack they did couple of very nice 1-2, actually perhaps the best play today was a great combination of them.

THEM: It is not a bad team but they have a serious problem in defense-keeper. They loose very dangerous balls. They also do slow vertical passes keeper-first defender, we recovered many balls just by being quicker there. Their best player today was the number 6, he moves around a lot and we needs to be covered.

Anecdote 1: Today we shot at least 4 times to the post: Gareth(2), Francesco and David.

Anecdote 2: In the second half Stefan receives a long and easy ball out of their defense(from their field) and he plays funny and let's the ball come in the goal. That is supposed to be ok because the rules say that's not a goal. However the referee was even funnier than Stefan and gives the goal!!!. Luckily the referee at the table corrected him and cancelled that. Lesson of the day: you wanna be funny? better do it on wednesdays.

Anecdote 3: Mikkers lost against War GP. Virtually(because we have one more game) we have an advantage of 11 points. Most likely that difference will be reduced to 8 points next week.

Next week we rest. In two weeks we face De Witte Burgh, let's forget about points and differences and try to play a serious match against them.

Linesman: Digo and Fernando

Goals: Francesco, Jelmer?, Gareth, Fernando, ??? Help me at the comments please.

Ragtag Rebels - High Tech Campus

(27-01-11)

6-2. Carlos's show

We got the revenge from our previous draw (2-2) against this team. We started winning pretty early. A stupid ball lost from the defense in midfield and goal(Andre??). Later a very hard pressure from Carlos to the keeper, he gets the ball and with almost no angle he scores. Third goal, keeper out of the area losses another stupid ball and Carlos scores with a chip over him, very stylish.

Some other goals I already forgot (please help me out in the comments) and we reached the break leading 5-0.

Today we only have one substitute and that caused the mess at the beginning of the second half. Actually it was a chaos. We started with 4 strikers on the field and only one defender (Digo). So indeed we started with an unbalanced distribution, then also we got too relaxed due to the score (mistake we didn't do in the previous game). If that wasn't enough, on top of that they attacked with everything and pressed very hard. So... they scored two goals very soon they got really motivated. Later with 2 defenders on the field (Digo and David) the chaos was less chaos and we could control the possession a bit more. That bit of pause eventually made us score one last goal.

US: Funny guy, Carlos. He had to be linesman in the second half so he started pressing like crazy and being a real pain in the ass for their keeper and their last defender. I guess for them was like having TAZ around.

It was definitely a great (half)game from him recovering the ball, scoring and passing, great game man!.

For the rest of us also a nice first half against a team that caused us problems in the first game of the season (although that game was bit unfair in my opinion). Very solid in defense. Almost no chances for them.

Second half: Total chaos, we must learn from this. We should be more mature and don't let this situation to happen, react quicker and take control of the situation.

All and all, it wasn't that bad, it took us a while but we corrected it and get the control back.

THEM: What can I say, their keeper today had Taz in front and that must be very annoying ;). We covered well the empty spaces were Bart is more dangerous so they couldn't do much.

They didn't play bad but made very lethal mistakes.

Linesman: Jelmer and Carlos

Goals: Carlos(2), Francesco?, Andre?, Jelmer?.... help me out.

Ragtag Rebels - Hunter Boys

(20-01-11)

4-0 Victory! A very smart game

At the end of the game, we grabbed our gear and Gianluca said: "This is the most serious game we've played this year". Maybe a bit exaggerated but, in essence, I agree with him.

We started controlling the game, we had some chances but no luck.

They also had few chances (less than us) mainly coming from number 7 and also from far (but really strong) shots from their second line.

We reached the break 0-0.

The best thing we did today was that even though we did not score in the first half, we did not loose the way of playing. We didn't have the desperation we used to get last year and instead we controlled the game and were solid at defense. Due to that eventually we started scoring, then they attacked more, left more spaces and we caught them in some counter attacks (please help me with the scorers in at the comments).

One remarkable goal was the 3-0 I believe. It was a counter attack were Jelmer fights like crazy for a ball not to go out, passes to Fer, he dribbles the defender and scores (goal dedicated to his girlfriend at the stands). Great goal not only for the action but mainly because of the attitude of Fernando and specially Jelmer, fighting like that when we were already leading for two goals.

Finally we played a game keeping patience and control and it really paid off. 4 goals in the second half.

US: GREAT attitude, specially at the second half. Very serious game, patience and control gave results.

THEM: Like in the first leg, the small guy (number 7) was a real pain in the ass, their best player, no discussion about that. He moves a lot and dribbles with danger. The good thing was that most of the times we were well positioned so he didn't have spaces on our back.

They are in general quite big players (except number 7). They have strong shots from the last guy which is, together with the number 7, their biggest weapon.

They didn't make clear mistakes today but we played pretty decently and once we scored they had to take risks that costed them the game.

Linesman: David(for Fernando's glory ;)) and Stefan

Goals: Fernando... and help me in the comments please