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.

High Tech Campus - Ragtag Rebels

2-2. A draw that tasted like a defeat.

Lousy match, so far the worse in the season. We started scoring (Stefan), it was a very nice move from Digo that didn't finish with his best possible shot but luckily the ball went to Stefan and 1-0.
To be honest and seeing from outside (were everything looks simpler) it looked like we were already assuming "we just scored, this is going well" and we got rid of all the tension we (I don't know why) had.. and then got too relaxed for a moment. So then, minutes after that they scored the 1-1. Yes they touched the ball nicely but NOBODY followed his guy, nobody made a fault... we just looked at them. Four touches and goal, 1-1.

Then we went into the second half and here we (I) made a big mistake that I explain later. Overall the nerves came back (why!?) and we started our own individual battles, trying one on ones were it was pointless instead of "start again" (Gareth dixit).
However at this point Fernando scored a great goal (the best thing we did today) after a nice dribble and shot with no angle.
Later, we don't pass back, we loose a ball and don't chase the guy, counter attack 2 against 1, Dan almost with no angle puts the ball in with quite some luck.
After that we had quite some chances (which is great) but didn't score any and they also had a clear one that could have made everything worse (and more unfair).

US: Too nervous, never playing back i.e. very rarely to David, never to Gianluca, so we didn't have control of the game. Often we were 3 players in the left and nobody in the right, we did a lousy job while placing ourselves on the pitch and that made us easier for them to defend. Did I mention we didn't control the game? Well we didn't.

Gareth's issue (this is my opinion, just that, like all I say in my posts). When I say "we" made a big mistake, I mean "I" did it (mainly because I did see it and still didn't say anything). In the second half Gareth took the flag and that was a gift for them. At that moment we needed to win and we had no spaces for Jelmer to use and no one vs one for Andre's left shot. Giving that, we should have put another guy from the group David, Digo, Stefan or maybe even Fernando and leave Gareth on the pitch (even more motivated today because of the presence of his girlfriend ;)).
Bottom line: We should have changed the plans no matter the order with the flags (fuck that in these situations). Then we would have assumed a bigger risk in defense but would have had more danger in attack and we definitely needed to win. In this game HTC was often waiting in their field and going in counter attacks, so there was no room in their back. In those conditions Gareth and Carlos give us a plus.

THEM: We know them all, nothing to add. Their keeper joins the start of the move and Rene sweeps in the back. They waited for us and rarely pressed in our field. That's why it is shocking that we did not control the game.
Not many spaces on their back, we should have pressed them more when the keeper has the ball.

Given that said, let's see this in perspective. We didn't loose and we did have chances. A bad day with few mistakes that we need to correct, sure, but that's it. Just learn from it.

I like one thing: we draw and we were(are) pissed off, they wasted time at the end and celebrated the result.