Two sloppy concessions early in the first half set the tone for a disappointing result on Saturday. The Makos, beaten 3-0 at home by the Chogs earlier this season, turned up with an exceptional new No.9 and missing the weak defensive link from the previous encounter.
Backline hesitancy opened the door for two goals in the opening quarter of an hour and the Makos shot 3-0 up soon after that, opening the door for a rout.
Gradually, however, we started to get back into the match but the Makos' passing was always superior as the Chogs rushed the ball. A couple of observers mentioned they had to count the Makos team so sure were they that the visitors enjoyed a numerical advantage.
A goal before the break seemed crucial if we were to stage a comeback but it never arrived, despite the insecure away keeper. Gary J nodded a corner just wide, Graeme D floated a free kick onto the top of the crossbar and Ant put the ball in the net only to be denied by a linesman's flag.
The second half involved a lot of huffing and puffing but the Makos extended their lead midway through. Michael was wrongly adjudged to have brought down the No.9 on the edge of the box. From the freekick the ball arrowed into the far corner with Hector standing behind his wall.
Any had a chance to open our account, blazing just over, and new boy Barton couldn't direct his shot at the target after passing the keeper. Eventually a consolation arrived. Andy won a battle down the right and crossed for Kev who was wrestled to the ground by the keeper. Kev dusted himself off and scored from the spot.
We were outplayed by a better team performance and we will all realise we can play much better.
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5 comments:
Our whole team performance was well below par, this Mako team was certainly playing to a different level than our previous encounter. All 3 goals during the first half where stoppable, however its extremely hard to defend against their mid-field & attackers when we only have 4 at the back. I will always be the first to say our defence was to blame, yes we should have stopped the 3 first half goals but we cannot do that on our own....we need support. Our overall performance was very poor, we all know our control & passing was school boy level but I know we can do better and I for one will be out for blood when we play Jamberoo on Saturday, we will bounce back and win this critical game.
Social Dave
don't remind us Dave!! i am trying to forget the entire day, twas not much fun however lets not hang ourselves, we can do that next week if we have a repeat performance......have a good one all
13
I'm going to play the back line as high as possible during Saturdays game to try and support our mid-field.
Social Dave
you/we guys had our bloody hands full in the back with that number 9, damn good on his feet! 13
I am going to throw my hat into the ring and comment. I was disappointed with the Hogs' performance. We beat ourselves. We recognized the problem within the first five minutes of the game and really did nothing to fix it - #9 was the playmaker and we allowed him to continue doing so. When we play Hogs soccer, we win. When we try playing a game dictated by the other side, we come up on the loser's end. For what it's worth, this is what we should have done:
1. Dropped 5 in the back with two dedicated to marking #9 on either side or have a defensive midfielder follow #9 into the defence to be picked up immediately by someone dedicated to marking him.
2. Slowed the game down to our pace;
3. Kept the ball at our feet - possession is the name of the game. Some of their players had some skill so we we should have worked at keeping the ball at our feet;
4. shortened our passes and move the ball around until we created attacking opportunities
When comments about how fast the other team is or the makeup of the team not being the same as the team we first played are made within the first 15 minutes of the game, we create our own mountain to climb - something we certainly did not have to do.
See you fellas tomorrow. I am playing to win or to do our very best. Last week, we did neither. (6)
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