we need to have better control in the middle and work on turning any opportunity in the front into a shot at goal. Too often we were entering the box and getting out just as quickly, without even lining up a shot.
Following our victories of the last two weeks,the team was feeling the pressure to take out a third win-in-a-row in the latest game against British United. A new fresher in the team (Laurent de Schoutheete) was welcomed in the change room while Captain, Rachid Maliki, presented the now classic 4/4/2 tactic.
Once out on the pitch, we gave ourselves 10 minutes to assess the opposition and get our bearings before shifting into second gear and imposing our game. Unfortunately, despite some courageous efforts - including a great intervention from our goalie Makoto Hasegawa, some interesting work on our left side from, inter alia, Uli Stege, and an obvious dive from Ian Vollbracht into the box - we failed (at the expense of Carsten Schierenbeck’s vocal chords!) to do much with the game. As a result, the first half was rather weak with no clear goal opportunity from either side.
The second half started with Frank Boers coming in to strengthen our defence, giving a bit more security at the back, which in turn allowed us to control the game better in the middle. The pressure that we imposed caused huge confusion between the opposition defence and goalkeeper, resulting in a self-goal on a centre given by Laurent de Schoutheete from the right side (0 – 1).
With opposition tactics of this calibre, we were confident that any shot at the goal would be guaranteed to shake the nets. Unfortunately, this was not to be. Instead we boxed a goal from a powerful strike in our ceiling that left Makoto with empty hands (1 – 1). The rest of the game was just a matter of securing the score for both teams.
The moral to the story is that we need to have better control in the middle and work on turning any opportunity in the front into a shot at goal. Too often we were entering the box and getting out just as quickly, without even lining up a shot.
MOM : Laurent de Schoutheete
