Madison blow it with late mistake but remain undefeated!If you were not playing or watching yesterdays game with Woodbridge then you missed a good game! I of course was dealing with my Disney cold, i know it's a Small World after all, but i don't like viruses....or bacteria and i guess there are a lot of them living on the various "rides" at Disney. Anyway, enough of my excuses, what excuses did the team have after the game? Well we have two great accounts of the game! I'm again grateful to the following incisive narrative provided by Jody the midfield journalist;
" We completely dominated the game....up2-0 at the half, and should have been up by five.....Rohan played well, scoring both goals with several close misses. Behrooz played solidly in goal....he even came out the goal on a couple occasions.......so far out at one point that the net was left wide open and the opposition couldn't score only due to a dribble-crazy forward who couldn't find his shot. They scored on a breakaway and on an own goal header by Hamid with less 10 minutes to the end. He said, "If John can do it, I can to it too!" In the end we came away tied at 2-2......very disappointing given the level of dominance we enjoyed. Next week, Bridgeport away. I'll be out next week, as will Jacques"
And this one from our midfield typist Tom;
"Yesterday was a beautiful day and a perfect soccer day. Woodbridge has a really nice field, it's flat with no holes. We started with only 11 players until Tom P. showed up 15 minutes into the game (at least he turned up! Ed). We played this game without John, Carlos, Ron B., Jorge, and Eric. We played really well during the first half with strong defensive play, good passing. The mid-field also played well and kept attacking. The first goal was a shot deflected off one of the Woodbridge's players. We had many chances to score more but we kept missing the shots. We started off the second half pretty well and early into the second half, Rohan scored a beautiful goal off a counter attack. After that, Woodbridge kept pressing hard and on a counter attack, one of their strikers passed the defense on the right side and scored their first goal. At this point, we were not consistent, our passing was off and we were making more mistakes in mid-field and this gave them opportunity to control the ball and keep attacking. The score was 2-1 until 5 minutes before the end of the game until a long high cross into our 18 yards box ended with Hamid scoring a beautiful header into our net! At this point, everyone was in shock and that was the final score. This was the second game that we could have won but we ended up tieing the game instead"
Thanks for the reports guys!
I will be back next week and hopefully so will Scott! Bridgeport were always a tough team in the past but not sure what they are like now.
Looks like Tom is trying to organize a midweek game for us against Milford. I'm all for that....if the professionals can do it why can't we? Yes, ....i know why....we are unfit. Which brings me to the great fitness challenge. After a superb first week it looks like there is only Rob and me left in the "challenge"! I could be wrong but no one else has provided me with their points..... one last call for exercise scores and if none appear then it will be down to a nail biting contest between me and Rob.....very exciting!
We can get the use of a lighted field on a Wednesday night (not this coming Wednesday) until around the end of October. If you want to make our game up, we could do it then....my guys don't really care if we make it up or not but if you would like to, I can definitely get enough guys to play. Let me know what you think.
ReplyDeleteYes, that would be fine with me. No worries. I can see the ball better at night!!
ReplyDeleteHamid
ReplyDeleteI hear you are now challenging my goal record?
I will catch up!!
ReplyDeleteDear Hamid,
ReplyDeleteYou have problem seeing the ball during the day time. How can you see it at night time. I am just having fun with you of course
Hey guys I only have two hours of exercise under my belt for the week ending september 21st. Of course that does not include the game against Woodbridge.
ReplyDeleteApparently Minnie is sick too! The word on the street is that Mickey is in town and he is not happy!!! O:-)
ReplyDeleteStop picking on Hamid! he showed us that he would be an excellent forward with his beautiful header! But, we only have to blame ourselves for the second half of the game - and this is the story of our team - the opponent don't beat us, we beat ourselves everytime in the second half of the games. We got to learn to stay organized!
If you think Minnie is bad you should see Cinderella!
ReplyDeleteBehrooz...i'll keep you in the race!
ReplyDeleteI was watching most of 2nd half from the sidelines and it was pretty easy to see - the other team picked up the pace a notch and we did not. we played tired even though we may not have felt tired. we were waiting for them to get the ball and start passing, so we were reacting all 2nd half. we did well, but we were not controlling the game or the pace.
ReplyDeleteprobably 30-35 of the 45 minutes were in our half.
probably fatigue is a better word. we were not bent over huffing and puffing, but we were standing alot and watching play happen around us. they were able to start their attack just into our half and we were chasing them. we pinned the ball near their goal for about 5-10 minutes at most in 2nd half.
with only 1 sub this is not surprising. but we should be aware of it as a weakness for future games where we do not have subs.
If you had all taken up the fitness challenge it would be so different!
ReplyDeletewhen we do not have subs and alot of speed we need to keep our shape
ReplyDeletebetter - esp btwn midfield and fullbacks on defense and midfield and fowards
on offense. hard to do...
I agree! keeping team shape, especially when we are struggling, is really important....even for Premier league teams! It's tempting for players to try and cover a gap that they see appearing but when they do that they also leave a gap...if more than one or two players do that at the same time we end up with gaps everywhere and a team that has lost it's shape...
ReplyDeleteTom sum-up with his first words our common problem! Our only sub was watching most of the game from the sideline - which means we didn't use our sub. After the game, I realized that I was exhausted and didn't sub out - and as much as most of us think that we are in shape and should have 600 points cumulated in John fitness program, we should tell ourselves that we are not, and sub ourselves out in the future. Our midfielders looked completely tired in the second half and we lost control of the midfield - given that we played really well in the first half. Maybe we should implement a number-given rotation and everybody should sub every 10-15 minutes. Anyway, lesson learned hopefully!!
ReplyDeleteA night game would be a nice change, plus the beer and coconut shrimp are fabulous at the Stonebridge!!
ReplyDeleteJohn/Jacques....I am probably -211 points on John's fitness program, maybe
ReplyDeleteI should re-think my return!
So far most of you have responded positively regarding the Make UP Game with Milford on a Wednesday night sometime next month. I picked Oct. 15th which gives us opportunity to plan ahead and I expect everyone to be there if you can. We will be playing under light. I think 6:00pm is a good time to start? The game is at Milford.
ReplyDeleteAfter the game, we will all get together for beer, dinner, coconut shrimp at the Stonebridge in Milford (Stuart's recommendation) and it would a great time and fun for all of us. So plan on staying after the game. It appears that most people are available on a Wednesday night but we still have to confirm with Scott Neil, Carlos, Jorge, Eric, Danny, Rohan, and may be even Jim.