Sunday, June 14, 2009

MATCH REPORT; Newtown 4 Madison 2

Abject performance by Madison leads to deserved defeat

Newtown ran out worthy winners against a badly performing Madison team today. They gave the visitors a footballing lesson as a strong Newtown side tore them apart with excellent passing and movement to gain revenge for their opening day defeat to Madison. The first quarter hour of the game had started fairly evenly but this competitive beginning was undone by some woeful defending by Madison as they allowed an unmarked striker to head into the net from close range for the second game in a row. Although Madison equalized shortly after this, when a slack pass back was picked up by Tom the Coach and slid past their hapless goalie, they could not keep any momentum going. Newtown were stronger than Madison in almost every department and were soon back in the lead when their opening scorer ran unhindered from the halfway line to stroke the ball past Kevinho. Matters were made much worse when some poor passing from midfield allowed the Newtown team to attack in numbers scoring a third on the stroke of half time. Some strong words at the break were used in an attempt to get the Madison team to compete more aggressively for the ball. They were second to every ball and slow to react all over the field. The defensive line were getting pushed further and further into their own half and a significant gap was appearing in the midfield that the Newtown team was only too happy to exploit. The incredibly slack passing by Madison continued into the second half and culminated in a perfectly weighted, but disastrously misplaced, pass to two of the Newtown strikers who wasted no time in deciding which of them would slam the ball past Kevinho for their fourth of the game. A demoralized and alarmingly lifeless Madison team were now playing for pride and with 9 minutes left in the game another defensive error by the Newtown team allowed TJ to score a second goal to make the score at least look respectable. The last minutes of the game were all owned by Newtown as they had the freedom to take shots from every angle and distance at the Madison goal. Good goalkeeping and strong defensive clearances prevented Newtown from emphasizing their superiority with further goals. The referees whistle was a welcome relief for the beleaguered Madison team as they continued their desperate away form. Lessons have to be learned from this defeat if Madison want to win even a point away from home. The loss of the strong running and possession play of Carlos is now very obviously affecting the teams performance and we hope he can get back to fitness soon. The team also has to have a more effective subbing system deployed during the game as players were left on the bench for large chunks of the game even though it was clear there were players struggling with form and fitness on the field. The great thing about football is that we can put this all behind us next week by beating Guilford at home. Can't we ?



Man of the Match; Rob "el gutso" Heckel. Even though it was tough to pick out a man of the match in such an appallingly bad game Rob actually did all the simple things right during this game. He very rarely got himself, or the team, in trouble and probably made more successful passes than most on the day. He even managed to pass to Roniildo using his backside. It was that kind of day.....










39 comments:

  1. by the way, if you look at the first photograph of the Newtown corner in detail it is very revealing. We have 10 players in our own box, they have 4....two of which are completetly unmarked on the edge of the box and their no 14 is coming in on the blind side of almost all of our players. You should also count up the number of Madison players out of the ten that actually have their eye on the incoming ball.....not many!

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  2. Sorry it was a bad performance.
    Obviously you missed me dearly...

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  3. we missed you, Carlos and Fribeka.... you all put in a good shift and that's what was missing today. Hopefully we will revert back to our home form next week....we are becoming exactly like Glasgow Celtic in the Champions League.....can't win away from home but usually undefeated at home

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  4. Re. Substitutions: Our method of pleading and begging to come into the game is not a good model. It's evident that players don't want to come off because they aren't tired....and they aren't tired because they aren't RUNNING.

    Having the 'luxury' of viewing from the sidelines yesterday for quite some time, it was very enlightening to see almost everyone walking around....literally walking to defend an opponent, or having gotten beat, walking back behind the oppponent who had just stripped the ball from us.

    I can guarantee that if everyone was running and working hard like we should be, then substitutions wouldn't be a problem because players would actually be tired. (novel concept, I know.) Think about it.

    I apologize for taking off early, but, believe it or not, I have better things to do than drive 1 hour and 15 minutes each way to watch a soccer game on Sunday morning.

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  5. well said! At the end of the game everyone should be exhausted because they left it all on the field.....

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  6. I agree with everything that has been said and it was definitely a very poor team performace against Newtown yesterday. Keep in mind that this is about a whole team effort performance. You win as a team and you loose as a team and is not just about an individual's performance. Our #1 problem as a team is our fitness. We have many players that are out of shape and their stamina only lasts for a few minutes and then they start walking on the field. It is a very hard task to win a game against a Team like Newtown in such a situation. We were slow to get to the ball, we were not fit enought to win the ball in the first place and even when we had the ball we were constantly making mistakes on passing or giving the ball right back to Newtown. Newtown had the home advantage and more familiar with their turf field and they were a fitter team and they were constantly banking on our mistakes. I thought they were very good at passing and moving the ball, and fought for every single ball and never let down until the last second of the game. It is very hard to win a game against a good team like Newtown. Unless we fix our fitness problem as a team, we will not be able to beat teams like Newtown, New Fairfield and Bridgeport or any other team out there in this caliber.

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  7. dear Anonymous

    yes, fitness is an issue! How many people actually work out between games? I hope you are one of the players that works out and is fit....! At the end of the game everyone should be drenched in sweat with their heart rate through the roof.....some guys came off the field at the end of the game looking like they had gone for a pleasant stroll in the park....i also agree that the team unit is everything although individuals can wreck a game too... there were a couple of passing errors in the game on Sunday that led to two goals for the opposition! So we can encourage people to get fitter, even though it becomes more and more difficult in your forties and fifties to gain and maintain fitness. We could also try and operate a better system for the team....we do not adhere to or even have any tactics! It was clear on Sunday we should have switched to a straight back four with the full backs pushing further up the field. The midfield should have condensed into the middle more and maybe even allowed a player to sit just behind the front two..... no way should Jorge have been coming back behind our right back to coollect the ball...but i can see why he was gettingt frustrated because the ball wasn't getting to him. So some simple tactics and a bit more emphasis on fitness woudl go along way.... i also think we need a non playing coach/sub organizer. Not sure who we know that would want to spend their Sundays doing that but we need someone at the side of the field to organize us more

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  8. Dear connecticutcelt,

    I am glad that you agree that fitness is an issue...and I think is a big issue for the team and everything else is related to it. I understand is harder to stay in shap in 40's and 50's but let's be realistics here....Newtown players were also in the same age group but they were a much fitter team that we were.

    I agree we should have tactics which should have been discussed on Sunday. Even with tactics, you still have to go out there and perform and hustle and I am not sure if it would have worked much yesterday. We were making constant mistakes defensively and offensively.

    I agree that Jorge who is playing upfront shouldn't come back to help but he made an
    adjustment due to the fact that mid field wasn't play well and came back to help and he did the right thing. When forward is not receiving the ball is because the mid field is not playing well.

    I agree we need a non playing coach/sub organizer and good luck finding that person. In general, when we have only 2 subs, the team should not have any problems subbing....a simple good communication goes a long way. The issue with subbing is when you have more than 3 players sitting on the bench and that's when an organizing person on the sideline can help.

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  9. Dear Anon

    so you agree with me then?... let's get fitter, let's get better tactics, let's play harder with more intensity, let's feel that we have had a major work out by the end of the game, lets have more passion....let's try and win! Simple stuff really

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  10. Guys,

    We are scheduled to play against Guilford at the Xchange field in Madison. Please be there by 9:30 am and use the top parking area.

    I think if I am correct it is Tom P's turn for beer duty. Please remember that we can not drink in the parking area.

    We need to have a practice before Sunday. Let's meet at 6:15 or 6:30 latest at Clinton HS..

    Let me know who is going to be there please

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  11. I will be there on Sunday….what day are you talking about for a practice? I will be in California this week from Wednesday to Friday

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  12. Sorry.....I meant practice on Thursday at 6:15 at Clinton HS

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  13. I'll be there Sunday, and Thursday.

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  14. i will be there on sunday. i will be out of town on thursday.

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  15. I will be there on Sunday. I have taken off from work for the remainder of the week and I will be training. If anyone cares to join me, I will be starting every morning at 4:30 am with a dozen raw eggs. I take a break from 12:01pm to 12:15pm and continue until 7:48pm.

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  16. TJ

    Great! I'm glad someone is taking this seriously. What's the point of working if we end up unfit and unable to compete on a Sunday morning? I will be unable to join you this week as I have been asked by the LA Galaxy to take a quick trip out there to get Beckham back on the fitness trail........he put a bit of weight on in Milan with all that pasta and stuff..... Anyway best of luck with the raw eggs.....

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  17. Yes for Sunday; can't make Thursday.

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  18. Anybody watched the match last night on ESPN? Italy 3 US 1.....it reminded me of the Celtic Newtown match last Sunday......specially in the second half

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  19. USA looked good in the first half, but second half was way different….. I think they need to get fitter ;o)

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  20. If I'm not mistaken, the US played the entire second half and a good portion of the first a man down. I'm sure that and their fitness level had something to do with their poor second half showing

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  21. none of them are on the raw egg diet which I think is outrageous…..

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  22. outrageous that they're not on it??

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  23. yes, Tom Judge swears by it.....and the Salmonella adds some extra protein

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  24. If they were on the raw egg diet, they could have played the whole game with 7-8 guys. Since I don't have to run during a match I can save the eggs, but I want to see everyone drink some raw eggs before any beers on Sunday!!

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  25. They definitely played like Madison Celtic in the second half......with tired defense and mid field....the US mid field almost gave out toward the second half......and they were walking and no body wanted to sub out......I saw one guy walking out......

    Rossi #17 of Italy......wow....he scored 2 beautiful goals with 2 beautiful shots......the US goal keeper was in chock

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  26. Kevin.....well said .....I make sure everyone drink the raw eggs before the match on Sunday....bring it in

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  27. I'm out Sunday. Good luck....play hard and make some good passes.

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  28. Hi Guys:

    At the last game, we talked about moving this match to Guilford. We do not have the turf field available; however, we do have Cox School available. It would be a home game to us, so we would take care of the referee.

    Is this okay with you guys?

    Thanks,
    Zac

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  29. Good Morning,

    Just to let you know that we will be playing at Cox School in Guilford. The school is located across Bishop Farm.

    Coming from Madison on Boston Post Road in Guilford:
    Left on Dunk Rock road (street before Bishop Farm) and another left onto Farmview and the school will be on the right had side. We will be playing at one of the fields in back of the school.

    Please be there by 9:30 am

    Tom

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  30. I'll be there. With beer.
    Schlitz and Piels should do it.

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  31. and the raw eggs before the start of the game as a energy booster

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  32. Thanks Jodi...look forward to seeing you in midfield next week.

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  33. I'll be there, fit, the 28th.

    Good luck this weekend!

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  34. Jody and I will are going to play musical chair for one position - I've heard that it is becoming harder to get playing time and make it into the starting 11 :o)

    I'll be there this Sunday but will be away the week after (28th)

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  35. Hi,

    I believe we have 13 players confirmed including Kevin and Carlos......with exception of Danny...I know Danny is playing but he hasn't responded by email yet. 14 with Danny.

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  36. danny is on the road coaching at a soccer event in MA, but he is planning on coming back for the match

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