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Log inMatch analysis - 11/05/08 vs. Offk3y
Match analysis - 11/05/08 vs. Offk3y
by marcus on Sun May 11, 2008 7:36 pm
After a glorious afternoon of warm temperatures, BBQ's (burgers fo' sho'), blue skies and sunshine, what better way to finish the day than a game of soccerball. A game against a team we have played many a time and never before lost to sound like a plan? You bet ur ass it does. Roll out...
Having played Offk3y before, we knew how to unsettle their play - score. So looking for that early goal, as the game began and Offk3y took it back into their half, they were quickly closed down by Marcus and Scott. This paid off bigtime, as literally a matter of seconds after the game began, the ball was won by Marcus, who found Scott out wide, before Scott knocked it back in the middle for a low drive home from Randell M. into the near corner. Gametime: approx 20 seconds. Clearly pissed off, Offk3y did the same again from kickoff and so did we. 'Cept this time it was the other way round, Scott won the ball, found Marcus before returning it for Scott to find the net. Not the exactly worst start, seeing as we were 2-0 up, 2 minutes in and Offk3y were yet to get into our half.
Frustration on Offk3y's part was clearly their downfall, as before long they were arguing amongst themselves regularly. However, just to erk them a wee bit more, we kept playing joga bonito styleeee. After the first couple of minutes Offk3y woke up, and it became harder to get more meaningful attacks going, but some slick passing and strong movement was running rampant from those in the white shirts, and before long some sexual play from Stone and Edwardinho led to the net once more bulging. Defensively, we were looking a lot better, and our tracking back and tackling was a lot better. The strong attacking and clinical finishing (except the token ball-over-the-fence shot) was working well and we saw the half drawn to a close with a 3-0 lead and cruising like that Crenshaw pimp I talk about a lot in these (when we do well at least...) Boom.
A team huddle at half time was good, we knew we couldn't get cocky/complacent/lazy and still had a job to do. So we went out and did it. The defending stayed for the most part on point, excluding some scary moments where the clean sheet remained clean thanks to some strong keeping and decision making from our Cat in a hat. Keeping some long range drives out of the top corner and winning those all important one on one situations were vital so you earned your catnip tonight.
The attacking moves kept flowing, corner routines were tasty and the passing and movement was slick. The fourth goal was on its way, and before long, Marcus picked up the ball from an Offk3y player, somehow succesfully jinked his way past the last man before driving a shin-roll among shin-rolls past the GK into the net. 4-0 baby, our joint best scoreline ever!
We seemed to slacken it off a little after this however and take the foot off the gas a little, but it wasn't long before Stone took the ball out wide before finding the net with a deflected strike Frank Lampard would be proud of, taking Gulley to the dizzy heights of 5 in one game!
A lot of this game was played in midfield afterwards, although we still created some opportunities (somewhat helped by their GK being further up the pitch than some of the Offk3y strikers :-S) and close to time Payne was unfortunate to hit his shot straight at the GK (who by now was being verbally abused everytime he roamed so thought it best to stay put).
All in all, tonight was a brilliant day at the office. We collected about 23 new balls from the roof of Thomas Bennett School thanks to some extreme action-man antics from Stone, hit 5 goals in one game and got our all time best victory of 5-0, kept a clean sheet and our movement and finishing seems to have improved (even more so if you exclude the warm up)... Oh and my knee was fine for once but Chick broke his face and Scotts knee was wrecked and his shirt bloodied; thats commitment boys well done!
Having played Offk3y before, we knew how to unsettle their play - score. So looking for that early goal, as the game began and Offk3y took it back into their half, they were quickly closed down by Marcus and Scott. This paid off bigtime, as literally a matter of seconds after the game began, the ball was won by Marcus, who found Scott out wide, before Scott knocked it back in the middle for a low drive home from Randell M. into the near corner. Gametime: approx 20 seconds. Clearly pissed off, Offk3y did the same again from kickoff and so did we. 'Cept this time it was the other way round, Scott won the ball, found Marcus before returning it for Scott to find the net. Not the exactly worst start, seeing as we were 2-0 up, 2 minutes in and Offk3y were yet to get into our half.
Frustration on Offk3y's part was clearly their downfall, as before long they were arguing amongst themselves regularly. However, just to erk them a wee bit more, we kept playing joga bonito styleeee. After the first couple of minutes Offk3y woke up, and it became harder to get more meaningful attacks going, but some slick passing and strong movement was running rampant from those in the white shirts, and before long some sexual play from Stone and Edwardinho led to the net once more bulging. Defensively, we were looking a lot better, and our tracking back and tackling was a lot better. The strong attacking and clinical finishing (except the token ball-over-the-fence shot) was working well and we saw the half drawn to a close with a 3-0 lead and cruising like that Crenshaw pimp I talk about a lot in these (when we do well at least...) Boom.
A team huddle at half time was good, we knew we couldn't get cocky/complacent/lazy and still had a job to do. So we went out and did it. The defending stayed for the most part on point, excluding some scary moments where the clean sheet remained clean thanks to some strong keeping and decision making from our Cat in a hat. Keeping some long range drives out of the top corner and winning those all important one on one situations were vital so you earned your catnip tonight.
The attacking moves kept flowing, corner routines were tasty and the passing and movement was slick. The fourth goal was on its way, and before long, Marcus picked up the ball from an Offk3y player, somehow succesfully jinked his way past the last man before driving a shin-roll among shin-rolls past the GK into the net. 4-0 baby, our joint best scoreline ever!
We seemed to slacken it off a little after this however and take the foot off the gas a little, but it wasn't long before Stone took the ball out wide before finding the net with a deflected strike Frank Lampard would be proud of, taking Gulley to the dizzy heights of 5 in one game!
A lot of this game was played in midfield afterwards, although we still created some opportunities (somewhat helped by their GK being further up the pitch than some of the Offk3y strikers :-S) and close to time Payne was unfortunate to hit his shot straight at the GK (who by now was being verbally abused everytime he roamed so thought it best to stay put).
All in all, tonight was a brilliant day at the office. We collected about 23 new balls from the roof of Thomas Bennett School thanks to some extreme action-man antics from Stone, hit 5 goals in one game and got our all time best victory of 5-0, kept a clean sheet and our movement and finishing seems to have improved (even more so if you exclude the warm up)... Oh and my knee was fine for once but Chick broke his face and Scotts knee was wrecked and his shirt bloodied; thats commitment boys well done!
