Womens C 3 - 2 Dutch

19 November 2011

Match report: HKFC C vs Dutch

The C team were looking for another win and with most of the team having been at Club for the section photo earlier in the day everyone was ready to take on the Dutch team by the time 5pm came around. With a good warm up and a few last minutes words from Chappie we were ready to go. Just a few minutes in we had our first short corner chance and - rather to the surprise of everyone, not least to Katy who took the hit - managed to get away a clean strike from the top of the D into the left corner of the goal and were 1-0 up only minutes into the match. Unfortunately this did not inspire a C team who were rather more used to conceding goals! There were some good runs up the right hand side with great distribution from Joss in the middle and lovely short passes between Maya and Lydia with Emma J in the centre. On the left, Kyrah and Emma M were looking dangerous and Emma M was unlucky despite her best efforts to take on the goalkeeper. It was all looking good although the Dutch were ever threatening, particularly their number 10 who made even Emma J look short and had a habit of stealing the ball from us dangerously around the edge of the D. The defence had done a great job at keeping out the long passes through, Ellie and Yeng picking up players and thwarting the attack through the centre with help from Katy and Christina. A long corner chance for the tall orange ladies and having managed to move the ball 5 yards, a well struck ball into the D exposed our defence on the far side and it was an easy slip behind Annika into the goal, despite Lydia's best attempts to mark two players. So 1-1 at half time and everything to play for.

Once again the half time talk focused on a few technical improvements but was more about attitude - did we want to win the match or not?!! Back onto the pitch and the C team were finding their rythmn, Joce continued to lead from the front with passion, chasing down every ball and one spectacular lunge at the sideline keeping the ball in play despite being at full stretch on the ground and then managing to pick herself up and win the ball! A short corner for the Dutch looked like it had been turned over with a good run out by our defence but then a great reverse stick strike at goal found its target and we were 1-2 down. Disaster! However, the C team likes nothing better than coming back from behind and suddenly everyone remembered that they really did want to win. With Christina making some trademark long hits down the right side and Rachel providing great vision with her overall play, it was only a matter of time before we got another goal. With another corner secured, we went for the short option, a beautiful strike from Joss rebounded into the D but brilliantly picked up by Kyrah and we were back to 2-2. Into the last 5 mins of the match and the C team could smell victory - the communication was working, Ellie from the back could see an opportunity to get the ball on the left to Alisa and, for once, Katy did as instructed, a clean pick up by Alisa and into the D and, in the final minute, Rachel pounced on the ball and we got our 3rd goal. A few nail-biting final seconds and victory was ours!

Goal scorers: Katy, Kyrah, Rachel
MVP: Jocelyn

A great team performance by everyone - go the Cs.....

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