a very scruffy performance!

 

HKFC Ds minus their captain played a U114 side who were missing a goalkeeper. Red mist set in even before the whistle. Fatalistically the Ds were counting intended goals like counting M and Ms in a McDonald's McFlurry...... Major mistake

 

U114 with a outfield player committed to goal and an additional 4 man back line played solidly from the back and despite missing a man in the centre played an aggressive/nothing to lose campaign from the start. Even without their keeper they played confident hockey ran hard at the Ds and appeared completely unmoved at the prospect of no keeper.

 

The Ds failed to capitalize on the opportunity. Although the Ds played some good possession hockey with some good INTENDED passing with players in all positions creating and running into space, the critical missing element of the Ds game was the ability or in sundays case the INABILITY to TRAP the ball. Core ball stick skills were lacking. 

 

Being second in the league with a few games to play against massive opposition of Punjab, Pakistan B and a completely new Valley D team if we field a game demonstrating the inconsistent basic ball skills that were evident on sunday then the next 3 games against the above teams will surely see them destroy us. and the league will be over.

 

So the message is guys, dig deep, the place to build the fundamental stick skills that we all need to deliver OUR TEAM GAME is at practice on a tuesday evening, not in pre match warm up or 20 minutes into the second half. Im sure Chappie and the rest of the coaching staff will be more than happy to run a consolidation  session on "trap and pass" for the squad. 

 

Anyway back to the game....

 

First half saw some good creative opportunities some great runs on both wings from Jason and Russell. Good distribution from midfield and craig, but little or no structure to delivering the ball into the D for goal scoring opportunities> it seems that we can pass and run well to the D but then lack any structure to deliver the ball into goal scoring opportunities. Most goals this year  have been scrapped for.

Again this may have been endemic of the mindset of they had no keeper so we were just going to either walk it in or blast it into D and hope for a defensive deflection.

 

U114 played some good long balls, the defense were caught asleep a few times with U114 centre forward , hairy beard finding himself unmarked on back post with about 10 yards of space! 

 

Second half was much the same, however U114 came out running and took an early goal 1-0

 

HAlf way through second half HKFC Ds scored a very scruffy equalizer, Sukum off the mark for the season. 1-1

 

What was fantastic to see though guys, was despite the chronic trapping skills (if one hand on the stick doesnt work, two often does, bend down get body behind the ball)

as a team and despite the obvious frustration of the inability to score we kept our heads and battled hard and didnt stray too far from our game. If the ball skills had been there im sure we would have played with more confidence and achieved a result. So well done for keeping at it.

 

After 2 periods of golden goal extra timer match still tied 1-1

 

From club, paul eugene stuart, craig and jason stepped up in that order against a u114 outfield player in just a face protector... BRAVO for having a go.

 

paul scored but despite his best pleas chappie judged him to have slapped it. Disallowed

 

U114 stepped up scored! !1-0 U114

 

Eugene got club off the mark, followed by Stuart with clinical flick left corner, then craigs flick helped in by the U114 keeper.

 

The four U114 flicks were pounced upon by the man of the moment.... Lets hear it for luccho, D's keeper who again played a massive game especially at the end.

 

Club progress next round.

 

Guys there are some massive lessons for all of us after sunday, use the easter break to get some rest and heads around the next game which is going to be massive against VAlley Ds.

They beat HKFC Bs on sunday and boy were they up for it. If they field the same side against us which i hasten to add might as well been a team of ringers as it looked nothing like the Valley D we played then it could be a painful day, and our defense and midfield is going to have harden up and deliver in every way.

 

Good spirit on sunday chaps, lots of smiling faces. Have a good easter. Im off to indonesia, specifically to komodo in the vein hope i can feed the mother in law to the komodo dragons!!