Goodfellas 1 vs 5 USRC

Peps

Legal League - Match Report
Goodfellas 1 USRC 5
February 5, 2010 (King's Park #1)

Line-up: Thariq (GK), Andrew (RB) David (CB) Bear (CB) Garrow (LB) Doug (RM), Shaka (CM), Cedric (CM), Kai (LM), Dave M (S) Howard (S)

Subs: Peps, Pete, Koh, Jason

On a chilly February evening, the Fellas took on USRC at King Park hoping to continue their winning run to 4 games and continue to dominate USRC - The last two meeting, fellas have come out on top 3-1 but on this occasion, it was not meant to be and USRC were not 5-1 better than the fellas, they took their chances early on.

1st Half - Both teams started well.    Thariq (as volunteer stand-in keeper) was a bit nervous and came rushing out to gather the ball only to realise that he was outside his penalty box - as USRC players protested for him not to be booked, he was.

From then on the momentum was with USRC and two quick goals inside the first 10 minutes rattled the Fellas. Both goals came from set-piece corners, same target place, to the far post, and very soft header to concede. 2-0 down and an uphill battle as heads  started to drop..

Goodfellas regain a bit of composure and started to pass the ball better and created a couple of half-chances but as USRC continued to exert pressure, they were rewarded with their 3 goal of the evening as no GF went close to closing down their midfielder who struck a sweet left footer into the top corner. 3-0 USRC. 

USRC got their 4th goal just before half-time from another set piece and Goodfellas were facing a mountain to climb in the second half as they were down 4-0 at the break for the first time in their Legal League history.

After positive and encouraging words from Davey M, Goodfellas wanted to gain some pride back as Howard changed up the line-up by bringing in all of our subs.

2nd Half Line-Up

Line-up: Peps (GK), Andrew (RB) David (CB) Bear (CB) Garrow (LB) Doug (RM), Jason Li (CM), Dave M (CM), Koh.(LM), Pete (S) Howard  (S)

Subs: Shaka, Cedric, Thariq, Kai

Much better football throughout the 2nd half as we played more as a unit and passed the ball around well throughout the pitch.  Several half-chances and better pressure up the field helped ease the tension the backline faced in the first half in terms of freekicks and setpieces.

Goodfellas continue to play well and simple passing between midfield and strikers upfront lead to a goal for Pete Kang.  Just as we thought we gain some pride back, USRC were awarded a freekick outside the right-hand channel and before the wall was set, USRC struck again…5-1…it could have been more, as Garrow gifted the ball to their Andy Mitchell, who shot straight at Peps….

Final Score: USRC 5 Goodfellas 1

Reflections

1)      Big Thanks to Thariq and Peps for goal-keeping duties and our fans Seb and Seb

2)      Continue to play our game – on the ground and as Dave M. said, get stuck into them as they are bigger gweilo

3)      Encourage each other even when we go behind by however many goals

4)      Don’t drop your head early in the game as a lot of those who started had already dropped their heads after we were 2-0 down

5)      Work on set pieces and freekick defending as well as other fellas to volunteer to play goalie or another solution was Dave M. to bring in a youngster from West Island School

6)      Regained our composure in the 2nd half and played much better football