Round 5 - Whitehorse

MATCH DAY EVALUATION

Match Day 5 - Box Hill Inter vs. Whitehorse (Under 15 A’s)

Conditions: Overcast but no rain. No breeze, good turf, good grass coverage, with a temp of 18 degrees. Excellent conditions. Team sent out in a 4-4-2 formation

PLAN: Team was asked to do three things:
· Start at 100% intensity and raise it from there
· Shift the ball quickly and do not stop it dead ever
· Keep structure and shape

First Half: Within 1 minute of the start, a long ball forward caught out our midfielders and defenders off guard and after a tussle, their forward fired a low hard shot into goal, despite a valiant attempt by Yu to parry the ball with his left hand. Whitehorse were clearly very happy with the result and through strong and resolute defending, and a higher level of commitment and effort, were able to parry any forward moves Box Hill engineered. A number of shots from outside the box did not test the keeper, though a one on one with our forwards could have resulted in a goal but their keeper’s effort was excellent to keep the ball out. Box Hill fell into the trap of playing Whitehorse’s game, that is, aerial ping pong where the team’s strength lies in playing the ball around and maintaining possession. Our midfielders were rarely able to find our forwards whose lack of movement and inability to make a pre-emptive rather than a reactive run was fundamental to not finding good scoring opportunities. In addition, a poor first touch affected us and crosses from wide areas too often fell short of landed in the penalty area where their keeper was able to mop up. I would give the team 4 out of 10for this half.

Half time score 0 - 1

Second Half: Coach, Asst Coach and Head coach at BH, asked for a better effort in the second half. Changes to midfield and defence lead to a better and more cohesive structure. Whitehorse had clearly decided a single goal was all they could achieve and played a 5-3-1-1 structure, stacking the defence and midfield. The entire 2nd half was played in Whitehorse’s half, with Box Hill probing and trying to find a way through. After some good work on the left, Mills-Warthold played a good cross in from the left which resulted in a scrambled equalizer for Lee. For the next 20 minutes, the play, movement and desire for the contest improved dramatically. A number of GOLDEN chances then were spurned by the team through poor quality finishing, selfish play, poor final touch and distribution and the woodwork. Anecdotal stats indicate 12 shots or scoring opportunities in the last 15 minutes or so. The team was shuffled to try to change the forward structure as the two forwards on the day could not manufacture space for themselves or create space for others to work into. Whitehorse had no meaningful shots on goal in the second half and the result clearly meant a lot to them

Final Score 1 - 1

Overall Comments

Opposition: A strong team that played with heart and desire. They were unable to string passes together and their coach wisely played to their strengths being commitment and a formation that frustrated Box Hill. They will continue to frustrate better teams.

Box Hill: Again, one of the worst team efforts the team has displayed this year. Defence was reasonably solid after the first goal was scored and let little through but getting caught out early twice in two weeks is worrying. Midfield played balls too long forward and were unable to make incisive passes for goal scoring opportunities due to the lack of side to side and diagonal cutting moves by forwards and attacking midfielders. There were some good switches of play but again, the final ball through or cross too often fell to their Keeper. We must learn to sometimes go back to move forward and create space to move into. Communication levels were poor.

Again, a very disappointing day as it is clear some players still believe things ‘will just happen’ and are not able to commit fully from the 1st second.

Training will concentrate on playing a 4-2-3-1 structure this week to ensure no early goals are scored with a prospective switch to 4-4-2 depending on the games state of play. In addition, diagonal and curved runs that start before the ball is played will be practiced so we can develop this style of play in our forwards and attacking mids.

Team was advised that the coaching staff will now only pick the team that shows me the commitment and effort at training that I need to see on game day. Too much is riding on this weekend.

The most important week of the year now looms for the team - we MUST beat Malvern to go top and retain leadership or we risk falling away and the prospect of ‘catch up’ football for the rest of the season. We beat them 4-0 earlier this year so we can do it !!!

No second chance guys…………

Coach: John Di Martino 25th May, 2009