Round 6 - Malvern City FC

MATCH DAY EVALUATION

Match Day 6 – Malvern City vs. Box Hill Inter (Under 15 A’s)

Conditions: Overcast and cool conditions. No breeze or advantage to either end. Pitch, though large, was poorly grassed and quite bumpy in some places hindering ability to pass on the deck. Team sent out in a 4-2-3-1 formation

PLAN: Team was asked to do four things:
• Improve starting efforts compared to previous two weeks
• Keep structure and shape and defend stoutly
• Keep control of the ball
• Attacking mids to not get ‘caught up’ defending apart from tracking players

First Half: The importance of the game was evident early on as the winner would go clear at the top of the league table. Within minutes of the start, it was clear our lone forward was being man marked by one of their defenders. In addition, their best defender was being played as a loose man and his ability to ‘clean up’ was helped by the poor choice of BH’s balls forward. Given the lack of penetration being achieved, we decided to substitute Pagotto and Becker (injured) and shift back to 4-4-2 in order to start exerting more forward pressure. This had limited success as forward and midfield movement practiced through the week was not very evident. Malvern were resorteing to long balls forwards to their strikers. In the main, these were handled easily by our defence, but midfield pressure to prevent Malvern’s movement forward was lacking and a change would be required at half time. The 1st half was a tight tussle, played in general in the middle of the pitch, with neither side using the grounds width sufficiently and far too many balls were played forwards in vertical, rather than diagonal lines. In the last 5 minutes of the half, Malvern started to exert more pressure forwards but our Keeper was never really troubled. A tight half, changes were necessary and had to be successful if BH were to get the desired result. BH had displayed some ability to pass the ball around where Malvern displayed little capability to do the same.

Half time score 0 - 0

Second Half: Bryden was subbed for Mazzolini, with Orlando moving to left of midfield. The game appeared to recommence as the previous half ended. After 5 minutes Nguyen was instructed to play wider on the right and pressurise the full back. This planning would prove fruitful. At the 10 minute mark, a Malvern free kick from 30 metres out hit the crossbar which was fortuitous for BH. However, from this point, BH pressured Malvern to a greater extent and they were unable to mount a serious challenge from then on. Kasapidis and Bondole marshalled and controlled the defence and they were ably supported by Mills-Warthold and Bryden. Bryden, who started shakily, improved greatly after 10-15 minutes which was very pleasing, especially his pressure to retrieve lost balls, do an overlap and cross into the box. In addition, De Blasio started moving around the forward line more and used his strength to pressure their backs and create opportunities for him and others. A number of good runs down the right and crosses resulted in a good shot fizzing wide of the far post by Nguyen and also a good low shot was well saved by their keeper. The goal appeared to be coming but time was running out. Finally, with 7 minutes left to play, De Blasio succeeded in pressuring their defence whereby a quick shot by Nguyen rifled into the net. BH resorted to preserving their lead and despite their best defender moving forward, no serious attack on goal resulted from Malvern. Our only concern was the ref who felt 5 minutes of extra time was warranted and the half went 40 minutes before he blew for the end of the game. Victory and BH go top of the ladder again!!!

Final Score 0 - 1

Overall Comments

Opposition: A strong team with a number of quality players however their right back was a little slow and BH exploited that fact. They displayed little ability to string passes together, though they tried and hence were resorting to long balls forward. They clearly are the best team BH has encountered this year and they are unlikely to drop many points through the season. They will push BH all the way I believe. After moving Nguyen to the right, it was strange they allowed our fastest forward to attack their slowest defender, leaving their tall fast defender central.

Box Hill: This game showed that our boys have learnt that games are sometimes won through sheer graft, work and tireless effort. Winning the league does not come without blood, sweat and tears.
The loss of our strongest midfielder put a lot of pressure on players such as Bircham, Orlando, Clark, Lee, Mazzolini, etc, but all battled manfully and are to be commended. The defence was strong but the team in general relies on Bondole and Kasapidis to ‘clean up’ after them. Greater midfield structure and shape to be able to link the Backs and Forwards is required as well as preventing their midfielders to play forwards.
Pagotto showed good touches in his first outing and will benefit from training to build fitness. De Blasio starting working harder off the ball in the second half and helped build the goal. Nguyen did well to pressure the full back after being instructed to do so and his efforts in the last 25 minutes were excellent.

Little of the forward movement practiced through the week was evident and requires more work. Communication was better but can improve.

Team was advised that the commitment and effort at training will continue to intensify as NO TEAM can be taken lightly. One slip and all the good work will be undone. The team now focuses on playing the women’s PL side on Friday night as a practice match. They will not be taken lightly.

Coach: John Di Martino 1st June, 2009