Young Guns vs. Box Hill Inter 27.06.09 (A) - 11:0 (6:0)
Our 2nd away game of the season led us all the way to one of the big names of the Eastern soccer scene: Box Hill Inter, a team we haven’t played before and a club that usually fields very competitive and skilful squads. Not knowing what might be ahead of us we started with the usual, focussed warm up program followed by some tactical talks and a few skill drills. The sun was out, the pitch in perfect condition, the Guns were ready to fire again.
Victor already showed during the warm up that he would save any ball that would come towards him as goalie in the first 25 minutes. The job not to leave any ball through to him was taken on by Callum, James, Moritz, and Ryan. On the other side of the pitch Corey, Alex, Nick, Josh, and Justin were responsible for our creative attacking game.
Already in the first few minutes it was obvious that the many spectators were about to witness a great match of soccer. Although the Young Guns quickly took control of the game, Box Hill had plenty of skilful attempts towards our goal as well.
But as so often it was the Young Guns who opened the scoring. Corey won a throw in, quickly picked up the ball and threw it to Moritz. A quick control and a long diagonal pass from the right wing into the centre brought the ball to Alex who had no problem to finishing this nice attack with our first major score.
Shortly thereafter a shot from Justin could only be saved at the expense of a corner for the Guns. Corey put the ball down, the other boys lined up around the 16 yard box as we practised in training. Corey’s corner ball flew head high into the danger zone, bounced once and reached Moritz. Again, a fine first touch and a classic finish to give the Guns their 2nd goal.
The Guns kept the pressure. Nick not only successfully moved from the backline to the more offensive structure this season. No, he also took his outstanding tackling skills with him. Nick van Persie’s confidence really is going through the roof this year. He has developed quite some skill not only to win the ball for our team but also to keep it in our ranks.
Then it was just about time for some Italian brilliance. Alex and Josh played a nice combination through the middle of the pitch and put Justin into action. A quick turn to the right and shot from 5 meters distance left Box Hill’s goalkeeper with no chance. And not enough with Italian flavour yet… Another smart through ball from Josh found Alex at its end; and bang – No. 4.
In the following minutes also our defenders put their stamp onto our attacking game. Moritz with playmaker moves from engine room, and James with great supporting runs on the left wing left a very good flavour. Nevertheless, although their attacking mood was pretty good our defenders got a bit sloppy with their tackles and they forgot to keep their positions for a few minutes. But never mind, as this gave our No. 1 Victor some good opportunities to show that little boys can be gigantic goalkeepers. 3 or 4 times he saw himself being eye to eye with a Box Hill forward. But no matter how hard they tried: High and hard, flat and into the corner, or with a dribbling around him – there was no chance to get around Victor today. He always had the right answer: Either a big grab in the air, a quick parade to the ground or on of his decisive tackles to clear the ball.
With 10 minutes to go the action was then again at the other side of the pitch. Corey stopped a goal kick 10 meters out and quickly released a real hammer towards the Box Hill goal. This first shot bounced back from the goal keeper, but he was defenceless against Corey’s follow up smashing the ball into the net almost leaving a big hole.
No. 6 shortly before the break was a real Nick van Persie classic. Josh had tipped the ball smartly on to Corey whose shot was blocked by Box Hill’s sweeper, but obviously not far enough. Spearhead Nick was there and bombed it with his right foot into the short corner. With a few seconds to go the Guns had to survive a couple of dangerous situations, but thanks to great tackles by Ryan and Callum we kept the clean sheet when we went into the halftime break.
The usual changes found Corey in goals after a fantastic and exhausting 1st half with 1 goal and 2 brilliant assists. He was protected by a real brick wall made up of Justin, Alex, Nick, and then Josh. The backline of the first half with Callum, Ryan, James, Moritz, and also Victor moved further up front.
IN the first few seconds of the 2nd half Executive Director Jon almost earned a “catch of the day award” for his Mark Schwartzer like dive to stop the team dog Coco from playing as 8th player for the Guns.
The first real action, however, saw the Young Guns in their usual style: Attacking! After only some moments we could all enjoy a real goal of the day contender. Victor was running the left wing with 120km per hour (I hope there were no speed cameras on that highway), then smashed a hard cross with his left foot into the middle. Ryan was waiting there, a clear first touch control and cool finish into the short corner. 7-0.
Everybody thought “it can’t get much better”. But only a few minutes later the boys almost topped it. Nick won the ball in the back and tipped it again on to Victor. He quickly ran pass 2 Box Hill players and then bombed a long diagonal pass from the halfway line into Callum’s run. Cal himself had no problem getting the ball under control and finishing with a flat shot into the left corner.
The Guns were now really firing. The few counter attacks from Box Hill were quickly defended by our backline. The boys did a fantastic job now with great positioning and shutting down of the danger zone. Alex as engine and Justin and Nick as full backs, Josh then coming into the game as playmaker from defence proofed to be too strong for the opponent. The few balls getting through were in very safe hands of Corey.
In the meantime Moritz unleashed a cracker drop kick shot from 15 meters, forcing the Box Hill goalie to a brilliant save. The same also happened just a few moments later when Joshed checked out if the goalie was paying attention with a fantastic shot from the distance.
No. 9 couldn’t be far away. And it wasn’t. Moritz won a tackle in the middle of the ground and somehow the ball jumped to Cal, having his back to the goal. With a ballerina like turn he quickly moved around and unleashed a smashing half high shot into the left corner. Inspired by that slick move James also started to fire especially from the right wing with passionate runs pass his opponent. More and more he got into the game, looking up to find his team mates. In saying so it was Moritz who could soon saying “thank you” to Bobby for perfectly putting him into an open shot position. His first hammer could still be saved by the goalie, but against Mozza’s follow up he had no chance anymore.
The next highlight demonstrated why Josh today deserved to receive the “man of the match award” today for great team skills, playmaker qualities, and awesome passing. With a magic one-two touch he tipped the ball on to Victor, who’s left foot grenade from 10 meters was saved by the goalie in a desperate manner.
Last not least it was then up to Ryan to wrap the result up for the Guns with his second goal of the day. Josh had been trying to put the ball through to Moritz, but the pass was a little bit too long. However, somehow Mozza managed to keep it in play and turned around quickly to cross it into the middle where Ryan was already waiting with a big smile to finish the attack off.
Again, the Young Guns won today’s game by a massive margin. But watching the whole 50 minutes Box Hill was a pretty good team with quite a few gifted players. The big advantage of the Guns, however, clearly is that they enjoy more and more playing as a team and so improving their individual and also team skills week after week. Another big factor is that the confidence of all players obviously has received a big boost over the last few months. And that is exactly what they need once they will be up against an opponent that is equally advanced and skilful in their soccer game. We have had that situation once this season during pre-season against the Eastern Lions. And the day will come for the Young Guns when they are facing their master. The way they are going right now can make us all feel very confident that they will then live up to the challenge. Who knows, maybe this challenge is already waiting for them in 2 weeks in Doncaster. We have won our first game against the Rovers at home in our first game of the season with a clear 8-0. However, already back then Doncaster showed some good signs and now with 7 or 8 games into the season they might have found the right structure to make life difficult for the Young Guns. Let’s hope the best for our team. And see you all there then!
And – if the Doncaster Rovers do not eventuate as the expected challenge, there is another one just a few weeks away. Watch out: “Lisa kommt!” For those who don’t have any idea what we’re talking about here: That’s the German girl who took on the whole Young Guns team in a ball juggling competition in the preseason. She will be down under again checking out how the Guns have developed over the last few months.
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