Young Guns vs. Richmond 08.08.09 (H) - 0:13 (0:5)
What a beautiful morning it was out there at Larpent. Blue sky, nice temperature, the grass slightly wet, plenty of supporters. In short: Perfect conditions for the Young Guns’ challenge of the year. They were out there today to match up against a very tough competitor, not just any U9/10 team, but most likely the No. 1 team in their Kangaroos’ league, Richmond.
During warm up we had our under cover agents sent out to investigate all the secrets around our today’s opponent. The club officials’ comforting comments along the lines of “these guys look like a pretty ordinary U10 team” quickly got a bit of a different meaning. It was more like “unbeaten, only 2 games were a bit tight, a professional coaching staff working with the team for several years…”. And what had our boys to offer? Well, a combined 4 days of coaching course experience, a cancelled training session this week, but also the confidence of 11 wins in a row with a total of 93 goals, and even more important: Lots of heart and a great spirit.
Regardless how big the challenge would be, the boys were ready. James started off in goals, tall and brave. The backline was built around Nick, Callum, Victor, and Moritz. In midfield we rotated the good mixture of Josh’s skills, skipper Alex’ power, and Corey’s allrounder capabilities. Up front Ryan and Justin switched positions in the first 25 minutes.
The game started off fairly even with both sides checking out where the strengths and weaknesses of the other team were. Our defence stood well, the midfield did a great job keeping their opponents busy, and in our forward line we managed to cause some confusion in Richmond’s defence. The Richmond started to show off their superb soccer skills. Again and again they dribbled and passed their way through our backline and appeared dangerously in front of goalie James. And then the Guns couldn’t hold the pressure any longer. Within only a few minutes Richmond managed to put 2 fine goals away leaving James no chance to defend.
On the other side the Guns themselves managed to get closer to goals and unleash 2 good shots towards the goal by Corey and Josh. On the other side Richmond earned a few corners in a row which were always flying scarily high through our box. One of these corners then actually lead to the 3rd goal. But it was great to see that the Guns did not stick their hand in the sand. Moritz and Victor won a few balls starting attacks for us. Ryan and Justin continued to spread the balls to the wings, but a major score just didn’t want to come the Guns’ way.
Instead it was Richmond again who scored another 2 brilliant goals from nice dribblings over the left wing. James, who had a couple of brilliant saves in between, had no chance to avoid the ball hitting the back of our net. For the rest of the first half, however, the Guns now were in control in the back. Nick and Callum laid a couple of ferocious tackles, Victor and Moritz did the rest. And the midfielders managed to not only defend superbly as well, but also started a few good attacks.
But still, it felt good to hear the halftime whistle. Time to regroup, have a breather, have a sip of water and off course suck some vitamin C out of the juicy oranges. Also time for a chat with the boys about their outstanding performance in the first half. They were down 0-5, but they put a hard battle in and did their coaches, parents, and all supporters very proud. And by the looks on their faces the boys really enjoyed that opportunity to play against one of the strongest teams around.
The usual changes saw our other great goalie talent Ryan between the posts after the break. In the backline we had Alex, Josh, Corey, and Justin. The midfield line saw Moritz, Victor and Callum rotating. And the spearheads were Nick and Bobby Scholes.
Like in the first half the game started very even with both teams pulling a few nice strings of passes together. Moritz and Victor had a few quick runs down the wings whilst James and also Nick looked dangerous up front. Our backline did a great job for a very long time. Even when Richmond had their plenty of corners now, the Guns stood tall and brave in the back getting either a head or a foot into the way.
For at least 8 or 9 minutes the Guns kept Richmond goalless. Then they had some 3 minutes where the concentration level dropped to a low. Richmond being an incredibly good side punished that immediately. The result was 3 quick goals, all with such power or precision that Ryan had no chance to avoid them. The cheer squad was a bit quiet for a few seconds but then found their voices again quickly which was important to get the boys back on track.
But Richmond was now out to finish the job, not taking any prisoners. Although Ryan pulled a few great saves out of his hat and the defenders their very best to avoid further damage, the boys legs now started tog et a bit tired. They tried very hard but could not avoid another 3 goals by Richmond from corners and nice combinations. But it was amazing to see that the Guns again refused to give up and still worked hard to even attack themselves. They really deserved a goal in that game, but the luck unfortunately was not on their side today. Even when Josh went on a journey starting a dribbling from our own half all the way to Richmond’s goal he was stopped in the last second by a hard tackle.
And so it went, another 2 goals shortly before the final whistle stretched Richmond’s victory out to 13-0 which certainly was quite a few goals too much. It sounds like a thrashing and demoralizing loss, but in fact it was an heroic performance that the boys displayed today. And it certainly deserves a few quick comments on individual highlights.
James: What can we say? Usually the boys prefer to play in midfield or as forward. But Bobby Scholes puts such a happy face on even when he wears the goalie’s shirt. And he should be proud of himself. His Schwartzer like saves in the first half kept the score to only 5 goals against us. As forward later on he could use his pace and power to create some danger for Richmond after the break.
Nick: With his confidence up high, he was out to show his best today, especially in defence before the break. One should have seen his big smile when he laid these two ferocious tackles against Richmond’s most dangerous attacker. Really enjoyable. Rotating with Bobby as forward after the break he also managed to show that not only his tackling, but also his overall soccer skills have massively improved this year.
Moritz: For the first time this year Moritz did not have a scoring point in form of an assist or goal, but he still earned and deserved the man of the match award. His great fighting and team skills were the reasons that earned him the award today. Be it as engine in the first or winger in the second half, he put a lot of passion and effort into his tackles, runs, and dribblings.
Victor: It was absolutely crucial to have Victor’s speed and stamina in our team today to somehow try to restrain Richmond’s speed and finesse with the ball. As usual he again covered a lot of ground taking no prisoners in his fearless attacking. He also came very close to a scoring shot in the first half but missed the target by a few inches.
Callum: Like Nick, Cal also shone especially in the first half when he could demonstrate his outstanding defending skills. He was even brave enough to put his head in a couple of times to manoeuvre the ball out of the danger zone. In the end he had all reason to be happy with his game today, going to extremes in terms of fighting hard for his team.
Alex: He not only won the toss as skipper today, but also plenty of one on one contests in today’s game. Wearing the armband with pride he played like a real role model for his team mates. Using his strong body he started quite a few good runs over the left wing in the first half, one of them almost leading to a major score. After the break he tried all he could to help his team in the backline to keep the score as low as possible.
Josh: Richmond probably came out to Larpent today assuming there can not be a player out there matching up with their ball skills. That was until they saw our No. 10 curving through their backline with the ball between his feet. They then tried to double mark him to keep Josh out of play which is always a big compliment for a player. His mind-blowing dribbling in the second half through the middle of the park really deserved a classic finish, but was stopped last second by the Richmond defence.
Corey: He is one of our best allrounders in the team. You can put him in every position on the pitch, and he shines everywhere. Today he started off in the midfield together with Josh and Alex and was a major ball carrier in our team. After the break he perfectly organized our backline out of the engine room position, holding the team together and providing quite some support for our midfielders as well.
Justin: For a first year player he already shows quite some maturity, even against strong teams like Richmond. As forward Justin he demonstrated good overview controlling the ball and then quickly feeding out to the wings. As defender he perfectly managed to keep his position making the space very tight for Richmond after the break.
Ryan: Last not least Ryan who with his stoic calmness often manages to keep control of the game, even when the going gets a bit tougher and rougher. He then just controls the bal, looks up, and always finds the unmarked player keeping possession of the ball for us. And then, after break when Richmond really turned up the heat he was very often the center of attention having quite a few last seconds saves as goalkeeper.
The Young Guns finally found their master today. It had to happen some time, and to be honest: It is good that it finally happened. We got our reality check in today’s game, but we can be proud of this group of kids. They were a bit sad for a few seconds, but their smiles quickly returned to their faces. And we can be sure – they will bounce back quickly from this first defeat. Who knows, maybe already next week. Where? Yes, in Richmond. Payback… let’s just make sure that our secret agent starts his PI activities a bit earlier this week so that we can create the most effective line up to steal a victory against Richmond at their home ground.
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