Catholic Welfare Association

September 23, 2007

Romania’s third game, we required to win this to stay in the vicinity of group leaders.
But we floored when we heard we’d have to play without our best 2 players. Rupert got a dent in is leg, so his mechanic advised him to take rest & James had to attend his AGM.

Before I start my review, I would like to address a point. Somebody was commenting that we play for recreation. Let me correct that dude, we play for “Passion” more then recreation. Its passion for the game, passion for the team.

For the first time, we were all geared up well before time & first time this season we had a good 5-10 minutes of warm-up.

Line Up: -
Goalkeeper – Lynston
Defense – Salvito, Ian, Baptist, Valario
Midfield – Rohan, Jason, Milton, Raphael
Strikers – Rudy, Crispin

Subs – Ardilus & Avron

Romania FC 1

63” Raphael 0 Catholic Welfare Association

This was the best game we played, that too without 2 of our best players.

First Half: -
We started beautifully, passing & moving the ball really well. The main thing was that we were playing to our positions.
We made some good moves & our defense was rock solid, with Lynston commanding the goal.

We had couple of decent (slight difficult) chances: -
· Baptist drills a free kick into the opposition penalty area, Raphael didn’t get a proper connection & it just misses the goal narrowly.
· Crispin crossed a delightful ball over the defense, Raphael almost got to the ball, but it bounced wickedly out of reach of his head, so tried to score a hand of god like goal but was spotted by the referee, who gave a hand ball

Rohan was (according to me) the best player of the first half, he running up & down the flank & making some really good moves.

Jason stuck to his role of holding midfield pretty well, he was the shield for the defense, until later part of first half, as the entire opposition attack were coming down from the center & Jason was found wanted. The opposition were taking shots from the center but Lynston was up to it.
On the whole Jason had a very good game (especially in the second half). I believe this a very crucial position, which Romania requires & the captain did a good job & should stick to it.

The most enjoyable incidence of the first half was as follows: -
Ball bounces over Ian, opposition player reaches towards the ball first, Ian goes charging in and pushes him with both his hands. That poor skinny lad of theirs flew nearly 5 feet. All gather around, start abusing (not for the last time). I dragged Ian out of it, referee took Ian in the side & explained him without showing any card.

Both sides were playing good football & the first half ended in a draw.

Second Half: -

Milton nominated himself out for the second half, this gave our new signing to perform, so in came Avron. He was fitted along side Jason in the heart of the midfield. I was quite impressed by this youngster’s performance. His defensive & free flow passing game was very fresh. This made a great combination of youthful zest & good’ol wisdom in the heart of the midfield.

Suddenly middle of the second half Rohan nominated himself to get substituted, it was puzzling to all, why did he go, specially when he was playing so well.

The Goal: -
It was a really good move, started from defense to attack. We won the ball in the defense, I released it for Avron on the left flank ahead me, who combined very with Crispin, both played some good 1-2’s, then they pushed the ball to Ardilus, he pushed it a bit ahead to Rudy (all this on the left flank), Rudy then centered the ball towards awaiting Raphael, who had to just pushed it in the nets……….goal…………….

Defensive Strategy: -
Now that we were in the lead, we had to defend our souls for it. We were all defense then we knew, we can take this out, Raphael as well fell back to help out the defense. There was lot of shouting going on between baps, valli & Jason. Things were getting heated, as the opposition were getting frustrated, we didn’t give them any chance to play fluently. There were some arguments between some opposition players & baps, argument translated into abusing, valli jumped in as well, this was all good for us, as we were running the clock down.
We held on & deservedly gave us our second victory in 3 games.

Everybody really played out of their skins & most importantly played as a team, good to se that, hope we continue the same way.
& this wasn’t some kind of recreation, it was passion, passion to play, passion to win……

CHAK DE ROMANIA!!!!!!

Invaders

August 28, 2007


Our second game, on a weekday, we didn’t expect to have a full 11, but to our surprise, we were 12 on the field. Main thing the players that mattered the most were present.
Romania had two debutants in the line up – Rudy & Agnelo

As usual, we had no proper warm-up (blame it on the weekday, this time)

Line Up:-
Goalkeeper – Lynston
Defense – Salvito, Rupert (Fabio Carvalo…. Its not me, he calls him self that…… but to the best of my knowledge its Fabio Cannavaro), Baptist, Valario
Midfield – Ardilus, Jason, Rudy, Raphael
Strikers – James, Crispin
Subs – Agnelo

Romania FC 0

Bookings
23” Baptist

The Romanians were under pressure from the first minute on, as the center failed to keep any position of the ball. Invaders were passing the ball around, and keeping good position. But our ever dependable defense & our Superman goalkeeper were matching them step to step. Their full attack was coming from our right side, this time valerio marked his flank responsibly & baps controlled him masterly (in my review of game 1, I had criticized baps for not handling his right side defender). But he (vally) can still do much better, he has to charge up and down the flank & show aggression. Lynst did couple of supermen like clearances (came charging from the goal & was in the air while clearing the ball) & some good punches as well. Baptist got a yellow card for a hard tackle, from the resulting free-kick, the Invaders narrowly missed the top pole, but lynst had it covered.
Defense did had some small heart attack moment, wherein sal tried to clear but, deflected his thigh and missed the goal narrowly. Invaders had good shoots some good shoots but defense stood strong.

As for our strikers, as usual, 2-3 good chances were presented to them, but we didn’t even take one shoot on the goal. James had good chances but lacked the finish. I agree he had no support but it wasn’t the same james I saw in our first game, he lacked the killer instinct, looks like his mind was somewhere else. But being a striker, he did come back to help out the defense for the corners.
Rudy was involved in some good moves on top but nothing materialized. Ardilus was no where in the game, Crispin playing on top, didn’t bear any fruits, as the opposition easily dealt with him & he couldn’t provide any support to james. Jason was committing too many fouls, unnecessary fouls resulting loss of possession. There was a funny incidence that took place, Invaders had a free kick, Jason was standing in the wall, lynst is shouting go left…… go left, but he was moving towards the right……. After the free kick, Jason started shouting im was going to the left…. Looks like even he had too many things on his mind.

So the defense fought hard, forwards tried & center, wat center there no center playing for Romania……. The first half went goalless.

In the second half, we changed a bit, jason shifted to defense & sal took his place in the mid, to try and hold the ball. We got a corner in 47th minute, all charged up, leaving behind sal and behind him only baps & vally. From the corner Invaders got the ball, they lobed it over our last defense, leaving their player a free run on the goal. Sal charged behind, almost blocked the charging player, the ball slipped through sal, don’t know what happened to him, he tripped the opposite player on the edge and to everyone’s surprise the referee gave a penalty to the Invaders. Wat the #@$% was sal doing, did he loose his mind, baps & vally covered ground and were just behind to handle the attack. Their striker nicely tucked the penalty in the corner & they went into the lead.
From then on our real attack started, we played 3 back i.e. sal, baps & vally handling the defense, Rupert charged up and was making some good moves. We substituted Ardilus with our second debutant Agnelo. He too got a nice chance on goal as he came in, but shoot wide. In the dying minutes lynst also moved up, right up to the oppositions goal. The crowd we on their feet to see our goalkeeper charge right up, never in the history of MDFA 4th division, goalkeeper would have charged so up, not once but twice…… it was a great sight. This shows determination, willingness and hunger for success, which we all should have appetite for. Lynston is a great inspiration & the team should take some from him.
But we couldn’t score till the final whistle.


Looking Forward:
Lynston rightly said “What we have to do, we have to do on the field, within the 70 minutes, no point in thinking, I should have done that……. I shouldn’t have done that”
So lets get are acts together. We have got the right blend of individual players, now we have to gel as a team.
This loss clearly highlights our weakness, we should learn from it. No point having the same mistakes repeated. Center is a major concern, no movement happens. Lets do some tinkering there. Our defense our performing good, let give them some more responsibilities.

United Football Club (UFC)

At last the long wait was over & the season started, well we should all thank our captain for putting the strings in place & doing the running around stuff.

Our first game was on 12th August, 2007 against United Football Club (UFC).

Line Up:-

Goalkeeper – Lynston

Defense – Valario, Baptist, Rupert, Ian

Midfield – Raphael, Salvito, Milton, Raphael

Strikers – James, Jason ©

Subs – Crispin, Ardilus

Romania FC 1
63” Jason Athaide

Bookings
57” Rohan
0 United FC

The Romanians started the game very brightly, first 10 minutes we were playing in the opposition’s 10 yard area, next 10 minutes we were playing in their half the last 10 minutes we were all over the place.
We should have finished the game in the first 10 minutes, we had 3-4 glorious opportunities but our strikers lacked the killer instinct. James’s close range short was unknowingly saved by the goalkeeper. Jason on the other hand looked very lackluster.
Missed 2 – 3 good changes. We should’ve been at least 2 goals up in first 15 minutes.

Then we started to tire & the opposition started to climb up on us. UFC came very close in scoring, but thanks to the brilliant diving save by our goally, awesome Lynston.

Second half started the same way the first ended, we were under pressure, then we started to hold on and catch them on the break, I came close with a close range short, but blasted just wide. Then the captain decided a substitution, Crispin on for Rohan, I personally thought it wasn’t a sensible move, but as Rohan was just booked for handling the ball (actually the ref was blind) captain wanted to play safe. But the moved worked, as Crispin fought hard in the middle of the park & put a through ball to the strikers there was some scrabble there & Jason tucked the ball in the nets. After the goal we brought on Ardilus for Milton, Ardilus was playing up, just to hold the ball.

Being in the lead, we were suppose to play slow, but then too we were rushing for the free kicks & throws & corners. We will require to work on this skill.

We were just able to handle the pressure till the last moment & scrapped to the victory.

Now let me comment on the performance (just my personal observation):-

Stickers
Jason:
He deserves the goal because he has worked very hard to get the team registered & did the running about stuff, but has to work on his stamina & finishing if he has to score more

James:
Worked very hard, was chasing the ball hard till the ending seconds. Should have scored at least one goal.

Rohan:
Looked very bright & lively on the left flank & was linking very well with the strikers. Expecting much more from our new signing.

Salvito:
Had a good game, but should link-up more with strikers & provide more opportunities for them.

Milton:
Had a good game, should try to cover the defense & link-up with players.

Raphael:
He was bundles of energy, was running down the right flank, but nobody was spotting him, didn’t get much balls to work with, coordination wasn’t happening.

Ian:
Good goal kicks, were easily reaching upto half lines, but positional play was not upto mark.

Rupert:
Do I’ve to comment on him, he is the man of steel with balls of wood. Managed the defense very well & even when he climbed up, he linking quite good.

Baptist:
The muscle man, good clearance, good defensive work, but was charging a bit too much & didn’t manage his right side defender.

Valario:
Did some good clearance, but much more is expected this talented player, was no way in line with the defense & was completely out of touch with Raphael who was playing ahead of him.
This lead to a huge gap & all the oppositional attack was coming from that gap.

Lynston:
The wall, cant see much getting past him, probably the best signing of Romania, as Romania has never had a good goalkeeper.

Crispin:
Played hard in the middle, but should pass the ball more often.

Ardilus:
Was holding the ball, but not supplying it.

Looking Forward:
We require to concentrate on our finishing & simple passing moves……
My concern remains the gap that remains between the flanks defense & center, we need to try & cut off that gaps………….

Highly looking forward to the next game………….