It was April 9, and the end of the regular season was drawing to a close in the A league. However, things were just getting underway in the FFV winter season as the Chelsea senior teams kicked off their second game of the season against the Casey Panthers.
Alex was in solo charge of the reserves who were sporting a very strong side. The Panthers came out full of running and had a couple of players who were very capable. However, as the Chelsea boys got into a rhythm, the defense started to control the game. With Calum, Rod, Lucas taking care of anything central, Jack and Daniel made repeated runs up the outside to put the ball into scoring positions. Maurizio and Mattias were sharing possession in the middle with Christian and we locked up the ball in our attacking third. With three quality strikers up front, the dividends came thick and fast. The first goal was scored by big Jimmy H and he was soon joined in the foray by Adam Alford. Jordan was also running well and the ball was put into the key area many many times in the half. We witnessed some great goals including an absolute cracker by Maurizio which deserved to be on video replay such was the quality. Players dream of that kind of shot!
The Panthers had no answer and before 20 minutes of the game had passed, we had scored 4 goals to zero. Everyone from defense was playing well and the panthers were shell-shocked. However, we became a little complacent after four goals went in, as individuals started to stop playing team football and started to try to do things on their own, or folks just started to run in 3rd gear.
We had many many real great chances but disappointingly came away at the half with only 6-0 being the score. The game was over but we asked for more intensity.
Alex directed the boys to play more as a team and be more clinical up front. Chelsea continued to dominate the game in the second half as the game pulled out to 10 goals before we somehow allowed Casey to score a goal. We still need to play better as we will come up against some top teams. 10-1 seems a domination but there is so much more there for improvement.
Goalscorers were as follows - Adam Alford, Jimmy H, Maurizio, .....???
The senior squad for this week had two new inclusions in Deni and Dale - with Matty Kurta missing with a bad ankle sprain.
Casey started well and had some extremely good players who could hold the ball well and they almost got through a couple of times. We had some great efforts to get the ball into the net but it seemed as if we were going to have the same problem as last week when we just could not score.
We hit a crossbar and shot wide. Finally Luke Dal, playing at left back, made a terrific run down the wing and launched a great cross which was beautifully headed home by captain Michael McCarthy! We hoped that this would signal the start of more goals and before long Luke Dal was at it again, running the ball beautifully down and seemingly untouched got near the 18 before passing the ball to Seb who put through our second.When Seb scores, he has to be the most excited player I have ever seen.
We had deserved to be further in front, but as we got to a 2-0 lead the sharpness went out of our game. For the second week in a row we gave the opposition a goal that clearly was a simple clearance. Two weeks in a row!The opposition scoring seemed to rattle us and we started getting desperate and cleared the ball with no structure. We looked tired and jaded and I think folks were happy for the half time whistle.
I was not happy. We were steaming along nicely only to kill our own momentum again. I ripped into some folks at the half, and to their credit the players came out and lifted their play. The midfield became more dominant with Dale and Tucci doing a great job. Tom F and Lachy were really starting to impose themselves on the game. Having such pace around the game was great. We made some changes with Curtis and Deni coming in and having the extra speed up front made us far more dangerous. We started to ambush Casey and with Adam K, Tom F and Curtis playing strongly in defense we decided to add Luke P to settle the defense down and lead with his experience. McCarthy and Lachy and Tucci were being brilliant as we shifted Connor to the 9. He missed some easy opportunities but also managed to give Deni a couple of great chances.
Dale showed absolute class and put through two goals as Deni neatly finished two as well. We missed a number of 1 V 1s and the score could have been 8 or 9 but we had to settle for a 6-1 score. I felt the team gelled better in the last 30 minutes as we completely over ran the panthers. They had little answers for a Chelsea team which is playing better each time they get out on the park. Best players were Luke D, Tucci, Dale, Michael Mc, Tom Flavelle, Adam K and Lachy. Goals - Dale 2, Deni 2, Michael 1 and Seb 1.
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