Mothers Day at the Reserve

A win for the mothers!

We dedicate the wins to our mothers and thank them for their hard-work and commitment to their boys. Happy mother’s day!

RESERVES

FIRST HALF

It was a slow start to the first half… Sandown Lions had clearly come to play football and took possession of the game…. Chelsea FC looked like they had a late night out – there was no communication and we were struggling to put passes together.

Chelsea FC were doing a lot of the running, though, as hard as we were trying, we just couldn’t find a break to get ourselves back into the game. The first 30 minutes stood quiet and not much had really happened… Mauricio wasn’t feeling too well so Alex made a substitute around the 30^th minute mark.

Substitute: Mauricio off and Rod on [Jack. K pushed to RB and Rod CB]

It wasn’t until we won ourselves a corner kick on the left-wing around the 35^th minute that Chelsea FC put their stamp onto the game. Vella was El-Capitano for the day – his performances have been consistent and he’s really growing in confidence. And that’s what we like to see at Chelsea FC (player development and confidence) – it was time for him to take on some responsibility for the day and that’s exactly what he did! The ball was crossed in from the left and Vella’s leap was high enough to win the header and put it into the back of the goals!

Chelsea 1 – Sandown Lions 0

The first half finished with Chelsea in the lead but we had a lot more work to do if we wanted to maintain our position on top of the league.

The half-time talk by Alex was about getting back to basics – we win possession of the ball and start switching play – we let the ball do the running and start to enjoy our football. We were sitting on top of the table for a reason.

SECOND HALF

The second half looked a lot more respectful as the Chelsea boys woke up. We were back to basics as instructed at half-time. We gained possession by moving the ball around the ground and it was Sandown Lions doing all the hard-work and chasing the game. Chelsea FC pressure in our attacking third also caused havoc as Vella managed to get a double with his hard-work up front and on the wings by slotting in the second as he ran onto another cross into the box.

Chelsea 2 – Sandown Lions 0

Sandown Lions however did not give up – they continued playing their football and were unlucky to be 2-0 down as they hit the post and could not find a way through Calum.

Jordan was hungry to continue from where he left-off last week against Baxter having scored two goals – Jordan ran onto a ball which was played through the midfield and managed to run around the keeper and place it into goals with no defending from Sandown Lions. The referee called it a goal until the Sandown Lions goalkeeper ran to the referee and started yelling – Sandown Lions were all over the referee – the referee changed his decision and moved the ball from the centre back to a free-kick – our goal was disallowed and we were all frustrated with the referee as his decisions were inconsistent and influenced by external factors.

Dutch was eager to get his name onto the scorecard and place his name into the Chelsea history books. Dutch kept going up for all corners and set-pieces – and it paid-off during the second-half when he leaped over the Sandown Lions defender for a corner we won mid-way through the second half. After he scored, he was jumping for joy and celebrating with the good old fist pump!

Chelsea 3 – Sandown Lions 0

However, it was unlucky for Sandown Lions as they managed to concede an own-goal when their defender passed the ball back to their goalkeeper and he mistimed his kick and let the ball roll into the back of the net.

Chelsea 4 – Sandown Lions 0

The Chelsea boys really upped the ante and left Sandown yelling and arguing at each other – the hard-work off the ball, communication, possession style football was really making the difference between the two-teams. Chelsea wanted to win more and continue to be the benchmark for the league.

Substitute: Jordan off and Jimmy on [playing as the ST]

Substitute: Vella off and Aaron on [playing as the LW]

The rest of game was quiet – Jimmy ended the scoring with a tap-in and made it five to Chelsea FC.

Chelsea FC Reserves continue their winning streak after five rounds of games and sit on top of the league with 15 points. We put the pressure back on to the rest of the competition and hope we can achieve winning results weekly because we want to play at the highest level of football. But this week is a critical game – we have the strong East Bentleigh team to contend with at their home pitch so this is a really important game!

SENIORS

It was 3pm however the game had not started – we had a few issues with the goals (as they were exposed in the corners) and the referee was running around getting it all sorted before he could start the game. We were delayed for about 5-10 minutes. We did have the mascots join us for the first time and that was brilliant.

FIRST HALF

Chelsea FC senior boys needed a win as much as Sandown Lions – we were on the same points and could not afford to increase the gap between Baxter and Rosebud. Sandown Lions looked physical and ready to play just like their reserves team.

Again, they started off really strong! Honestly – we were running around like headless chickens trying to gain possession of the ball, and as a result we lost our structure in midfield. The first 20minutes was a battle in midfield and Sandown were attacking from all corners of the ground. James did his best to keep them out but they were knocking on the door – we were lucky their finishing up front wasn’t clinical as we could have been playing catch-up. They were playing great football and it was a mirror of what we wanted to achieve. The game was being played at a really quick pace – Chelsea again like the reserves were doing all of the running and when we won possession it was being turned over really quickly because we were getting shut down. We were limited with options and Sandown were pressuring. It was late in to the second half and we were attacking on the counter, we won a free-kick outside the 18yard box. The magician Tucci stepped up for some magic – his left-footed curler was placed with precision into the top corner and all of a sudden Chelsea was leading the game. We probably had 15% possession but the score-line was telling a different story.

Chelsea 1 – Sandown Lions 0

The first half ended with Chelsea in the lead, though we had the least possession we had seen in the first round of games we were still up and that was the most important thing we needed to remember. The boys knew we had played our worst half – but weren’t giving up. Alex just like in the reserves game, gave simple instructions at half-time. We needed to reset and forget the first-half of football. We had another 45 minutes to play and we needed to turn things around. Our midfielders needed to be aware of their positions and keep structure (someone defends to cut the balls being played through midfield when another was attacking) – our forwards and midfielders needed to work closer together and close the gap between each other. Our wingers were working hard but switching off at times – we needed to be on our feet and creating space for our wing backs and midfields when we were attacking with the overlaps.

The second half commenced with a bit more intensity in our play as we tried to engage the full backs on the quick counters. Sandown were playing great football but were breaking down in their attacking third. Sometimes we were not being smart – as we often lost the ball when our defenders were either holding on too long or making poor passes. This put us under a lot of pressure, but we were starting to do better in midfield as Dale and Tucci were running the ball up in an effort to set up our strikers. This increased in the second half and we had some great chances to score but were denied by a lack of patience or vision or poor cross. Michael M was working his socks off putting lots of midfield pressure on the opposition. Lucas was awesome down back but didn’t have too many friends down there who seemed to be less intense about the competition. After two 1 v 1s with the keeper, Seb sprang on a poor pass back and shot left foot. It was a slow dribbler but somehow the keeper lunged sideways and what seemed a simple save ended up seeing the ball roll over his outstretched arm to make the score 2-0. It was lucky as hell – but it was a goal.

We had some more chances and so did Sandown – both teams could have scored – but the contest ended in a 2-0 win for Chelsea. We will take the win, but we really have a lot more work to do and our attitude needs to be better. We have a really tough run starting and we cannot afford to concede points – we need to all be desperate to give 100% to the jersey.  We need to get a winning mentality and graft hard and follow structures set out or we will see ourselves falling down the ladder. We want more than that – we want to be the team that can beat Baxter and Rosebud and also dispense with other teams and not play down to their level. Every team is a danger and we need to play with urgency each time we step on the park!

On Sunday the thirds ventured down to local club Beaumaris. It was Beaumaris’ first home game of the season. Michael McCarthy and Jack Kearney were assisting today.  We had a good start to the first half but they unfortunately got a goal within 10 minutes.  But our game was improving as it had been every week. We have virtually only been together 4 weeks and still have trouble remembering each other’s names! Visibly, we were playing better and it began to show.

 We had the ball in the middle of the pitch and a pass was given out to Jack who was playing the (7). He took a touch and then he crossed it in front of the goals. It went  it went to the  other side where Aiden (11) was sitting in space. He then passed the ball to Roly (9) who passed it back to Jack who was cutting in and he smashed it into an open goal.  It was a great goal and the score remained at 1-1 at the half time break. The second half started very well with Ben Rundale in the (3) and Jack K now playing the (4). Unfortunately Beaumaris was able to score from a free kick that was just inside the D area of the 18 yard box.  We seemed to hang our heads a little which resulted in Beaumaris scoring again from a long shot that went over our keeper’s head (Aussie).  But Chelsea started to fight back. We pulled one back from Tristan who put in a great shot. It was 2-3 to Beaumaris but we were coming strong.

 Then Tristan (7) got the ball again and he was running down the wing and beat a player before getting into the box where he got tackled quite heavily just inside the box. The defensive player did get the ball but he also got Tristan on the follow thru.  A Penalty was awarded as Beaumaris complained but the referee stood his ground.  Ben Y stepped up and kicked the third goal.  The score ended at 3-3 and it was a great fightback by the thirds. Unfortunately, Tristan looks to have have dislocated his right shoulder. All the team wish him a speedy recovery and hope he gets back to playing soccer really soon. Thanks to Andrew the manager of the thirds for all his help.