ACT Football Masters - ACTMasters

17 Posts

Share tips for who are the key players, what structure they play, where are they strong, where's their weaknesses.

26 Posts

The Belnorth boys look like much the same side that we played last season. You may or may not remember that they gave us a couple of resounding defeats. Given the off season - our game against them should prove to be a reasonable marker on how the season might fair. Can we get into the top half of the comp or not. An 8-1 victory was a bit of a surprise.

Players to keep an eye on were the two front men and Ronaldo look alike playing at stopper - he scored a cracker of a goal from a long way out.

The Blues strategy was based on switching play and control of th eball - simple stuff but done well.

Cheers
Inzaman the Corrupt

5 Posts

They played 4 4 2.

Much the same group as the legends played in the pre-season.

As per Inza, speed up front which you need to keep an eye out for. That back guy, not only does he have a cracking boot that's dam accurate, he's very calm under preasure. Put the preasure on him to force the pass, as he doesn't (thankfully) tend to follow on for a 1-2. Own the middle of the field, dont give them free reign and play out wide.

26 Posts

I've decided I'll list a player of the game in this spot.

Paul Jackson was my winner! His award is reflected in my point scoring for assists.

Inzy

17 Posts

OK, we went down 3-1 to Belnorth. The majority of shots came from loooong way out and Dom did a great job fending them off, saved a countless number that were on target.

We held them to 0 in the second half, the damage was done early on. We spent probably 75% of the second half at their end, but could not get our shots on target, and the crosses were too deep, tending to be straight to their goalie.

Their keeper has very solid skills with great coverage and good anticipation, he is not afraid to be well off the line so the through balls were usually shut down.

Belnorth is not spectacular on the ball, we were stringing good passes together and holding good structure. The players to watch are the two tall guys, very fast tall winger/striker who would get past our defence and be one on one with our keeper, and there's 2 solid defenders that accurately belt the ball forward, even under pressure.

We found the best way was to pressure the ball and get them to pass in a hurry, that usually meant the ball turned into a 50-50. When we had possession, we could string multiple passes together as they don't mark particularly closely.

Roo

26 Posts

Perspectives of the Steer Man!

A complete contrast to last week’s game. It was played without a referee (again), in very wet and muddy conditions but in excellent spirit from both sides.

Belnorth looked to have recruited some new faces since our last encounter. We kicked off with a failed attempt at our kick-off set play but it found Anton’s foot anyway and we were on our way. Within ten minutes, a ball from David Barton was lofted toward midfield to Mike Steer who flicked it on to a running Marcus who beat the defender and then drew another. Marcus played the ball to his right toward the centre of the edge of the box to Anton who skillfully chipped one of the tallest keepers in the division It was a thing of beauty and wasn’t Anton happy!

Our second goal was truly an ‘assy’ shot. A tenacious Marcus chased a ball back to the Belnorth keeper, a mix-up between keeper and defender who eventually cleared the ball into the backside of a charging Chacos, off his left butt cheek and into the net.

The Blues had several attempts on goal during the games, shots from Foxy, Marcus, Adam, Anton, Mike, Tony, Gary, a strong head to the ball by Matt off a corner went past the post and a blistering drive from Kyle outside the box that changed direction three times as it whistled toward the keeper.

Toward the end of the game, a certain goal was squandered when Anton decided to play in the mud bog in front of goals instead of applying his finishing touch from a perfect ‘on-the-pitch’ cross from Marcus. Sliding through the mud Anton struck the ball which hit the keeper, it popped up in to the air and either by reflex, trying to get off the ground or an attempt at a Maradona ‘hand-of- god’ touch, the ball hit his outstretched arm. Gerard who was beside Anton was denied the chance to nail the finish for the ‘hand ball’ whistle had been blown

Tony’s influence in the midfield was very noticeable with a level head, playing the ball backwards, switching play and providing ideally weighted through balls all game.

The Blues controlled most of the game today. The midfield was much more dominant and despite a few through balls by Belnorth there were few shots on the Blues goal. Our defensive line was as solid as they have been all season and given the wet conditions, this is even more noteworthy.

Kyle was our man of the match today. Kyle was everywhere running from defence to attack, shutting down play in defence and never failed to leap for the high headers, and let’s not forget that solid strike off the boot. A well deserved MoM recipient.

A wet, successful and thoroughly enjoyable football game and it looks as though everyone came through without injury. Our thanks to Matt & Foxy whose contributions were first class and much appreciated.