Twenty-five year olds just don't have the same lung capacity as those spritely-ORDed twenty year old fresh faces. It's a damning cycle: You enlist, eat well, exercise a lot, then ORD and hit the downward spiral. You end up flunking the annual IPPT (ok, so maybe its just me) and get breathless chasing that kid who glides effortlessly along.
Such was the theme of yesterday's game against a side made up of these 20-year olds.
The tactic of the day was to defend, and attack, as a team (for those who missed it, see KS's last post here. Well, we did...or at least tried to do that. Those kids were freakishly quick, and seemed not to run out of breath. They closed us down at every opportunity and didn't allow us to settle down.
Even the referee asked JQ why we were out of sorts.
Anyway, on to the match details: we managed to carve out a few opportunities, the closest being Zhiwei springing the offside trap to slot past the onrushing keeper, only to see the ball bounce agonisingly wide of the post. KS also had a clear header on goal which he put over the bar. Otherwise, our attack lacked bite, probably due to the new tactic we had adopted.
Although we were losing the midfield battle, at least it didn't translate into too many opportunities for them. Jackson was brilliant, tipping over what seemed to be certain goals, but unfortunately, near the end, he was beaten by a combination of poor marking and fortune on the opponent's end.
The defender ghosted in unmarked to score at the near post, a downward header that really, really, should not have been given away. We did try to hit back, as the urgency increased and we began stringing some passes together, but as usual, it was too little, too late.
MOTM: Jackson - for his superb saves which kept us in it and kept the score to a respectable one goal only.
Monday, March 31, 2008
