Pazienza. Iue 0-1 Casellina

Tuesday 8th April 2008. Cerreti.


Hmmm... I had forgotten what it was like to lose. Given how well we actually played last night, this isn't surprising... I actually think we played better yesterday (save a ten minute spell just after their goal at the end of the first half, in which they began to dominate the midfield) than we did in the previous two games, games in which we scored 10 goals with ease. Last night the ball just wouldn't go in. I woke up at 7am this morning thinking about my free kick in the last couple of minutes last night that crashed off the underside of the bar and bounced on the line and then up into the air. Painful. I'm really sorry it didn't go in lads.

Sometimes the ball just won't go in... There's nothing you can do about it. As Leo's dad said after the game, even if we had played for another hour, we still wouldn't have scored. In front of what was defintely a record crowd, we put on a great second half display, after a pretty decent first half performance. with Casellina reduced to booting the ball into touch and fouling. Thinking about our missed chances, there is a lump in my throat; we twice ducked under the ball in front of goal when we could have just nodded in to an open net, we hit the bar twice, headers and shots went just over and just wide, and their keeper made a few tody saves. Their goal was an absolute belter: a twenty five yard volley into the top corner. Nothing you can do. How do so many teams manage to score just good goals against us?

Grrrrr! You'll understand if this isn't a long match report... A quick summary though: We started with Manolo coming back in on the left, with Leo starting on the right, and Nate coming in for the suspended Dave H and Irial dropping back slightly deeper and Luis coming back into the midfield. Casellina are a team who know how to defend and the game was tight in the first half, but we managed to open up the game well at times, and defended solidly in general. Leo was our most dangerous player, cutting inside well from the right and almost scoring a couple of times. They scored a belter of a goal, and got in another time after a one-two down our right. We started to look slightly ragged at the back and lose out in the middle to their five-man midfield, with their number seven finding himself in too much space. A bad last ten minutes of the first half, but we are still playing well.

Dave M came on at the start of the second hal to go 5 vs 5 in midfield, with the idea being to get our midfielders to bomb forward to support Irial, and to push our wingers wider and try and get in behind. We absolutely dominated the second half, territorially and in terms of possession and chances. As we were so much on top we went back to 4 in midfield with an extra striker, with Norberto coming on for Nate. It seemed inevitable that we would score. By the time my free kick came off the bar - the sweetest free kick I will ever hit, which looked in for 25 yards - it had become clear that it just wasn't our night. Pazienza.

Team: 1-3-4-2: David - Luke - Mate, Simon, Dom - Manolo (Dave M), Luis, Ernesto, Leo - Irial, Nate (Norberto)