todd11
02 Sep 2007, 03:00 PM
Neven played the whole game away to Jena. He didn't have much to do in the first half as Mainz thoroughly dominated. A couple misconnected passes--- one a complete flub as he tried to switch the field with a 40 m pass only to hit it straight into the penalty area for the keeper. The other misconnect came within inches of setting Amri in alone on the keeper.
In the second half, unfortunately for him and the 05ers, he got stone cold beat on the goal. Came off a corner. He had his mark but let the forward get a hand to his shoulder and simply got out manuevered. Not good. But he recovered to have a good second half otherwise. Had one nice recovery where he thundered in to block a shot... and took out his own d-mid, Gunkel, and the Jena player---and most importantly, the ball---all in one crunching tackle. (as a defender that's the stuff I like! :) ---as 'Lexi used to say, "take out the ball, the man, and the first two rows"... love it!)
Otherwise, a good away win, and he played very steadily except for the mistake on the corner. If we hadn't gone on to win, it becomes more serious---2 pts lost this year on the road can't happen, the 2.liga is waaaay to strong for that. But it didn't. Hope he's more concentrated next time and learns from it. You don't get a lot of chances to 'learn' on the job, though, at this level...
In the second half, unfortunately for him and the 05ers, he got stone cold beat on the goal. Came off a corner. He had his mark but let the forward get a hand to his shoulder and simply got out manuevered. Not good. But he recovered to have a good second half otherwise. Had one nice recovery where he thundered in to block a shot... and took out his own d-mid, Gunkel, and the Jena player---and most importantly, the ball---all in one crunching tackle. (as a defender that's the stuff I like! :) ---as 'Lexi used to say, "take out the ball, the man, and the first two rows"... love it!)
Otherwise, a good away win, and he played very steadily except for the mistake on the corner. If we hadn't gone on to win, it becomes more serious---2 pts lost this year on the road can't happen, the 2.liga is waaaay to strong for that. But it didn't. Hope he's more concentrated next time and learns from it. You don't get a lot of chances to 'learn' on the job, though, at this level...