Hey guys, was thinking it would be a good idea if we had a thread that people could post a detailed description of their latest match and how they performed. Does anyone agree? Visually writing down and seeing what you think you did well, and bad would motivate/spur people on to improve and pull confidence from doing such things I would imagine, so is anyone else on board?
Great. I think that if we can get other people talking about each other's performances, it can lead to advice giving in certain area's of game improvements performance wise etc. I'll start on my first match review in the morning.
Saturday, 21st July, 2012 We got to the ground as a group, and we all started to get ready. I'm Vice-Captain of our team, but for today I got announced as Captain which I was wrapped about, because I love to be a leader. So I took our guys on the warm up, we got into light ball work eventually doing some technique focused drills to ensure we were all on our game not just physically but also technically and mentally, as the pitch was in quite bad condition. The whistle was blown, and underway went the first half, we were kicking to the left of the field, and started without the ball. In the opening minutes I played a through ball for my striker that could have set him free in the box from the side of midfield, as I started on the right wing. But, he was flat footed and got beat to it by the defender. A positive start to the game for me, we began to settle and control the pace of the game using our back four to maintain possession, while I sat wide on the touch line until I was needed to be involved. Once the ball was switched to my full back, I dropped in close to him, played it straight back and then turned and sprinted up the wing, bring their full back out quite deep so I had alot of room to run into. The ball was played over the top, and it brought their CB out to mark me, and I tried to whip in a ball to the back post, but I didn't get correct connection on the ball, and sent into into the air past the near post. I was getting foward into good positions, onto the edge of the 18 yard box, finding myself in very advanced positions, I knew two things from this (1) I was going to get an opportunity soon, if not I was atleast stretching their back 4 (2) I needed to get back fast to help out my defenders in the event of a counter attack. Sooner rather than later, around the 15 minute mark, a ball deflected and found it's self to me outside the 18 yard box, on a slight angle and I had time to take a touch, and decided to put my laces through it and hit it along the ground. It rolled in, the keeper got a finger to it but it was already on it's way to the bottom left corner. It was great to be able to score the first goal of the game and get our team underway towards a win, it was the second week in a row that I had scored the first goal of the game(Penalty last week). Confidence was high for me, I kept trying to supply my strikers with crosses from the wing, but they were of poor quality, most of the either hitting my marker or heading out of play. The coach took me off for a spell which would last 10 minutes, and wanted to make a positional change when I came back onto the field. I would be playing in the Centre of Midfield, for the remainder of the game. I didn't create too much when I came back on, but I found room in midfield just to pick up the ball and distributre it which was positive for me, movement off the ball is key. Confidence was still high from the first goal outside the box, this time I had picked up the ball a little deeper in midfield, approx 35 yards from the net. I decided to have a shot, since no one came to me and I know that I'm capable of hitting the target from there, but for that moment when I decided to shoot, I was over confident, and didn't focus on technique, I sprayed the ball wide and it ended up over by the corner flag for a throw in. We had ourselves up 2-1 a halftime, and I told the boys that we needed to keep working hard, keep working towards the 3rd and 4th goal to seal this game, and get ourselves the 3 points. The second half of the game, I continued to play in CM, and continued to pickup the ball in space in midfield, with my movement off the ball being key. I was distributing the ball to the wings quite well, and switched the ball to a man sitting on the edge of the 18 yard box from the other side of the field. Apart from this pass, most of my passing was poor and it seemed as though I was running out of gas, but I kept working because I had to put the effort in to get us the 3 points. A shot fell into my line of sight around 20 yards out, and I took it on my non preferred foot on the half volley, putting it inaccurately wide of the left post. Corners and Freekick's began to become more prevalent in the second half, and I'm our set piece taker, so this was a way I could get myself into the game and contribute, we hit the crossbar from one of our corners, and the free kick i put into a dangerous area that ended up on the ground of the 6 yard box after a failed attempt at heading, into the keepers hands. The end score was 5-2, and we fought hard to win this one. It's two wins on the trot for our lads, having only won 1 game prior to those two, it's been a tough season and this brings us up out of relegation. I was able to run out 85 minutes today, and I had myself 90 minutes last week, which is a positive coming back from injury only a few weeks ago, fitness has been a problem, but I still need to work on it so I don't fade out of games in the second half. Things I did well Found space in midfield to recieve the ball. Found space for shots. Lead my team as the captain, being very vocal and positive on the pitch. Scored a goal from the edge of the 18 yard box. Made good runs off the ball when playing on the wing. Set pieces were put into good positions. Put in a few good slide tackles(could have won the ball more if I had been fitter, and been able to chase down opponents) Things that need Improving Shooting accuracy (technique, distance shooting using the laces) Fitness Passing, through balls - need to be more composed when playing. Crossing from the wing, on the run and also while slown down, and small chipped balls from the wing That was great, hopefully you guys can do your reviews too and we can all contribute and comment on each others performances.