Epic F.C Wind Up

Trojans 5 - 2 Epic F.C

Finally Indoor began, after much speculation of transfers, traitorous jerks, cheeseeaters and cats, Epic F.C began their 2nd 2009 Indoor Soccer campaign.

This seasons squad had been significantly re-vamped, with the departure of James Hastings(On loan to WJCC and The Awesomes(fail) ) and, Kurtis Bruce ( Jew duty) and Miguel, Miggy P, Periera ( Traitorous Manager, Owner and Player of/for The Awesomes(fail) ), several new additions were at hand for the squad.

Blaise Walker, after much hype and publicity, was added to the team, in addition to Emerson Brophy and Jordan Edwards. This left the team with a strong and dynamic wealth of attacking and defensive options, causing confusion at the starting gates, with several people unaware of their actual positions for the match. This was sorted pre-match, and the game was underway.

The first five minutes flew by, with neither team really threatening on goal, with all players seemingly happy to ease into the tempo of the match. The first blow was struck after six minutes, with a simple shot from the side by Blaise easily collected by the opposition keeper. Following that, several more shots were fired by the forwards of Epic F.C, to no avail.

At 9 minutes, The Trojans began to cement their attacking plays, firing approximately 3 - 4 shots within 2 minutes, but each one was under pressure from our defence, and as such required nothing special of Joe.

After eleven minutes, an unfortunate positioning error lead to three Epic F.C players hanging all together to the right, causing Conrad Loo to need to cover two Trojan players. This lead to a simple build up by the opposition, drawing Conrad to the middle man, before passing to an unmarked player who easily slid it past the keeper for the edge of the circle.

At this point, Epic F.C became more eager to venture forward, sacrificing defence for more forward plays. This worked well to provide more opportunities, with on-target shots fired from Blaise Walker and Jordan Edwards and a fantastic curling shot from Emerson Brophy all saved by the keeper. However, this lead to a gap in the defence, and a quick break from The Trojans left Matthew Wong and Conrad Loo with some desperate defending to do. Unfortunately, despite their efforts, the shot from The Trojans player managed to be on target,and a woeful dive from Joe Blay let the second goal slip in.

It was half time, and Conrad new that the boys needed a bit of a work up. The players were spoken to, and we stepped back onto the pitch, refreshed and ready for a second half.

The first few minutes ebbed and flowed between strong Epic F.C build up without any concise finishing, and quick Trojan plays that required saves, and wasted opportunities for the opposition, thanks to some great pressure defence.

With just twelve minutes left on the clock, Epic F.C needed someone to stand up. And someone did indeed. Some good passing from Jordan Edwards had forced The Trojans back to defend in numbers, but a quick pass back by Blaise Walker to Matthew Wong allowed the previously goalless defender enough time and space to set his shot bound for the upper left hand corner. There was no stopping it, The Trojans keeper flailing about like a dying fish, before the ball smacked into the net.

The stage was set, all that was left to do now was pull back another goal and the game was there for the taking. We set about our task strongly, with good attacking play leading to shots form Blaise Walker and Jordan Edwards. The Trojans struck back quickly, however, with a slick passing move getting around Emerson Brophy and a powerful shot from the side, getting through the hand of the keeper and into the goals.

At 3 - 1 and with only ten minutes remaining, we knew we had to act fast if we wanted to win this game back. Moving up forward, Epic F.C maneuvered and dribbled their way into several goalbound opportunities, another curler from Emerson was notable, as was a powerful volley from the halfway line from Blaise Walker.

After eight minutes of this attacking play, it finally payed off. Good movement down the right hand side by Conrad and Matthew, had allowed for Jordan to be in a shooting position, as he received the ball, he was immediately put under pressure, as such he passed it swiftly to Blaise, who wasted no time in skimming the ball into the back of the net.

Hope was restored, but not for long. Epic F.C continued the attacking runs, but sturdy defence for a solid amount of time had meant that less opportunities for goals had left us with only three minutes with which to score.

But to no avail, as penetrating runs from The Trojans led to a diving save from Joe, that spilt out of the area to a Trojans player, who popped the ball into the goals.

Then as time wore on and only one minute remained, another quick break from the Trojans led to another goal. Emerson Brophy desperately attempted to stunt the pace of his opponent, but in the end, his tackle and then follow up backwards tackle were no match for the quick feet of his opponent, who slipped the ball past a sliding Joe. Seconds after the goal Joe, who had so much momentum from sliding, crashed into the goalscorer. The two players both got back up and play continued for the next forty-five seconds, with The Trojans happy to simply defend in numbers.

A disappointing match in the end for Epic F.C, who had their opportunities and worked hard to bring the game back within reach.

Game notes;

1- As Conrad nicley said, and I yelled mid-match, we must always remember to have at least two players in defence. In addition to this, Joe has also requested that he have at least one of his, as he calls them, "Main Men". That is, a player who often plays in defence for the team and understands the otherwise incoherent instructions from Joe.
At the moment Joe has requested Matthew Wong and Conrad Loo to interchange this role as they see fit throughout the course of the season and matches.

2 - Take chances on shots. We saw in that match, when Emerson ventured forward he took shots as he saw fit, and had two great on target curlers that required saves. Don't be afraid to shoot from a distance if you think you can get it right. Too many times, players had opportunities to shoot and decided against it. I'm not saying we should all shoot all the time, because sometimes we had opportunities to shoot that just weren't viable as scoring chances. But don't be afraid to take the shot.

That's all for this weeks game analysis, goodbye and goodnight.