CL3 Report - 23/6 v Checks

To regular readers of this blog this is a match report from ye olde ANU CL3 hockey team so read on at your own risk.

Multimedia presentations are too hard via email.

Michael showed up with his camera which has prompted me to release this match report in blog format so that I can easily include loads of pictures. As you can see the day dawned clear and bright. Some early pressure gave us a number of shots, such as this fine effort from myself which resulted in a short corner. Some people may suggest that the percentage play would've been to hold the ball and pass off to an open man but that just wouldn't be third grade.

Throughout the first half we had a whole bunch of short corners, but we were unable to convert. I mean it probably has something to do with how we lined up, we should've formed some kind of flying V to confuse the opposition instead of this bog standard line up.


Some other highlights from the first half include:
Jimmy dragging the ball back,


Mitch passing to Rick

and Rick showing us his pace. Just look at that leg speed.

Jono kept running throughout the game and was deservedly best and fairest on the day. I mean look at him go, his pace and ball control were easily enough to outsmart the opposition.


Despite our myriad of short corners and our complete dominance of the first half we went into the break at 0-0. The second half began brightly, five minutes in and Rick blasted a ball into the circle, I deflected it away from the goal and Ash (forward) gratefully put the ball into the net.
Soon after, Ash (GK) took a seat and our desperation around the goal area in defence meant we held onto our lead for a little while.

More pressure meant that we scored a second as the ball bobbled around in the circle before Kurt finished nicely over the keeper. This resulted in a nice panorama shot of us all looking impressed with ourselves.


This however proved a turning point in the match. Some complete brain fades occurred and we began playing some truly awful hockey. Hinds gave the ball away to Jimmy Borrett on top of the circle. He stuffed his shot and it bounced back off the post. Ash (GK) attempted to clear and misjudged it, Jimmy picked the ball up again only to have Hinds take it off him. Here is the aftermath.


Things were getting desperate. Tempo got robbed at the top of the circle and they capitalised making it 2-1. They showed a lot of agression and were soon slide tackling us all over the place.


We conceded another goal from a short corner as we were unable to effectively clear our defences. 2-2 and it wasn't looking good. Our desperation in the final few minutes and Tempo preparing for his role in Manpower Australia kept us in the game.


Hinds did his usual trick of taking people out and as always was extremely apologetic.

Kurt got a yellow card for hacking, although it was far from the worst tackle of the day and we eventually held on for a 2-2 draw.

Pros:
We played 50 minutes of really good hockey and should've been further ahead.
Passing and pressure on opposition were excellent

Cons:
Couldn't convert from shorts
Fitness let us down

Vital Stats:
Goals: Ash (Forward), Kurt
B&F: Jono 3, Shorty, Sam, Ash (GK) 2, Nick 1
Drew 2-2 with checks.