Match report

Season Date Round Venue
2021 U9 3rd July 12:00pm League Round 12 WWSC Modified 1
Match report

Woodside Warriors U9 Blue vs Strathalbyn Soccer Club U9 White

 

The round 3 trip to Strathalbyn White was not a fruitful one for the Warriors, with Strath having some very strong players who were more than a match for the Blues defence. Nevertheless, the Euro 2020 round of sixteen threw up some surprises this week with underdogs Switzerland putting out World Champions France, The Czech Republic ending the Oranjes’ hopes of repeating their 1988 triumph, and even England managing to fluke a result against a German team that is going through a period of renewal. So, there was always hope that Woodside could raise their game and cause an upset here.

 

Both teams started the first half quite tentatively, testing each other but not creating an awful lot. Once the game settled a little Strath started to push and found a breakthrough. Woodside went looking for a reply and created a few good chances, with midfielder Jock Mills pushing up and getting amongst the action in front of the Strath goal, and midfielder Tommy Garden showing a big improvement in his awareness of the game around him, contributing to some nice passing movements. Sadly for Woodside their first-half efforts went unrewarded, and despite some confident goalkeeping from Lachlan Mitchell, Strath turned the screw again leaving Woodside with an awful lot to do in the second half.

 

Woodside were very much on the back foot in the second half but despite the pressure Captain Sam Balacco made some crucial interventions to slow Strath progress, as did Austin Levy dropping back from midfield. This was always going to be a tough game and Woodside needed to sit deep and hit Strath on the break to get anywhere, but the Warriors end-of-school-term legs were tired and Strath quickly managed to put the game out of reach, despite Lucas March-Feltham playing the sweeper role very well to frustrate the Strath forwards.

 

Thanks to Lui for refereeing today. The Warriors have a break for a week and then another challenging game coming up against Hahndorf in a fortnight, so another opportunity to learn about sitting deep, soaking up pressure and hitting the opposition on the break.