Early in the afternoon today, the St. James Hurricane played our second MSA cup game against a team a division higher than us. We came into the game with a mix of optimism and pessimism. I, personally, was pessimistic after what I had seen a half week earlier.
Due to the usual (again, from what I've seen) lack of defenders, I played stopper for the first half. It was a strange position to get used to, but after a while, I found my footing, and began to block shots, snuff out offenses, and that sort of stuff. While I didn't enjoy the lack of attacking freedom, I felt I played well - their first goal came from an unmarked tap in (see: not my man), three minutes into the game.
The fact that I was in the stopper position meant that this particular team funnelled their attack (usually) into me, but in the second half, things changed. I could swear their coach told them to use more over-the-top balls, because in the first fifteen minutes of the second half, they put two more in on us by using aerial through balls. I subbed out five minutes later in hopes I could get slotted into the midfield, but after a sip of water, a goal was scored against us. Shortly after that, our sweeper went down and I was back in the fold, this time playing sweeper.
Sweeper's a little stranger, but I'd say it's quite a bit easier. After some running around, a midfielder was looking for an "easier" position to play, so I made my way into the midfield. By then, we were down 5-2, and I was given no instruction on which spot to play. I asked around, but came up with "just go over there" from a few different sources.
And so the cup dream is over. This could be a blessing in disguise though, seeing as our league form needs to pick up if we don't want to get relegated.
Due to the usual (again, from what I've seen) lack of defenders, I played stopper for the first half. It was a strange position to get used to, but after a while, I found my footing, and began to block shots, snuff out offenses, and that sort of stuff. While I didn't enjoy the lack of attacking freedom, I felt I played well - their first goal came from an unmarked tap in (see: not my man), three minutes into the game.
The fact that I was in the stopper position meant that this particular team funnelled their attack (usually) into me, but in the second half, things changed. I could swear their coach told them to use more over-the-top balls, because in the first fifteen minutes of the second half, they put two more in on us by using aerial through balls. I subbed out five minutes later in hopes I could get slotted into the midfield, but after a sip of water, a goal was scored against us. Shortly after that, our sweeper went down and I was back in the fold, this time playing sweeper.
Sweeper's a little stranger, but I'd say it's quite a bit easier. After some running around, a midfielder was looking for an "easier" position to play, so I made my way into the midfield. By then, we were down 5-2, and I was given no instruction on which spot to play. I asked around, but came up with "just go over there" from a few different sources.
And so the cup dream is over. This could be a blessing in disguise though, seeing as our league form needs to pick up if we don't want to get relegated.
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