Today was another tough day on the fields and it gets no easier from here on, with a match every day. All of our teams played again. The U-13’s and U-11’s in the morning and the U-17’s in the afternoon. The day began very warm again, then some bad weather moved in at the time of the U-17’s game around 12.30pm. Our u-13’s won and both our U-11 and U-17 teams lost.
The U-13 boys were on the field first this morning against Clermont FC Academy Select from Florida at 9.45am. Today they began with greater intensity and were rewarded with and early goal. The build-up came from some exquisite passing, with the final pass brilliantly measured by Marc Wharfe to Justin Araujo-Wilson, who calmly slotted the ball past Clermont’s custodian. More was to come in the first half as Araujo-Wilson weaved passed two defenders before nailing a 20yd strike, 2-0. Our defense was solid and no goals were conceded in this game. Other notable performances came from Jaden McCree, Justin Mc Intosh, Naim Pompey, Nathan Small and Adrian, our guest goalkeeper.
In todays’ U-11 game versus Sugar Land SC, from Texas, the U-11’s had a very tough one. From the start Sugar Land SC was dominant and moving the ball much quicker. They scored three goals in the first 20 minutes, which had our boys on the back foot for the rest of the game. Again, Aidan Hayes was a stand out between the uprights and at the end stopped us from losing really heavily. Credit though, must still go to the guys for not surrendering. They battled to the final whistle. Games like this will give them more experience and hopefully make them grow into better players in the future.
Today’s U-17 game was to begin at 1.15pm against Florida Rush, but due to inclement weather the game was delayed for about two hours. This seemed to have an effect on the team as we took some time to settle and get into the game. At the start, the team was clearly sluggish and slow out of the blocks. This gave the Rush too much time and space on the ball and a number of chances were created, of which three were capitalized upon. In between all of this, we still had at least five tries on their goal of which four were hit straight to their keeper and one which he dived to his right and pushed around the upright. In this game as we all know, you need to convert your chances or else. The Rush did and we did not.
After a feisty half time talk from Coach Colin (the Gaffer) the team looked a different squad, a much more spirited bunch. The formation was changed from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 to bolster the midfield and things started to click. Kevin Wharfe and Keyshawn Villafana began threading balls to Chinua Bernard and Aaron Skeene, who placed much more pressure now on the Rush. This resulted in a goal by Chinua. The guys continued to shut down the Rush and apply more and more pressure. Aaron got the ball, weaved his way into the penalty box, this we all thought was goal #2, but the Rush goal tender had different ideas as he snuffed out any chance of a shot. In the final five minutes of the game the Rush had their only two chances of the second half of which they converted one. By this time we had a lot of weary legs. The team lost 4-1, but we are proud of the boys who showed True Grit in the second period and with a bit of luck may have come away with something from this game. The score is not indicative of the match that was played.
