May 28th Sat
TML
Ina, Saitama, The End of the World
Sala 2v2 France FC
Sala: Ivan, Clarkey, Yusuke, Yoshiki, Guido, Giles, Lenny, Scotty(Naoki), Brookey, Toby, Dhugal(Charles)
Sala Goals: Dhugal (25), Lenny (60)
Another French lesson for Sala.
Two nil up and cruising to a straightforward win over France, Sala pushed the self-destruct button in the last two minutes and felt like the losing team coming off the pitch.
The French started the brighter of the two teams and had a few long range efforts to test the new Sala keeper, Ivan. Sala's forward line had trouble with the French offside trap and would continue to do so all game. This brought a little frustration to the early stages, which was a lot scrappier than previous encounters between these teams have been this season.
After about twenty minutes though, Dhugal finally found his bearings and scampered off after a through ball, rounding the keeper, and taking a perennial ice age, slotted it past the chasing defender, 1v0.
That was about all the action in the first half. (Apart from the incident of the unreturned ball!)
Second half found Sala firmly in control and starting to play some nice passing football on a surface which, if not ideal, is at least flat.
Brookey and Scotty were working hard in the middle, and Toby and Dhugal were again only inches away from breaking the offside trap on several occasions. Yoshiki, returning to the starting line up after an extended hiatus, showed us what weve been missing and connected well with Lenny on several occasions down the left.
It was from the right however that the second goal came, a pinpoint deep cross from Toby found Lenny unmarked in a late run to the far post and his cushioned volley threaded the eye of the needle between the posts from a tight angle(Where does the comma go in all that?)
2v0
Sala began playing even better from then on, but should have been aware that the game wasnt over when Frances midfield maestro cracked the underside of the bar from long range.
Of course the lesson wasnt learned.
Possesion was lost on the edge of the box (yours truly) and Frances English hitman took advantage of a melee to slam home a shot into the roof of the net. 2v1.
With less than a minute left, it seemed that France had left it too late, but they poured forward again. Another scrappy clearance led to more French possesion and when the ball came in from the right, an unmarked French player headed toward goal. Another french player got a second touch on it from the six yard box and redirected it past the defenders on the line. 2v2
Another crushing disappointment for Sala, who need to either learn how to finish chances and kill games, or how to defend under pressure. This one should have been sleeping like a baby after 65minutes.
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