APJSC Under 12.3 Green: Round 1 vs Coledale at Terry Reserve #4

It’s all go for the former 12B team from Albion Park, now renamed the 12.3 Green team after having been graded in the 3rd division of the Under 12 competition along with their 12C compadres (who are now rebranded as the 12.3 Gold team). With a 12 team competition, each team now plays the other once before a six team finals series takes place. So every game, every goal, every moment counts for the first time in these young players careers. And their first assignment was the Coledale team at the home of Park soccer, Terry Reserve.

With the use of a strong breeze at their backs in the first half, the Park boys dominated both possession and territory. Keeper Ethan Meehan did not touch the ball in the first half such was the weight of play at the other end. This also resulted in up to eight of the Coledale team taking up residence in their 18 yard box, which made for a congested playing area for the Park forwards to try and negotiate. Early on it was the play of Matthew Shepherd and Nic Wynen that stood out, with both boys seeing a lot of the ball and making some noticeably calm and pinpoint plays against their opponents. Nic made two great defensive manoeuvres before placing the ball perfectly down the wing to his teammate, changing the direction of the play terrifically, while Matt was making the game look as though it was becalmed on an ocean such was the time he had to grab the ball and push the perfect pass wide to his teammates. Terrific stuff.
With the congestion in the middle of the ground Park’s preference to play the ball wide was working well, but getting the ball across into the front of the goals wasn’t as effective. The Park backline did their job by keeping the ball in the attacking half, and eventually the weight of pressure had to break. Heath Gillis push the ball down the left side to Michael Young, who beat the two defenders coming at him to cross the ball inside to Kyan Van Helden. He steadied and drew a defender before crossing to Josh Peters who struck the ball cleanly into the top right corner to open the scoring and give the Park a 1-0 lead at half time.

The Coledale team was finding it hard to keep moving, despite the advantage of the breeze behind their backs in the second half. From the whistle the Park team moved forward in attack, with three great plays involving Cohen Dick weaving the ball through the defensive lines and linking up with Michael on the left and Kyan in the centre offering some outside chances. There had been several chances at goal in the first half but there were even more in the second as the well drilled Park players kept the ball along the ground and found feet as their tired opponents wilted. There were several lovely passages of play on the right side between Nic and Max Sciberras who both ran hard to get to the loose balls, and then onto Heath and Josh.
The terriers of the team again played a major part in the Park team’s success. The centre half with the curls bobbing along ran hard across the field superbly as he generally does, getting to the ball in the breakdowns and moving it upfield, while Heath Gillis again jumped on every opportunity he had whether playing back or forward. Both these two were supported superbly by Harry Whiteford, who once again swooped on any ball that fell into a dangerous area and ran it hard through the midfield. These three have been exceptional in this regard, and especially in the second half of matches when the opposition is tiring. In the backline Luke Beesley didn’t see as much ball as he has been in recent weeks, and yet continued to be strong on opponents to rush their decision or steal the ball and bang it back up the sideline to an attacking position. Jack-Ryan Eberwein stood tall again in the middle of that defensive posture, and banged the ball long out of trouble on a number of occasions. He will score a goal from halfway sometime this season if he gets onto one of his kicks properly. Ethan Meehan needed binoculars in the first half if he was to see any play, and though he really only touched the ball three times in the second half they were all vital in shutting down the few attacking raids made by the Coledale team.
Up front chances came but were not able to be taken advantage of. Kyan had two terrific strikes from the edge of the box, but both drifted past the right post of the goals. Kyan has missed the last two games due to injury, and sitting on your backside on the lounge for two weeks has left him a little underdone. The run will have done him good and we can expect better things from him going forward. He was still a great influence today, as was shown on the best play of the day. Josh had also had a couple of shots that went wide and there was some frustration there, but a terrific move harped on at training paid off, as Josh gathered the ball on his side of halfway, ran and passed onto Kyan who drew his man and passed back to Josh following on, who looked up and struck the ball home to extend the lead to 2-0.
There was lots of space late in the game in the middle of the field, and the Park boys kept running as their opponents stopped. Though they were unable to add to the score, it was terrific to see the teamwork that went into today’s game from all 13 of the boys in the team. It must be gratifying for coach Mick Meehan to see that all the hard work that is going into training is beginning to be seen on the field. When the whistle blew for fulltime, the Albion Park Green team had collected their first points with a 2-0 victory.

Amongst the excellent work from all, Matthew Shepherd was quite superb today. He was calm under pressure, fantastic with his passing in midfield, fast to the ball in fighting for possession, and kept the ball moving forward and wide for attacking options. He was brilliant and it was his best game for the season, a testament to the hard work he has been putting in. Well done Matt.

 Next week sees a return bout with the Coniston team that defeated Park 4-2 a couple of weeks ago, but this game will be at home, and if the boys can ensure they don’t start as slowly as they did in that first encounter then they will be right in with a chance to claim a second victory in as many weeks.