APJSC Under 12.3 Green: Round 4 vs Russell Vale Lime at Cawley Park #1

On a chilly Saturday morning in the northern suburbs the Albion Park Green Under 12 team took on the Russell Vale Lime team in a tough match at Cawley Park, and one that showed that sometimes you can win a game even though the team isn’t at their best on the field.

The play early was stunted around the midfield as both teams tried to work each other out. There was good energy from Cohen Dick who was fast both forward and back as the play moved, keeping the pressure on the Russell Vale team. This was mirrored by Heath Gillis in the middle of the field, who again was a livewire chasing the ball early in the game.
The mood of the match changed not long after, when the blonde locked midfielder looked to make a good tackle on his opponent in stopping a forward movement, but in the process went down with an ankle injury. In obvious pain he was forced to leave the field and the was out of the remainder of the game. This affected the balance of the team but also the concentration of his teammates.
It was good to see the boys get beyond this, and dominate possession over the next five minutes. Harry Whiteford came off the bench and took over in the centre backline, making several rushes at the ball that caused errors in the opposition that allowed the Park defence to regain control of the play. The ball began to get into the danger areas, and there was a hope of a breakthrough. After a good passage of play on the right wing Max Sciberras threw the ball in to Matthew Shepherd who got around his opponent and got the ball back to Max on that wing. Max then made a short sharp run down the right to get past his opponent before shooting the ball inside to Kyan Van Helden. Ky turned and spun and cracked the ball across the goal where the pace of the ball escaped the keepers grasp, which allowed the Park forwards to rush the ball and get the loose ball into the back of the net, and take a 1-0 lead, which they took with them to the half time break.

The difficulty in the match came from the team being less than clean with their passing, which has been their strength in recent weeks. Today there were few clean passes to teammates, with the majority falling at the feet of their opponents. The boys were also a bit slow with the ball, which left themselves open to giving up the ball to Russell Vale when they tried to beat a man rather than clear safely to their fellow players. The boys were trying hard but were just not practicing what they have been learning at training, which allowed Russell Vale to keep their foot in the door during the match.
Nic Wynen was the exception and was playing his best match of the year. His work in defence was excellent, highlighted by one particular play where he chased the ball as it was moved by Russell Vale across from their left wing across to right half. Nic single handedly made three separate tackles on players, with the ball falling loose but straight onto the next Russell Vale player, who he then chased and did the same thing. It was an important piece of defensive work, because if he hadn’t kept chasing the ball down they would have had an almost open run at the Park goal mouth. It was a pivotal moment in the match. He followed this up in the second half with another powerhouse display, including another period of play where he again tackled three opponents in a row to stop the attacking raid and get the ball from right back to right wing on his own. Terrific stuff.

The second half was a dour struggle as the Park players just couldn’t get their best play together. Russell Vale had a few of their own chances to get on the board, but the returning Ethan Meehan was excellent at the back once again and gave little away to their opponents. Jack-Ryan Eberwein held the line across centre back, acting as the first point of call to stop the majority of the forward presses from the home team, and Luke Beesley made two vital tackles at dangerous points of play, as well as marshalling the backline throughout to keep their line solid. Heath was still in the game and his speed and enthusiasm was an important play at the time. On the left side as always Mick Young was busy and often found himself double and triple teamed as he looked to get the ball down his wing but still found a way to move it along.
The attack had their chances in the second half to increase the lead, with Mick and Ky having a couple of good chances on the left, while Max and Cohen combined well down the right with a couple of excellent attacking raids that were only defused by good work from the home keeper. A couple of contentious free kicks with Albion Park in great attacking positions also didn’t help. Perhaps this was all evened up by the one attack that resulted in a goal. Ky had retrieved the ball just short of halfway and passed nicely on to Cohen in the middle who put the through ball pas the defensive line for Josh Peters to run on to. Josh hadn’t committed early, and by the time he realised he was a chance to get to the ball before the keeper it looked as though the decision to sprint was too late. The keeper came out and was forced to make a clearing kick rather than a save, but that kick was straight into Josh’s right boot as he too aimed a kick at the ball, and the rebound from his boot rolled through to the unattended goal, and Park had their 2-0 lead, which is the score that the game ended at. 

It mightn’t have been the best-looking performance, and there is plenty there for the boys to tweak and improve on in the coming weeks, but it was a victory nonetheless and that is important at this stage of the season.