Jayden made his 7-a-side debut for Bloomsbury and made the game look easy. He was confident in possession of the ball, moved forward with purpose and intensity, and even got himself a goal! Player of the match was difficult to choose on an evening where Bloomsbury dominated the fixture, particularly in the second half. Credit must also go to Tristan Jenkins for stepping up and going in goal in the absence of a goalkeeper. Bloomsbury took the lead after just six minutes when Maxsym finished at the back post, following an impressive first few minutes of the game. This was followed by many, many, missed chances from BFA, who were breaking the lines and creating clear shooting opportunities with no finish! After going in to half-time at 1-0, and the recognition from our players that more intensity was required, the second half performance was far stronger, and Bloomsbury went on to score four further goals! These came from Jayden, Aman and two from Alexey. Other notable performance came from Luca, who was unfortunate not to score, and Kamran, whose energy and consistency each week keeps the team’s standards high. There were some good finishes, excellent defensive organisation, a solid goalkeeping performance, and no shortage of confidence from the team. However, the highlights of the match were the more comical moments – Yotam’s attempted overhead kick that made no contact with the ball, Jayden applauding the crowd and making the most of his Player of the Match performance as he was subbed with two minutes to play, and the same young man commentating on the game as he dribbled past opposition players. A team full of characters! We were fortunate to have another excellent turnout at training this week, with 20 in attendance. This is allowing for a lot of game-based work to be done, in preparation for our remaining Friday and Sunday fixtures. We continue to work hard on all parts of our game but know the intensity must be higher if we wish to win the league this season. Our next Market Road game is a big one against top of the table, taking place on Friday 24th February … come and support us, 8.30pm kick off!
Louis was brilliant in terms of breaking up the play and building up the attack. A team player who encouraged everyone throughout the game! The highlight of the game was that the team played together and not let their heads drop after conceding the first goal. Rocco also scored after a brilliant team move! The boys recycled the ball well in possession to pass from one side of the pitch to the other. The team will be working on tracking the runners from in behind better by watching the runs.
Player of the match, Ismail, showed fantastic ball manipulation skills throughout the 2 games, combining that with great decision making with regards to when to drive forward and when to pass too. Ismail also worked harder defensively this week which comes off the back of feedback passed on from fixtures 2 weeks ago! The team remained organised against a strong opposition in PFA in the 2nd game. We took the lead on 2 occasions and fought back to earn a deserved draw. Sebastian provided a lot of positivity during our team talks before, during, and after the 2 matches! We’ve been working on the basics over the past few weeks in terms of effectively dribbling and passing. These skills have really shone through in the games the boys play. We will be consistent across both games, particularly in our decision-making such as when to pass and when to dribble.
Marco is the player of the match as he was managed to mimic in the game what we have been practicing from the last few weeks at training. He scored a hat-trick, assisted and kept the ball in possession when in pressure by playing back. Misha was looking for a goal for 40 minutes and managed to get a ball in the net from a free kick on the right side, right in the far corner! Mathias jumped in the goal and made himself a huge help to the team who was playing without the normal goalkeeper! This showed great commitment and team play! Winning 2-1 at half time, the boys were told that if we wanted to win the game we needed to stay focused and put in practice what we had been working on in training during the week. By trusting our midfield and defensive players, we could pass the ball back when we experienced pressure, so we could release free players on the other wing. That brought us a clean sheet and 6 scored goals in the 2nd half! Playing from the back, through the wide areas is giving us more space to be creative and decide better which has helped us to create dangerous situations and a lot of confidence on the ball. We will keep working on scanning (which Pax is doing brilliantly), reception with the further foot and playing simple and “what we see” will continue to be the main focus.
Riku deserves player of the match because even though the result was poor, he never gave up trying and passing the ball! Joao scored a brilliant goal which included lots of passing in the team move which was great to see. The boys were recycling the ball well especially from the back. We need to be concentrating for the full 90 minutes and not giving up on ourselves. Teamwork is KEY!
Player of the match, Marlei, was our main threat from an attacking point of view. He got us off to a good start but also helped us going forward when the team were struggling. He definitely deserved his two goals! In the first half, the boys struggled with being resilient as we were 3-1 down. However, during the second half performance, the players showed more urgency and desire. The boys we were great in training this week but struggled to replicate the consistency during the game. We will be working of defensive solidity going forward. Playing with more urgency, desire and the willingness to put the team first.
Playing a year up as an U9 can be daunting, however Pax was completely unfazed and was determined to play the best he could, scoring a goal with a hattrick assists on top of his fantastic all-round play. Well deserved to be player of the match! Honourable mention to Yasser for his hattrick! Despite a slow start, the boys kept digging away, and despite a fortunate first goal, the boys took that and built a solid performance. Yasser’s first goal, with sheer technical brilliant, sat down two players before placing the shot in the bottom corner! In training, the team focused on retaining possession, with the aim of keeping the ball as much as possible, and the ability to recycle possession and play backwards instead of forcing the forward pass. This will help the boys to keep the ball even better.
Poppy started off on the bench and when she came onto the pitch, she made a massive difference to our goal threat, taking many shots throughout the game no matter the distance! It was great to see Anne dribbling the pitch length and taking a powerful shot into the goal, and how many of the girls were willing and wanting to be the goalkeeper. When we conceded, the girls head’s didn’t drop and they were communicating with each other to keep up the intensity, which worked amazing as the performance didn’t drop after conceding!
Max worked tirelessly throughout the game in order to bring the team’s performance up to high levels. He defended extremely comfortably in the 1st half and was an attacking threat in the 2nd half, demonstrating his ability to be able to do both to a gold team level. We took the lead thanks to a great strike from Sammy! In training we worked on finishing in the final 3rd from wide areas and we disappointingly didn’t demonstrate this in the game, opting to dribble inside with reduced deliveries into the box. We can improve on this, and we need to show desire in every game we play!
Player of the match, Adam was both dominant on the ball and defensively. He had a fantastic game where he was able to contribute to the way we built our attacks and was solid against every opposition player he faced! The strong start helped us maintain our strong performance throughout the match. One of the highlights of the game was our second goal. It started from a goal kick from Morgan who played wide to Adam, then a central pass into Luke who played a fantastic bounce pass into the wide right area where Rupert dribbled inwards, switched the play into Zeid, who played a precise ball into the on running Tristan who finished into the bottom corner! A fantastic goal! In training, the boys worked on recognising when to recycle the ball and stay calm, while patiently building our attacks again. They created many opportunities, but they just needed a finer touch Infront of goal.
Troy was consistent and solid at the back. He led his defence well and snuffed out any dangers. We scored a well worked goal from a technical play in the wide areas where Rupert slotted it home. We were more comfortable in the ball, but the occasion and the opponents, who are competing for the top spot, had a big impact as both teams played with a bunch of nerves. In training, the boys will be looking to be more comfortable in possession while being more clinical with our chances.
Janet was picked as player of the match by the whole team this week due to some amazing saves once again and world class midfield play, distributing the ball excellently to launch attacks. Everyone played their best game! Tara produced some very skilful play on the wing to give us some great momentum at the start. O’Miya is on the scoresheet twice with 2 great goals assisted by Janet. Jet scored too and Ilva straight in from a teasing corner! Once again it was amazing to see so many players shouting encouragement and positivity from the side when they weren’t playing. Defence this week which was Eleanor, Frankie and Esther, put in some very important tackles and El is warming to the A league well, even playing on the wing for a short spell. Well done all! We have been working on recycling the ball back to our defence when we get stuck, and this was displayed very well in the game! However we could have done this more. Our communication all over the field could be much better so we will continue to work on this.
Rafael was player of the match as he started in a new position as wingback and offered us plenty of width and depth to build from the back but also very good running beyond to give us an attacking threat in and around the box, and even scored a lovely goal! We were consistent across the full game in both halves. Coming in 4-0 down at half time and being able to identify the challenges we faced showed brilliant resilience and mental strength to go on to win the second half and almost get a point, which we more than deserved after a brilliant second half where we spent most of it in the final third! We built from Alex in goal into our left centre back Emmanuel who played an exceptional ball through the oppositions press and Seb then linked with Luca and Jake who dropped to create a wide overload and overlap (worked on in training) which allowed Luca to deliver into the box as he used the space to cut inside. This then led to Rafael’s goal as the ball came back out from the cross. We worked on underlaps and overlaps in training which were done really well by the centre midfielder supporting their closest wing back. We dominated in wide areas which allowed us to also remain high and press the opposition in their own half rather than in the first half when their fullbacks were getting high and causing us issues. We will start the first half how we started the second half this weekend. Our mentality will be better because the players promised to take their pre match preparations more seriously and to be organised which leads to a quicker start.
Player of the match, Josh had an outstanding performance and scored 2 beautiful goals and more importantly, he fought the whole game with a very physical backline. Josh’s 3rd goal included an amazing build-up from the back, a beautiful cross from Callum, and powerful Josh header. The team have improved on movements without the ball and solid build-up. However, there is still room for improvement in doing the right double movements in order to find the spaces and create options. Looking forward to working on backline shifting, set pieces against us and double movements.
Felix was consistent from the start to the end of the game. He played out of regular position but managed to do really well in both attack and defence. Tom’s saves to keep us in the game, especially in the first half, was great to see. Our first 15-20 minutes in the second half were great as we managed to equalize and create enough chances. We dominated but unfortunately opposition managed to score from a set piece. We tried to do some shadow activities last Wednesday at training to improve our build up and how we set up from a goal kick. More details are needed during our sessions to get the players and team in the next level. We must change the mentality as we do not compete physically. We have good players with quality on the ball, but we need to grow and compete for the first and second ball.
Oscar bossed the midfield and created lots of our chances. He was the link between our defenders and attackers. He scored 3 goals and assisted 2. Saul’s first goal was key as we managed to break the mass defending line after 10 minutes in the game. Tom had a great save and denied the opposition from getting back in the game when the score line was 2-0. During Wednesday’s session we practiced the formation and movements of players on and off the ball. It was really pleasing to see that during the game as well. We will be keeping the same intensity in our sessions. Competition keeps becoming bigger and bigger between players for a spot in our match squad!
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