19 MARCH – 26 MARCH
girls ACADEMY
BFA U14 GIRLS // COACH DWIGHT // 8 – 1
FAVOURITE MOMENT: Performance of the season! Despite conceding in the 1st minute, the girls were brilliant throughout the match. Everything we’ve worked on this season – core moves, pressing from the front, building the attack, was on display in full effect, leading to an utterly dominant display of football.
PLAYER OF THE MATCH: Huge shoutout to Muzique & Esther, both playing their best games this season, but player of the match has to go Alexia who scored four well taken goals and executed our pressing from the front exactly as we’d practice during the week, which helped us run riot on the night.
THIS WEEK’S LEARNING: The only improvement I can add is communicating throughout the game, giving instructions to teammates and praising the positive actions we do to keep team morale high.
BFA U14 BLACK // COACH DWIGHT // 0 – 8
FAVOURITE MOMENT: A tough day on the pitch and not our greatest performance, but huge credit to some of our players for battling right until the final whistle despite the scoreline.
PLAYER OF THE MATCH: Player of the match was Lilia for her efforts in goal as well as her attitude on the pitch when she came out and played. Very commendable performance despite the scoreline being completely against us.
THIS WEEK’S LEARNING: The effort and intensity at training during the week was below our usual standards, we weren’t ready physically or mentally for the match. We must treat training as our preparation for matches, if we fail to prepare then prepare to fail. I have no doubt the girls will rectify this going forward!
BFA U14 GOLD // COACH DWIGHT // 0 – 2
FAVOURITE MOMENT: We tried a different approach, playing a mid block and not pressing from goal kicks, allowing them to build up into our compact defensive shape in the middle. Despite working on high pressing in recent weeks, the girls did well to adapt on the day, somewhat taming a really strong opponent.
PLAYER OF THE MATCH: Alexia has really taken on board the learning from recent training weeks in training and it really shows with her effectiveness in games. Her leading of the press results in many turnovers higher up the pitch and more scoring chances for us, which she just wasn’t fortunate enough to convert on the day.
THIS WEEK’S LEARNING: It’s important to stay positive to each other when things go wrong. Encourage each other to keep trying and try to get the best out of one another for the benefit of the team, and don’t point fingers when things go wrong. Also we must continue giving all our efforts whether playing well or not.
BFA U14 GOLD // COACH DWIGHT // 2 – 1
FAVOURITE MOMENT: An unusual game which started 7v7 and finished 9v9 with the referee playing for them. Literally. PSA came with 6 players to our 9, so we gave them one of our strongest players in each half until a couple more arrived in the second half. Two brilliant finishes from Alexia and Janet sealed our victory
PLAYER OF THE MATCH: Even with a thunderbolt from Janet and a well placed side-foot finish into the side netting from Alexia, just liked we’d practiced 3 days prior, Eleanor was our player of the match. Her consistent effort throughout the match saw a composed and confident performance. Going up against the better attackers on their team, she rarely put a foot wrong all game.
THIS WEEK’S LEARNING: Despite being given the win from the start, I would’ve liked us to play with the same intensity and desire as if it mattered throughout the game, and not just when it mattered most, at 0-0 and 1-1, although the ref being on the pitch and in defence didn’t exactly help with the realism of the game.
BFA U16 BLACK // COACH IGNACIO // 1 – 7
FAVOURITE MOMENT: Goal-saving tackle by Nina, who timed the challenge to perfection.
PLAYER OF THE MATCH: Shola for her leadership even when we’re down on the scoreline.
THIS WEEK’S LEARNING: Not giving up even when we’re losing.
BOYS ACADEMY
BFA U15 GOLD // COACH BIRAJ AND JAMES // 3 – 1
FAVOURITE MOMENT: Our Defensive performance. Mature, composed and intelligent in all the moments the opposition looked to counter. Handled everything well in our best performance of the season.
PLAYER OF THE MATCH: Hard to pick as the entire defense was excellent, But Louis dropped a masterclass in how to play as a central defender! Handled one of the best attackers in the league excellently
THIS WEEK’S LEARNING:Look to build consistency with this kind of performance
BFA U9 DEV // COACH ANTONIO // 5 – 4
FAVOURITE MOMENT:The comeback in the second half! From 4 – 0 to 5 – 4!
PLAYER OF THE MATCH: Outstanding team performance!
THIS WEEK’S LEARNING: Use the dribbling to create space, not only to win a 1 v 1.
BFA U12 GOLD BOYS // COACH MILO // 0 – 1
FAVOURITE MOMENT: Really liked to see us build and be positive with the ball in the first half. Some really good moments of showing patience to go sideways, not always going into their press. The challenge would be to see if we we can keep on doing this, we ready and willing to make mistakes but learn from them.
PLAYER OF THE MATCH: Shoutouts to Deniro, who was characteristically tigerish up top, and Joao, who excelled on his return to the side, but MOTM will go to Flavio. Technically assured and composed, assertive and attentive defensively. Great signs. Well in mate.
THIS WEEK’S LEARNING: Being cuter from corners. Get the big lad, barge and pull him a little bit to put him off his stride. But generally just keep on doing doing what we’re doing and doing it more with more aggression and being more resolute.
BFA U11 GOLD // COACH JEROME // 9 – 1
FAVOURITE MOMENT: There was a moment in the game where we recycled it back to Tommy and played through the thirds whilst showcasing the core moves we’ve been learning and almost scoring at the end of the attack, would have been the perfect goal but great to see learnings being applied during matches.
PLAYER OF THE MATCH: Jacob. Was a creative genius throughout the game, got 4 assists and caused problems throughout whilst being vocal and motivating his teammates.
THIS WEEK’S LEARNING: Maintaining our professionalism throughout the game and not getting carried away because of the scoreline, keeping our shape and continuing to play the way we want to.
BFA U14 DEV // COACH IGNACIO // 16 – 0
FAVOURITE MOMENT: Solo goal from Adam, who received the ball from the halfway line and dribbled through everyone in a Neymar-esque fashion.
PLAYER OF THE MATCH: Daniel for scoring 5 goals.
THIS WEEK’S LEARNING: Moving the ball at a higher tempo and putting away more of our chances.
BFA U14 DEV // COACH SAMUEL // 3 – 1
FAVOURITE MOMENT: Seeing the team press hard to win the ball back constantly in the first half.
PLAYER OF THE MATCH: Nathan – amazing goal and even better assist 🙂
THIS WEEK’S LEARNING: We can improve keeping the ball better, we need to work on our angles and distances in relation to the ball for this to happen
BFA U11 GOLD // COACH JEROME // 5 – 2
FAVOURITE MOMENT: The first 10 minutes of the game where we went 5 against 7 because a couple players were running late. The boys didn’t complain, just worked their socks off and worked together to keep the team in the game and only went 1-0 down during that period.
PLAYER OF THE MATCH: Every single player on the pitch. It was an incredible team performance and I’m proud of all of the players. Amazing performance
THIS WEEK’S LEARNING: Communication – being more vocal with eachother throughout. Especially in a situation where we are down 2 players, communication is key in making sure the team is together.
BFA U12 BOYS GOLD // COACH MILO // 5 – 1
FAVOURITE MOMENT: Loved seeing our wingers high and wide creating 3v2 opportunities v their back-line. Had loads of success and were able to release our really dangerous wide players.
PLAYER OF THE MATCH: Despite being prime candidate for Mr. Too-Many-Touches, the quality of this boy is frightening. Terrific performance with some fantastic individual moments.
THIS WEEK’S LEARNING: Attacking faster. We allow defences to get back into shape by taking too many touches & being too slow. Consider when it’s best to be slow v fast; have a deliberate approach.
BFA U14 // COACH MILO // 4 – 6
FAVOURITE MOMENT: Boys performance was really good for the majority of the game. Fought for every single ball and show resilience to win the game. Unfortunately we didn’t make it.
PLAYER OF THE MATCH: Archie – really good in possession of the ball with correct passes and decisions all over the pitch. I was really impressed as well from his work rate!
THIS WEEK’S LEARNING: We have to improve how to manage games when things don’t go out way. We lost our concentration for 5 minutes and we conceded 3 goals from our own mistakes.
BFA GOLD // COACH MILO // 4 – 6
FAVOURITE MOMENT: Boys understood and executed the whole game plan really well for the whole game. Despite people being away due to illness or injury we competed to a really good standard.
PLAYER OF THE MATCH: Alexander – Played really well especially on the defensive part and tried many times to attack as well!
THIS WEEK’S LEARNING: Same thing as Fridays game. We lost our concentration when we were on top form. We ended up conceding 2 goals in 8 minutes.
KEEP AT IT BLOOMS!