 Photographs from today are in the Werder Weekly slide show |
Date
July 11, 2008
Participants
Dominic Hutchinson, Simon Hutchinson, Munir Merchant, Jason Mitchell, Wayne Smith
Report
We played eight games tonight, and it was a low scoring night as there were only two games were more than two goals were scored.
Dominic Hutchinson opened the evening beating Munir Merchant with a well taken second half penalty. In the first half both players pushed the ball into their opponent’s half, but could not get into a decent shooting position. Dominic came the closest to scoring with a long flick, from his defensive line, to strike the ball that was about an inch over the shooting line. The shot took Merchant by surprise, and he managed to grab his goalkeeper and push the ball away before it crept into the goal. In the second half both players had more opportunities to score. Dominic shot struck Munir’s goalkeeper in the head. At the other end Munir had three shots, one struck the post and the other two were just wide of the goal post. Midway through the half Munir missed his flick and struck the ball with his finger in the penalty area, this handball gave Dominic a penalty. Dominic drove the penalty, at the height of the goalkeeper’s head, into the right side of the goal. Merchant pressed forward more but was frustrated by Dominic’s massed defense. Dominic was unable to exploit his breaks from defense as his unpolished figures kept stopping short at the crucial moment just outside his opponent’s shooting area.
Jason Mitchell kept Wayne Smith at bay before conceding a goal in the fifth minute of the first half. It was not the normal dominant performance by Smith as he only had a handful of shots in the remaining ten minutes, all of which were wide of the goal. At the other end Mitchell did have one shot that just was wide of the right post. Wayne doubled his lead in the fifth minute of the second half, and scored a third goal just a couple of minutes later.
Simon Hutchinson was on the attack for most of the game against Jason Mitchell. Just in the first half he forced Mitchell to make three saves, struck the post once, and shot wide of the goal four times. It was more of the same in the second half as Simon took nine shots and Jason pulled off a string of saves to deny him a goal. When it looked like the game was going to end goalless Simon’s pressure paid off with just one and half minutes left. His shot from the right side of the penalty area slowly rolled into Mitchell’s goal at the far post. For the remaining minute Jason pushed six figures forward but was unable to penetrate Simon’s eight strong defense to get the ball into the shooting zone.
Munir Merchant had possession for about 20 minutes (two thirds) of his game against Wayne Smith. His touch was described as “really good” by his opponent as he continually frustrated Smith with his blocking flicks and slow build up from defense to attack. Merchant best opportunity to score came from a shot that deflect off a defender and went wide of the post by half an inch. Wayne had four shots on goal. One struck the foot of the goal post, Munir saved two, and in the sixth minute of the second half Smith scored with a deflected chip shot over the goalkeeper.
There was plenty of drama in the game between Dominic Hutchinson and Jason Mitchell in a game that Mitchell described as “end to end stuff”. Dominic conceded a penalty in the first half, when he saved a shot with his goalkeeper, the ball went sideways and struck his hand in the penalty area. Mitchell went for power rather than position and blasted the ball straight down the middle, Dominic kept his goalkeeper in the center of the goal and saved the shot. Midway through the second half Dominic stranded his goalkeeper, Jason took two slow touch ups and made a gentle shot to score. After the goal Mitchell played as slow as he could and defended in numbers as he sought to defend his lead and play out the clock. Dominic did have the ball in his opponent’s half was unable to penetrate the defensive line.
Wayne Smith scored on his first attack, just one and half minutes into the game with Simon Hutchinson. From then on both players missed the ball too many times and shared possession pretty evenly. In the eleventh minute Simon equalized with a chip shot that went into the goal at the near post. For the remainder of the first half Wayne continuously attacked striking the post “numerous times”, and Simon pulled off a string of saves to keep the score even at half time. Smith had the majority of possession in the second half, but did not dominate the way he had at the end of the first half. He became frustrated as the half wore on as he struggled to shoot straight, struck the goal posts several times, and Simon hung on playing a strong defense and making critical saves with his goalkeeper. It was not all one way as Simon did get the ball close to Wayne’s shooting line four or five times, but either came up short with the touch up flick or could not find a way through his opponent’s defense.
Simon Hutchinson attacked straight from the kick off pressuring Munir Merchant’s defense, forcing his opponent to make several saves. In the fourth minute the pressure paid off and Simon scored with a shot that went into right side of the goal. After the goal Simon’s offense tended to lose focus and as the game wore on Merchant began to have more opportunities to build attacks. Early in the second half Munir equalized with a “marvelous” rolling shot. He pushed the ball into Simon’s shooting zone and as it reached the edge of the penalty area struck it with a figure flicked from outside the zone. The shot was taken so quickly that Simon did not have time to react with his goalkeeper. The goal rekindled Simon’s offense, forcing his opponent to make a number of “spectacular” saves. The few times Merchant did attack Simon’s defense forced his figures wide limiting the shots’ effectiveness. Despite this Simon did have to make two saves.
As Dominic Hutchinson had decided he had played enough games tonight it left Jason Mitchell to face Wayne Smith for the second time. It was all one way until Smith scored his third goal. After that Mitchell started to attack Smith’s defense. In a four minute period he managed to force Wayne to make two saves, winning throw ins on both occasions which allowed him to attack again. Alas, Jason’s inability to chip the ball made it easy for Smith. All he had to do was hold his goalkeeper horizontally to block Mitchell’s shots.
Results
| Dominic Hutchinson | 1 | v | 0 | Munir Merchant |
| Wayne Smith | 3 | v | 0 | Jason Mitchell |
| Simon Hutchinson | 1 | v | 0 | Jason Mitchell |
| Wayne Smith | 1 | v | 0 | Munir Merchant |
| Jason Mitchell | 1 | v | 0 | Dominic Hutchinson |
| Simon Hutchinson | 1 | v | 1 | Wayne Smith |
| Simon Hutchinson | 1 | v | 1 | Munir Merchant |
| Wayne Smith | 3 | v | 0 | Jason Mitchell |