 Photographs from today are in the Werder Weekly slide show |
Date
Wednesday August 13, 2008
Participants
Simon Hutchinson, Jason Mitchell, Wayne Smith
Report
Wayne Smith and Jason Mitchell joined Simon Hutchinson for the first of two Werder Weeklies held this week at his home in Simi Valley. As there were only three players all of the games were played on the Drey.
The evening opened with Jason and Simon playing out a goalless draw. Simon had most of the possession and shots on goal. He struck Jason’s goal posts and crossbar six times, three times in each half, and Jason’s goalkeeper pulled off a numerous of saves. At the other end of the pitch Simon had to make a spectacular save in the second half. Jason played the ball over the shooting line and struck the rolling ball goal ward. Simon punched the shot away with his goalkeeper to stop his opponent from taking the lead against the run of play.
“I was hanging on for dear life,” was how Jason described the first half as Wayne besieged his goal. One shot struck Jason’s goalpost, two shots deflected off defenders onto the crossbar, and he made two saves with his goalkeeper. The first half ended without score. Two and half minutes into the second half Wayne persistence was reward with a goal scored from a shot from the left side of the “D”. After the goal Jason started to push forward into his opponents half. In the fifth minute he equalized with a shot that went under Wayne’s goalkeeper. Both players described the remainder of the game as “back and forth” as both players had periods of possession, and there were only a few shots on goal. Wayne came closest to scoring a winner, but his shot from the right was saved by Jason’s goalkeeper. “The second half was the best I have played,” Jason said after the game grinning from ear to ear.
Simon feared he would be playing Wayne on the “rebound” after the draw. He was proved right. While the amount of possession was pretty even Wayne scored four goals, and Simon struggled to get into positions to take a decent shot on goal. The first goal came with just two minutes in the first half. The second was scored in the fourth minute of the second half. Wayne described the third goal, scored in the ninth minute, as “spectacular”. It was a chip shot from inside the penalty area that went over Simon’s goalkeeper. The last goal came with just five seconds left and was struck so hard it came out of the back of the goal.
What a difference the second game between Jason and Simon was when compared to the first. Simon was on the attack for most of the first half, scoring goals in the fifth, seventh, and ninth minutes. Jason pulled off a string of saves to stop his opponent from scoring more. In the second half Simon seemed to “take his foot off the gas”, which allowed Jason to come into the game. But he could not convert his possession into shots on goal as Simon’s defense either kept him out of the shooting zone or forced him wide enough that he could not get a decent angle for a shot. In the tenth minute Simon scored his fourth goal. “I imagined Jason’s team was Aston Villa rather than West Ham,” was how Simon, playing with his Birmingham City team, described what had made the difference in the way he had played in this game.
The rematch of Simon versus Wayne started with Wayne having all of the possession, and he scored in the third minute. But this game was not to be repeat of the earlier encounter. Simon improved his defensive play and work hard to retain possession for periods of time, keeping the ball for the last three minutes of the game denying Wayne the opportunity to pass the ball to unmarked figure on Simon’s shooting line. In the second half possession was about 50/50, with most of the action in Simon’s half of the pitch. In the ninth minute Wayne doubled his lead with a “miss hit” shot that was meant to go low, but it flew over Simon’s goalkeeper and into the goal. In the eleventh minute Simon scored, only to have it disallowed for offside. With just three seconds remaining Simon came close again when his shot from the right struck Wayne’s crossbar.
Results
| Simon Hutchinson | 0 | v | 0 | Jason Mitchell |
| Jason Mitchell | 1 | v | 1 | Wayne Smith |
| Wayne Smith | 4 | v | 0 | Simon Hutchinson |
| Simon Hutchinson | 4 | v | 0 | Jason Mitchell |
| Wayne Smith | 2 | v | 0 | Simon Hutchinson |