Dragon
Open 1:4 Real San Luis
---Written By Huan Li
Team,
This Sunday, we will play against Irving Arsenal
at 3 PM in Cotton Park, Irving. Please arrive at 2:30
PM and bring both red and white jerseys with you. Chen
Jun is out of town again. If anyone else can not make
it, please let me know in advance. However, I really
hope the rest of us can make the game as everything is
still under our control and we should not give it up
easily.
The driving direction is as follows:
- get on I635 west
- pass I35(or turn on I635 west if you come south
bound I35)
- take State HWY 161 south(toll road) or MACARTHUR
BLVD (HWY 161's service road)
- take exit on Wallnut Hill Ln
- turn left(EAST) on Wallnut Hill
- turn right(SOUTH) on Story Road
- about 0.3 mile CottonWood Creek Park will appear
at right hand side
The map of the field can be found in the following
link:
http://www.ci.irving.tx.us
For people leaving from plano, We may have a group
departure in MeiXin's parking lot at 1:50 PM. Please
let me know if you want to do so.
We lost our game last weekend with 1:5. However, the
game did not look as awkward as the score does at all.
We actually played pretty well on the offense side and
got a lot of chances shooting for goal. Like Zhai Peng
said, it was more like a practice session in a smaller
field. The only problem is that we adopted wrong
tactics against a team with stronger offense and a lot
of young legs. After made a couple of good attacks, we
forgot we are the underdog. The defense lineup pushed
up across 30 yard line too often and it become the
flat-4 many times. This provided the opponent a lot of
chance to exploit the wide open space behind us. They
did not run very fast, but they did excellent job on
keeping the ball moving fast and smoothly. When they
initiated an attack, they normally had more than 6
players across our 40 yard line with multiple players
running into open space. If we had more players back
into our 30-40 yard line, it would effectively limit
their space and speed. If they can not penetrate our
defense easily, how much demage can they do to us
without the advantage on the airy ball and great long
shooting skill? In the same time, we would have more
chances to count-attack, as our attack style normally
requires 2-4 players and their defense is not very
strong at all. I would have to admit the performance
of our defense was the worst since this season, as we
never allowed more than 1 or 2 1-on-1 chances per game
but allowed it happen about 4 times in this game. I
took the major responsibility as I did not do my job
well. I knew my game was ruined while I had to use one
eye's vision for most of the game after the contact
len magically messed up in my right eye.
The game was over. I hope every of us can start to
focus on the next game. Some of us have already
discussed our current playoff status. Please allow me
to summarize as follows:
1. The game is canceled: This is the easiest option
for us to get into the playoff. However, it seems the
weather may not cooperate based on current forcast.
2. Rusty Nuts beats Inter-Peru with 1 or 2 goals: We
need to make sure that we do not lose the game with
more than 7 goal differential.
3. Inter-Peru ties its game: We need to make sure that
we do not lose the game with more than 2 goal
differential.
4. Inter-Peru wins its game: We need to make sure to
win our game.
With these said, our first priority in next game is to
have solid defense in order to maximize our chance
into the playoff. No matter what happens, we do not
want to see any of us to give up easily before the
game is over. Irving Arsenal is a strong team with
excellent long shooting skill. But they are not very
tall and their passing is not as smooth as the other
two top teams. Our defense needs to do the same thing
as we did in our first game with them: play physcially
and keep it simple. We should always keep one or two
players in front of our penalty box and try our best
to put ourshelves in between the opponent player and
our goal all the time, since we can not afford to give
them enough time and space to take a shot. We also
need to have one defender to run to our goalie to
avoid their follow-up to a possible rebound after they
made a long shot. Since they are quite skillful, all
defenders and midfielders should avoid to jump in
while the ball is fully controlled under their feet.
The first objective is to slow them down and push them
to pass back. However, when there are any loose balls,
act physically to clean it out. I do not think they
dare to cut in toward your kicking foot. Another thing
we should avoid is dribbling under pressure within our
30 yard line, especially in front of our penalty box.
Here I proposed to play with the 4-5-1 format. We need
to have two HouYiou with at least one engaged in
defense all the time. Most of our attacks should be
initiated from either side of the midfield as quick as
possible. Li Wei can play as the shadow killer behind
ZhiGao. If you have other suggestions, please discuss
with us before the game. I understand that playing
counter-attack does not give us a better feeling than
playing team offense. However, when we are the
underdog, we need to adopt the right tactics and the
game result is more important than the game process at
this time.
Have a good rest on Saturday and lets get ready for a
great game.