Analysis of friendly match on 20 September'09

20 September 2009

Social Frees 5-2 Dalat

It was a game which started with a slim 1-0 first half in favour Social Frees (captained by Lee Eu Beng). However, the second half was an explosive and exciting period with half-a-dozen goals scored. Everything favoured the Social Frees, the fact that the team was 26 years old, playing on its own home turf and most importantly fielding nearly 2 teams as it had a complement of 20 players. Dalat played well considering it had for a long time not played competitively on a grass turf (more of a futsal team). The Social Frees strategy was straightforward, when playing a team more attuned to the short pass system of the futsal game, play long passes and utilise the full length and width of the field. As futsal teams are quite good at proximity defending, the best scoring option was to place "rocket launchers or mortars" at the rim of the penalty box about 10 m away from the goal posts and 4 goals were scored from that distance. This distance is the traditional weak point of most futsal teams attempting to play on the grass court. The Dalat team will be a force to be reckoned with in the future as it continues to build its experience on the grass court. It has players who were better built whom I believe some to be capable of faster sprints but had yet to be able to master the long overhead pass presumably because such a pass is absent from a futsal game. The game was a "social" success as both teams started and ended the match on very friendly terms. Other than unintentional fouls, there were no other serious incidents occurring during the game.