Saturday April 24 the mighty Langwarrin Royals Under 8's, visited Seaford Soccer club for a real nail-biting game of football.
Due to a slightly lower turn out from Seaford and with the Royals in full attendance, we were unable to play our full side at any time of the game. But this did not stop the kids from exploding into action during the first quarter. Soon after the first whistle, the Royals were attacking the Seaford goal and in the blink of an eye, Raff put us 1 goal up. The goals did not stop there and in a power V formation, the Royals continued to plough through Seaford like a bulldozer.
The second quarter was similar to the first and despite surrendering one goal to Seaford, the Royals continued to pressure their opponents, so much so, that Seaford scored 2 own goals.
Throughout the first two quarters, our flying V formation seemed unstoppable. The kids were finding themselves positions within the formation which presented a big problem for Seaford. A special mention should be given to Porter Drago at this stage, who found his position on the left wing, consistently setting up attacks for Raff, Hudson, Aston, Kody and Liam. Porter's position on then left wing, really gave the Royals a huge advantage, as well as many opportunities for the other kids to score. Both Hudson and Raff did a great job finishing off Porter's work and grabbing us some goals.
Alas, as the Royals enjoyed these opportunities, everyone got a chance to push forward. Consequently, our defence weakened. Seaford spotted our weakness and began to exploit out lack of defence. In our defence however, Murph with his lethal left boot, removed the ball from our half several times, preventing Seaford’s attacks in their tracks as did Elijah.
Throughout the game, we saw Hayden playing a rock-solid midfield position, always running in to steal the ball from Seaford's possession.
This game was also the first ever game of soccer for one of our new team members, Ava whose natural ability really shone out. Considering she has never played before; Ava cemented her presence in the team as a critical weapon in our arsenal.
Overall, we played a great game and while I am just slightly bias, I do believe we were by far the better team and should have won.
In the end the score was a 5-5 draw.
But the season has only just began and we did enjoy a convincing win the previous week against the Bentleigh Greens.
What we have learned is that we cannot rely on our bulldozer like attack formation to win games. We also need to work on our defence to avoid a repeat of this weekend’s draw.
Well done kids, great game.