Match Report Valley D vs. Gojra A

Yesterday was the first occasion in a long time when Damage was unable to field something close to a full team with a number of new / veteran players in our squad being incapacitated from the hockey pitch.

First, a huge thanks to everyone for rocking up at the pitch on time which meant that we were all able to get a “light” warm up from Mikey Chan and for us to get into a possession game / few triangle drills before push back.

Before the game coach Howard’s brief to Damage was clear. Push the opponents to the side, secure the middle, and cover the hotline.

First Quarter
As soon as the whistle started, Damage were caught by surprise by Gojra’s speed and tactic of overloading the attack. This, coupled with a few atrocious decision making by us / calls from the umpire, soon meant that we were 2-0 down before the end of the first quarter.

True to Damage’s spirit of “always arriving late”, we did pick up our game near the end of the first quarter with Suhail and Dave responding with a deflection that was narrowly blocked by the edge of the goal post.
But that said, the first quarter was admittedly not the finest hockey Damage has played in a long time and we were all left frustrated by our performance.

During the first quarter intermission, Howard quickly made some adjustments to the backline and midfield of Damage and re-emphasised the need for us to mark the hotline to stop Gojra’s “pinger” from pinging the ball across our midfield across two layers of our players.

Second Quarter
Second quarter started amidst some confusion between Wongy (who was kindly waiting for Gojra’s team to set up before starting the game) and all 15 of Gojra’s players who took Wongy up on his offer and started on the pitch for a bit of 15 v 11 hockey. It was only upon the umpire realising that something was off did he proceed to physically count the sea of green players by hand and ordering a restart of the second quarter - no cards, no warning, just a redo.

While following Howard’s team first quarter team talk Damage did step up our shape considerably - with Andre providing much needed mobile cover in the mid-field and Vulture directing a better placement of our screens from the back, another momentary lapse of concentration lead to Gojra’s third goal which resulted from a skilful deflection off a “ping shot” - the very thing coach Howard warned us to defend against.

Now, at this point, any other team may be left feeling dejected and wanting the game to be over soon, but this is Damage.
If there is one defining character of Damage is that we always play the game until the final whistle.

Almost immediately after Gjora scored the third goal, we upped our tempo and changed our play to a full court press. From the back, Munz, Vulture, Mikey and Guy were solid in distributing the balls up the right flank to Wongy, Andre, and Suhail, and from the left flank George and Dave were constantly making incisive runs into their D and pressing their midfielders to making forced errors.

Our first goal came after a flurry of action from the right side from Suhail which ended with Dave “calmly” slotting the ball past the keeper from ¾ out in the D.
Meanwhile, Gjora did not take Damage’s spirited comeback lightly either and responded by throwing yet more players up into Damage’s D. Following (another) atrocious call from the umpire, Gjora were awarded a very soft short corner which, despite Belgian Guy’s best efforts, was converted by Gjora.

Damage was 1-4 going into half time.

Second Half
I have collapsed the 3rd and 4th quarter report into one section as from my perspective Damage’s performance during the entire second half was one continuous display of true grit and tenacity (and also cause I was so exhausted that I cant really remember a lot of the finer details).

How Damage played during the second half was some of the best hockey I have seen us play for a very long time.

From the back, our back four were firm in defense and at the same time composed, calm, and smart in our outlet.
Our midfielders held their ground and started intercepting those important cross pitch passes and overhead flicks from Gjora’s pingers.
Up front, our strikers simply did not stop in chasing down every opportunity and putting their defense under pressure. Special mention at this point goes to G and George who always ran back to assist the defense and did well to generate forced errors / turnovers from Gjora.
Last but not least, our solid keeper Belgian Guy must have saved over 8 clear shots on goal in addition to a handful of short corner attempts - while at the same time keeping his cool at the umpire who did everything he could to throw the game Gjora’s way.

This increase in intensity coupled with Gjora’s own defense becoming fatigued meant that Damage was able to secure a lot more opportunities in their D with both Wongy and George having good opportunities that were either stifled by the umpire’s refusal to give advantage or by a lucky deflection from their keeper (who also had a hell of a game).

Our second goal came after George, Wongy and Suhail crowded Gjora’s top D and after another round of the pinballing, the ball landed again in front of Dave who deflects it into Gjora’s goal.

While Damage was more or less in total control during the last 5 minutes of the game, Gjora managed to launch a quick counterattack with minutes to spare and forced another short corner in their favor.
As luck (justice?) would have it however, following a mistrap from Gjora’s castle, an incisive run from Coco, and a through pass to George, George was able to convert this quick counterattack. Damage was 3-4 down with seconds to spare.

Unfortunately however, despite Damage’s valiant efforts, there was just not enough time left for us to make our great comeback and the final whistle went off shortly after Damage’s third goal.

Final Thoughts
As I said, the second half of yesterday’s game was probably some of the best hockey I have seen Damage play in a long time. It was good not because of the technical skills that were on display but because we faced our opponents as a team and we did not let up.
Also a huge thanks to everyone for keeping their cool (0 bookings!) in spite of the umpiring and some taunts from the opponent (who all in all were quite fair throughout the game).

Training is on Thursday (if COVID has not killed it) and I hope to see everyone there.
Well done Damage. Very proud to have been the field captain for yesterday’s squad.

- Written by Coco -