MATCH REPORT VALLEY D VS. NBC B

If you are in one of those TL/DR moods but want an accurate summary of Sunday’s game, the picture pretty much sums up how awesome our defence were.

But for those who fancy another thrilling adventure with Damage, here we go!

Undeterred by the rising heat and humidity, Damage rocked up again in force at HV2 to play against NBC. Prematch intelligence from our sadly injured but resident German spy master Munzy informs us that NBC has managed to stay second in our league largely due to two key play makers on their team (42 and 43) and that if Damage did not watch out for them we might find ourselves in a bit of a sticky situation.

With this in mind, contrary to prematch instructions in previous weeks, Coach Kels’ brief to Damage was to actually give NBC their 25 and to focus on intercepting the balls to their key play makers. On the attack, rather than trying to string carefully weighted passes into the D all the time Damage should not be shy to ping the ball in hard and trust that our strikers will make necessary traps and deflections on goal.

First Quarter

The first quarter saw a slow start from both Damage and NBC. Not sure if it’s the humidity related gout which some of us were feeling (not a swipe at the old, as I certainly felt it myself orz) or the scorching heat, both sides started super passively in the first 5 minutes of the game. This passivity from Damage allowed NBC to hit a number of through passes through our center mid but fortunately every time their play makers collected the ball, they were quickly dispossessed by either Gareth or
George at the mid or by Vulture, Wongy, and Guy at the back.

As the first quarter went on and Damage started to get into gear, it became apparent that NBC was one of those teams that played with one half sitting behind their 25 while the other half would only roam between the half way line and our goal. This meant that there was actually tons of time / space once the ball was carried across our half but before their 25.

Armed with this knowledge our midfield began holding and distributing the ball more calmly in NBC’s half with both Ced and Dangerous Dave doing well in switching our play instead of trying to force the ball through NBC’s skilled trappers.

Our break finally came when Mudge managed to generate a freehit outside NBC’s D which Gareth immediately picked up and passed back to Vulture. A clean trap and crack from Vulture saw the ball pinging to Mudge who was already waiting just in front of NBC’s p spot for a crisp deflection into NBC’s goal.

For the first time in foreverrrrrr, Damage found itself in the lead!

Second Quarter

Like Damage in previous games, our goal against NBC seemed to have woken them up (especially their right back and the two play makers).

At the back, rather than attempting to hit through our screen, NBC began switching up their escapes with overhead flicks - most of which were surprisingly effective despite the efforts from G (freshly back from penny’s bay) and Suhail to put the flicker under pressure and Gareth (in the mid) and Wongy (at back) to intercept pass.

In the middle, NBC’s play makers were also beginning to drift backwards to better link up their play with the back, whilst up front NBC kept their strategy of keeping a player constantly camped in our D.

Despite this change in strategy, our backs (led by the stellar Belgian Guy) managed to weather attack after attack from NBC - including at one point a string of 5 PCs in quick succession. Special shout goes to Suhail who always ran back to support our defence before immediately shooting forwards to attack once we had regained possession.

Q2 ended with Damage still being 1-0 up.

Third Quarter

As fatigued set in, Damage getting visibly taxed by the gruelling heat, humidity, and off calls from the umpire (although on balance I think they were fairer than what we had usually come to expect). Rather than playing the ball into space and swinging the ball around back (which we had done so well in Q1) we reverted to trying to pass through NBC players - a lot of which which were comfortably intercepted by NBC.

There was however moments of great counter attacks from G, Dan, Mudge, Dave. and Suhail including one amazing reverse stick pass from Dan to Mudge who was one on one with the keeper but just missing the connection by a whisker.

NBCs lucky break came eventually at the second half of Q3 when they dispossessed us outside their D and strung a 25 yard pass to their playmaker who beat Coco to fire a shot on goal on top of our D. Unfortunately for us, despite Belgian G getting a strong glove to the ball, the ball still managed to trickle into the bottom corner of Damages goal. So apparently the intelligence was correct and Coco should have given the striker a proper Munzy treatment but then again Munzy injured / Coco not!

Q3 ended at 1-1

Fourth Quarter

By the time we entered into Q4 we had pretty much grounded into a war of attrition with NBC. Despite the best efforts from our mids and forwards Damage was unable to wear down the NBC’s stubborn defence - whereas our defence did equally well in weathering the barrage of attacks from NBC.

“Highlight” of Q4 was undoubtedly Mikey Chan’s goal line “dispossession” of NBC’s striker that initially resulted in a p flick call against us. Fortunately for Damage, sometimes questionable calls can go our way too (or maybe our post match beer bribes to the umpires have finally paid off?) and a PC was awarded in lieu of a flick after the umpires conferred.

Q4 eventually came to a tiring end and Damage recorded its first draw in 2021.

Key Takeaways

Once again I thought we did really well adapting to a team that played completely differently than our previous opponents. We should definitely look into pinging more hard balls into the space in the D for deflections (which was how our goal was generated) and make sure we keep our switching play even when we are fatigued.

All in all however this was v good hockey against a pretty strong side and once again another stellar game for Belgian Guy!
Yet Wongy was earning the MVP medal this week - very very well deserved though!!!!

No game this Sunday but please try not to
go too ape. We still have huge games ahead!

Go Damage

- written by Coco -