|
|
Unacceptable |
Knights of Cydonia FC were well and truly taken to the cleaners this week by old rivals Real Peeps. Not because our tactics were terrible, we had a pretty decent set of tactics though there was obviously some room for imporvement. No, it was because the team completely and utterly failed to perform to any reasonable capacity. As a result, in a dominant performance we were flattened, rolled and tossed aside.
This isn't the first time this team's performance has been found wanting. Indeed, multiple times last season the performance fell well short of what was expected to embarassing levels at times like losing to rebuilding Jesus and his Pandas as well as the 5-0 home trouncing by Square Hammer. In a really competitive division underperformance cannot be legistlated for but it perhaps shows a sign on how crucial injuries and suspensions are at this level.
Knights and Real Peeps have played each other many times. The two sides have been drawn in the same division 4 times with this particular season being the fourth while we also contested the Season 41 cup final against them which went down to penalties. So we knew it was going to be a tricky affair especially since we have never managed to beat Real Peeps at Corneria. In fact, we have lost every single game there.
The first away game there was an epic 4-3 defeat where Declan Frampton and Arrigo Galante gave Real Peeps a 2-0 lead before 18 year old Celso Mota scored a hattrick to turn it around and make it 3-2. However Fabian Pære and Lambert McAnespie then scored goals to win the game for the home side.
The second away game saw us lose 3-1 but it wasn't without creating a bunch of chances. Arnold Smith gave Real Peeps the lead before Celso Mota equalised. Jeremie Benham (a substitute) and another Smith goal wound up sealing the game. Knights however managed to create 7 chances during the game but lacked the quality needed to get more than one goal.
The third was a 4-0 defeat but this time we did have the excuse that we were in the midst of a full scale rebuild of the side. Two Raphael Gore free kicks either side of Peeps keeper Tudoran getting injured The scoreline escalated quickly in the end with Dwayne Bignell making it 3-0 before Knights defender Cuthbert Sharrock turned into his own net. For the first time we hadn't created any chances.
So for visit number 4 Knights were without Roberto Mora for this fixture and boy we really missed him. Our midfield wasn't too badly affected as we had 23/10 Barry Gifford to come in and be a regular starter but it did mean that without Mora we had a weaker midfield now than Real Peeps. Somehow we only did half a job in adapting to that but the performances of the entire team certainly exaggerated that difference.. We failed to create a single chance against a defence who has started the season in terrific form, with their goalkeeper putting in consecutive 22 bar performances. We did wind up injuring their star midfielder Hubert Parsons for which Barry Gifford was given a yellow card but his replacement Quigley Bond wound up scoring the second goal with Wade O'Neill scoring the first.
So yeah, that went very badly. We don't even have the rebuilding excuse any more as we are managing essentially the finished article, give or take a few more change reports to get Pauwe and Gifford up more skill. We are competing in a very difficult division so this defeat does not help our efforts. We cannot afford any more lapses like that. No doubt we are going to lose more games this season which is why we need to take points whenever possible.
Our next game was against Daspins Band of legends, whose manager seems to be positioning them to be the next Angry Birds by accumulating a vast amount of wealth over the seasons before starting to build the team. Patience is certainly a major virtue over there and he will probably build a far better team than we have managed at Knights. For now though it was a 5-1 rout though we did concede our only chance.
Next up is the team that has made what would normally be a major competitive division promotion aspirations a lot more awkward as we are up against Mudchute Packers, a far stronger team than us managed by a manager who was in the Ultimate League title race last season. We have already played Lplate twice before too and didn't do particularly well. The first game was a 0-0 draw, we could only create 3 chances and didn't score any of them. In the away game it was a 1-1 draw. For the record, Lplate was rebuilding at the time. The manager said after that second game "I dread to think how much I would struggle against you with a full strength side"
He is about to find out exactly how much!
|
|
|
|