Mass Young Gunners - Commanders vs. New England Surf

McGrath Fields - Newton, Ma

Sunday, September 19, 2021

First Official Game

The Gunners had their first official outdoor game with a mixture of new players and those that played indoor soccer. As a whole, this group has had little time to work together so the main priority going into this game was to tackle with form, using dribbling moves to take on defenders and to have fun! The boys started off strong and were aggressive with their attack as a unit. Cal Darlington, Jack McSweeney and Kai Hepler led the attack with relentless energy up front. Defensively there were several attempts to win the ball by swinging legs or sticking out their foot, which led to the opponent winning the challenge and gave them strong chances on our keeper. Tyler Rice made a few key saves, but let an easy one in. The half ended 2-0 with the Surfs leading. 

Half-Time Adjustments

This being the first time playing on a large field, the sun shining down on them, the energy levels were starting to run low with many players running all over the field. With time, they will learn how to conserve energy to last the entire game by making appropriate runs with and without the ball. The half-time talk was about keeping up the effort, but also to stay focused on the game when they didn't have the ball by moving to open space. They continued to play hard and created multiple opportunities to score, but fatigue seemed to be a factor in the end. The final score of the game was 7-0.

Players of the Match

Two players stood out during the game. Braydon Tata was relentless on the attack throughout the game, taking on defenders with control, aggressively winning challenges up top and in the midfield which led to much of the offensive attack for the Gunners. Jack McDonald had a strong game, but three plays stand out. Twice, Jack was near the opponents keeper and sprinted the full length of the field in order to recover back to his position and tracked down the player with the ball. The other moment was when he had two players surrounding him and he used his body to shield the ball. He then made a pass backwards to his teammate to keep possession, although the ball went out of bounds, the intelligent soccer decision was very impressive!