Enrico Pucci
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League One: Colchester United FC v. AFC Wimbledon
View attachment 336242We arrived in Colchester after a great three days of training. The joking was still there, but they worked harder and had fewer inappropriate moments of humor. Like when they should have been concentrating. That's all well and good, but will we rebound or is there something else that needs adjusting?
Colchester are in 15th place, lost last weekend one-nil like we did and that loss ended a winning streak. The streak was only three league matches, but it was a streak nonetheless. They play a Barcelona-style 451 and their striker and two wingers have been in fine form lately. I'm going with the same formation as I need to rest Mark Tomlinson and don't trust Steven Gregory as the defensive midfielder in a 4231.
We didn't start out very well. Daniel Lincoln couldn't hold a shot from Colchester left winger Andrea Christiano. Thankfully, Martin Riley cleared it. Matteo Nole gave the ball away on a promising fast break when it would have been easier to pass to a teammate. Foolish marking and we allowed Marino Defendi a gilt-edged chance. Lincoln made a spectular, diving, fingertip save to keep the match scoreless.
So much for working harder and playing smarter. This was quite uncharacteristic. We'd trained hard all week but had immediately reverted to Tuesday's form.
They made us pay in the 12th minute. Right winger Drey Wright sprinted right past Brad Smith and curled a cross into the path of the hard-charging David Moberg-Karlsson. The striker cushioned his header beneath the crossbar.
1-0
We responded by continuing to play shockingly badly. Brad Smith gave the ball away at the start of a counter attack leaving us horribly exposed. Daniel Lincoln saved the day again tipping another shot round the post.
After we cleared the second corner, they pumped the ball back into the box twice. On the second attempt the clearance came to Wright who hammered a shot goalwards. His shot was going wide, but right at center back Jack O'Connell who hadn't yet retreated from our penalty box. He was five yards out and had three-quarters of the net to shoot at.
2-0
Oh, **** me.
Finally, in the 27th minute we made it out of our end. George Francomb brought the ball down the right flank and got hauled down. Leandro Depetris jogged over to take the free kick deep down the right as Riley and Sbraga jogged forward. Leandro curled in a ball toward the near post and Sbraga met it with a glancing header.
2-1
And we're back in it! Completely against the run of play. While his teammates celebrated, Sbraga ran into the net and grabbed the ball. On the way back he was screaming at his teammates. For those who don't understand Italian, it sounded like he was trying to motivate his teammates with occasional "Come Ons!" (one of the few phrases he knew) thrown in. For those of us who do speak Italian, he was calling his teammates a bunch of uncultured, lazy **** farmers who preferred *** with sheep to playing football correctly.
I can hardly wait until he learns English.
If only they'd understood what he really said to them. They hadn't and were were undone just a few minutes later when we failed to clear a corner and defend well when we couldn't. We let their other defender Magnus Okuonghae dribble around in our box then play a one-two with Moberg-Karlsson before taking a shot which was blocked then a second which he drilled past Lincoln.
3-1
Seriously!?! Let a central defender stroll about our box with the ball then let him take two shots? What the **** were we doing back there? It's hard to play football when the entire team, aside from the keeper, has their heads up their bums.
Then we got lucky. Any other day, I might say that it was the brilliance of Leandro, but we weren't having that kind of day. In the 35th minute, Jim Fenlon heaved a 25 yard throw-in towards James Loveridge. O'Connell stepped in front of Lovers and hammered a header back into our half. It was at this point that Leandro stuck his foot out and hammered the ball back upfield and into the gap O'Connell had left behind him.
Lovers, who hadn't tried to get to the throw all that hard, was now perfectly positioned to race onto Leandro's ball and run into the Colchester penalty box. Their keeper wasn't on his angle correctly and Lovers had half of the net to shoot at.
3-2
Holy ****! If we could start playing decently, we might have a chance. If we could only make it to half time without giving up any more goals.
Then in the 38th minute, Defendi lost his mind. We were starting to play. We were playing one-touch passes and moving the ball slowly up the field when Defendi leapt in with a two-footed tackle. His victim was Lovers, who was in the center circle facing our goal, and the tackle was so late it was nearly in the second half.
Straight. Red. Card.
While we couldn't immediately take advantage of our numerical advantage, we at least got used to playing good pass-and-move football again.
"Gentleman," I said once everyone was seated in the locker room. "That first half hour was embarrassing. If it wasn't for Lincoln, we could have been down by six. However, it's just a nightmare. I'm hear to wake you all up. Thanks to my fellow Italian Defendi, we're back in this game. We've been given a gift. I expect to see something different from you all in the second half. If we're going to be a team that reaches the play-offs, this is the kind of match we end up winning."
I also replaced Nole with Mark Tomlinson. Steven Gregory moved up to play alongside Leandro with with Mark as the defensive midfielder.
You know how after a bad nightmare it takes a bit to get it out of your system? We dominated possession, but just didn't quite have the cutting edge like the effects of that nightmare first half hour weren't quite gone, yet.
The hour mark passed and we still hadn't created a decent chance. Colchester were showing great resolve.
In the 69th minute, Alex Marrow and Leandro both went for the same ball and Leandro fell to the ground clutching his left ankle. Matteo Ricci was already prepared to come on. I was going to pull off Gregs. Instead he went on for Leandro.
Colchester nearly caught us on the break. Only Wright and Moberg-Karlsson came forward, but they baffled the six players we had back. Lincoln once again bailed us out, tipping the grassburner round the post.
Then Colchester began to tire.
In the 80th minute, Sbraga rose high above the defenders on our 10th corner and bagged his second headed goal of the game.
3-3
As I pumped my fists in glee, I was engulfed by all the coaches and players. Once everyone calms down enough, I get Dylan Griffiths warming up. I'm going to replace central defender Riley with Griff and play with two strikers up front.
View attachment 336241Then in the 84th minute, Cameron Dummigan controlled a clearance and jogged forward with the ball. He played a pass forward to Ricci and kept running. George Francomb was out wide and the left fullback was marking him. Lovers read the situation and ran towards our left wing.
This left a huge gap that Cam was running into. Ricci fed him the pass. Cam controlled it. He looked at the keeper. He looked down at the ball. I realized I was surrounded by the bench and we were all holding our breathes.
And Cam's foot came down.
And the ball rocketed goalward.
And the ball bulged the back of the old onion bag.
3-4
We'd done it! We'd come back!
Colchester were gassed and five minutes of extra time didn't matter. It just delayed our celebration.
View attachment 336240
View attachment 336239
View attachment 336242We arrived in Colchester after a great three days of training. The joking was still there, but they worked harder and had fewer inappropriate moments of humor. Like when they should have been concentrating. That's all well and good, but will we rebound or is there something else that needs adjusting?
Colchester are in 15th place, lost last weekend one-nil like we did and that loss ended a winning streak. The streak was only three league matches, but it was a streak nonetheless. They play a Barcelona-style 451 and their striker and two wingers have been in fine form lately. I'm going with the same formation as I need to rest Mark Tomlinson and don't trust Steven Gregory as the defensive midfielder in a 4231.
We didn't start out very well. Daniel Lincoln couldn't hold a shot from Colchester left winger Andrea Christiano. Thankfully, Martin Riley cleared it. Matteo Nole gave the ball away on a promising fast break when it would have been easier to pass to a teammate. Foolish marking and we allowed Marino Defendi a gilt-edged chance. Lincoln made a spectular, diving, fingertip save to keep the match scoreless.
So much for working harder and playing smarter. This was quite uncharacteristic. We'd trained hard all week but had immediately reverted to Tuesday's form.
They made us pay in the 12th minute. Right winger Drey Wright sprinted right past Brad Smith and curled a cross into the path of the hard-charging David Moberg-Karlsson. The striker cushioned his header beneath the crossbar.
1-0
We responded by continuing to play shockingly badly. Brad Smith gave the ball away at the start of a counter attack leaving us horribly exposed. Daniel Lincoln saved the day again tipping another shot round the post.
After we cleared the second corner, they pumped the ball back into the box twice. On the second attempt the clearance came to Wright who hammered a shot goalwards. His shot was going wide, but right at center back Jack O'Connell who hadn't yet retreated from our penalty box. He was five yards out and had three-quarters of the net to shoot at.
2-0
Oh, **** me.
Finally, in the 27th minute we made it out of our end. George Francomb brought the ball down the right flank and got hauled down. Leandro Depetris jogged over to take the free kick deep down the right as Riley and Sbraga jogged forward. Leandro curled in a ball toward the near post and Sbraga met it with a glancing header.
2-1
And we're back in it! Completely against the run of play. While his teammates celebrated, Sbraga ran into the net and grabbed the ball. On the way back he was screaming at his teammates. For those who don't understand Italian, it sounded like he was trying to motivate his teammates with occasional "Come Ons!" (one of the few phrases he knew) thrown in. For those of us who do speak Italian, he was calling his teammates a bunch of uncultured, lazy **** farmers who preferred *** with sheep to playing football correctly.
I can hardly wait until he learns English.
If only they'd understood what he really said to them. They hadn't and were were undone just a few minutes later when we failed to clear a corner and defend well when we couldn't. We let their other defender Magnus Okuonghae dribble around in our box then play a one-two with Moberg-Karlsson before taking a shot which was blocked then a second which he drilled past Lincoln.
3-1
Seriously!?! Let a central defender stroll about our box with the ball then let him take two shots? What the **** were we doing back there? It's hard to play football when the entire team, aside from the keeper, has their heads up their bums.
Then we got lucky. Any other day, I might say that it was the brilliance of Leandro, but we weren't having that kind of day. In the 35th minute, Jim Fenlon heaved a 25 yard throw-in towards James Loveridge. O'Connell stepped in front of Lovers and hammered a header back into our half. It was at this point that Leandro stuck his foot out and hammered the ball back upfield and into the gap O'Connell had left behind him.
Lovers, who hadn't tried to get to the throw all that hard, was now perfectly positioned to race onto Leandro's ball and run into the Colchester penalty box. Their keeper wasn't on his angle correctly and Lovers had half of the net to shoot at.
3-2
Holy ****! If we could start playing decently, we might have a chance. If we could only make it to half time without giving up any more goals.
Then in the 38th minute, Defendi lost his mind. We were starting to play. We were playing one-touch passes and moving the ball slowly up the field when Defendi leapt in with a two-footed tackle. His victim was Lovers, who was in the center circle facing our goal, and the tackle was so late it was nearly in the second half.
Straight. Red. Card.
While we couldn't immediately take advantage of our numerical advantage, we at least got used to playing good pass-and-move football again.
"Gentleman," I said once everyone was seated in the locker room. "That first half hour was embarrassing. If it wasn't for Lincoln, we could have been down by six. However, it's just a nightmare. I'm hear to wake you all up. Thanks to my fellow Italian Defendi, we're back in this game. We've been given a gift. I expect to see something different from you all in the second half. If we're going to be a team that reaches the play-offs, this is the kind of match we end up winning."
I also replaced Nole with Mark Tomlinson. Steven Gregory moved up to play alongside Leandro with with Mark as the defensive midfielder.
You know how after a bad nightmare it takes a bit to get it out of your system? We dominated possession, but just didn't quite have the cutting edge like the effects of that nightmare first half hour weren't quite gone, yet.
The hour mark passed and we still hadn't created a decent chance. Colchester were showing great resolve.
In the 69th minute, Alex Marrow and Leandro both went for the same ball and Leandro fell to the ground clutching his left ankle. Matteo Ricci was already prepared to come on. I was going to pull off Gregs. Instead he went on for Leandro.
Colchester nearly caught us on the break. Only Wright and Moberg-Karlsson came forward, but they baffled the six players we had back. Lincoln once again bailed us out, tipping the grassburner round the post.
Then Colchester began to tire.
In the 80th minute, Sbraga rose high above the defenders on our 10th corner and bagged his second headed goal of the game.
3-3
As I pumped my fists in glee, I was engulfed by all the coaches and players. Once everyone calms down enough, I get Dylan Griffiths warming up. I'm going to replace central defender Riley with Griff and play with two strikers up front.
View attachment 336241Then in the 84th minute, Cameron Dummigan controlled a clearance and jogged forward with the ball. He played a pass forward to Ricci and kept running. George Francomb was out wide and the left fullback was marking him. Lovers read the situation and ran towards our left wing.
This left a huge gap that Cam was running into. Ricci fed him the pass. Cam controlled it. He looked at the keeper. He looked down at the ball. I realized I was surrounded by the bench and we were all holding our breathes.
And Cam's foot came down.
And the ball rocketed goalward.
And the ball bulged the back of the old onion bag.
3-4
We'd done it! We'd come back!
Colchester were gassed and five minutes of extra time didn't matter. It just delayed our celebration.
View attachment 336240
View attachment 336239
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