Round 4 - Vs Miramar Rangers Mysterions , Miramar Park , 25 April

Miramar Rangers 2-2 Elite


Write-up by Horton



We arrived in Miramar and we were greeted with what looked like and actual full size pitch for once, and decided to go with a more simple warm up routine which involved a few balls going over the fence and the huge building (not sure how that is possible from 20ft away) but with our shooting accuracy on point we were full of confidence for the game.

The game kicked off in usual fashion, with the Elite starting slowly, and constantly getting found out by the barrage of long balls over the top, this eventually proved costly, as Miramar took a 1-0 lead through a simple long ball and finish. We started to up our game and played nice football on the deck half way through the first period and found joy on both wings, with Crespo looking like he had a stone wall penalty not given, but, no sooner had we upped our game the long ball undid us again, this time with the striker walking past 3/4 of our players and ballooning a shot from distance.
 
The second half kicked off, with us keeping the "Christmas tree" formation, which made us look a lot more solid than previous weeks and we got straight back into our groove. After Greg made a few excellent through balls which an unnamed player failed to capitalize on when being 1on1, it looked like it wouldn't be our day, but, no sooner had these chances been spurned we get a goal through a brilliant free kick on the right where Decs buries in the header. With our tails up, we were pushing forward but were lucky not to concede a few more at the other end, with Miramar's wastefulness costing them eventually, when, amazing footwork and a 1-2 by Horton set him off down the right wing, after he beat a couple of players with agility and guile, he put a delightful ball into the near post and watched on as Decs played a cracking dummy for Greg to score in an open net from 2ft out.

This was how the score ended, with there not really being any more chances for either team and if we want to look at positives, we have only lost 1 game from a possible 4, the other way to look at it is we have only picked up 3 points from 12. The new formation helped a lot, with there being more help at the back for the defenders, and a lot more fluidity to the build up in attack.

   
MVP Points

3 - Damo- For his constant work rate throughout the game, and endless tackles made, pretty sure I saw him chasing the ball at Right Wing, which is pretty good considering he was playing left back

2 - Decs- Scored the First and produced an amazing dummy for the second, add to that an all round solid performance in the midfield


1 - Greg- just because it was from 2ft out and an empty net, still finished well, also played a good solid game in the centre and made some cracking through balls.