Game Summary

Force VS Gulf Coast Texans

Head Coach, Derek Brodley

May 24, 2020

 

After what was a very long journey from Knoxville to Pensacola, the players and staff checked into their hotel and got their minds onto the job in hand of trying to kick start the season from the promising performance of the opening game against Mississippi. Arrangements were made for game-day before retiring to bed in preparation for what was going to be a tough few days.

 

The morning of the game was dominated by breakfast and a 40 minute practice session to assess the fitness of a couple of players and to look over new central defender Michael Huncheons.  Michael looked sharp despite his long journey from Scotland but sadly Dalton’s back injury would prevent him from starting.

 

After a restful afternoon and a good lunch, the players got to the stadium very focused and excited to get going. New warm up routines are being introduced and the players seem to be more relaxed at the start of matches and very motivated. For the second game running the Force dominated early possession and created some very good chances. Nial have a great opportunity that was well saved by the opposition GK. Manny and Marius up front were a handful for the gulf Texans and Martyn Freestone (the Force skipper) was organizing the midfield players and getting thru lots of work along side Theo and Travis. What is pleasing for the coaching staff is the unity of the back 4 players and GK regardless of who is playing. Danny. Trystan, Mataeus and Chase all look very comfortable together and are very well supported by Rummy the current starter between the sticks. The only real issues that were presented to the Force apart from a couple of crosses, was the 2 injuries to both Rummy and Trystan that forced both out of the game. If there were any positives to this bad news was that both changes came right on half time that gave us time to reorganized.

 

The half time talk was mainly on keeping the good things going despite the changes. Ronnie came on for Rummi and Michael got his chance probably a little earlier than we all thought but as the coach, knowing our strength in depth in the squad it is a case on continuing to stick to our game-style.

 

The second half continued in the same vain with the Force continuing to dominate possession and continuing to create chances. If there is one disappointment from our play thus far: it is the finishing. A combination of some good saves and blocks, along with some poor decisions at times keeps the game very close. The longer the game went on the more you start to think of not getting beat while still trying to be positive to win the game. We made a further change bringing on Jacko for Chase in the thought that we could try and put more pressure on the Texans from wide areas. Robbie was also introduced for a Manny who had given everything. Robbie’s experienced and know how paid off when he broke in behind the Texan’s defense from a pass from Danny to lift the ball over the GK into the net. As the goal went in we made two further changes bringing on Nick and Kyle to see out what was a very good win against a strong Texans team. After a short briefing from the coaching staff, the focus switched to the game in New Orleans.