Coach: Gabi Wilk Captain: Marcial Muñoz Manager: Enrique Alcazar
23 May 2010: Woden Valley 0 - 5 Cooma Tigers
The Cooma Tigers arrived at the Woden playing field full of energy, chanting the Cooma slogans and zealous to reverse the result that saw them denied 3 points the week before against Tuggeranong. As soon as the Tigers took possession of the ball, they were suffered by their opponents to collapse, but they did not. Indeed the Tigers dominated and controlled all of the player-dense areas of the pitch, the conductor of this being #7 Munoz. Through his passing, the Tigers threatened to break into the Woden Valley goal and did not relent for the entire length of the match.
The first Goal for Cooma came at the 17th minute. The ball was played exquisitely by Marcial, a centred ball that was beat home by the head of #11 Gecic. He flew into the ball with his head, as it was a low, dangerous cross that was redirected past the goalkeeper who could not do enough to save it despite being at full stretch. This was one of several attempts by Gecic against the goal. In the 21st minute Gecic once again headed past the Keeper but was denied by the crossbar.
In the 40th minute Marcial dribbled trough two defenders after a pass from #6 Josifovsky and placed the ball with elegance into the corner scoring the second goal for Cooma.
The first-half finished with a 2 goal advantage for the visiting team.
The third Goal for Cooma (according to the matchcard) came in the 59th minute, and was created by # 9 Barsley.
In the 62nd minute Gecic took over a defender with a half-turn loop, sending with the manoeuvre the ball into the air and over the Woden Valley player’s head. As the ball came back down on the other side he headed the ball over the keeper who once again stretched backwards in an hopeless attempt to stop the magnificent fourth goal for Cooma.
Josifovski, Aleksovski and even Soza had a go at goal without success.
The best of Woden Valley came from a 70th minute strike from the centre back Banweni. But unfortunately for the home team the defender found the left-hand-side post and rebound back into the game. From this shot onwards the game was balanced and Woden had better chances. It was not however the matter of bad luck that Woden did not score, but rather the brilliant defending of Soza, Phil and Felipe. The changes for Cooma started on the 68th minute. Schofield replaced Barsley and on the 74th minute #10 Jair replaced Munoz.
The fifth Goal, came at the 75th minute. Josifovski picked up a ball from Jair that was delivered after an attempted clearance by Woden. Without reservation he rocketed the ball into the net; the keeper had no reaction towards the thunderous shot.
The victory elevates Cooma to 5th Place, one point away from Canberra City (our next opponent) and Monaro panthers, who are with 13 points.
Enrique Alcazar
23 May 2010: Woden Valley 4 - 1 Cooma Tigers
Another tough match up with last year’s competition winners Woden and sitting equal with us on the ladder. After an early Woden attack which was well defended the Tigers came back with a quick reply attack through the middle with a pass by Daniel Moscaritolo finding Elliot Holgate moving done the left side and he delivered a great ball floating it over the Woden defenders picking up Ciaran Rayment who made no mistake and a 1 nil lead.
This good work soon came undone following some loose midfield passing which gave Woden the opportunity to attack and resulted in a penalty being awarded after a Woden striker was brought down. No mistake by Woden and we were one each.
This seemed to dampen the Tigers enthusiasm and their belief, cohesion and game plan faulted as Woden continued to make raids into our territory. Following a constant barrage of Woden attacks and their well renowned strength in the air saw them grab two quick goals from strong headers.
From the start of the second half Cooma attacked, were more positive and legally aggressive. This half did not have the furious pace of the first half as Woden put together a more defensive structure which was making it difficult for the Tigers to penetrate.
The boys were showing great grit and determination and our defence especially Lawson Cole kept the quality Woden strikers frustrated. The Tigers man on man marking had improved and Woden didn’t have the same latitude to create the damaging opportunities they had in the first half. Woden’s only real chance was brilliantly saved by Josh Wade whilst at the other end we just couldn’t find the power or direction to worry their keeper. We had the better of the second half but the damage had been done and we were unable to find that next goal to really put the pressure on. Final score 4:1 to Woden
The boys can take away the positives from the second half as the score line didn’t reflect the differences between the two teams and I maintain that Woden look to be the quality side of the competition. Listen and follow the coaches instructions, have confidence in yourselves and your team mates and lots of positive talk are the messages I would leave with the boys.
Scorer for the Tigers was Ciaran Rayment.
23 May 2010: Woden Valley 9 - 0 Cooma Tigers
A novelty for the Cooma Tigers this week, beginning the game with a sub (the opposition with 4 subs), but unfortunately the sub did not last long. One of the Cooma Tigers, back from a few weeks off with injury, could only play less than half the game.
This week the coach had to try some players in different positions - with our regular gaolie (Ed) not being able to keep because of broken fingers. He was on the field, playing forward, one of the regular forwards, played as a defender, with another player putting on the goal keeper’s shirt for the day. On the field, this worked really well and importantly gives the team some options for future games.
The final result (Woden 9, Cooma 0) really didn’t depict the game it was. Woden Valley scored their first five goals in a ten minute time-frame but after that did not score for the remainder of the first half. Woden seemed to get a run on the ball, resulting in the five goals, but after that Cooma held them scoreless for the last 20 minutes of the first half.
Most of Woden’s remaining goals were scored towards the end of the 2nd half (including an own-goal), when Cooma was tiring (which comes from having no subs).
Typical of the characters of all these boys though, they fight hard, they never give up, all end up pretty exhausted at the end of each game and importantly, they always seem to find some positives at the end of each game (even though the coach may not agree with what they see as a positive thing).