70’ ⚽️ 0-1 Latin Sports goal
80’ ⚽️ 0-2 Latin Sports goal
Top row (from left to right): Matt Keston, Nati Ajnwojner, Reuben Lewis, Anthony Levy, Eliran Pinto, Elijah Golding, Nate Sadoun, Mert Vasit, Joey Spijer, Daniel Morali Pablo Zayat and Eze Brotsky.
Bottom row (from left to right): Zach Shooter, Alex Branum, James Green, Niv Florentin, Ben Mordukhovich and Aaron Morali.
We set up with 4-5-1 as usual to keep it tight at the back but at the same time to hopefully capitalise on the chances we would get and unfortunately we couldn’t, despite having six very good opportunities.
The game started very strongly by us, the first 20 minutes we dominated possession and were passing nicely, there were three big moments in front of the goal that we missed but it looked like we would definitely go on to finish off the opposition.
However, on the 20th-minute disaster struck as Latin Sports first big opportunity on goal came with a 1-on-1 and stand-in goalkeeper Pablo Zayat came out to make a brilliant save but was caught by their attacker's knee to the face. The player was yellow carded but Pablo’s face was a mess of blood with cuts to his eye, nose and lip and he was dizzy.
The game was stopped for 30 minutes as we waited for an ambulance and stopped the bleeding. Thankfully, Pablo is back home after having some stitches to his eye. Joey then went in goal for the remainder of the match - a thank you to him for stepping up.
It was clear the incident affected us, and following it we never played as well as we had done in that first 20 minutes. The end of that half was a very nothing event with neither team creating much and the stoppage had clearly influenced the game. I know seeing Pablo in this state was upsetting for us and it was hard to then focus on the game.
In the second half Latin Sports started to dominate the possession and despite us pressing they passed well and were hard to break down, our passing became less clean and we didn’t look as good with our performance. They would go 1-0 up in the 70th minute as we were outpaced at the back and a cross found a finish.
We then went to 4-4-2 and created more chances, missing two 1-on-1’s in front of goal and ball into the box from a free-kick that just missed everyone. Then in the 80th minute, a mistake from defence gave the ball away cheaply and we were punished for it going 2-0 down. We went to 3-5-2.
Three minutes later a free-kick by Daniel Morali was handballed in the box but the referee gave no penalty and at the end of the game, he apologised to us when we showed him the replay of the free kick and the clear hand ball.
Positives and negatives in this game but ultimately we weren’t good enough in a game we really should have won. We are getting there slowly and it is taking time, but we will make this team ‘click together’ very soon.