Match Reports Season 2008
Division 1 Firsts / Reserves | Division 3 Firsts / Reserves

S.A.A.S.L. Round Ten Saturday 28th June 08

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DIV 1 FIRSTS 1 v 1 BOSA

Goal; Ciano (1)

Lineup; Ciccianni, Ciano, Matthews, Condon, Barolo, Stenta, Rossi, Pavia, Sawicki, Manou, Galipo (Siklich)

OISC arrived at BOSA’s ground on Saturday with plenty to prove after being hammered 5-1 at home by the fellow relegation battler in the opening game of the season.  Coach Romano threw caution into the wind before the kick-off, changing formation and adding some new faces in the Wolves line-up.  We were unsure what to expect as trainings had been poorly attended by all and sundry over the past fortnight, but those that took the field gave their all for the club and we were unlucky in the end to come away with only a draw.

Coach Romano finally changed his more attacking 3-5-2 formation for a traditional 4-4-2 to help deal with the teams leaky defence.  Ciccianni was again in goals after missing last weekend’s cup debacle and Ciano lined up at sweeper marshalling Matthews, Condon and Barolo at the back.  Stenta, Rossi, Sawicki and Pavia lined up in a flat four across the middle and Galipo (a few kilos lighter and with his bags ‘unpacked’) returned to partner the old Manou up front.  George was MIA due to injury whilst Kari and Ripa were sent back to the reserves to find some form.

The first half was played out much like an arm wrestle or tug of war competition.  Both sides seemed more interested in not conceding or not losing and as a result chances to score were few and far between.  BOSA probably had the better of the half in terms of possession, but were unable to create any real chances.  Iggies 8-man defensive wall was doing its job.  Going the other way, Iggies looked a little toothless in attack as well.  The untried Manou-Galipo combination didn’t really hit its straps and Rossi and Stenta were finding it difficult to get forward as a result of being anchored to a spot in front of the defence.  With this being the case, it was left to Sawicki and Pavia to generate most the teams attack with some hard running up and down the flanks.

Returning to the field in the second half with the score at 0-0, both teams decided to bite the bullet and play for the win (a draw would not really help either side).  BOSA again started positively and put Iggies under immense pressure in the opening exchanges of the half.  They would be rewarded for their hard work with a goal from a corner kick.  The BOSA skipper, shut out of the game for the most part by the tight marking Condon, managed to free himself of the shackles for a split second and neatly got to the incoming ball before all others, flicked his shot against the far post and in.  It was a well taken goal despite the loose marking and our backs and season were up against the proverbial wall.  It would show character and guts to pull a result out of the bag from this position.

And that is exactly what the Wolves served up.  Instead of going into our shells and conceding soft goals at a rate of knots like we have done, Iggies stepped into gear and proceeded to finish the match much better than our diminishing opposition.  Our run came back and a sense of urgency was found where it had been lacking all year.  Forays forward by the Wolves were becoming more and more frequent with half chances falling to Manou, Pavia, Stenta and Sawicki, but they all failed to find the back of the net.  It was starting to feel like one of those days…that was until one man stood tall and rose up from the shadow of the Valley of Death.  No player has been ridden harder this year than Ciano, but he has taken it all in his massive stride and come out the other end.  His free kick was beautifully floated in from near the half way line to the six yard box and enticingly hung there waiting for someone to attack it.  Manou was first to the ball and, in what appeared to be a rehearsed move, preceded to use his ample girth to completely block BOSA’s keeper from any vision of the incoming free kick.  It was like a solar eclipse and by the time the ball emerged from behind Manou’s moon the keeper had no chance and the ball bounced into the back of the net.

Iggies ran out the game much stronger and was unlucky not to take all 3 points.  Many forward attacks were let down by the final pass that just seemed to allude us for most of the day and probably is a fair reflection of why we sit where we do on the table.  One final effort in particular comes to mind.  A long ball forward was neatly flicked on by the head of Manou into the path of Stenta who had been moved up front.  With the keeper off his line, Stenta invoked memories of the Navarino game where he tried to lob the ball over the keepers head.  It was a disappointing effort in the end though that the keeper was able to save comfortably after some fast back-pedalling.  Not long after, the final whistle blew and the spoils were shared.  One that got away?  Perhaps, but at least we didn’t fold and surrender the 3 points this time around.

The draw and impressive showing will give us plenty of confidence heading into next week’s bottom of the table clash with Navarino where the importance of 3 valuable points cannot be expressed strongly enough.  Once again, this author will put out a plea to have more players attend training so we can salvage this season and stay up.  President Uren refused to rule out a mid-season spending spree by saying that the club, “Might still splash out on some players in the mid-season transfer market”.  The club, flush with money from the success of the Quiz Night would, “Leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of survival.”  I hope the president was not inferring that he’d pull on the boots to help save his club.  Things are getting desperate, but not that desperate yet.

DIV 1 RESERVES 0 V 1 BOSA


DIV 3 FIRSTS 0 V 1 BURUNDI EAGLES

Goals; Nil

Lineup; Pete Murray, Tom "Storm In A Can" Earls, A Rossi, Williams, Patten, J Kitchen, Callaghan, Woods, Carapetis, M Ciccarello, D Ciccarello

Disappointing is pretty much the one word sum up of this weeks game.

New faces came into the lineup this week with Pete Murray taking time out of his busy songwriting schedule to jump into goals, Tom Earls getting the callup to right back although he claimed his talents are wasted there, Callaghan started this week after a few games off the bench, Carapetis back after his pre-season nose disjointing, Mark Ciccarello, the recently engaged, jumped up front alongside married brother Dean for some words of advice for the big day and Ben Patten slotted into centre back next to Wills. On the bench was Dragos the face of Fanta, ZEEE the omanian terrorist and the big SETH EFICRAN Byron.

Now back to the game, Burundi are clearly an atheltic side and who were also mainly a small side but dear god did they give us the run-around this week. We tried this week to impose the game on the opposition rather than counter-attacking, still wasn't happening though. We did well to snuff out Burundi's forward movements, but lets be honest here if it wasn't for Murray's heroics in goals the scoreline would be much worse. There was some great hardline defending from Ben Patten, who showed us how to play wearing the great Iggies shirt. No-one can fault anyone's endeavor in this weeks game, yet we couldn't seem to get any flow going, passes were not finding feet and chances were few and far between. The simple things were not being done well.

Alas we headed into the half time break still in it at 0-0. Our game lifted in the second stanza yet we were still being frustrated by Burundi and refereeing decisions started going against us. Zee came onto the field after finishing his exam in bomb making and after a couple of hairy moments with his dribbling in defence a swap was made with Woods moving to the right and Z moving to attacking midfield where he could playmake a bit more.

The brothers Ciccarello were trying hard up front but the service was sub-par and Mark was hacked down one time to many and came off to be replaced by Byron. Murray then copped some studs to his knee and bravely continued. We then conceeding once again from poor marking and the inability to clear first time from defence, Murray had no chance as the shot was buried into the side netting.

Tom Earls then made the gutsy decision to go in goals at Pete couldn't continue, and performed admirably stopping shot after shot. After all subs had been made Woods collapsed with a broken hamstring (tell you what super physio Jug had a workout this week!!) and we were down to 10 men, this didn't matter as the team charged forward in search of an equaliser. Burundi could not be broken down and their keeper was well on song stopping everything even though by the end he basically crawled off the ground.

Once again, our endeavor cannot be faulted this game but we have to learn to get the simple things right, passing. The other is composure, we had this against Flinders but players seemed far too stressed this game and let it get on top of them. We are a far better team than this so lets show this when we take on Torrens Valley this week on the road to Birdwood, maybe we all should youtube spain vs germany.

DIV 3 RESERVES 3 V 0 BURUNDI EAGLES