U12s Calcio Rosso vs York City (H)

A tough game against a very strong York City side resulted in an 11-2 defeat, but the players should be proud of their efforts in the face of adversity and how they kept competing for the whole 80 minutes.

I'm going to keep this short: not because of the defeat, but because having already spent lots of time writing the majority of the match report, SportMember crashed and I am not in the mood to rewrite all of what I had already done...

Calcio went 1-0 up 2 minutes in, when following a successful press Marcus played the ball into Hugo, who was able to strike a pinpoint thunderbolt into the top corner from 20 yards out, leaving the York keeper with no chance. Thereafter, York pressed and pressed for an equaliser, but except for an excellent one-on-one save from Rufus, didn't come too close to scoring until they equalised in the first quarter stoppage time, with a 25 yard strike that came through several Calcio bodies finding its way into the far bottom corner.

The second quarter saw Calcio on the back foot from the start. In the first minute, an excellent York press won the ball in the middle of the pitch, which was played wide left before the ball was smashed across the box into the top corner, leaving Rufus with no chance. The third York goal was similar, when 7 minutes into the quarter, they won the ball in the middle, played it left, and put in a cross for a finish from close range. Unfortunately, three more quick fire York goals followed, scoring a scrappy goal on 9 minutes, a good goal from a counter attack on 11 minutes, and the sixth a minute later following good play through the middle. Not much more happened before halftime, with the score 6-1 and Calcio on the end of some excellent play.

The third quarter started much more tightly, and the score remained 6-1 until 15 minutes in, when a York counter attack got the ball wide and crossed for a header to make the game 7-1. Like previously, this precipitated something of a flurry, with the 8th following three minutes later, when some great individual play down York's right preceded a cross to the back post which was bundled onto the post itself, before ricocheting into York's path for the rebound. York then scored again in stoppage time, with a familiar goal: a quick counter, cross, and tap in making it 9-1. There was still time for a Calcio response though, with some excellent hold up play from Hugo drawing a foul but, with the referee playing advantage, Charlie picked up the ball, ran down the line, and played a cross-cum-shot that caught the wind and sailed into the top corner from a long way out to leave the score 9-2 after 60 minutes.

The fourth quarter was much tighter, though York did add two goals early on, with a long ball forward resulting in another excellent long range effort after a minute, and a counter attack through the middle three minutes later bringing the game to its final score of 11-2.

Despite the heavy defeat, there are lots of positives to take from the game, and the players should understand it as part of learning and development. There was no shame in the result nor the performance, and the effort can in no way be faulted. I am extremely proud of how the players played, and I hope they are able to put the result behind them as we go into our next game, back in the league, away at Tekkers.