Summer League 2007 was a failure for Da Dolce, I hate to say it but it was a failure. We ended up with only 3 points from a maximum of 18, and we sit right at the bottom of the table. We lost to teams that we should've drawn with and drew with teams that we should've beaten.
I know calling it a failure does sound harsh and some of you might not take to it, but I don't see a point in sugar coating the truth, when we all know we fucked up, therefore I'm going to point out a couple of things we did wrong and try to learn from it.
I admit that I didn't organise the team properly and that we had to do with a makeshift line-up, and I have to take a lot of responsibility for our failure. However, even with our makeshift line-up, we did under perform. I know that the organisers of Summer League are a little too obsessed with the tournament (and I do feel embarrassed standing up there for the so-called opening ceremony), but since we're taking part we might as well put everything into it, but we didn't do that. The will to win was not there.
We had 4 attacking players and yet the forward line couldn't conjure up a goal in 6 matches. The whole team only managed 5 shots in 6 matches. We were playing on a 11-a-side pitch with real size goals and yet no-one had the confidence to shoot. IF YOU DON'T SHOOT, YOU DON'T SCORE!!! Obviously you shouldn't shoot from ridiculous areas or when a teammate is in a better position than you, but even when a teammate was in a better position, we seemed reluctant to pass. (which brings me to another point)
Passing. We completely lacked passing. If an outsider was watching our matches, if would've looked like we don't trust our own teammates. It seems like everytime one of our players gets the ball, the first thing on his mind is to dribble, none of us looked for the easy pass. Football is a team game, none of us are maradona. Passing the ball around also allows us to save energy and at the same time waste the opponents energy, and yet we were just wasting our own.
Onto defending. Conceding 11 goals in 6 matches was actually understandable considering our lack of defenders, but it was the manner in which some of the goals were conceded that bugs me the most. 2 or 3 goals were conceded because we simply didn't clear the ball from the danger zone with any authority, and at times it was so bad that it seemed like we were playing pinball in our own 6 yard box.
And finally: PUNCTUALITY!!! I set the meeting time at 8:15 for a reason, it was so that we could have a prep talk and also do a bit of warm up so that everyone would be ready. And yet the first to arrive after me was at 8:25. It's NOT easy organising events like this, it's NOT easy making 30 phone calls to form a team everytime we play, it's NOT easy calling everyone to make sure that they don't oversleep, and yet all of us couldn't simply get out of bed and make their way to Lok Fu on time. I know some of you might think I'm over-reacting a little, and maybe I am, but it's because we let people off the hook everytime they're late so easily that every game we have people casually strolling onto the pitch 15 mins late and seeming like nothing is wrong. I truly hope that will change.
#7
