Super League Down to the Wire

Evan-McKenzie

A very resolute performance by the Omar Stanley Coached Mountain View Football Club deprived the visiting Cavalier Football of an early presentation of the 2009/2010 KSAFA Claro Super League champion trophy, by holding the black and white clad boys to an exciting 1-1 drew in their rescheduled game played at the Excelsior High School grounds on Wednesday February 24. The draw gave the Santos FC an outside chance of taking the trophy from Cavalier, should they lose their final game on Saturday February 27 2010 against Barbican and Santos defeat Rae Town by 15 clear goals. With one hand on the Trophy the Cavalier Football Club is just one game away from claiming the title as the fact that it will go down .to the very last game to officially declare the winner, as even at this stage it will require a divine intervention to place the more skillful Santos aggregation in pole position come Saturday.

The Setting

Rescheduled KSAFA Claro Super League Match between Mountain View FC and Cavalier FC
Date:Wednesday February 24 - 2010 3.30pm;
Venue: Excelsior High School
Weather: Sunny hot, windy.
Field: Grass with small patches of bare areas in penalty and goal areas, uneven bounce expected due to raised surface areas.
Coaches: Omar Stanley- Mountain View ; Lamar Morgan Cavalier FC.
Formation: Mountain View - 5 3 2 ; Cavalier - 4 - 1 -4 1
Result: Mountain View- 1 (Troyland Williams 58th min); Cavalier FC 1 (Phillip Riley 15 min)

The Warm Up

It is now becoming a pleasant to see teams concentrating on a more dynamic warm up and are moving away from the more popular jogging and static stretching routine which everyone previously did. Even if it is not as a result of the insistence of the unbridled views that this type of exercise reduces muscle strength or perhaps it is the FIFA coach and his demonstration on warm up in the recent JFF level 2 course, it stands to reason that small adjustments can bring great improvement to the game overall, in fact both teams did just what was expected on a sunny day to get themselves ready for a game on a very sunny and windy day.

Could be the decider

The mid week reschedule which many feel could be the decider for this year’s winner, started out very tentative and the home team wanted to make sure that they were going to keep their home ground as a place where they don't lose any game save and except their only lost to Santos FC late Last year. Cavalier wanting to have the trophy presented on the day hoped to win for this to happen and while not launching an all out attack were more offensive than the homesters from the first whistle.

Cavalier got down to business pretty early and created most of the early chances. Mountain view meanwhile m were passing and sharing the ball in mid field and looking good butwere not able to penetrate the Cavalier's defensive unit who resisted and interceptrd every Mountain View attempt to penetrate. Both teams seemed to make very good use of the width of the field even though with the cavalier leading goal scorer Loxley Thompson playing as wide as he did, the homesters were stretched across the width of the field and were not able to prevent the regular twenty to thirty five yard openings in the center of their defense which the Cavalier mid fielders were not able to exploit. However in the 15th minute when Thompson combined with the lone striker Phillip Riley who tapped home from close range the fat lady was getting ready to sing.

Cavalier Dominate

For the windy condition on the day far too many balls were played in the air, but the player were providing the kind of excited tension that was expected and could be said to be one of the best game for the season. Mountain View showed that they can pass the ball around whenever they wanted even when Cavalier had the ascendency throughout most of the game but could not find the second goal to seal the game on the day as most of the opportunities within the twenty five yards range were not taken as the game moved closer to the first 45 minutes. Huge gaps were however becoming more evident between the forward and the midfield and the midfield and the defense. The fact that both teams were not playing a very high paced game, almost all the players moved according to the demand of the game up the end of the first half; Advantage Cavalier.

The second half-a fascinating tactical endgame.

The second half started with Cavalier picking up where they left off in the first forty five minutes and hence went on the offensive . They put everything they could except pulling up their defense to risk the win at all cost. In the meantime Mountain View wanted to make sure that they didn’t lose the game with a moderately paced game throughout and the ball moving from end to end without the usual long searching ball. Cavalier surrendered the use of the wide Loxley Thompson and tried to take the game to the host through the middle. At this stage both teams began to lose their compactness and it seemed the one goal advantage the visitors held would give them the title. This was not to be as in the 57th minute the visitors gave up a penalty from tripping an opponent inside the box When with the very lethal left foot of the Mountain View marksman Troyland Williams one would have thought that the score would level at 1-1. True ro expectations ,Williams drove to the left of the Cavalier custodian who made the right call but could not prevent the ball from entering the goal.

The Changes didn't add anything

At this stage and with a few player showing signs of fatigue, Cavalier began to make substitutions and the homesters followed suit. These fresh legs however did not add the desired energy to the game and very soon the referee had to commence the issuing of yellow cards. The game overall was clean and played in a competitive spirit, the end for end build up was really a very good sign that football can be the kind of attraction that spectators and sponsors need for them to get back into game at the local level. The rest of the game while not losing its intensity did not provide the kind of penetration that could break the deadlock and at the end of the second forty five minutes many felt that the result was a fair one.

Down to the wire – The Fat Lady will sing Feb27

Now with this result the Santos aggregations must be hoping for divine intervention come Saturday when they meet Rae Town and have this herculean task of winning by a margin 15 clear goal; which, in the real world, is only an abstract possibility.

My two cents

Having observed most of the teams throughout the season, I am of the opinion that:

• Team football is possible if we begin to train same early in our pre season work .Come next season we are going to see real magic in the sport, this will not put a damper on creativity in t it will enhance it, and this will eventually bring back the spectacle we once had, so the spectators, sponsors and investors will come on board once more knowing that they have something of value to partner with.

• The use of science and technology to aid decision making is definitely underutilized in Jamaica. we know that we cannot afford Pro Zone or similar technology, at this stage of our development, but we cannot continue to remain uninformed about modern trends in foot ball.

• The recommendations made to keep the All KSAFA women team together on a minimum of a once per month game against other Parish, Confederation, National or International teams should be immediately adopted and expanded to include the men All KSAFA team to play against Cavalier, DPL Teams, Confederations and international teams as well, this could form the basis for the re introduction of the confederation league some 20+ years ago.

• Quality improvements in football requires everyone to observe certain process which will be realized over time, this is where the coaches can take the lead and as much as possible begin to transform the game, in the meantime the policy makers in administration will have to follow suit as the demand and new influx begin to flock the sport, so please be advised that this is where Coaches can begin to lead the chances.