1-8

After coming back from Blackburn Rovers, my first time playing football was with the school on Tuesday. And it was straight to playing a game against West Island School. I was very excited in playing some football again but the game didn't quite turn out the way I would like it to have been. To make it a long story short, we lost 8-1.

The game didn't actually start as bad as it might seem by the scoreline. I started at centre-back and was in a confident mood. From the referee raising his hand to start the game, you could already tell the difference between the football in Blackburn and here. The skill level isn't very different, but the speed and aggression is what separates the two types of football. Since my confidence level was higher due to the Blackburn Rovers trip, I was able to communicate with the team from the sound of the whistle for kick-off, starting with "Push up". This talking didn't stop even though it was becoming painful as I started to get a sore throat. My performance wasn't bad as I cleared the ball away and aggressively tackled the ball (nothing vicious of course). By the end of the first half it was 1-1 and by the way we finished the half, we could have won the game.

The second half was when misery came, I played on until about halfway of the second half until I was substituted off with the score 3-1. It wasn't the fact that I played badly but since it was friendly game, everybody was getting playing time. The goals kept coming and the game ended 8-1. Not a very nice score.

But although the score may not be appalling, I do believe that we have potential to succeed. The problem is not the skill level of our players but how we work as a team. In the game, I thought we needed more movement off the ball, more communication and more aggression for 50-50 balls. This will hopefully come with more training sessions but it's very important for all of us to think about your movement and positioning when you don't have the ball and knowing what to do next before receiving the ball. Then we can play faster and break down the opposition defence.


Today, I was able to do my first personal training session by going for my usual 10km run. It was an incredibly enjoyable experience to being able to run again and I kind of feel like I don't want stop doing sports these past few days. I therefore definitely not miss my gym session tomorrow.