Mixed Day

Even though it was a holiday today, I still had a training session at the HKFC. It was quite a mixed performance to be honest with some moments seeming very good but other times were quite substandard. I felt very sleepy right before the session which was quite confusing because I slept quite a bit more in the morning because it's the holiday and I had a large buffet lunch with some friends which should have given me some extra energy. In the end, I didn't feel tired training but my focus was poor and I didn't feel confident in skill work.

Although my mind was very negative, I don't think I did too bad with the first drill involving passing and overlapping. Despite feeling horrible, I didn't make too many mistakes and even the mistakes were things such as using the wrong feet or playing the ball too slowly. Following the warm-up, we split into Colts and U-18 with me going to the U-18 team. The next drill was some two vs two with players around the square to pass the ball too. Actually, I thought I did splendid in this drill by making accurate passes which were a mixture of long and short and using the outside players well by passing and moving into open space. Soon after this, we went onto play a full pitch game against the Colts team.

I started in my main position at right-back for the game, but my performance showed little proof that I belonged there. Despite having some good moments by getting the ball and passing it out wide, I had some awful moments when I rushed myself. For example, the ball was loose in our goalkeeper's box, and although I had to time to take the ball and look for someone to pass to, I quickly played the ball first time to a player who was marked. The ball was taken away and a goal was scored. Disappointment was in my mind at first but I was confident enough to make a difference for the rest of the game. When I was moved into centre-back, my performance drastically improved. While three goals were let in when I was at right-back, there were none when I was at centre-back. I made some good interceptions while I was playing in this position but I also went up quite often and played some good passes. When going up, I might of have been out of position but when the ball was lost, I would try to quickly go back and we never were threatened. I kept running around a lot and finished on a good note.

I am still confident of getting onto the Colts team, especially if I play more football like I did when I was at centre-back. The most important thing for me is to always keep focus and be consistent in my performance.

School Cross Country

Represented South Island School in a cross country against other schools. The last time I did cross country for school was back in Year 10, but now that I've improved since then and I showed it with my rapid enough time for cross country last year, I am back on the team. The race wasn't too long, just 5km  long, but obviously quite tough since everybody is competing against each other. The race was especially hard be because of the hills. After the first 1.5km, there was an uphill which were hard on the legs. After completing the uphill, things got worse as another uphill began. In fact, they did mention how there are two steep hills with the second one being even steeper. When I was running on the first hill, I thought this might be the second one since it didn't seem like it could get any steeper. But, it looked like I was wrong. The second hill was the "death zone" with many people walking it. But, I put in effort and managed to run it despite not being too fast. After completing the hill and feeling a great sense of satisfaction, there was another 1.5km flat run which wasn't too hard. The second half of the run was the same way backwards so it involved running down the hill. Running downhill may be less tiring but by no means more comfortable as going down the steep hill after having tired legs hurt massively. I kept working hard and kept my pace until I finally finished the race.

I do not know what time I got on this race but I do know my position. During the beginning of the race, I started at the very back but gradually ran past people and ended up at 25th place out of approximately 50 runners. 7th out of 9 for people in my school in years 12 and 13. The placing might not be one of the best, but I was still happy with how I did and am looking to improve for the upcoming races. Plus, it's obviously benefitting my football by improving my cardiovascular fitness.

Finally played for HKFC

Had a long day of football today by starting with a school football game and then finishing with a HKFC training session. The game was just a training game for players trying to get onto the school team especially. There therefore was a lot of substitution and changing tactics. But, I played for most of the game, just missing about half of the second half out of three halves, as we took on the younger B grade South Island School football team. Obviously, we didn't want to lose because that would be embarrassing, and thank god for a slight fluke of a goal to help us win 1-0. I say it was a fluke because the attacker played a back heel over the head volley which ended up being a perfect through ball through the middle which the player converted. We'll say it was on purpose for now as it was a very beautiful goal.

For the game, I asked to play in central midfield from the start to halfway through the second half. To be honest, I wasn't too happy since I didn't get the ball much and couldn't quite play good balls as I was closed down often. I played all of the third half though as a centre back and I played better as I made some vital blocks and some good through balls down the line. After the game, I felt quite thirsty and tired but I had to go on and train with the HKFC.

It was great to be back at the HKFC again since it's the first time training, or even playing with, the team since leaving for Blackburn Rovers. It was nice to see that the training at HKFC hasn't changed as we did the usual passing and over lapping drill. Although I made a couple mistakes, I generally did well in this drill and felt like I improved since last time I did it. I felt more confident and used both feet equally well. Later on we moved on to doing some three attackers against two defenders with me being one of the defender. I tried to use what I learned from Blackburn with body shape and positioning and although there were some times where the attackers got past us using their speed, my partner and I generally did well on this.

Finally, we played a game for about the last 45-60 minutes. But rather than playing as a whole group, we separated into Colts and U-18 team. The Colts team doesn't have an age limit so it mostly consists of older players. But it consists of some talented players in my age as well. Basically, it's the better team which you can get selected for anytime in the season. Since, the last time I was at the HKFC was quite a while back, I obviously trained with the U-18. We were only allowed to touch the ball three time each time and we would have to shoot on our first touch after passing a certain line. I was quite proud of my performance as I moved around and played a lot of good passes. The only problem was that I was starting to get exhausted, but I still tried to move into space, mark players and shout to team mates to tell them what to do. Although I'm playing with the U-18 team right now, I am quite confident that I can work hard and make it to the Colts team. From now on, I will work hard outside school and even harder during HKFC training so that I can achieve my goal.

When training ended, I was so fatigued that I collapsed on the ground (nothing serious). It was good that I worked hard but I need to be able to run more in a game. It was especially agonising after training because I had to walk with a heavier bag than usual because it was filled with all these books about universities that came for an open day at school this morning.

Drills

Went to the beach yesterday early morning to practice some football skills. Actually, when I got there, I didn't have a plan on what to do so I just tried out some different things to improve my football. After a while I started creating different drills to work different aspects such as controlling, turning and crossing. I'm thinking about having a sketchbook with all my drills but I haven't quite started yet.

HKFC 4-1 South China

After coming back to Hong Kong from Blackburn Rovers, my first time playing with the HKFC since three weeks ago was a football match against South China. For the game, I started as a substitute and I accepted that since they haven't watch me play in a while. We played a brilliant game by winning 4-1, but I couldn't be part of this. During the second half, I was going to come on, but due to a technical error, I wasn't allowed to play. It was extremely frustrating since I felt so confident and excited about playing before the game. But now, it looks like I have to wait until Tuesday to play with the HKFC.

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.

Photos

Here are a few photos from Blackburn.

Top: James and me with the Blackburn Rovers' first team coaches

Middle: James and me with the Blackburn Rovers first team

Bottom: James and me with Steve Kean, Blackburn Rovers' manager