St. Clare's - 1 Henley College - 3 (AET)

The boys' football team were defeated 3 – 1 after extra time in a thrilling opening round match of the Oxfordshire Schools Cup by Henley College. There were two forced changes to the named team; Shi Yang Zhang and Daniel Galalae were unavailable due to illness and University interviews. Niklas Rehm returned to the team after his illness and Arjaldo Karaj kept his place on the right side of midfield.

St. Clare's slow start was punished with a goal from a corner kick in the third minute of play. However the boys really showed great character to dominate the next 30 minutes of play. The midfield triangle of Marco Ferrari, Remigiusz Manko and Niklas Rehm worked well to close down the space available to the opposition. This work made space for our wide players, Arjaldo and Milivoje Sestovic. Milivoje scored a wonder goal with a 25 yard shot. This was particularly pleasing because of the work done in training on finishing from the last game.

In the second half the fast pace of the game was starting to effect some players. Rezo Makalatiya, Arjaldo and Milivoje did give away some needless free kicks. With the scores tied at one a piece and Rezo on a yellow card, Alberto De Angelis was introduced for his first team start of the season. The game ended 1-1 after 90 minutes.

The team talk before extra time was a mixture of motivational words and plenty of “Deep Heat” (warm rub for sports injuries). Henley looked the fitter team. There were a surprising number of St. Clare's players complaining of leg cramps. An unfortunate goal keeping mistake resulted in Henley taking the lead in the first period of extra time. Yet again the St. Clare's boys took the game to the opposition opting to play three defenders in the back and five midfield players. Janez Kosec shot hit the Henley cross bar. With St. Clare's pushing forward for a winner Henley exploited the spaces and scored their third.

Instead of the Coach highlighting the areas that the team need to work on he left the players with two questions;

What have individual players learnt from this match?

How can the team improve for the next match?

The squad included; Chung Yin (Nicolas) Fan; Federico Pileri; Janez Kosec; Arved Pohlabeln; Ridi Kotja, (Captain); Niklas Rehm; Milivoje Sestovic; Marco Ferrari; Remigiusz Manko; Rezo Makalatiya; Arjaldo Karaj;

Replacement: Alberto De Angelis.

January