The Autobots had a massive win on the weekend against bottom placed team “Scourge”.

First half:
Stevo opened up the score line with a fantastic fake from his usual right flank cannon to divert to his weaker left foot, accurately placing the ball on the wrong side of the keeper.

Scourge responded a few minutes later after the last man (me) hadn’t marked the man properly. Luckily, this was Scourge’s only goal.

After a good long while drawn at 1-1 (with some critical saves from master Les), Stevo found the back of the net again with his left foot. Sliding it in past the keeper at an acute angle.

Second half:
It looked to be another low scoring match for the Autobots with the score line at 2-1 until an unlucky cross bar hit by Howard was cleaned up by Bruno with a beautiful volley right in front of goal. 2 minutes into the second half, the score line was 3-1.

Only a couple of minutes later, Sunny releases Stevo with an accidental (or genius) pass. Stevo then grabs his first hat-trick this season.

Scourge have several attemps at goal, but ultimately fail because of the Autobot’s strong defence and Leslie’s awesome saves. This is further rubbed in after Howard runs down the left wing to score an ultra-tight angled shot, richocheting off the keeper and into the back of the net, making it 5-1.

Stevo then seals the win when the Scourge’s goal keeper has a lapse in judgement and kicks the ball right into Stevo’s feet from the sideline. Making the final scoreline 6-1, the Autobot’s most convincing win this season.

Stats:

Autobots 6 - Scourge 1

Scoresheet

Video: (thanks again to Cung for recording!)

The Autobots are now 4th on the ladder, though the next few matches will be critical if we are to make it to the finals.

Special thanks goes to Andre for filling in after a replacement had cancelled at the last minute.

Cheers,
Pedro

(p.s. please register so you can comment!)

I have been a bit slack in the updates lately. Missed out on commenting the last two games! So what I’ll do is combine the two into one post. I’ll also keep it brief as the videos really do speak for themselves.

Stats:

Round 7
Autobots 5 - Sportsflash 5

Round 8
Autobots 3 - Whooper with Cheese 4

Scoresheet

Video: (thanks to Cung for recording round 8 )

Round 7
First half
Second half

Round 8

Issues:

• Sub out when you’re tired. If you don’t do so, you’re taking up a spot where a fresh pair of legs could be! This is a big reason why people don’t run back into defense.
• NOT enough communication out there. Some of you still need to make yourself heard.
• Awareness is still a big issue. Listen out for people calling for the pass. Trust that they are calling out because they are able to receive. If they called out and weren’t able to receive (from a half decent pass), then it’s their problem.
• Create opportunities for players to pass to you. If you watch the videos, whenever we’re ready to attack, our forwards are usually hiding DIRECTLY behind one of their defenders. USELESS! that’s a useless position to be in, especially if you’re not stealthily indicating that you’re gonna run out of your hiding place to receive the ball. Don’t just stand there and expect a perfect pass! I would say this is the #1 reason why we don’t score more often and why we lose possession unnecessarily.

Kudos:

• To Stevo’s great work in goals.
• Our defense. I think (besides from running out of legs and tiring out), we’re gettin there in terms of defensive ability.
• Richie’s sly goals from free kicks.
• Les’ great cherry pickings.

Cheers,
Pedro

(p.s. please register so you can comment!)

Last night’s game was very impressive. We had a lot of shots on goal and managed to put 5 of them in the back of the net.

Stats:
Autobots 5 - Cool Men Deluxe 6
Autobots goal scorers I have updated the scores, but still missing on one goal that someone scored but no-one is claiming. I can’t see it in the video as well.

Video: (thanks to Isabel for recording!)
First half
Second half

Highlights:

• Osanda’s opening goal (for the Autobots).
• Leslie’s casual goal from Dennis’ corner kick.
• Sunny’s great saves!
• My almost goal from the kick off.
• My little one-two with Howard to score from the right flank.
• Stevo’s great positioning to capitalize on a tap in.
• Osanda’s awesome goal keeping.

Lessons Learnt:

• Not enough tracking and awareness of each other and the opposition. This led to a number of holes in our defense which they capitalized on quite readily.
• Passes are still not as crisp as other teams in the league. We really need to learn to pass quickly and trap effectively.
• More composure when running at goals. There were a number of opportunities where we could’ve and should’ve easily scored but panicked at the last minute.

Round 6 results:

Surprising thing to note here is that Everton creamed Scourge this week.

Ladder:

Unfortunately, we’ve dropped a couple places from last week.

Next week will be our last game before the xmas/new year’s break. It will be tough, but we need those 3 points!

Cheers,
Pedro

(p.s. please register so you can comment!)

Tonight’s game was nothing short of inspirational. We have managed to maintain our unbeaten run against Everton, with a bit of fancy footwork from Howard to boot.

Stats:
Autobots 4 - Everton 1
Autobots goal scorers

Video: (thanks to Johnny for recording!)
First half
half time
Second half

Highlights:

• My cherry pick. hehehe. Thanks to Stevo for the hard work beforehand.
• Howard’s back heel from a corner into the back of the net.
• Stevo’s signature blast from the right wing.
• Great vision and team work from Dennis to Bruno to net our 4th goal.
• And of course, leslie’s beautiful saves. Saved our asses more like it right?

Lessons Learnt:

• Committing too early to tackles. It’s suffice to track the man and make yourself annoying.
• Poor first touches. A lot of us still need to learn how to trap the ball properly.
• Even though we had won the match, we still weren’t marking as well as we should be.
• Howard only scored 1 out of 2 of his back heels. tsk tsk tsk.

Useless facts:

• This is the second win against Everton at Oakleigh sports and rec.
• This is the second win this season.

Keep up the great work Autobots. We should be somewhere near the top 3 now!

Cheers,
Pedro

(p.s. please register so you can comment!)

I’ve managed to upload one of the videos from Sunday’s futsal match against Dynamo Moonshine, it’s the second half and I haven’t tested the link. Please let me know if it works. I’m currently uploading the first half, but it’s taking a while.

**UPDATE: first half is now up as well.

Super Street Fighter II Turbo - HD Remix comes out tomorrrow. Check out this blog from one of the designers for a very interesting read into the changes they’ve made: http://www.sirlin.net/sf

I’ve managed to migrate some of the administrative functionalities of the site to use Google apps, though DreamHost did most of the work for me.

I’m not entirely sure what I want to use the site and this blog for… maybe creating a list first would help?

• Autobots management
• Car blogging
• Life blogging?
• Money blogging…

Well, there’s a start.