Matt Bricalli John Stirling
PSA 4-1 JPC
Pre Tour Friendly
Due to the fact that four of the touring players where missing (sick) the PSA side had to cope with only having 11 players available for this fixture, with Paddy who is in the Rochedale Rovers squad but not coming on the tour kindly answering our SOS call to make up the eleven.
This was never going to be an easy game, the Korean lads who make up 90% of the JPC team never stop working and will always go the full 90 minutes. Jake Haling (GK) was made captain for the day and led by example pulling off some fine saves, Jake was given specific instructions about his distribution (play out from the back whenever possible) needless to say his
distribution was first class.
The team was set out in a 442 formation with the midfield attacking in a diamond shape to allow the left and right back space to attack out wide, Matt Bricarli, from the sunshine coast was asked to play at right back, a position he has never played before, yet after a nervy start looked as if he had played there all his life, this was the first time Matt had met the other
players and a mutual respect has now been firmly established. Paddy did a great job at centre back reading situations and distributing the ball well. Welshy played as the other centre back and was as solid as a rock winning, which seemed like every tackle he went in for. John Stirling played at left back and like Matt was a little apprehensive at first with the idea of bombing forward however once he realised that he
had cover from his defensive duties he began to cause JPC the same kind of trouble as Matt on the right. Zack Tung played as the defensive middfielder in the diamond, like Matt this was his first meeting with his fellow tourists and again mutual respect was the order of the day Zack instinctively understood when and when not too pull out of the holding roll in front of the centre backs and on one such occasion smashed
in a goal from just outside the box.
Ben Boland played in the centre of midfield and made some important tackles and held his position well throughout the game, he made some great forward runs which at times other players missed however they where important as he opened up space for others to exploit, Ben came very close to heading a goal from a corner in the last 15 minutes and his presence in the air
was noticeable throughout the match. Jamie Mcgregor did well along side Ben however Jamie did just about enough and still had plenty left in the tank at the final whistle (no refunds for un used fuel at the end of the game) Jamie has much more to offer than he sometimes shows and I believe the time is right for it to come to the surface. At the top of the diamond was Greg Warden who linked well with the forwards and
played some inteligent balls out wide to the overlaping full backs, he also recived some not so welcomed attention from one or two of the opposition. Kris D'alessandro and Clayton Mackenzie led the front line as well as anyone I have seen at their age, both players have very different attributes which helped them create havoc. Kris is very comfortable with his back to goal and Clayton prefers to run at the defence,
that is not to say they can't do what the other dose best, but it dose make for an interesting combination.
I can't remember who scored the other goals (sorry lads) but as I said before the match, it was all about giving the players something different to think about, a specific set of instructions and for me to see if they could follow them and keep their shap. I could not have been any happier with the way the lads responded, they have never played with a diamond formation in
the midfield and it takes discipline to keep your shape and follow instructions. The match was played over 3x30 minutes JPC had constant interchange of approximately 16 players and PSA 11 players due to sickness. the match was refereed by Jay who is one of the Korean coaches and in my opinion is not only fare and just but by far the best referee i have seen in Queensland by a mile.
On behalf of the PSA players, parents and officials many thanks to JPC for providing post match food and the facilities. A special thanks to all the JPC players who played some very exciting football as always.
Steve Murray.