Lux Leaves Plenty To Ponder

It’s difficult to know how to feel about the Lux tournament on Saturday. The teams were split which naturally diluted the chances of having one of the teams win it out but it increased the chances of two teams getting to at least the semi. That was the minimum target laid out at the start.

Whether the day was a success or a failure won’t be known for a while and will depend on how honest players are with themselves when they reflect on their own performance. Some people find it difficult to ruthlessly strip down their performances but lads will have to do it if we are to improve. The way things work here makes it difficult for the trainers to be brunt so the players need to do a share of it themselves.

It’s not a case of the day being a disaster though, not at all. It’s just that there were plenty of pointers of where we all need to improve and we need to pick up on them.

I played in goal for the B team, with Johnny as captain and that gave me a front row view of the most positive feature of both teams’ performances. Our defence exceeded expectations and the result was we conceded the fewest goals of any team in the tournament.

The lads worked very well together, closing down the middle and forcing the opposition into long range points. Two goals, one from a penalty was the result. I had two shots to deal with in front of goal and the rest were forced out to narrow angles. It was a prime example of how you can maximise your potential through good communication and awareness of what’s going on around you.

The foundations were set by Kev and Ross. Kev thinks that he gets a disproportionate amount of abuse on the blog and he may be right! 2008 was a great year for him on the pitch so maybe it’s my way of trying to goad similar performances out of him. He dislocated his finger two weeks ago and took a kick to it on Saturday but he stuck at his task, blocking and harrying and limiting his gallops up the pitch. He has started his journey to redemption!

Alongside him was Ross. He played mostly midfield on the B team last year and it was only on Saturday I learned he was actually a back. You could see from his performance as he attacked the ball and distributed sensibly, conceding very few frees in the process.

Shane and Fergal bought into the same philosophy outside them and were helped greatly by the work rate of those further up the field, particularly Mike and Ricky in the early games and Eoin and Conor Mul later in the day.

We qualified for the semi by virtue of our win over Lux B, even though we lost to Den Hague in the other group game. That meant we faced off against Lux A. I’d heard they were training hard and that their panel had improved. It was all true and they had a balance and touch of class that we couldn’t match. I wasn’t surprised when they went on to win it. The game will have more serious consequences for us as Eoin badly dislocated his shoulder late in the game. We wish him a speedy recovery.

The defeat put us into a 3rd/4th playoff against Amsterdam. The attitude of the team in this game was a highlight of the day. Lads were hungry to take every opportunity to impress and that was shown in a great battling performance. Again the defence excelled. Will dug deep into his energy reservoir while Timmy picked up the scoring burden after Eoin’s departure. It was a penalty from him that sealed a 1-5 to 0-3 victory and ensured a positive finish to the day. Not that Tim will remember. He left the field concussed before the end.

There were a couple of more impressive moments to mention. Will made an impressive debut, capping it with a classy goal against Lux B while fellow Canadian Gordon, came off the bench to serve up a tasty point too.

There were three other teams in action on the day. Our men’s A team claimed 5th and will probably feel they should have done better.

Our Ladies came 5th and 1st. The A team were tested to the limit after Ciara and Sinead headed for hospital and Anay left the field with a recurrence of an old knee injury. They pulled it out of the bag though to give their new manager Aonghus O’Muir.. his first tournament win.

We have five weeks to our next football tournament and the whispers suggest we now move to phase two of the season which may well be a little more painful than the first.