Murdoch University Soccer Club

Murdochs early season title aspirations received a jolt this weekend when a strong Shamrock side gave a lesson in team play and decisiveness. Murdoch were off to a flyer when the first attack of the game saw Anthony Walsh bundled over for a penalty, which Flav converted against his old club. The lead was too easily gained and Murdoch failed to build on it. Within 10 minutes Shamrock had eqaulised when an inability to clear the lines saw a shot from wide of the area beat the keeper at the near post. Shamrock soon began to gain a foothold on the match and their target of hitting the big man up front paid off when the Murdoch defence allowed the forward space and time to run clear and leave the keeper with no chance.

At halftime the emphasis was on getting the basics right, these instructions fell on deaf ears as a poor clearance fell to the feet of the Shamrock leftback who let fly from distance to score the goal of the game. Murdoch eqaulized through a route one goal themselves when Anthony chased down a lost cause and got on the end of the ball to round the keeper and score. Murdochs lifeline did not last long as another defensive error left the keeper with no chance on a one on one situation. 4-2 became 5-2 as the Murdochs heads dropped. Flav pulled a consolation goal back from a great Luiz corner but the damage was done. The humiliation was complete when a short goal kick routine went straight to the Shamrock attacker who took the gift.

This result was a wake up call for the squad and hopefully will be learnt from as we really should be competing with these teams if we are serious about this season.

The long trip to the end of the free-way proved to be a worthwhile venture for the reserves. With news of the league leaders slipping up mid-week the squad realised that it was a great opportunity to draw level with Lynwood. Despite the rewards on offer it was a fairly timid first 45 minutes with Joondalup making the early running and exploiting Murdoch inability to retain control of the ball for sustained periods. Murdoch made several changes from the previous week with Anthony and Dwayne coming down from the first team and Jordan and Matt going up in the opposite direction. The changes allowed Mark Hodgson his first start of the season and he played like a man with a point to prove. Despite the inertia from the Murdoch team the first half coughed up a numbner of chances that Murdoch through a mixture of good defending, poor finishing were unable to convert. Stewart in goal was calle into action and saw his left hand upright rattled at the close of the half.

The halftime chat looked to address the passiveness of the lads and it was a far different team that began the second half. Murdoch pressed the opposition and began to play in a series of testing balls that pressured the Joondalup defence. The break through came when skipper Tim Brewer pick the ball up in the box and was crudely chopped from behind for a penalty. Flav stepped up and made amends for the prvious weeks miss by confidently dispatching the ball into the corner of the net. Murdoch maintained the intensity and the arrival of fresh legs on the flanks enusred that Joondalup were kept on the back on the back foot. One of theses changes was Vincent who saw a tremendous volley crash against the post and the follow up from Anthony also hit the crossbar. While the lead stayed at 1 goal Joondalup were always in the game and a few late attacks put Murdoch under intense pressure. From one of these attacks a clearance released Anthony who outpaced his marker to slot the ball home for a deserved goal. With the 2 goal advantage the pressure was off mUrdoch and they ran out comfortable winners.

Next weeks fixture bring last years runners up Shamrock to Len Shearer where Murdoch will be looking to improve on last years performances and cement their position at the top of the table.

All Murdoch players are invited along to Powerplay Sports, Churchill Ave, Subiaco on Wednesday 28th May @ 6:30pm.

There will be 20% off all items in store, including Under Armour (’Skins’ but better and cheaper), boots, training gear.

They will put on some pizza’s and soft drinks too!

Please try and get along if you need any new gear. With the winter months coming up, the Under Armour will come in handy.

The battle of Len Shearer will go down in history as one of the bloodiest battles to be seen in WA football. Casualties included 4 Freo players, an injured Jacob King and the good game of football itself. The game started at a fast pace with both sides having chances and no-one wanting to take control of the grenade, choosing to give possession away at every opportunity. On the half hour, Freo took the lead when Murdoch failed to clear the ball and the striker took his chance. Murdoch equalised soon after, with Kudzi heading in confidently from a pin point cross from Sasa. The game was moving end to end and was entertaining with football certainly being the winner. Freo played as a team beyond their divsion and were a constant threat.

Before half time, Freo were reduced to 9 men. The first player was sent off for 2 yellows with the second player being sent from the field for a nasty challenge on the Murdoch Goalscorer. As is with the case of many teams who are up against teams benig reduced to 10 and 9 men, Murdoch found it difficult to get to grips with the more time and space they had and were determined to give Freo the ball at every opportunity. Freo on the other hand were fighting for their lives……quite literally. They were chasing down every ball, put men behind the ball to deny Murdoch space in the final third and cretaed a few problems with their striker holding the ball up well and bringing other into the play. Murdoch gave Freo too many free kicks and throw ins in the final third which gave Freo the opportunity to put the Murdoch defence into trouble.

The game had already had its fair share of excitement but more was to follow, with Freo being reduced to 8 men after their player was sent off for his second bookable offence. Very poor discipline with him kicking the ball towards the ref when he was receiving his first caution. You just cant do that! The spectators thought it was acceptable and continued a tirade of abuse towards the official. One of these ‘fans’ entered the field of play threatening all sorts and was held back by our highly trained security team, who were called into action on more than one occasion.

To the relief of the Murdoch supporters, they went 2-1 ahead through a very fortunate mis hit shot from Anthony Walsh that lobbed over the keeper. Instead of capitalising on this, Murdoch gave away yet another ooportunity for the Freo full back to put in a very long throw. This caused lots of trouble for the defense and Freo equalised, much to the home teams embarrassment and dis-belief. A lack of discipline and a few choise word towards the referee resulted in another Freo player to be dismissed leaving them with only 7 men on the pitch!!!

After a lot of huffing and puffing by Murdoch, they scored a third 5 minutes from the end to secure the victory. You will never see a game like this again, hopefully for you that is!

The romance of the cup was on every ones minds as the draw brought together a Murdoch team keen to return to winning ways against a lower league side keen to cause an upset. On a bright sunny day the two teams set out in a robust manner with the emphasis being on pressure and iintensity at the expense of quality. Murdochs opening sorties relied heavily on the powerful kicking from Stewart and it was a tactic that bore little fruition. An adjustment was needed and one of the few attacks played on the deck saw Flav outmanouver his opponent and fire a well placed shot in at the farpost only to be denied by a dubious offside decision. Murdoch regrouped from this but were unable to breaksown the Croatian defence. With the score level at halftime, the Murdoch halftime chat involved greater discipline at keping shape and a greater desire to play a passing game. Somewhere in the chat the need to defend must have been overlooked as Croatia took full advantage of some indecisive defending to open the scoring. Murdoch were shocked into life and responded instantly with a well worked equaliser that saw Luiz level the scores. The introduction of Ishaln and Vincent added fresh impetus to the Murdoch attacks and these were rewarded when from a Tim Brewer corner Flav bravely headed in despite the close attention of Nursey showing off infront of his mum for Mothers Day! Going behind deflated the Fremantle players and Murdoch soon doubled their lead when a fine run from Jordan saw him place theball wide of the visiting custodian much to the relief of Murdoch. The final whistle ended a closely contested match that saw Murdoch return to winning ways. There are still areas for improvement especially with a run of big games coming up.