27th-28th April 2019
U7 Red
Mt Eliza Red 2 Bentleigh Greens 1
Being Mt Eliza’s first 7-a-side match was going to be an
exciting event. From the kick-off Bentleigh showed that they had a great passing game and dominated the first 5 minutes with the ball not
leaving Mt Eliza’s half. Benjamin in goal stopped a few shots, the Mt Eliza defence of Ryan, Zane and Jack worked well under pressure
supported by the forwards. Mt Eliza broke away from a goal kick and Marlon had a shot on goal that was well saved. From the clearance
Marlon, Zac and James combined well with James scoring the opening goal. The 2nd quarter started with Bentleigh again attacking
with Callum, Josh and Jack defending, this time Bentleigh shot the ball into the top right corner of Mt Eliza’s goal, there was nothing
Benjamin in goal could have done to stop it. At the break it was 1-1.With Marlon now in goal and kicking the ball over the half way line
Jack was able to combine with Zane and James and then on his own passed the ball low and to the keepers left for the second goal. Shortly
after Zane made a run at the defence and managed to shoot but it was saved. In the 4th quarter Zane chased a long clearance from
Marlon but was just beaten to it by a defender who nearly scored an own goal. Despite some late efforts by Bentleigh, Ryan and Callum
defending, Marlon in goal was able to save all the shots and terrorise them with his goal kicks.
U8 Green
U8 Red
Mt Eliza U8 Red 7 v Mt Martha 0
The Mt Eliza U8 Red team secured its third consecutive win for the season with a 7-0 win at home to Mt Martha.
‘The Reds’ expected a tough game against local rivals Mt Martha given their 2 defeats and a draw at the hands of ‘the Destroyers’ in 2018 – including the well fought loss in the final of the Mt Eliza Cup. However, it was a different Mt Martha team this year that (according to their coach) had really struggled so far this year.
‘The Reds’ dominated play from the start holding the ball well in its forward half and Austen Bettess was first to capitalise on this pressure to open the scoring with a toe poke shot that gently rolled across the line. Max Silk then soon followed with a fine goal to place the Reds at 2-0 at quarter time.
The second quarter was a similar affair with Luke Batey striking the only goal of the term – this time with his father watching on from the box seat that is the Game Leader role. After a tough game last week it was great to see Luke bravely bounce back and play so well.
The third quarter was all about the Mt Martha Goalkeeper. He bravely saved many fine shots from a number of our players including Angus Goodinson, Ewan Barnes and Alfie Siveyer-Main – who clearly had his best game for the team. However, Max Silk was able to overcome this and was outstanding in scoring 2 goals against such quality keeping, including one from a seemingly impossible angle, to secure his hat-trick and a well-deserved ‘Player of the Match’ award. Well done Maxy!
The keeper continued to bother the Red’s attackers in the final term blocking more good shots from quality players like Callum Helmore and Elliot Melder but could not withstand some fine shots from Lewis Jedynak and Austen Bettess. Austen capped a fine game with a well-deserved brace to ‘bookend’ the scoring and close out the game.
The Reds all played well and continued to work on creating space and their passing game – with Thomas Allison leading by example - but are in need of a tougher contest to really test out their defensive mindset and need for team play.
U8 Yellow
U8 Blues
U8 Girls
U9 Orange
Our game started late and with double bookings of the pitch resulted in only playing, two 10
minute halves. One goal was kicked from our opponents East Bentleigh. Shame it was a short game with teams travelling quite a distance. But
overall kids were happy enough.
U9 Yellow
A great win for U9 Yellow against East Bentleigh Stingers in very cold & windy conditions at home.
Score was 4 - 0 Goal kickers were Phoenix, Charley, Will & Ben Ben was strong in defence. Phoenix played a great game in the midfield
supplying the forwards with plenty of opportunities to score. Will played forward in the second half & along with the rest of the team
applied a lot of pressure on Bentleigh’s defence. Will received "The Coaches Award" on the day by Coach Steve for his hard work at both
ends of the pitch. An all-round great effort by the boys & third win in a row.
U9 Gold
U9 Blue
U9 Green
U10 Kangaroos Red v Langwarrin
We were all looking forward to our second game of the season
and knowing that Langwarrin is a great club we weren’t surprised when they put the pressure on our defence in the first few minutes. Nigel
managed well in the back line with two strong clearances before a great push forward from Paul that ended up in a strong shot that
unfortunately hit the cross bar. Soon after though Paul put in a great pass to Sam who scored the first goal of the match. A run forward
from Langwarrin was then intercepted well by Marley and though the ball then remained in our half lots of good defence from Langwarrin kept
us from scoring. However, that was only until Woody side-stepped the keeper for our second taking us to the half time break with a great
lead of 2-0! There was more pressure from Langwarrin in the first five minutes of the second half, but they didn’t manage to get a shot on
goal and after a quick turnover from us Woody scored a second with support from Koroush. Great team work boys! Lewis then showed everyone
the importance of perseverance and kept regaining the ball before putting in a pass to Paul who scored an excellent goal before a hat trick
for Woody made it 5-0 to us. Langwarrin continued to fight for the ball and scored a good goal before a second shot was saved by our goalie
Lachlan M. In the last few minutes Langwarrin scored another before two defensive headers from Toby and Nigel meant the score remained at
5-2 when the final whistle blew. Amazing game boys, well done!
U10 Yellow
Very exciting game against several of our friends at Mornington. Mornington had a poor start but re-grouped at half time to kick a goal
over Thomas' head.
It wasn't enough though - final score 2 -1 to us with Xander and Flynn Baker kicking our goals. Thanks to Tomi for coaching while Kane had
a game in the City.
U10 Green
Another great effort by the boys drawing against Peninsula Strikers.
1:1 was the final score, which is fantastic as Peninsula have always fielded a good side.
In my opinion we were the better team for the majority of the game, we just could not convert. Even a penalty was saved!
The highlight of the game was when our player, Noah had about 6 of their players trying to tackle him, and he danced Ana dances with the
ball right at his feet until he beat them all to cross it into the box! It was magic!
U10 Blue
U10 Gold
U10 Girls
Brighton FC 6 – Mount Eliza 1
The third game of the season for the U10 girls saw us venture off in
rainy conditions to Brighton Football Club. An early casualty was our drone in a slightly soggy start but we decided to soldier on with the
game anyway! The girls were met with a real challenge this week in the form of a strong attacking line from Brighton FC who, despite some
excellent goalie work from Indi Bryant, managed to put in 4 goals in the first half with some power kicking and display of strong skills.
Ella Andaloro in the mid field showed great resilience following a hard ball to the face, and after some cartoon birds around her head, she
played on with great style! The Mount Eliza girls struggled in the first half to find the flow by spacing apart in their positions that
came in Week 2. Lily Rivett again showed great confidence in tackling and pressuring the opposition to force errors. Madeleine Hadley also
showed good resilience, trying to play on despite a sore ankle. In the second half, the girls improved by finding more space by using the
wings and by starting to make some confident passes to team mates. They were unlucky to miss several shots at goal, in particular Jessica
Baird gave it a real scare at one point! It seemed like we couldn’t buy a goal until finally first match player Leyla Ay put it in the net
from a rebound to much sideline cheering from the peanut gallery! Leyla earned player of the match demonstrating good dribbling technique,
tackling and…. well just about everything really! Chloe Morgan showed excellent persistence and tackling by chasing opposition players down
and never surrendering! Gemma Gilchrist did an excellent job in goal under pressure, even despite the annoying shouting of her dad
(co-manager & professional backseat coach) at times! Brighton FC were able to put 2 more goals in the net from some excellent attacking
shots to our 1 but our girls had far more attack in the second half. A real positive out of this week is that the girls never gave up,
still trying desperately to score right up to the whistle! Result at full time was Brighton 6 – Mt Eliza 1 & in good news, the slightly
soggy drone is recovering and soon to head to the sky to record future victories!!
U11 Green
MESC Green v Chelsea
The Greens took a while to warm up and shake off the Easter cobwebs. Chelsea chased the ball well and parked the bus. We had plenty of
chances in front of goal however the finishing wasn't decisive enough to make it past a tenacious Chelsea goalkeeper. After some complaints
about the ball being too light and the ref refusing to change it, the second half saw the Greens coming out fighting and moving the ball
around nicely. After 10 minutes Louie broke the deadlock with a well taken goal. Mt Eliza immediately went on the attack looking for a
second and were incredibly unlucky. It became evident Chelsea had installed an invisible forcefield straight out of a Marvel film, that
denied what seemed like more shots on goal than Arsenal last season. With the greens playing very high pressing football, they left
themselves open at the back and got caught on the break in the last 10 minutes conceding 4 goals thanks to Chelsea's star number 4 who had a
bit of Eden Hazard about him. This was a massive reminder for the Greens to play it safe when you are approaching the end phase of a game.
Player of the game went to Thomas Rich for his amazing work rate. As an observer commented, this was a strange game to watch. One Mt Eliza
had in the bag and should have kept it in the bag. A very exciting game and credit must go out to all the players from both teams.
U11 Yellow
MESC Yellow 4 Peninsula Strikers 1
Mt Eliza Yellow played away at Peninsula on a cold and windy Saturday with a number of people out we had 8 and had to borrow 1 with no
substitutions. Never mind as our boys have clearly showed over the last 4 games (2 friendlies and 2 matches) that they always go out hard
and give it their best. 1st half saw some nice work from our defence Levi always solid at the back, Tully and Andy helping to press the
ball up into our midfield and attacking zones. Andy called out Bodhi and Finn for their high run rate, winning a number of turnovers - and
Jarvis made a couple of nice saves. Louis executed some great crosses and was rewarded for his efforts with a goal taken off his weaker
foot - half time 1-0 Mt Eliza. Jarvis swapped with Finn in Goals and immediately you could see his skill creating opportunities in
attack. Jarvis executed one such play - chipping the ball back over his head to Louis who caught it on the run to outpace 2 keeps and beat
the goalie. Finn was unlucky not to keep out a Peninsula screamer by stretching high right to get 1 hand on the ball - but it went in.
Bodhi scored a hard and fast strike from mid field and Peninsula headed own goal in off a Louis corner. Our Coaches were super happy on
the day with how hard the boys are working on the field for each other, their play and communication with each other - exciting stuff and
well done boys.
U11 Red
U11 Orange
U12 Blue
U12 Green
U12 Green vs Skye Utd 5-2 Win.
Boys were not entirely awake at 9am and started the game with eyes closed which lead to Skye putting one away early 1st 1/2
Although the goal was actually scored from offside position, boys have been taught the golden rule never to stop until Ref blows whistle.
At this point they did stop. Had they not stopped they could have snuffed out the attack and preventing an early goal.
However, it was also a good wake up call for the team. From this point on the boys fired up the engines and started to play.
Despite out playing Skye they managed to put 3 away to what should have been at least 8 goals.
Coming back out on 2nd 1/2 boys continued their attack only to be denied a few times by a dip in the upright bar.
Again they could have been up another 8 goals but only managed to put 2 more away before Skye got a lucky goal by a clearance that found
our
keeper not paying attention.
We take any win as it comes, but felt boys didn't quite play at their full potential and should have at least come away 10-2 at the
minimal.
We are always proud of these boys no matter how they play.
.
U12 Red
Mt Eliza Reds 0 Berwick Lions 3
U12 reds came up against a strong & organised Berwick team on Saturday morning at a cold & windy Emil Madsen.
After going 1-0 down to a penalty after 15 mins, the Reds started to gain momentum & came very close to an equaliser following a
beautiful through pass from Noah to Mali who composed himself well only for the keeper to make a wonderful save to deny the reds a well
deserved equaliser.
With the teams coming out for the 2nd half, Berwick got an early 2nd half goal which knocked the wind out of the reds which lead to a 3rd
goal for the visitors. With this being only our 2nd game of the season there is lots to be excited about for the coming weeks. Well done to
all the boys, in particular to Marley, who was MOM with a wonderful display at the back.
U12 Orange
U12 Navy
U12 Gold
Casey Comets FC Titus 16 vs Mount Eliza U12 Gold 1
This weeks game was really tough and doesn't
reflect the effort put in by all of the players. They scored a few more goals then we would've liked them to.
A few special mentions;
A huge effort put in by Matt and Alex in keeper stopping shot after shot. The defenders Danny, Ernie, Liam, Lincoln and Olly had a rough
time in defense having to defend against repeat attacks and multiple counter attacks. We found that the defense was getting a little bit
lost at some times not marking up our opponents in the box and being drawn to the ball. But a really good effort with some brilliant tackles
being made.
The midfielders Matt, Alex, Liam, Danny, Luca and Ernie did a brilliant job running back and helping out the defense, you guys also did a
great job creating goal scoring chances. Somehing to work on will be spreading out and not being drawn to the ball.
The strikers Ben, Olly and Danny did a great job getting the ball into our attacking third and creating opportunities to score, just need to
work on offsides.
Congratulations to Luca who won the motm award and a great goal, very well deserved.
U12 Girls
U13
U13 Red vs Strikers 14-0
Easy to say with a result like this, the other team can't have been very good.
But that is far from the truth.
Strikers were a good team, but were unprepared for the onslaught from a team that has been very fired up and drilled
beforehand. The Reds held formation and structure the whole time and simply playing chess like moves through the Strikers team
and making sure every shot counted. Every attack from the Strikers found itself running into a very solid and very well organized defence.
If the Reds continue every game like this, we should find ourselves outplaying other teams.
In general, the Reds have been working very hard to get to where they are at now, it was never a result of gifted players, but players who
have worked hard.
Very proud day for us.
U14
U15
