Match Reports
Under 13s
Stuart Bethall
The team got a change of pace on Wednesday with one of the first team players running the session as I wasn’t available. Friday was a chance to get back to normal and plan for the weekend's game. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed with the outcome. Dancing, wrestling, chasing each other in between drills, not listening to instruction, talking when I was, genuine lack of effort and misbehaviour were all issues we had on Friday night alone. Something had to change and it was time to make that happen.
For Sunday's game we started with 10 players on the pitch in total and 4 on the bench. This was a lesson of team punishment. They are all desperate to win on a Sunday, but do not want to put the effort in at training. No one had scored when I put the 11th player on the pitch but I think the team got the message. The lesson had continued by the final whistle as we had lost to a team that was not very good at all. No surprise there!
The end of game message was easy – What you put in, you will get out! I expect every player at training to listen, learn, behave and give 100%. If you are not going to do this, please do not come to training as I am not interested in you spoiling it for me and the other players. Failure to adhere to these rules will result in little or no game time for the culprits.
Under 14s
Shaban Mehmet
 This week's focus was heavily on creating opportunities & shooting. A week where one training sessions behavior was unacceptable and one was fantastic. Our training attitudes need to improve to progress as footballers. That said the group applied themselves well on Sunday and created some great first half opportunities against a strong wing and good opponent and deserved their lead through some powerful running from Marcus and a lovely finish to end the half 1-0 up.
Second half started very slow and we thought that the wind was going to do all the work for us. A scrappy second half lead to the opposition equalizing close to the end of the game. But sometimes in football it only takes one moment to win the match and that fell to Brandon who latched on to a great through ball and nicely chipped the keeper. Well done for never giving up.
Under 15s
Paul Nieuwenhuizen
 The conditions on the weekend made for an interesting contest. With a gale force wind blowing straight down the pitch, neither side was able to play a consistent brand of football.
The first half saw us kick with the wind. This meant we continually tried to play the long ball over the top but with little effect. The times we choice to play the ball and control possession saw us create several chances. A well worked passage of play saw the boys go 1 nil up going into halftime.
Halftime, the boys were reminded that we needed to work on deny space as Dandenong would look to play the long ball and they should allow for the wind when setting up to defend.
The second half saw us concede 2 goals after giving away free kicks in goal scoring positions. The free kicks were a result of the team not closing the space down quickly enough in the middle of the pitch and allowing Dandenong to play the ball forward into a dangerous area. In between conceding we managed to score from a corner kick that came off a Dandenong player. At the end the draw was a good outcome.
Under 16s
Tommy Giuliani
 Sunday's game has confirmed to me the great strides the players have made in two very important aspects of their football development. In the past fortnight there has been a major focus on "Denying our opponents time and space to build up"- in simpler terms, pressing; how and which parts or the pitch to press and when to "trigger" the press. This is a HABIT and doesn't involve fancy footwork, just game intelligence, concentration and work rate. The boys have embraced this at training and been very coachable.
A nice by product of these sessions is the team "in possesion" at training are under lots of pressure and must begin to play simpler 1/2 touch football; scanning and movement become critical in order to retain.
On Sunday we were organised in and out of posession. We kept a nice shape; we completed more passes in this game than they had in the previous month of games, we were far better in our build-up phases, there were lots of triangles and combinations plays. When we lost possesion we pressed and won the ball back aggressively, quickly and much higher up the pitch than in the past games. We now look like a pro-active team, not a team dropping off, zoning poorly and forgetting how to win back possesion. In the coming week we'll tidy up our "transition" moments, lots of improvements to be had still in this area
It's easy to forget, but we are playing at THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF CLUB COMPETION IN VICTORIA in the NPL. This is an incredible opportunity for these players. There were 5 high quality players eligible for this group who didn't play on Sunday. It may have got us a win but it doesn't matter. At GVSUNS/NPL it's about developing players to be good enough to play senior NPL football. Nothing less, if we don't we'll be relegated and be back in State league1 or lower.
At the moment the seniors are in NPL2. They finished third, a wonderful effort. We want to push into NPL1 with homegrown talent and not play the "money game". We're looking for that group. We need players of the right character and resilience to be pushed beyond their comfort zone.
Coachability is an important character to have. I'll break my rule of not praising individuals in match reports (we play a team game) to highlight coachable players of the right character. Stefan Mori has come into this group about 6 weeks ago. He has come to us with no exposure to football at a club level let alone NPL level, just grassroots school football. But he comes with a great attitude and a strong desire to learn and get better. He trains often and knuckles down well.
To look comfortable at this level in 6 weeks shows how much improvement can be made with the right mix of ability and commitment. On Sunday he was exceptional with his pressing game playing as a striker and didn't give them any peace. He followed instructions and won the ball back numerous times in high areas for his team. He exemplified this team's development. Indeed every player had their best game individually since I've come into this group.
Well done Suns 16s.⚽️⚽️⚽️???
|
2018 Asian Football Confed. 
During the week we worked on applying pressure as a team whilst in BPO. 
