Hellenic United Athletic Club | Chicago, USA

Something is just not going well with the HUAC O40 team, as in the past two matches a 10 minute spell full of defensive errors has decided the outcome of both games.

HUAC's players looked distraught and felt deflated after being down 3-0  as early as the 30th minute of the game and after that both teams just went through the motions in the sweltering temperatures barely committing 100% to their teams cause. Chances in front of either goal were few and far between and the match tamely continued and finally ended 4-0 in favor of the visitors.

All 3 first half goals were cheaply conceded as the HUAC defense failed time and time again to pick up the Park Ridge Rogues center-forward who effortlessly scored unopposed in the box and each time exposed the helpless Hatziaggellou in goal.

Perhaps it's time for the coaching duo of Kosmas and Kollias to address this grave issue and place more tactical awareness on the defense collectively, from man marking assignments and to better execution of the offside trap. Continuity must be the key going forward and all these constant back 4 rotations of the stopper position in front of sweeper Tom Bassias just adds to the confusion and the lack of concentration of the entire defensive unit. One of the 4 different players that have seen time at that spot thus far this early season  needs to claim it and make it his own. The coaches have to find the most suitable candidate, trust him and go from there.

In the second 45, HUAC did create a few opportunities but mainly resorted to long range efforts by Jeff Sammels that one or two only narrowly missed and a Yiannis Kosmas close effort that lobbed just over the bar.

On the quick counter and once again after some slack marking the Rogues finished their scoring and the match in the 82nd minute.

It has now been 270 minutes of football and not one goal to show in attack from HUAC and as much as we can sit here and critique the apparent shortcomings of the defense, the strikers and their support cast need to also step it up a bit and make themselves available to receive through balls from midfield.

As for the better performed players today, not much to write home about apart from maybe Rafa Fuchs who had some neat touches during the second half and Jimmy Kollias who tried to organize plays but everywhere else on the field there seemed to be a lack of urgency and aggressiveness.

The team has a week off now due to the Memorial day break so they need to regroup and both coaches would expect that more of the Over 40 players how up to the Tuesday practise sessions and prepare as unit and try to build some chemistry between all 3 lines.

Not all is lost as there have only been 4 matches played to date but all the good work and hype of week 1 has left and the team must recapture that confidence again.
 
Next match is at COD on 6/6/10 at 10:00AM vs Naperville Strikers.
 
Yellow card : Jimmy Kollias for dissent.

By: Jerry Constantine