Great start.
Some big ones to drop your Captain and Irvine, who is one of my favourite players over the years. Usually tireless in the midfield.
I was most excited to see Irankunda on this stage, and he delivered. What pace. If we plan to “defend” for large periods of the game, we need an attacking threat like him up front. If you stack 11 behind the ball, it’s inevitable at this level, they will score. So having an outlet to counter with is a must.
Beach did well too. His save of Canhanoglu’s shot was great. I’m just sad there’s not some better camera angles of it. To be fair, I think Ryan gets beat on that shot. Ryan’s distribution is a bit better though, so while it’s hard to drop Beach based on his performance, it wouldn’t surprise me if Popa has some specific players in mind for certain games.
Newcastle’s (South Cardiff Junior) Connor Metcalfe with a nice goal to seal the victory.
Overall, great, gritty performance.
In the modern World Cup with best 3rd places moving on, a 2-0 win, sure puts one foot into the round of 32.
Also, I’m a big fan of most of the changes they’ve made to rules.
I think it’s 5 seconds for a throw in - then it’s reversed.
5 seconds can be triggered by the referee for Goal kicks.
Keepers have 8 seconds to release ball.
10 seconds to leave the pitch when subbed otherwise you need to wait a minute to try again.
If you receive injury treatment - you go off for a minute.
All things to eliminate time wasting.
There was even a free kick reversed the other morning. Defender given a yellow for a tackle. Replay showed it was a dive. Reversed. Attacker got the yellow. Step in the right direction.
