Varsity Boys battle against Dulwich in opening game

The Varsity Boys’ season commenced on March 8 with a hard-fought 1:0 loss against Dulwich. Despite the disappointing result, the team maintained their structure and played well. Given that the team is very young, with some playing their first ever Varsity game, as well as other factors such as the recent pollution limiting the numberof practices that they’ve had, Coach Steve Spanos was very impressed with their performance, stating “Overall I’m pretty happy. We came out and the goals were to play well together as a team, to hustle and to do our best. I think we did a lot of that. The guys were all really trying their hardest.”

The only goal of the game came down the Boys’ left flank, but it was a controversial moment in the game, since the Dulwich player supposedly pushed his defender before scoring. However, the referee ignored the complaints of players and fans watching the game and ruled that the goal would stand.

For the remainder of the match, the Boys kept Dulwich at bay, not giving them space nor opportunities to shoot, clearing the ball whenever it was in the Boys’ area. On the offensive end of the pitch, they created several scoring chances and constantly made runs off the ball. They played with high intensity and pushed forward every time they won the ball back, which was the team’s main focus for this game. “We simply pass the ball up front because we’re not going to be able to keep possession forever, so when we have the ball, we don’t pass back, we pass forward. The mentality is to go forward,” explained Chester Poon (10C). But unfortunately, the Boys were unable to score the equalizer, but the team displayed their fighting spirit and refusal to give up.

​Coach Spanos speaking with the team Courtesy of Sungho Lee

Reflecting on the match, Coach Spanos identified certain aspects that he wants the team to improve on, saying, “[We] want to focus on our intensity and making runs off the ball to get open for each other. [Another] area to improve on is winning balls in the air and ‘bouncing’ balls on the ground.”
The referee had to constantly stop play due to the number of fouls committed during the match mostly by Dulwich. The Boys used this to their advantage to get closer and closer towards the opposition goal, hoping to score.

Featured Image– Brian Kim blocks a Dulwich shotCourtesy of Sungho Lee

by Luke Chong