Belmont U8 Major League Soccer

A Nice bunch of good kids and enthusiastic parents , the squad that is the Belmont Under 8 major league panel arrived in the grounds of CUS on Bird avenue to face St. James in the opening match of the year.

The Squad

Marcus Boggan
John Mulcahy
Brian Cuddy
Fiona McNulty
Cathal Dempsey
Luke Sheehan
Mark Cloonan
Conor Booth
Patrick Sherwin

The excitement of the kids was palpable and we had the official divvying out of the gear... followed by repeated attempts to get their attention for long enough to tell them that the objectives for the year is to have some fun , and that includes the parents..., enjoy themselves and to hopefully win more matches than we lose...

This team will be managed jointly by Hugh Mulcahy and myself , we share the same philosophy that the aim here is to have fun and for the kids to express themselves.

Just before our match began , I got to hear the Granada manager lecturing the parents of his charges about the effort he was going to put in and how he would put todays performance behind him.....Neither Hugh nor myself ever intend to do this , this is a competitive league and we all enjoy the thrill of wining more than losing.

We are playing in the Major League which should give us an advantage as our team is of equal ability compared to the other tean but we are playing in a theoretically lower league.

Our goal is to give everyone decent amounts of pitch time every week and to rotate through goalkeepers over the next few weeks.I suppose it will become clear over the next few weeks , what is exactly the real potential of our team and hopefully we will see dramatic improvements in the kids own positional awareness when the formal coaching starts this wednesday.

The game vs St. James was very much a game of two halves...We lost the first half 7 to nil and but dramatically improved with the benefit of a rest and some positional changes so lost the second half by 2 goals to one.

Our team in the first half ran around like an exhuberant swarm of yellow clad bees and in some cases tackled each other for the ball. Cathal Dempsey, who had bravely volunteered to be the goalie found himself against a very well coached and much better prepared St.James team who looked like they have been training for a few weeks now and certainly their striker was the biggest kid on the pitch by far so the contest of trying to stop his shots was a bit one sided.Our defense and mid field found themselves run ragged as St.James were more used to the large size of the pitch and we found ourselves getting in each others way as much as anything else.The mid fielders of Luke Sheehan and Kevin Johnston did their best to help the defence but our lack of practice was evident and exploited by the slightly better organised opposition and we certainly found ourselves lacking in confidence when faced with the daunting task of running up the pitch in the direction of their goal.

In the second half , we found our composure , Conor Booth took over Goalkeeping duties and with the benefit of the wind and a better organised defence managed to pull off a few great saves.Marcus Boggan and Mark Cloonan stuck to their task in defence in the second half , Marcus deonstrated that he has a big boot and well capable of delivering the ball up field from kickouts. Brian Cuddy was a stalwart in mid field making some great runs forward as he had done in the first half. We introduced Patrick Sherwin who made an immediate impact with his speed and ball skills. Fiona McNulty proved herself to be a very capable and determined player and fought for every ball. Cathal Dempsy , relieved of the pressure of being in goal made a nice few tackles when it counted.

The highlight of the game ocurred the moment the diminutive Fiona McNulty beat the St.James Defence and struck the ball into the back of the net. Cue much cheering from the assembled parents ...Fiona may be small , but her contribution was immense and in the post match analysis , being the first of our team to score a goal earned her the title of 'Man of the Match'

Training on Wednesday should help the kids grow in confidence and we look forward to the next match confident that we have the makings of a decent team. It is only a matter of finding each players strengths from here.

Fixtures published in the Evening Herald every Monday , and on the http://www.sdflsoccer.com/ website on Wednesday or Thursday.

Costs for the year being assessed now , depends on the amount cost of the coaching and number of matcches where we have to pay the referee , treats for the kids...and a fee of Eur 50 for registration with the club per player.

Should come to Eur200 per player. Will confirm....

Liam/ Hugh