People who only look at the result won't understand what I will write now:

I am very satisfied with our game today. It was by far the best football we have played so far and the team even over-achieved the task I gave them: a certain amount of successful passes. In total, they had more than 160 successful passes in 80 minutes. I was hoping for 100.

When you just look at the result, you can say: 3-11? What a horrible result. But junior football is not result-football. If it would be about results, I could play with 6 defenders and 4 defensive midfielders and park the bus. What would that help? I want my players to learn how to play proper football. How to pass, how to move, how to act as a team together, with a plan. This takes time and a lot of practise. Games like today help a lot achieving that goal one day in the future.

You see, what if I tell you that 5 of the 11 goals for PeFF happened because their striker got delivered the ball directly from us and put it 5 times into the empty goal? Are these goals that help learning football? Not for the goalscorer, because she was just lucky. For us, yes: don't pass the ball directly to the opponent right in front of you, especially if the goal is empty. Other goals that happened were good shots, straight under the crossbar. Will those shots be goals in the future when you have a taller, adult goalkeeper? Maybe. Probably not. I consider it an exploit of the situation: too big goals for too small kids. For years I've been adcovating for a new goal size for teenagers between junior goals and adult goals. We try out a different form of goalscoring right now. We started last week. And against PeFF, we scored two of our goals in the way we practised. That made me very happy.

To summarise: a 3-11 means nothing unless the result is the only thing that matters to you. That's why I can say that I am very satisfied with our game, because given the situation (only 9 players + 3 players from the T05-team) and my tasks for the team, the players have performed very well. PeFF of course is a deserved winner of this game and they also practised playing good football. That's why overall it was a very entertaining match. Unlucky goals happen in junior football. It's a pity that there were so many of them today. Anyway, congratulations to PeFF for a good game.

Some happenings:

3. The first minutes showed a lot of good passes from us. A good example how important a good ball control at the beginning of a game is. It gives you self-confidence.

4. The first unlucky goal. Pass right to the striker who puts an easy ball into the empty goal, 1-0.

7. First corner for PeFF. Siiri secures the ball and initiates an immediate counter attack from the left wing to the right. Ronja finishes with a tough shot which the keeper paries.

10. My note says "super football moment". That's a rare compliment. ;) Leonna and Siiri double their opponent on the left side. Leonna passes the ball to Ilona in the center who quickly shifts the game to the right wing by sending Ronja. With her newly discovered physical strength, Ronja marches down her side and finishes with a precise shot flat to the left corner, 1-1. A truly great goal.

13. The second unlucky goal. Exactly the same situation: a pass straight to the foot of the opponent's striker and an easy shot into the empty goal, 2-1.

14. A through-pass between our central defense brings a striker in a 1v1 situation against Pinja. Smart finish, 3-1.

16. Another pass straight to the opponent's striker. Luckily, the finish is too unprecise and doesn't make it behind the goalline.

17. Ilona sends Ronja down the right wing again. Another tough shot and another good safe from the keeper.

18. Another pass to the opponent's striker and another unprecise finish.

20. A nice shot from 18m on our left side hits right under the crossbar, 4-1.

25. The defense tries to put the striker in an offside position. I didn't see whether it was offside or not, but I saw that while our defenders all stopped running, the striker continued and finished with another shot right under the crossbar, no chance for the keeper, 5-1.

26. An opponent does a solo on our right side and without interruption puts the ball into the net, 6-1.

29. Second corner for PeFF. Tohuwabohu in our penalty area, but luckily the ball misses our goal by a few cm.

The last 10 minutes of the second half didn't lead to anything noteworthy. At least nothing for the public. ;)

The second half starts very unlucky:

40.+20 seconds: Another pass right to the opponent's striker and another easy shot into the empty goal, 7-1.

48. Third corner for PeFF. No danger.

51. Another through pass between our central defenders and the striker run s alone to the goal, 8-1. That's how Siina usually scores. But unfortunately she got injured in the K-Pallo game. This also had an impact on our game, of course.

54. A wonderful double pass combination on the right with Siiri and Ronja brings Siiri towards the goal. Her shot goes straight to the keeper, but from 2 meters distance, the reflex couldn't be fast enough, thus the new score is 8-2.

58. A PeFF player delivers a third shot right under the crossbar, absolutely no chance for our keeper to even get close to the ball, 9-2.

61. Siiri vs. keeper for the second time. This time the keeper wins the situation.

63. First corner for us. Jemina gets in a good shooting position, but the keeper paries her shot.

67. A deja vu for the 1-1 occurs: Ilona sends Ronja down the right wing with a terrific pass and Ronja finishes with a flat shot to the left corner, 9-3. Three very nice goals on the right side today.

68. The exact same situation happens again, but this time Ronja's shot goes to the keeper.

69. Once again, a pass straight to the opponent and a lob into the empty goal, 10-3. Really tough luck with those faulty passes today.

77. Leonna takes her heart into her hands (or legs) and does a solo run on the left wing from our own penalty area up to PeFF's penalty area. The keeper and two defenders eventually stop her in a joint effort.

79. Siiri runs away from her opponent and is in a 1v1 with PeFF's keeper. The first shot hits the keeper and the ball bounces back to Siiri. When trying to put the rebound into the empty goal, a rushing defender pushes her to the ground and the ball misses the goal. That was an unquestionable penalty. But oh well.

80.+1 The referee is already about to end the game when one very last corner for PeFF occurs and he decides to let the game continue. The first shot is saved with a headball on the goalline by Oosa, but then the ball bounces back and forth in our penalty area until eventually someone puts it into the net. A very typical end today for the game, 11-3.

All in all, it was definitely the best game to watch so far this season. PeFF played a good ball as well and when we give them the ball so often, of course they say "thank you" and score goals. Well, I don't think that they said "thank you", but you know what I mean. ;)