Giant killers. Eden Park always seems to have the right mix of ability and hard work to beat any team capable of winning the league. Year after year they seem to affect the title run-in with resilience. For Vista every game until the end of the season is a cup final based on the importance. We have two-cup finals and a run in to stay ahead of the teams surrounding us while attempting to win the league.
It’s recommended from all teams aiming to do big things but Vista is now a victim of our own excellence. Today the team started with intensity and within minutes we had 2/3 chances, which we should have converted. Impressive defense and goalkeeping decision kept the score 0-0 and although Vista dominated the tempo of the game Eden Park still managed to created a number of attacks. We played football at times with precision and had we been more cut throat the game could have been out of reach but credit to Eden Park they never showed even the smallest doubt in their ability throughout. Attempt after attempt passed and from the sideline we wondered if we would ever score. Fortunately it did come from us moving the ball quickly and using the width. Siao Blackwood played the pass to Luke Milner who released Victor Okisor. Taking one touch and opening his body he passed the ball across the box with Andrew Thompson receiving the chance and tapping it into the open goal. We went in at half time 1-0 up but were well aware that we needed to be more clinical and probably weren’t rewarding ourselves based on the opportunities we had created.
With us not reaching the levels we may have hoped for in the first half in terms of finishing we’d hoped that the second half would be more rewarding. Ohran Stewart began to find gaps and threaten with intent and our movement and passing created problems but it resulted in what our supported called ‘TV football with no end product’. On the 70th minute we should have been rewarded but were in fact punished for what was arguably our best play of the game. Interplay between our front 4 completely separated the Eden Park backline with Siao Blackwood squaring the ball across the box to Victor Okisor. I’m unsure as to what was going through Victor’s mind, which was most likely celebrating but for one second he took his eye of the ball and with that managed to put the ball wide of the target. Eden Park was in no mood to let us stroll to victory and decided it was time to punish Vista for our missed chances. With a maximum of 3 minutes between Victors miss and their opportunity Eden Park capitalized on a defensive error before their striker flicked the ball over our center backs heads before sliding the ball past the on-going goalkeeper. Vista decided against waiting for the inevitable and made various substitutions which made the game plan more direct.2/3 times within the final 10 minutes did we create clean cut chances but through sheer resilience and maybe a lack of killer instinct Eden Park held out.
Overall I felt it was a bit of naivety in our play, which has caused us to draw today, and although it wasn’t the result we wanted we must stay positive. We have 4 big games ahead of us and the league is still in our control!
M.O.M – Luke Milner