B1 faces Albion SC in the first friendly of the season

It is always a pleasure to start playing friendlies with the B1 Players, finally having the possibility to put in practice what they have been working on for the last weeks. This time, it was possible for Albion SC to play against B1, and it promised a real battle.

After a long time without being able to play a game and with all the academy players available, last Thursday, October 28, we faced the team coached by Todd Stauber.

Although they are all Albion SC players from the United States, the players that make up the American team are part of a sports development program led by European Soccer Solutions based in northern Spain.

The Albion SC team had already faced Alaves, Eibar, and Real Sociedad with really tight results showing the level that the young players have. The match against B1 would be the last game before heading to an important international tournament held in Salou.

First friendly game

The first half of the game was relatively calm as both teams played a slow game, trying to find each other’s weaknesses. The first few minutes served to get to know the opponent. Albion SC had very talented players in the middle and up front, which complicated the defensive tasks of Didi Rodriguez’s team, who had to make adjustments as they saw how Todd Stauber’s team created more scoring chances.

Anyway, the one that was able to open the score was the American team, with a nice finish to open up the score of the game.

The intensity got greater in the second half of the game. Our B1 Players really changed their attitude and started showing a more dynamic and intense way of playing. They started to put in that extra effort that was maybe absent in the first half. Consequently, they were able to be superior to the opposition as they were creating many more chances.

In fact, they were able to tie the game in just the first minutes of the second half. Yann found the back of the net in just the second minute, after a nice action that started from the back of the field.

Unfortunately, only minutes later Albion Sc was also able to score after a defensive mistake on our part (1-2).

The game got intense, with many more spaces in which the players could find possibilities.

Furthermore, our Coach Didi Rodriguez made some changes with the team. He changed the composition to a 4-4-2 and made Omari, Julian and Aayan enter the game. Just a couple of minutes later the changes seemed to have been worth it as Yibeltal was able to score just minutes after entering the game and tie the game!

Moreover, the rivals kept on pushing offensively and our defense let one more goal slip, leading to a 2-3 score.

Anyway, our players were not ready to lose the game and started playing even harder. An amazing combination of Julian dribbling several players and Omari receiving the pass that ended up in a goal tied the game once again, what a goal!

With only 10 minutes remaining, our players really wanted to push as hard as they could to get the win they wanted. Unfortunately, none of the teams were lucky enough to find the back of the net and the end score remained 3-3.

A big congratulation to Albion SC for their performance and of course to our players for putting in the effort required. We will be training on some aspects of the game that seemed fragile in the next couple of weeks.