A new friendly match for the B1 Players and a second consecutive victory in a row. New victory fruit of concentration, effort and teamwork. A deserved victory.
A cool, humid night under the floodlights of a field at the heart of Barcelona saw B1 Soccer Academy face UB Catalonia in a friendly match.
Brilliant individual performances and true grit throughout a very intense end-to-end duel yielded B1 a well-deserved 2-1 victory.
The team led by Marc Fortuny and Didi Rodríguez started off in a classic 1-4-3-3 formation, with Zac Del Favero in goal, Dahyhu, Kumar, Stoli and Adam as the defensive line, a midfield featuring Captain Dani, Hoonar and Shota, with Duncan on the right-wing, Owen on the left, and Vlad as the striker.
Duncan opened the scoring early on in the match after intercepting an opposing player’s pass inside the box with just the goalkeeper to beat, opening his account for B1 this season.
Superiority in possession and great defending maintained the lead until ten minutes from the end, when the opponents converted a controversial penalty.
Only few minutes later, a brilliant, swift combination of passes emasculated the defense and put substitute Agus Franco 1-on-1 with the goalkeeper; and the Argentine calmly placed the ball into the back of the net to seal a victory.
Good sensations in the team
After the match, our Canadian-born attacker Duncan shared the following words upon being asked about scoring his first goal of the season as well as the team’s overall performance:
“A goal always feels great, it is always an honor to be able to help out the team, and hopefully this will be the first of many! Regarding the match, it was a great performance overall from everybody. Our pressing was especially good, it really improved since last year. If we keep on performing and improving at this rate, we will be a force to reckon in MIC tournament this spring.”
This was another occasion in which B1 Players were able to apply what they have worked on during morning training to a real match.
B1 Soccer Academy’s approach to the game relies heavily on maintaining possession and progressing up the pitch through combinations of short passes between players.
The players did so wonderfully, dominating possession under high pressure as well as regaining it quickly when it was lost.
This victory-yielding display was in every aspect a reflection of the work our players put in during training.