Għajnsielem F.C.’s Under/21 team
started their league commitments
with a match against Munxar
Falcons. The Blacks were
superior to their opponents, and
this superiority, reflected in
the amount of time in possession
and territorial supremacy, was
rewarded with a three-goal
victory. Kenny Hili opened the
score with an overhead kick from
inside Munxar’s penalty area. A
little later he took a clearance
from Charlon Tabone and set
captain Ferdinando Apap with a
through pass. Apap had no
difficulty beating the Munxar
keeper for the Blacks’ second.
The Blacks chose to slow the
game down in the second half.
They scored their third towards
the end when Tabone found the
net directly from a free-kick.
The Blacks, however, risked
complicating matters at two
separate junctures in this
match. Having taken over control
of the match from the kick-off,
the Blacks failed to make this
advantage count with quick
goals. Munxar tightened the back
and operated on quick breaks.
Għajnsielem’s back four made of
Brandon Xuereb at right-back,
Joshua Cassar and Loreto
Scicluna in central defence, and
Jason Vella at left-back, held a
high line in a bid to snuff out
Munxar breaks at their
inception. The Falcons, to their
credit kept trying and on one
occasion they burst through the
middle and beat the offside
trap. Scicluna, perhaps
ill-advisedly, challenged the
breakaway forward as he was
about to enter the penalty area.
The ball broke clear but the
forward fell under the challenge
and referee Joe Agius awarded a
penalty. Richard Sammut did not
look overly troubled by this
development and his confidence
forced the Munxar penalty taker
to miss badly to Sammut’s left.
Soon after this reprieve Hili
and Apap struck in quick
succession.
Robert Grima and Tabone played
in central midfield. Their
willingness to come for the ball
enabled the Blacks to take the
ball out of defence in a
systematic way. Sammut was
rarely called to punt and his
defenders rarely had to hoof the
ball upfield. Gabriel Cordina
and Robert Vassallo the other
midfielders gave the Blacks
width. One dificulty was in the
Blacks' inability to switch play
from right to left. This meant
that the Blacks were forced
repeatedly into dead-ends down
the right. The result of this
was that Hili and Apap received
poor service for most of the
first half.
Adrian Cordina and David Agius
came on for Scicluna and Brandon
Xuereb early in the second half.
Apap retreated into a central
defensive position and Gabriel
Cordina moved to centreforward.
Gabriel Cordina, still short of
match fitness, did well to get
into promising positions, but he
could not punish the Falcons.
His best chance was from a Jason
Vella cross. Cordina’s first
time finish rose above the
Munxar cross bar.
Għajnsielem’s second blackout
occurred midway through the
second half, when
over-confidence crept in. The
Falcons forced a succession of
turnovers deep inside
Għajnsielem’s half but failed to
even test Sammut. As they did in
the first half, the Blacks
pushed on the accellerator and
closed the match with their
third goal. Azzopardi came on
for Apap and Agius moved into
central defence. Cassar, who was
solid in his play in central
defence from start to finish,
slowed the game down to the
required pace until Agius blew
the final whistle.
This was a good start from coach
Mario Xuereb’s men considering
that this was the first outing
for these players together as a
unit. Given that none of the
players were fooled into
thinking that the team is the
finished article and that there
is room for improvement in terms
of fitness and team play, there
is no reason to doubt that the
Blacks will not make a step up
in quality in the face of
tougher opposition.
(Photography Charlie Azzopardi)
