Passas vs. Craitland (30/05)
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Passas vs. Craitland (30/05)
*Played 30th May*
In their last friendly before announcing their provisional World Cup squad, the Craits again moved away from their usual suspects and started a team which is being highly tipped as the one which will be preferred this summer. Kealb's Marc Mortensen and HóC's Hanast started up front, meaning Freddie Gaärsen was once again benched, and Yaqin Senovichi and Tom Vorgensen have seemingly been usurped by Ben Viĵoa and Jon-Jan Jónsen. Passas, too, are looking more to the future with some recent retirements from bigger-name players. The 2007 and 2009 EMU champions will have a chance to regain the title later this year, but failed to reach the World Cup for the first time ever this year, and were looking for a good result to keep their spirits up.Spoiler!
Craitland's team took a while to gel after the match kicked-off, with many of the players having less than five caps still, and were grateful to Jack Vorgensen for keeping-out Łukasz Dąbrowski's close-range header with his legs. Once the players grew into the game, a number of Craitish attacks followed, with the main threats coming from a front line which scored a combined 59 league goals this season. Both Jónsen and Viĵoa's long-range shots worried Adam Shawnessy in the Passasian net but flew wide minutes before the opening goal. With Hanast and Mortensen up front, the Craitish strike partnership's height and strength was a bit too much for Passas' defence to handle, and it was the latter who scored the first goal. Hanast held-up play well during a counter-attack and laid-off Manta, whose deep cross evaded Shawnessy and League 1 top scorer Mortensen was free at the back post to head the ball down off the turf and into the goal with 33 minutes played. Despite Passas managing to pick a few shots out, with Đorđević and Verkslamp both hitting the target with comfortably saves for Vorgensen, it was Craitland who doubled their lead right before the break. This time Mortensen set-up Hanast for the finish, with the Kealb forward's first-time lay-off to the HóC captain on the edge of the area being met with a powerful striker low down to the 'keeper's right side and in.
With a solid lead at the break, Craitland made two changes, with Gaärsen replacing Hanast and Äl Chentzansio-Herä coming-on for the ineffective Viĵoa. Gaärsen's addition added pace to the attack, but Passas' defence was better equipped to deal with him and fewer attacks broke through for either forward after the break. The best chance came to Yaqin Senovichi, who substituted Jónsen just after the hour mark, who rounded Dannis Pritchard and sidefooted the ball against the outside of the post with his first few touches, but little else came beforehand. With 15 minutes to go, the half's most exciting moment occurred, as Daniel Hjansen clipped Thomas Ellsworth as the winger entered the Craitish box and gave away a penalty. The Sverige Tiem right-back got a yellow card and Phillip Sherman, who spent a season on loan at Cherry Trees in 2007, converted the kick by going straight down the middle as Vorgensen dived left. However, Passas failed to build on this glimmer of hope, with Sherman missing a one-on-one opportunity, but their back line held-up and kept the score as it was.
Following this result, the Craits can take some promise that their new line-up can get on the scoresheet against stronger teams, especially considering their relatively poor start to the year, and Passas are able to look forward to EMU 2012 knowing they can control a player such as Gaärsen but will need to toughen-up to deal with more powerful strikers, which was possibly their downfall during qualifying this year.