During this part of the pre-season we managed to repair some of the damaged parts of the ship but the engines were still not working properly. However, we felt that we wouldn't sink but for how long would we be floating? Would we even be able to move forward and how powerful was the ship? I had many questions in my mind and I needed figure out a strategy on how to improve a lot of things, because I knew how fragile we were at the moment.
The winning streak finally arrived
Fifth game was a game where I needed to try some of the new players and a few of the substitutes as well. We played against a division 6 team and managed to play a great defensive game and won 1-0. The next game was again against a team from our league in division 4, and once again we played a great defensive game and also managed to play a good attacking game and won with a convincing 4-0. The team started to improve a lot and fast. The following game we played against a team from division 7. This game also gave me the opportunity to test new players and this time we smashed the opponents and won 7-1, which showed that our reserves could perform very well.
Training camp
In order to work more intensified on some things that still needed to be improved and of course on the team spirit, we went to the south of Sweden to a town called Vimmerby during a weekend in April for a training camp. This trip was great in many ways. We had three good training sessions and also a friendly game that we managed once again to win with 4-0. During a team meeting at this training camp we decided to aim for top 5 in our league for the first half of the season.
The Americans
During the winter and spring we had worked out a deal to bring in some American players to strengthen the team. Unfortunately their trips got a little bit delayed so we wouldn't have them during the pre-season, but reinforcement where on the way.
When the 2015 pre-season started we only had 12-13 players left in the squad. Some players from last season were injured, some had completed their studies and moved back to their home cities and some players wanted to change club. The last season was so hard that even our captain decided to move to another division 4 club, he just couldn't imagine being the captain and take the responsibility to save this ship. I sat down and talked to Sebbe and we decided to try to save this ship from sinking, we had during the last 8 years given so much for the club and didn't want it to end like this. Since the captain abandoned the ship and many of the crew leaving as well, it was up to me, Sebbe and the guys who really cared about the team to do our best to save what was left and keep the ship floating. We decided early on to change our criticized bad home field to artificial turf and also practiced the whole pre-season on artificial field.
The Portuguese lion hearts arrived
When things looked really bad and it was hard to keep up the motivation of the players, we got some luck. A friend that works with a division 2 club here in town gave me the contact info to Rayner who had two players who wanted to try with the team. Two brothers from Portugal, two players that showed good qualities and mostly important, heart! They started to play in the friendly games, but in the beginning it was still hard for the team. We had too many weaknesses and it wasn't enough with just two new players to repair the damages. But still it gave hope!
Improvement during the pre-season
First game we played in the pre-season was against a division 5 team and that game wasn't good at all, we couldn't create many chances, performed weak in defending on set pieces and we lost that game 2-4. The second game was also against a division 5 team but a weaker team in that league. We still showed a lot of weaknesses in our defense, however our attacking game started to work better and we could win the game with 4-3. The third pre-season game was against a division 4 team. This game was a chance to see if our team could hold in to a team at our own level. We played much better than previous games and the attack looked good as well. Unfortunately we still had some difficulties in the defense and lost the game 4-5, but we were finally going in right direction according to the plan.
The turning point
Fourth game in the pre season was against one of the best teams in division 3. In this game we could for the first time see how great our team can perform if we stick to the instructions and play together as a team. We did a great first half and created many opportunities to score and were also defending in a great way and went to a half time break with 0-0. Unfortunately all our energy was consumed in the first half and we received 4 goals in second half and lost 0-4. But this was the turning point and the self-esteem came back to our players. For the first time in a long time the confidence was back and we started to believe that we can manage to play good football.
Match report and goals, Pars vs Assyriska 6-0(1-0)
Last game before the summer break and we were aiming for the fourth victory and clean sheet in a row. We were missing Oki because of injury and we were forced to make a few changes also in this game.
First half started great for us after a free-kick taken by Taylor, David received the ball in the penalty are and could with some help from the defender score the first goal of the game. Assyriska showed us that they won't give up so fast and they started to play better and better for every minute. They had a great chance that Ian saved first and then Chris blocked the rebound near the goal line. They kept on coming at us with all they had but our defense and keeper managed to keep the clean sheet. They game was kind of open and both teams could attack a lot in first half but no more goals were scored.
Second half started as great as the first one with Daniel finding a great ball to David who could score his and the teams second goal. The third one was a beauty, SJ gave the ball to Diego who made a futsal move before he find the top of the net with a great shot. In the 67th minute David could complete his hattrick with a good shot from distance. Nico came back in when it was only 5 minutes left and could score after getting a great pass from Diego. The last goal was scored by Pars FCs legend Sebbe who got the ball from SJ and could get by the keeper before he scored.
Overall a great finish of the first half of the season. The guys played well in second half and once again the defense showed a good performance. Ghaith and Chris who were new in the defensive line got synced with Jonny and Taylor well.
And mustaches goes to:
David Gustafsson - Once again David showed why he is the top goal scorer in this league. He was hungry as usual and today his goals came early and really helped the team to get back into the game. He also was able to create spaces for the other forwards with his movement.
Jonny Da Silva - The general had once again an important role in today's clean sheet. He organized the defense well together with his little brother and won a lot in the air.
Diego Lopez - The little Maradona is starting to get use to be one of the best players. He was working his magic and did some really good movements and combinations with the other attackers. Also a great goal he scored today!
After two victories in a row and two clean sheets we were going to the field against a team with three victories in a row. We didn't have one of our central defenders and we needed to make a few changes in the team to get the formation balanced.
In the first half we started the game very carefully just to adapt to the new positions and players. We knew that Grythyttan is building a lot around the central forward Chris Vorenkamp so we had specific instructions to control him. The guys did a great defensive job and we managed to control the game after just 15-20 minutes. When we got comfortable we started to create chances, most of them was played well until we reached the box. In the 35 minute Diego advanced in the center of the penalty area and could find David in a good position who could easily score the first goal of the game. During the first half we could have scored at least one more goal but were unable to do that.
Second half started with a hungry Grythyttan and they pushed for 15 minutes before they realized that it would take a miracle to break through our defense in this game. We took over again and the Pars attacks started to get more and more serious. After some good chances finally Nico managed to get a great shot that founded it's way to the net and now Pars had a much more comfortable lead. 15 minutes from time Oki got an eye injury after a tackle and was not able to continuo the game, Barre took his place in the central back. During the last minutes Diego managed to make a good pass to Sebastian who just screened away the defenders to let the ball go all the way into goal.
Overall it was mostly about finding our positions and get comfortable with changes we were forced to do for this game, we had patience and managed to play an okay game due the circumstances.
And the mustaches goes to:
Chris Da Silva - His first game from start after his hamstring injury and he did a great job. He managed to control the wing player who played against him perfectly. Great in one against one situations in defense. A very good first game for him this season.
Diego Lopez - Pars little Maradona keeps on performing and also in this game he was involved in all three goals. He did well in attack with his dribbles and good passes. He is moving a lot and makes space for himself to create chances.
Jonny Da Silva - Jonnys main task in this game was to mark Vorenkamp and it only took him 20 minutes to show Vorenkamp that it will be impossible to get pass him. Overall he did great in the air duels today.
Laxå in the bottom of the league was the opponents today, a team that had won their last game same as us and wanted to get another win so they could advance to the qualification spot. We on the other hand needed really to win this game if we wanted to stay in the middle of the table and not fall down close to the qualification spot.
When the game started Laxå looked hungry maybe even more hungry than us, they got a golden chance when our goalkeeper hit their forward with the ball when he was under pressure and wanted to clear the ball but we were lucky to not receive a goal there. Our pressure didn't work good enough and we didn't defend as a team but after a while we came down a little bit and let them work their way up and defended on our half. The game was equal the first 30 minutes but we started to create a few chances in the end of the first half and Diego could find David with a great pass and David and their goalkeeper got into a 50/50 situations that David won and could score. After the goal we got more self-esteem and attacked more.
During the break we talked about winning the second balls and working even harder in the defense and the guys did much better in second half and didn't give the opponents any room to attack and we could easily just focus on our own attacks. After many chance for our forward and also on set pieces it took until the 73rd minute when Jonny won the ball on our field and the ball went to David who did a great run towards goal before getting tackled from behind with a disturbed tackle that should have been a straight red card. The penalty was given to us and David smashed it into the net to double the score. We kept on attacking and it felt much better when we had the 2-0 lead and in the end of the game the captain SJ managed to score directly from a corner kick.
Overall the first half was kind of shaky but we managed to score 1 goal and hold a clean sheet. Second half we were the better team and got another 2 goals and could close this game with a needed victory. Today it was much better communication from Ian and Oki who controlled the defensive line well.
And the mustaches goes to:
Taylor Bowlin - In first half it was many long balls on his side and he handled it good but didn't have so much support as he should by the midfield. He won most of the balls in the air and also had good energy to participate in attack. In second half it got even better. After a few minutes he made a great run coming up and almost scoring. He kept on coming up on his wing and still managed to get back to defend.
David Gustafsson - Two important goals today. The first one he won a good duel against their keeper and the second one he did a great run and got tackled down in the penalty area but he scored the penalty he got himself. Had more chance today and hopefully he is getting back to his old shape. David is a great opportunity creator, he is able to creat chances for himself and that's something rare in our team.
Jonny Da Silva - He started a little bit confused but after a while he started to get into position well. Worked really hard to win the balls in the middle and also had a few good passes in the attack, one great long ball to a unmarked David in the penalty area. Was involved in two of the goals today as well.
Ashten came to Örebro a few weeks ago and has played in 4 of Pars games and he have showed good speed and technique.
A short interview with Ashten:
Introduced to the game of football by my father and have been playing since age 3. Has been my dream to play professionally since I was a kid. Favorite player currently is Cristiano Ronaldo. Favorite player of all time is Ronaldo (Brazilian). Just finished playing for four years at Defiance College in Ohio and captained the team my senior year. My favorite musical artist is J. Cole. My parents are David and Arlene. My siblings are Arlen, Ayrten, Austen, and Danielle.
It was time to play IK Sturehov for the second time. The game was played a few weeks earlier after our request because we have players leaving town during the summer. The first game against Sturehov ended with a 0-1 loss, but before this game we knew exactly their strengths and we could play smarter to get the points.
First half started out with two careful teams taking it easy. Sturehovs best chance came after we lost the ball in the defense but Harri could clear the ball with a great tackle. We had a few good combinations on the wings and were using our wing backs well. Diego was in the mood and had few good combinations and good dribbles as well. David hade one great chance after getting the ball from Diego but the keeper was able to save that shot. Diego also had a few good chances but we needed to wait until the 40th minute to score when SJ played a chip ball to Sebbe who could score easily after an one against one situation with the keeper. Overall we played careful but we didn't hesitate to participate with many players in attack.
In the beginning of the second half we looked a little bit stressed and Sturehov could pressure us but during the pressure they managed to have only one good shot that Ian saved. After 15 minutes in the second half we took over. David had two great shots hitting the post and after a while the frustration got bigger in both teams, Sturehov not being able to creat anything dangerous and we missing our chances. The game became a sliding tackle show instead with lots of yellow cards and also two red cards. In the last minutes of the game David found Diego unmarked 1 meter from goal and Diego could finish his good game with a goal.
Overall it was a okay game, it was nice to win and we had some good combinations and the defense played well. Our attackers, Ghaith, David and Sebbe did well in first half creating chances and participating in the defensive play.
And the mustaches goes to:
Harri Abdullah - Harri played really good in his comeback after being on the bench the game before. He played fast and smart when he had the ball and made good decisions in the defense, he also covered up for the other defenders a few times. That's the way we really want him to play so we hope he keeps up the good work.
Diego Silva - Already in the beginning of the game we could see that it's was his day today. Good take downs, good speed and dribbles, worked well in the combinations and managed to come up well in the attack. Scored also an important goal at the end.
Taylor Bowlin - Taylor has improved little by little every game, one of the few players without ups and downs. He did well in the combinations on the left side and was almost always available in attack, but we need to use him more. In defense he played well reading the game and being in right position. Plays it simple and fast to increase the pace of the attack.
