I’m not going to go into the reasons as to why it’s happening because I had a go at that last month and didn’t really come up with any answers, but yesterday afternoon, Cardiff City’s Development team failed to win a match they had led 2-0 in for at least the fifth time in the last year – I can think of five games where it’s happened, but can’t help feeling there have been others.
Given that the composition of our team at this level tends to change far more than it does in the first team, it’s hard to blame the players involved for these giveaways, but, whatever the reason, it is certainly an issue for the staff in charge of the side to try to address.
The latest fade out came against Crystal Palace at Leckwith yesterday. Last season City led Palace 2-0 after abut twenty minutes at Cardiff City Stadium, only to lose 4-2 – things weren’t quite as bad this time, because it finished 2-2, but they were two goals ahead and looking comfortable with just twelve minutes to go and still couldn’t win.
On the face of it, a 2-2 draw on a cold, but gloriously sunny afternoon does not seem to be a bad a way of spending a couple of hours, but the reality was different, because this was largely poor fare with the two sides cancelling each other out most of the time.
Actually, to be more accurate, the teams cancelled each other out when it came to goalmouth activity, but for the first 80 per cent of the match, at least, City seemed to have things in hand because I cannot remember Palace having an effort on target until they scored their first goal with twelve minutes left.
City included Alex Smithies, Matt Connolly and Gary Madine who were all on the bench at Anfield and the last named was not too far wide with a free kick as he made a bright start which saw him score his first goal for the club in a game where there were points at stake when he headed home Cameron Coxe’s fine cross from close range in the sixth minute.
While never really suggesting that a second goal was imminent, City controlled the rest of the first half as the visitors (with Scott Dann at centreback) looked a frustrated bunch as they were unable to create any attacking momentum at all.
The early minutes of the second period saw Lawrence Wooton hit the Palace post. Perhaps the outcome might have been different if that effort had gone in, but it’s tempting to say that all it would have meant was that the visitors would have had more time available to them to get back on terms.
As it was, the pattern of the first half continued and, in some ways, proceedings had an air of stalemate about them as the game went into it’s final quarter.
Ironically, Palace were having their best spell of the game in terms of possession and territory when City doubled their lead out of the blue. James Waite did very well out on the right touchline to beat his man as City broke and his crossfield ball found Madine who cut inside and tried to curl a shot from the edge of the penalty area around Palace keeper Tupper. Madine’s effort lacked strength and was too close to the keeper, but he still spilled it into the path of sub Jamie Veale who tapped in from about six yards out.
City led 2-0 for six minutes and there was nothing in that time to indicate Palace had it in them to come back, but once their left winger Lumeka steered a well struck shot into the corner of the net from just outside the penalty area, the game changed and three minutes later they were level.
While the first goal they conceded could be put down to a good finish, as a team defending a single goal lead with less than ten minutes to go, City really should not have been opened up on the counter attack as easily as they were when Palace attacked down their left and a low cross saw sub Aveiro presented with a chance he could not miss.
You had to feel sympathy for Smithies – perhaps I’ve forgotten a shot Palace had which forced him into a save, but, assuming I haven’t, he let in the only two shots the visitors had on target all afternoon and didn’t have a chance with either of them.
After that, Palace looked the more likely scorers of a winning goal, but, despite them being, marginally, second best, for virtually all of the game, the match ended with me thinking that a draw was the most City deserved.
Neil Warnock watched the second half of the game and I can’t see that he would have learned much at all from it in terms of first team selection. At least Madine now has a goal to his name and he also won the majority of headers he contested for, but there was also the familiar lack of movement from him which, I believe, makes him someone who Premier League centrebacks would be able to deal with pretty easily – if the first team has to play with a target man type striker, then Callum Paterson still looks the best option for the role to me.
Finally, the City team included a trialist by the name of Christian Koffi. Having done the usual research on any trialist who plays for the Development team, I find that there are two Christian Koffi’s that come up on Google when I search “Christian Koffi footballer”. The first of them is a twenty seven year old from the Ivory Coast who is still, apparently, playing in club football in Africa (the Congo to be exact), while the second is a seventeen year old winger who played for Monaco and moved on to Fiorentina after being linked with Liverpool in the summer. The youngster has been given the “wonderkid” treatment in some press reports and already has an agent video to his name – here is another one in which he advertises Adidas products.
Now, the player who turned out for us yesterday looks enough like the one in the videos for me to believe that it was him – although what he was doing playing for us a few months after signing a contract with Fiorentina, I’m not too sure. So, assuming it was him, we were giving someone who is been very highly hyped in European football a game yesterday. Based on that first video, he certainly has ability and would definitely be worth a look at by City if he was available, but, after watching him yesterday, I’m still none the wiser as to how good or bad he is.
Koffi played for about an hour and was replaced by Veale having had little or no influence on proceedings because he touched the ball so few times. Of course, there is an onus on any player on trial to get involved in the game, but I felt sorry for him because, with Madine in the side, there was always a temptation for City to aim long balls to his head and the fact that they made extensive use of Coxe’s long throw (you barely ever see long throws from City in Development team matches) confirms that the team were operating in a way which hardly played to Koffi’s strengths as shown in the video – perhaps he’ll get another chance to impress when the Development team travel to Ipswich on Monday?
