San Giljan 10 Exiles 2

(3-1) (1-1) (3-0) (3-0)

Exiles suffered their first defeat at the hands of the more-quoted side of San Giljan when both teams met last night in Group B of the Preliminary Round of this year’s waterpolo summer championship.

It was a balanced affair up to the first part of the encounter with the Saints enjoying a two-goal lead by the half-way mark. Both teams wasted their chances in front of the goal mouth – merit must be given to both goalkeepers who  kept at bay the assaults. It was Exiles that paid dearly for this when they missed all their ten man-ups at their disposal.

In the third quarter, San Giljan changed their tactics and waited patiently in their defence with strict marking on Exiles sharp shooters Luka Sekulic, Geregely Katonas and Peter Borg who rarely had any chance to get themselves in a shooting position and the few times they did, it was the goalpost that denied them to the relief of Saints’ keeper. The way the attacks were being built, seemed sterile with hardly any concrete conclusions counted and there were times when our players fumbled with the ball. This gave the Saints to use fast breaks and increase their score by a further six goals in the last two quarters without any reply from our lads.

Overall it was a positive match especially in the initial stages taking also the strength of our opponents last night but  the element of grit is presently missing in the players’ approach.

Coach Maurizio Mirarchi has just two days before the next Saturday’s match (at 19.30 hours) against Sirens to prepare the Exiles team for three precious points at stake.

Exiles Coach made use of  Ian Bugeja, Julian Rizzo Naudi, Simon Vassallo, David Pace Lupi, Gergerly Katonas, James Spiteri Staines, Kurt Griscti, Luka Sekulic, Peter Borg, Benji Lanzon and Kayne Lanzon. The two goals for Exiles were scored by Peter Borg and James Spiteri Staines.

KaFa

Photo by Adrian Farrugia

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