McGlynns Journey #6 - Learning Experience

[Definia]

  Learning Experience at Montréal United  

The first couple of weeks of the season has been a great learning experience so far for Barry McGlynn at Montréal United. He has relished in playing amongst the more seasoned veterans in the minors league across so many historical teams. He has loved training alongside established veterans like Wang Zhihao who is now in his 13th season in the SSL, someone with so much wisdom, experience and knowledge to pass on to Brian has been a breath of fresh air.
Pre-season then came around and Montréal United had lined up games against Athenai FC and AF Masques Sacres, two teams from Division 2 of the Minor Leagues that would give this young Montréal side a good test to see where they stood as the season was about to begin soon. The game against Athenai was a fantastic first experience in the SSL for Barry McGlynn, the team ran out 2-1 winners and Barry managed to pick up the Player of the Match award after having a brilliant performance where he created one of his teams goals with an assist, he had played a high cross after running down the line to his team mate Vincent haye who headered it home. He was buzzing.... adrenaline had completely taken over and he just wanted to kick on and try and get more! His manager heaped praise on him as he returned to the dressing room at the end of the game and Barry couldn't stop grinning like a cheshire cat. It may have only been a pre-season game but to him it meant the world.

The second pre-season friendly against AF Masques Sacres wasn't the final result that Barry had hoped to achieve but it didn't matter to him as he managed to bag a goal this time, playing in front of his home crowd he was ecstatic and completely over the moon. It did give Montréal a small glimmer of hope though as his goal brought them back to a one goal deficit at 3-2 so he was happy enough at that.
Now, however, it was down to business. Final few days of pre-season training were gruelling, the manager wanted to make sure everyone was as up to speed as they possibly could be. Barry liked that though, he enjoyed being put through his paces because it would help him mentally prepare for the tests ahead. He wants to treat every game like it is a cup final because this season means that much to him. He has finally made it to where he wants to be so now it's completely down to him and his performances to determine whether he now stays there.

Season 26 Of Minors League Divsion 2

The first round of five matchdays have been and gone and Montréal picked up a win against Cairo, the 2 draws were against Seoul and Athenai and a loss against league leaders Rova Mpanjaka. It’s been a decent start to the season, losing only against the league leaders so it’s been good to get points on the board, thought Barry. 

The first game of the season and Barry didn't know if he was excited or nervous or all of the above. What did help settle him was the fact that he had managed to assist yet another goal... but that wasn't just a normal assist, he had passed the ball across the box to his brother Reece Munro who slotted it beautifully into the back of the net. The sheer levels of pure joy were nothing he thought he could experience, not only playing beside his brothers but helping one of them score on their debut was great feeling. Masques Sacres unfortunately went on to equalise to make the game 2-2 but Barry didn't really mind. A point is a point, better to take something from the game than nothing and it’s a nice base to start to build on for the season as they look to improve on their performance last season.

The second game of the season was against Rova Mpanjaka, They had just beat Seoul MFC 6-1 in their first game so this was always going to be a challenging game for Montreal as Rova were looking to hopefully push for the title and promotion to Division 1. Historically Montreal did not perform well against Rova in the league as in their last 12 meetings Rova have won six times. It was a good defensive performance from Montreal but ultimately Rova won the game 1-0. Barry had quite an average game but he taken it as a good learning experience considering how strong Rova had performed in their last game and now they were sitting pretty at the top of the league we have two wins. Montreal would just be looking to use this game as a baseline to judge how they were going to perform against the top teams of the division.

The third game of the season was against Athenai, They were a team that was closer to Montreal’s level of ability and games against them would be the real test this season to determine where they would end up in the division. It was quite a close game, however, Montreal did end the game with much more shots and so would have liked to have won the game but they did manage to complete a comeback after being 2-1 down and Christopher Bergman equalised in the 90th minute of the game. It was a result that Montreal would have been happy with in the grand scheme of things considering they were down 2-0. Barry was substituted at halftime this game but it didn't seem to affect him that much as he was replaced by the veteran Wang Zhihao, Barry is always happy to do what he needs to do for the team to get the result in the end, in fact he was more likely to use this as fuel to up his game for the next match.

Match day four came around quick and this time Montreal were playing Seoul FC, This was another team, much like Athenai, That we’re close to Montreal in terms of skill and ability And the final score line pretty much suggested this. The game finished 1-1. The team actually thought this was a disappointing result for them as Seoul were sitting bottom of the league with some dreadful performances on the park so far. So Montreal had hoped this would be the game to get their first win of the season, but performances across the pitch by all players were quite average so 1-1 was definitely seen as a disappointing result for them. Vincent Haye bagged their goal and Barry had a relatively above average performance but couldn't help his team win the game. So they would be looking to pick themselves up and dust off the poor performances and kick on in MD5 against Cairo.

Coming up against Cairo after a run of 2 draws probably looked like it could be the game that Montreal really wanted. They weren't losing games so the next natural progression level for them would be a win, thought Barry. The manager had set them up with every attacking intent they possibly could, 4-2-4 formation shown that they meant business and that the game plan was offence is the best defence. And boy did it pay off for them, Montreal ran out 3-1 winners after exceptional performances across the board from everyone on the park. Zhihao, Darugius and a fortunate OG by Eric Duic meant that Montreal were going home with the three points. They had went down a goal early, however the game was flipped on its head early in the second half after Zhihao the HT substitue for McGlynn equalised and sent Montreal on a frenzy, then an OG from Eric Duic and a 3rd goal of the game came from Darugius the left fall back. Barry couldn't have been happier though for his brother Bruce as he picked up the teams first man of the match award. He couldn't help but feel this was a step in the right direction for the team, however, they could not get too far ahead of themselves as they were going into round 2 of the seasons fixtures and coming up against Rova again who were having a brilliant season so far sitting top of the league undefeated. Barry knew they would have to beon their "A" game if they were to achieve anything from it.... time would tell and to be hoenst they weren't that far off a result last time around.