Leeds United 4 Huddersfield FC 1 – how to win in style.
Match build up
After the miserable midweek performance against Stoke City when defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory by Bamford’s awful penalty miss, Leeds United need to get back on track against Huddersfield. Wednesday at Stoke City showed up poor passing, slow pace, and a lack of clinical shooting on goal.
A growing concern is how Leeds United appear to start slower than the opposing club at the beginning of a match. Winning that first goal is vital for Leeds United to dominate but in the last two matches Leeds have conceded first. Many players were off their pace on Wednesday – granted there was rotation – but Farke needs to have that winning mentality from his first choice players with Huddersfield. This match is a local derby for Huddersfield and Leeds United need to be wanting it more.
The match
The defining moment came at the end of the first half when Leeds United went from horizontal passing to Summerville marauding through a Huddersfield defence too scared of picking up a second yellow card.
Huddersfield’s best part of the match was at the start when they managed to find a few gaps in the Leeds defence. After that Struijk and Rodon took charge and headed away any cross that came lurking. Birdsall always looked like scoring for Huddersfield but as the match developed so his touches diminished.
Leeds dominated the first half with devastating one touch football into the Huddersfield penalty box. With a lot of early changes in the second half the match was largely subdued as Huddersfield had no response.
Early signs of a Leeds bombardment came with a disallowed Piroe goal and a Summerville shout for handball dismissed. The first goal came from a Huddersfield header into the Leeds penalty box. Georgino’s vision lobbed the ball over to Summerville who went marauding towards the Huddersfield goal and passed to James who calmly placed the ball low into the left hand corner of the neti.
The second goal came from Summerville again charging into the penalty box and, with a quick shuffle finds just enough to place the ball under the keeper’s hand to make it 2-0. His celebration dance with Gnonto was joy to behold
Minutes later a counter attack with power and precision showed Leeds at their most dangerous. From a Georginio foul played with advantage, Summerville picked up the ball and ran at the Huddersfield defence with James given a free shot into the goal.
The fourth goal is sheer dominance. Leeds wound down the clock in extra time with passing at the back and then a Georginio run to the goal and then a cut back to Summerville who again finds his way through the timid Huddersfield defence to score with ease and precision.
As the match Huddersfield dared not to tackle because when they did they fouled and collected yellow cards. Meslier had little to do behind his defence although he was too casual t one point with a pass out when he nearly lost the ball and when a rare shot on goal saw Meslier drop the shot and a soft goal given away.
The second half was subdued as Leeds dropped their intensity, used all their subs, but didn’t look like scoring. After a difficult week the supporters sing substitute Bamford’s name but the biggest cheer went to Georgino. Kamara has grown with every match, today he was winning the ball at crucial moments to stop Huddersfield counter attacks.
Man of the Match: whilst Summerville is growing into our most prolific goal scorer, it is the vision and skill of Georginio that creates many of our goals.
[…] was a full blooded derby. At times there was little quality on the pitch. Huddersfield Town played a physical game to stop Leeds building momentum and it worked. It was largely Huddersfield […]