Comments from team manager David:
Not much of a game summary from me on this one. Seeing this new team for the first time, they looked totally pathetic at first. For the opening kickoff, they just kicked it up against the corner and did not even run after it. I don't think that was supposed to be a shot (kickoffs are indirect I think). Essentially, they passed it to our defense. What the?
Didn't even notice for a while, but it turns out they were down 1 man until a couple of good players showed up (I think they eventually had 1 sub), maybe a full 5 min into the game.
Actually, the clock was down to 21 min already for that opening kickoff. The clock started even though the game didn't. We had only blue and white shirts for a back-up back-up goalie (Robert), until finally finding a green shirt (Longshots wear white). Back-up goalie Lael subbed in after we scored our first goal.
We were up 4-0 at half, looking pretty good, and I was all prepared with my half-time speech about how the mercy rule will allow us to practice on taking long shots.
Well, they scored first in the second half, and we sat there at 4-1 for probably 20 minutes. I think there was under 3 min left when Dan scored, otherwise we would have gone scoreless in the 2nd half.
For those not at the game, wondering what happened, we must have had over a dozen 2-on-1 and 3-on-2 opportunities in the second half alone. Their goalie did an incredible job, always positioned well and making numerous saves. But, even with Spiderman as their goalie we should have gotten 4 or 5 goals the second half. We simply hit the wood, the Plexiglas, or their goalie instead of the net. Over and over.
To put this in perspective, we had plenty of subs and just beat this 2nd-to-last team by 4, which was their closest game (other than beating the Turbans). Munchenbox beat them by 8, D4 beat them by 5, Vanderbilt beat them by 5, and Fred's Market beat them by 8.
As for plays and players, Lael was solid in goal, the defense was solid as always, and although he did not score, it was nice to see Saeed dribble past 2 defenders (it might have been 3 actually) until losing it to their goalie from 4 ft out. Saeed had a few like this during the game, dribbling past 1 or 2 players for either a shot or a pass. One other play I recall is Chuao coming up from defense to crack a shot from behind the 1/3 line, off a rebound or something, right off the top of the goal. It came back so fast I think the rebound got by him. Come to think of it, I think Chuao did this at least 4 times, sometimes getting his own rebound.
All this is good practice for D4, which is not for 11 days from now.
That's it from me on this one. Others might have more to add, or corrections to above.
Goals (Assist):
Chuao (PV)
Dan B. (Seamus)
Mark (Dan B.)
Scott (Mark)
Scott (Dan B.)
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Game #5: 4-2 victory vs. Munchenbox
Comments from team manager David:
This was a great 4-2 win over 3rd place Munchenbox. We showed up with a full squad, minus SF Doug (and tardy Seamus). They showed up with only 1 sub.
They play a cherry picker, often 4 players back, with one superstar up front who did not play practically any defense.
we were up 2-0 and half, went up 3-0 pretty quickly before our typical "make it close" approach allowed them to catch up 3-2 with approx 12 min left. lots of time left at that point, and we were not looking good after their 2 quick goals.
but, even though they could have taken momentum at that point, they might have been out of gas, while we still had plenty of fresh legs waiting to sub and sprint. Also, it was kinda weird, but it seemed that at 3-2 we started controlling the play even more than before, except for 2 minutes.
it might have been at 3-2, i don't recall what the score was (maybe 4-2), but we got a card and played down for 2 min. killed the penalty, pretty easily as i recall (easy to say this from the bench of course), with all 3 defenders (PV, Chuao, Seamus) out there and Geoff up front.
short story (if not too late for that) is that we shut down their cherry picker and wore them out. I think we surrounded their cherry picker about 1/2 the time he got ball, which was a small percentage of the time they passed to him.
Chuao did an incredible job in the first half coming from behind him and intercepting the pass, and other times either shutting him down or poking the ball away.
In the first half of the first half, when Chuao did not intercept or immediately steal the ball, the cherry picker often took only 1 or 2 touch and then shot. Kevin blocked anything that was on-goal. Part of Kevin's first half shutout, besides plenty of on-goal shots from their cherry picker, was an awesome stop of a 1-on-1 right in front of the net. I know the other team deflated a bit at that moment.
(Btw, I know we all talked confidently after the game about shutting down their superstar cherry picker, but I maintain that he is indeed a superstar. Of all those quick shots he took, do you recall any going directly to Kevin’s belly or rolling weakly up to Kevin?)
In the second half, we often had midfielders coming back from offense and surprising the cherry picker. One of my favorite plays was Geoff doing exactly that early in the second half. Geoff hustled back on defense, took the ball from him, and we headed the other direction.
Great solid defense by PV, Chuao and Kevin, holding them scoreless until Seamus' alarm finally went off a second time (does anybody live near Seamus and can disable the snooze button on his alarm?). But, of course, another showing of solid defense from Seamus during the final 3/4 of the game. I think he went right in and took down their cherry picker on his first play. If the cherry picker was not already pissed ("angry" that is), I think Seamus taking him down got him into a falling down habit, which luckily was rarely called as fouls. That cherry picker must have hit the turf a dozen times.
One other point is that Munchenbox will surely show up for the playoffs (see below) with more subs. Also, for those who don't recall Munchenbox (previously known as Survey), their short "red socked" midfielder (their best player, before they picked up the cherry picker last session) was not there tonight.
Well, that's half the story. As for the offense, I'll let those who scored and assisted do the descriptions.
This was a great 4-2 win over 3rd place Munchenbox. We showed up with a full squad, minus SF Doug (and tardy Seamus). They showed up with only 1 sub.
They play a cherry picker, often 4 players back, with one superstar up front who did not play practically any defense.
we were up 2-0 and half, went up 3-0 pretty quickly before our typical "make it close" approach allowed them to catch up 3-2 with approx 12 min left. lots of time left at that point, and we were not looking good after their 2 quick goals.
but, even though they could have taken momentum at that point, they might have been out of gas, while we still had plenty of fresh legs waiting to sub and sprint. Also, it was kinda weird, but it seemed that at 3-2 we started controlling the play even more than before, except for 2 minutes.
it might have been at 3-2, i don't recall what the score was (maybe 4-2), but we got a card and played down for 2 min. killed the penalty, pretty easily as i recall (easy to say this from the bench of course), with all 3 defenders (PV, Chuao, Seamus) out there and Geoff up front.
short story (if not too late for that) is that we shut down their cherry picker and wore them out. I think we surrounded their cherry picker about 1/2 the time he got ball, which was a small percentage of the time they passed to him.
Chuao did an incredible job in the first half coming from behind him and intercepting the pass, and other times either shutting him down or poking the ball away.
In the first half of the first half, when Chuao did not intercept or immediately steal the ball, the cherry picker often took only 1 or 2 touch and then shot. Kevin blocked anything that was on-goal. Part of Kevin's first half shutout, besides plenty of on-goal shots from their cherry picker, was an awesome stop of a 1-on-1 right in front of the net. I know the other team deflated a bit at that moment.
(Btw, I know we all talked confidently after the game about shutting down their superstar cherry picker, but I maintain that he is indeed a superstar. Of all those quick shots he took, do you recall any going directly to Kevin’s belly or rolling weakly up to Kevin?)
In the second half, we often had midfielders coming back from offense and surprising the cherry picker. One of my favorite plays was Geoff doing exactly that early in the second half. Geoff hustled back on defense, took the ball from him, and we headed the other direction.
Great solid defense by PV, Chuao and Kevin, holding them scoreless until Seamus' alarm finally went off a second time (does anybody live near Seamus and can disable the snooze button on his alarm?). But, of course, another showing of solid defense from Seamus during the final 3/4 of the game. I think he went right in and took down their cherry picker on his first play. If the cherry picker was not already pissed ("angry" that is), I think Seamus taking him down got him into a falling down habit, which luckily was rarely called as fouls. That cherry picker must have hit the turf a dozen times.
One other point is that Munchenbox will surely show up for the playoffs (see below) with more subs. Also, for those who don't recall Munchenbox (previously known as Survey), their short "red socked" midfielder (their best player, before they picked up the cherry picker last session) was not there tonight.
Well, that's half the story. As for the offense, I'll let those who scored and assisted do the descriptions.
Game #4: 9-6 victory vs. Fred's Market
Comments from team manager David:
The score doesn’t really tell the story. We were down 2-0 mid-way through the first half, and tied 2-2 at half.
Not sure what happened to them during half-time, but in the 2nd half they seemed to play no defense and we soon found ourselves up by 5. We gladly got to fight the mercy rule for a short minute or two. I think the score was 7-2 before they scored a couple of goals. Actually, I think they fought back to within 2 goals, 8-6 I think.
Worth mentioning is Attila’s play, scoring a hat trick, but creating many more opportunities. Also, Robert had 2 quick assists near the start of the 2nd half, helping us break away. Others played well, and overall a good team effort, but we’ll have to play much better to beat Munchenbox next week.
Here are the goals and what might be the assists (I don’t recall the order):
Attila assisted by Saeed
Attila assisted by Mark
Attila unassisted(?)
David assisted by Chuao (a dot play)
David assisted by Robert
Frank assisted by Robert
Robert unassisted(?)
Scott assisted by Kevin
Seamus unassisted(?)
The score doesn’t really tell the story. We were down 2-0 mid-way through the first half, and tied 2-2 at half.
Not sure what happened to them during half-time, but in the 2nd half they seemed to play no defense and we soon found ourselves up by 5. We gladly got to fight the mercy rule for a short minute or two. I think the score was 7-2 before they scored a couple of goals. Actually, I think they fought back to within 2 goals, 8-6 I think.
Worth mentioning is Attila’s play, scoring a hat trick, but creating many more opportunities. Also, Robert had 2 quick assists near the start of the 2nd half, helping us break away. Others played well, and overall a good team effort, but we’ll have to play much better to beat Munchenbox next week.
Here are the goals and what might be the assists (I don’t recall the order):
Attila assisted by Saeed
Attila assisted by Mark
Attila unassisted(?)
David assisted by Chuao (a dot play)
David assisted by Robert
Frank assisted by Robert
Robert unassisted(?)
Scott assisted by Kevin
Seamus unassisted(?)
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