Season 3 – Week 3 Friendly Match
Screamin’ Seamen vs. Else United
Date: April 23rd, 2003
Venue: The Docks (Chicago, IL)
Attendance: 774 (30,000)
Weather: Partly Cloudy
We certainly didn’t expect to be playing friendly matches at this point in the season, but find ourselves doing just that after an early exit from the U.S. Open Cup last Wednesday. We’re determined to make the best of it, though, and have returned to concentrating our efforts on training for our young defenders.
Today we play host to rexallsc’s Else United, who have flown in from Los Angeles for the match. We expect a typically low-scoring affair from the match, as our defense should be more than adequate to contain United’s strikers. The big question is whether or not our anemic offense will be able to find a way to get the ball on net.
Formation: 5-4-1
Starters
Keeper: #13 Darryl Read
Right Wingback: #24 Christian Kvam
Central Defender: #18 Cameron McDonald
Central Defender: #20 Keith Stubbs
Central Defender: #21 Zarpas Lerma
Left Wingback: #17 Mattias Leier
Right Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret
Inner Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista
Inner Midfielder: #7 Lucian Tere
Left Winger: #25 Paul Peralta
Forward: #14 Jesper Gravesen
Team Captain: #14 Jesper Gravesen
Set Pieces: #14 Jesper Gravesen
Substitutes
-Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan
-Defender: #22 Tyler Willard
-Midfielder: #19 Jerry Smith
-Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias
-Winger: #3 Ben McMahon
We’re back to our standard 5-4-1 lineup this week, after the resounding failure of Coach Brown’s “alternative” 5-4-1 last time out. The one change to our standard B-team lineup is Charlie Bautista. Charlie’s weak play as of late means that he has been relegated to B-team duty, but we’re hoping that he will recover his previously good form and return to the starting lineup soon. We’ll be keeping a close eye on him today.
A wary eye will also be placed upon striker and team captain Jesper Gravesen. Jesper did a horrible job last week of managing the team on the pitch, and was partially responsible for our exit from the U.S. Open Cup. His continued presence on the club may very well depend on how well the team responds to his commands today. We shall see.
Match Report
PRE-GAME
774 spectators arrived at The Docks, where weather conditions were pretty good for football.
Screamin' had chosen a strategic 5-4-1 formation. Lineup: Read - Kvam , Lerma, Stubbs, Mcdonald, Leier - Mauffret , Tere, Bautista, Peralta - Gravesen.
United had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Põlluste - Braxton, Chance, Figueiredo Costa, Aldrich - Ubierna, Esparza, Burch, Calvert - Ridgeway, Mcqueen.
FIRST HALF
Keith Stubbs behaved like an inexperienced youth player in the 7:th minute as he gave the ball away to an opponent. Lucky for him though, there was no goal.
Screamin's
Keith Stubbs gave, after 7 minutes, the home team a 1 - 0 lead after an attack coming in from the right.
Halftime score was 1 - 0. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Screamin', with an impressive 75 percent possession of the ball.
SECOND HALF
With 64 minutes played
Keith Stubbs could have brought this one home for Screamin', had his hooked ball gone in, but it went just a bit too high.
One of many good passes from José María Ubierna at the wing was recieved and skillfully taken care of by Sheldon Ridgeway, scoring for United to 1 - 1.
The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Screamin', with an impressive 89 percent possession of the ball.
POST-GAME
The most dominating Screamin' player was without a doubt
Keith Stubbs. However, Jesper Gravesen made a disastrous appearance.
Most important United player was Alexandre Figueiredo Costa. Arthur Mcqueen was a disappointment, however.
Final Score: Screamin’ Seamen 1, Else United 1
Goals
Stubbs – 1
Cards
None
Player Ratings
Read: **
Kvam: **~
McDonald: **
Stubbs: **~
Lerma: **
Leier: **~
Mauffret: **
Bautista: **~
Tere: **
Peralta: *~
Gravesen: *~
Team Ratings
Screamin’ Seamen
-Midfield: Inadequate (5)
-Right Defense: Formidable (9)
-Central Defense: Outstanding (10)
-Left Defense: Excellent (8)
-Right Attack: Weak (4)
-Central Attack: Poor (3)
-:Left Attack: Wretched (2)
-NSI: 51
Else United
-Midfield: Wretched (2)
-Right Defense: Passable (6)
-Central Defense: Passable (6)
-Left Defense: Inadequate (5)
-Right Attack: Weak (4)
-Central Attack: Poor (3)
-:Left Attack: Weak (4)
-NSI: 34
Comments
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the
Keith Stubbs Show with me, your host, Data King! It’s pretty unusual when all of the notable events for your team focus around one player. It’s even more unusual when that player is a defender! Keith had himself a whale of a game today and, despite his early blunder, I am duly impressed. Stubbs reminds me more and more of a young Sandis Ozolinsh; a defender who jumps up onto the attack with (sometimes disturbing) regularity, whether he is asked to or not. (And no, I did not instruct Keith to play offensive or anything of the sort.)
I have to give credit to the sky-blues of Else United. Despite our early lead and shut-down defense, they kept digging, and were finally able to get the equalizer with about 20 minutes left to play. I am quite impressed with the effort put forth by rexallsc’s club, and would have expected a more lop-sided result (or at least a victory) given the massive possession advantage that we enjoyed.
As far as the players we were keeping our eyes on are concerned, Charlie Bautista passed with flying colors. I was expecting a bit less out of him, to be frank, and now expect him to return to the starting line-up in short order.
Jesper Gravesen, on the other hand, continues to disappoint. Although I am not at liberty to discuss the details at this point (read: I don’t have enough money yet
), we will be looking to make some offensive changes to the club soon. You can be relatively certain that, if those changes require that we let anyone go, Jesper will be the first name on a very short list of expendables.
Other News
We would like to welcome the 32nd member of the Screamin’ Seamen Supporter Group:
Manhattan Marauders (Owner: NAIWF, Currently 6th place in Series V.152).
Welcome Marauders, and thank you very much for your support.
After only 16 days with Swiss club Hodechlopfer, former Seaman William Brown has moved on to F.C. Botarell, a Spanish 5th Division Side. The transfer earned us a nice little bonus of $5,310.
Up Next: Our weekly training results on Thursday evening. Stay tuned!