Season 3 – FOFC Cup III – Group Play – Round 1
Screamin’ Seamen vs. Alf Trickers
Date: May 14th, 2003
Venue: The Docks (Chicago, IL)
Attendance: 3,347 (30,000)
Weather: Overcast
This is what we’ve been waiting for, the start of the FOFC Cup III. We’ve been placed in Group F for group play, along with the following teams:
-Alf Trickers (Team Owner: Alf)
-Fantastic Flying Froggies (Team Owner: fantastic flying froggie)
-Manhattan Marauders (Team Owner: NAIWF)
-Shadow Dragons (Team Owner: Astott)
-North Plainfield Plague (Team Owner: cthomer5000)
We are the #1 seed in the group (#6 overall), and have drawn the Alf Trickers (#2 seed, #23 overall) for the first round of group play. Judging by past performances, we should have the advantage in talent level today. Whether or not we are victorious will come down to execution, as we all know that nothing is guaranteed in the world of professional soccer.
One match from the first round has already been decided, as the Fantastic Flying Froggies and Manhattan Marauders fought to a 1-1 draw earlier today. If we are victorious today and earn a full three points, that should play to our advantage as group play progresses. An early two point lead over the 3rd and 4th seeds would be nice indeed.
Today’s match should be a slow-paced defensive one, as both teams prefer defensive formations. We will run our box-standard 5-4-1 formation, of course.
Formation: 5-4-1
Starters
Keeper: #13 Darryl Read
Right Wingback: #24 Christian Kvam
Central Defender: #20 Keith Stubbs
Central Defender: #21 Zarpas Lerma
Central Defender: #18 Cameron McDonald
Left Wingback: #17 Mattias Leier
Right Winger: #25 Paul Peralta
Inner Midfielder: #7 Lucian Tere
Inner Midfielder: #19 Jerry Smith
Left Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret
Forward: #14 Jesper Gravesen
Team Captain: #14 Jesper Gravesen
Set Pieces: #14 Jesper Gravesen
Substitutes
-Keeper: #1 Cornelius Jernigan
-Defender: #22 Tyler Willard
-Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista
-Forward: #11 Johannes Henriksson
-Winger: #3 Ben McMahon
We’ll be using our standard b-team lineup against the Trickers today, with Jesper Gravesen retaining his role as team captain. Jesper’s play has improved, if only slightly, over the past couple of weeks, so today we will see if he can lead the team to victory against our French visitors.
Match Report
PRE-GAME
At The Docks, 3347 punters turned up, and despite threatening clouds at the horizon, no rain came.
Screamin' started off with a 5-4-1 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Read - Kvam , Lerma, Stubbs, Mcdonald, Leier - Peralta, Tere, Smith, Mauffret - Gravesen.
Trickers tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. Lineup: Wikhult - Sahlstål, Tati, Duquesne - Vassen, Martinsson, Johansson, Hoffmann, Boulanger - Redon, Manjón.
FIRST HALF
Screamin' were very close to putting themselves one up in the 13th minute as Olav Mauffret got through, but failing in concentration, he shot the ball wide.
Mattias Leier received some harsh words from his coach after he acted foolishly, probably out of lack of experience, in the 13th minute and almost caused an opponent to score.
After a fine move down the middle Jesper Gravesen nearly gave the home side one up in the 28:th minute. The finishing shot went just wide, though.
0 - 0 was the half-time score. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Screamin', with an impressive 62 percent possession of the ball.
SECOND HALF
The 68:th minute saw the home team take a 1 - 0 lead after a leak in the visitors right side defense. Scorer for Screamin' was Jerry Smith.
Some brilliant football from the visitors right wing resulted in a 74:th minute levelling of scores as Trickerss Olivier Redon equalised to 1 - 1.
Screamin's Zarpas Lerma gave, after 75 minutes, the home team a 2 - 1 lead after an attack coming in from the right.
In the game's 77:th minute Screamin'´s Jesper Gravesen limped slightly after a late challenge, but he was able to continue.
Screamin', bringing the final ball possession rate to 68 percent, dominated the battle.
POST-GAME
The most dominating Screamin' player was without a doubt Keith Stubbs. Jesper Gravesen on the other hand, had a terrible day.
Trickers´s best player was Luís Manjón. However, Henke Johansson made a disastrous appearance.
Final Score: Screamin’ Seamen 2, Alf Trickers 1
Goals
Smith – 1
Lerma – 1 (GWG)
Cards
None
Player Ratings
Read: **
Kvam: **~
Stubbs: ***
Lerma: **
McDonald: **
Leier: **~
Peralta: **
Tere: **
Smith: **
Mauffret: **
Gravesen: *~
Team Ratings
Screamin’ Seamen
-Midfield: Poor (3)
-Right Defense: Formidable (9)
-Central Defense: Outstanding (10)
-Left Defense: Solid (7)
-Right Attack: Weak (4)
-Central Attack: Poor (3)
-Left Attack: Weak (4)
-NSI: 46
Alf Trickers
-Midfield: Wretched (2)
-Right Defense: Passable (6)
-Central Defense: Passable (6)
-Left Defense: Poor (3)
-Right Attack: Inadequate (5)
-Central Attack: Inadequate (5)
-Left Attack: Weak (4)
-NSI: 35
Comments
The Trickers surprised us a little bit by coming out in a 3-5-2 formation, which may explain some of the difficulty we had in the first half of the match. Things seemed to get on track in the second half when midfielder Jerry Smith knocked one home, but Olivier Redon was able to tally the equalizer a scant six minutes later. Not to be outdone, central defender Zarpas Lerma (in weak form no less) swung around to the right and gave us a 2-1 lead only a minute later. That is how things would end, and we earned a hard-fought three points against a competitive Trickers team.
It was a good match all-around, and could just as easily have gone the other way. I was pleased to see the referee leave the cards in his pocket and let the lads play, and Jesper Gravesen’s injury is a slight one. We expect him to be back to 100% shortly.
FOFC Cup Group F Scores and Standings
-NAIWF’s Manhattan Marauders traveled to France and managed a 1-1 draw against the Fantastic Flying Froggies.
-cthomer5000’s North Plainfield Plague earned three points on the road, defeating Astott’s Shadow Dragons, 1-nil.
No. Team Seed GF GA Diff Pts. NSI
1. Screamin’ Seamen 1 2 1 +1 3 46
2. North Plainfield Plague 6 1 0 +1 3 30
3. Fantastic Flying Froggies 3 1 1 0 1 37
4. Manhattan Marauders 4 1 1 0 1 42
5. Alf Trickers 2 1 2 -1 0 35
6. Shadow Dragons 5 0 1 -1 0 38
We couldn’t be more pleased with the way things turned out in the first week of group play. We’ve earned an early two point lead on the #3 and #4 seeds, and a three point lead on the #2 seed. The only downside, I suppose, is that it took one of our three home matches to get that lead, but I’ll take it nonetheless.
Group F Round 2 Matchups
Screamin’ Seamen vs. Shadow Dragons
North Plainfield Plague vs. Fantastic Flying Froggies
Alf Trickers vs. Manhattan Marauders
Astott’s Shadow Dragons are next up for the Screamin’ Seamen. With it being another home match and all, we should do well, but nothing is guaranteed with the 5-4-1 formation. We shall see.
Up Next: Rumor has it that the club is about to announce a major signing off the transfer market. Stay tuned!