Season 3 – Week 12 – International Friendly
Screamin’ Seamen vs. Big lizards X1
Date: June 25th, 2003
Venue: The Docks (Chicago, IL)
Attendance: 2,030 (30,000)
Weather: Partly Cloudy
Now that our run through the FOFC Cup has come to an end, it’s time to arrange a few international friendly matches before the end of the season. Our opponents this week are Big lizards X1, a 4th Division side from Sussex, England. The lizards run a very balanced 3-5-2 formation in their friendly matches, and should present us with a healthy challenge today. We do have two advantages in the match. First, we have two starters available due to suspensions this past weekend, and second, the match is here in Chicago, at The Docks.
Formation: 4-4-2
Starters
Keeper: #13 Darryl Read
Right Wingback: #24 Christian Kvam
Central Defender: #20 Keith Stubbs
Central Defender: #21 Zarpas Lerma
Left Wingback: #5 Arlen Lucas
Right Winger: #9 Valentin Rubio
Inner Midfielder: #7 Lucian Tere
Inner Midfielder: #8 Niklas Ivarsson
Left Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret
Forward: #11 Johannes Henriksson
Forward: #25 Paul Peralta
Team Captain: #11 Johannes Henriksson
Set Pieces: #11 Johannes Henriksson
Substitutes
-Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan
-Defender: #17 Mattias Leier
-Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista
-Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias
-Winger: #3 Ben McMahon
Due to our running of a 4-4-2 formation on Sunday, we only have four defenders that need to play today, so we will run a box-standard 4-4-2 formation against the lizards. Arlen Lucas was suspended from Sunday’s match, so he will play at the left wingback position today. We’re going to try a bit of an experiment with Arlen today, as he will be playing in a much more offensive stance than he is used to. We want to see how much this affects our offensive and defensive capabilities on the left side of the pitch.
We’ve done a lot of shuffling with the midfield and forward positions today. Valentin Rubio was also suspended from Sunday’s match, and so will take the left winger position today. In the middle, we’re forced to play Lucian Tere and Niklas Ivarsson, both of which also played on Sunday. Pete “The Old Goat” Tomlin and Jerry Smith are both still dinged up from the injuries they’ve sustained recently, so they will sit this one out. We don’t want to risk further injury to either of them in a training match.
Up front, Paul Peralta will join Johannes Henriksson as our second striker today. Paul is one of those guys who can play nearly any position on the pitch with at least a small degree of ability, so he will get a rare opportunity to be one of our primary goal scorers.
Now it’s time for the spokesladies and I to head to The Docks.
Match Report
PRE-GAME
2030 spectators arrived at The Docks, where weather conditions were pretty good for football.
Screamin' started off with a 4-4-2 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Read - Kvam , Lerma, Stubbs, Lucas - Rubio, Ivarsson, Tere, Mauffret - Henriksson, Peralta.
lizards had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Bowman - Heafield, Roelofs, Espinoza - Wallace, Beneitez, Brosjö, Harper, Kumar - Sisson, Mouthaan.
FIRST HALF
Many thought Paul Peralta ought to have been awarded a penalty shot in the 5:th minute, as he went down trying to circle the visitors keeper Paul Bowman.
8 minutes into the game Jim Sisson was a hair´s breadth away from giving lizards the lead. A prompt block by Darryl Read saved the home team that time.
Keith Stubbs received some harsh words from his coach after he acted foolishly, probably out of lack of experience, in the 9:th minute and almost caused an opponent to score.
Ad Roelofs came close to putting the visiting team one up in the 13th minute, following a solo raid down the middle, but Darryl Read managed to tip the ball to a corner.
In the game's 17:th minute lizards´s Lars Brosjö limped slightly after a late challenge, but he was able to continue.
0 - 0 was the half-time score. Screamin' held the ball, with a clear 53 percent possession rate.
SECOND HALF
lizards took the lead in the games 77:th minute with 0 - 1 after some elegant plays down the middle. Lars Brosjö was the scorer.
Due to some great work on the right wing Screamin':s Olav Mauffret was able to even the score in the 81st minute to 1 - 1.
Valentín Rubio was dominating his wing and kept sending fine balls into the enemy box - Paul Peralta managed to kick one of them into 2 - 1 in the 83rd minute.
The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Screamin', with an impressive 61 percent possession of the ball.
POST-GAME
Screamin'´s best player was Arlen Lucas. Johannes Henriksson on the other hand, had a terrible day.
The most dominating lizards player was without a doubt Ad Roelofs. Andrew Wallace on the other hand, had a terrible day.
Final Score: Screamin’ Seamen 2, Big lizards X1 1
Goals
Mauffret – 1
Peralta – 1 (assisted by Rubio)
Cards
None
Player Ratings
Read: **~
Kvam: **~
Stubbs: ***
Lerma: ***
Lucas: ***~
Rubio: ***
Tere: **~
Ivarsson: **~
Mauffret: **
Henriksson: **
Peralta: **
Team Ratings
Screamin’ Seamen
-Midfield: Weak (4)
-Right Defense: Excellent (8)
-Central Defense: Formidable (9)
-Left Defense: Excellent (8)
-Right Attack: Solid (7)
-Central Attack: Inadequate (5)
-Left Attack: Passable (6)
-NSI: 55
Big lizards X1
-Midfield: Weak (4)
-Right Defense: Formidable (9)
-Central Defense: Solid (7)
-Left Defense: Passable (6)
-Right Attack: Poor (3)
-Central Attack: Inadequate (5)
-Left Attack: Inadequate (5)
-NSI: 47
Comments
Today’s match was a rather odd one. We saw a flurry of activity in the first seventeen minutes of the match, but no goals were scored, due in no small part to two excellent saves by keeper Darryl Read. After that, there was a long stretch in the middle of the match where neither team could muster up any serious scoring chances. That is, until the last thirteen minutes or so, which saw all three of the match’s goals. Rather odd, indeed.
Paul Peralta did pretty well for us at striker today, including tallying the game winner thanks to a terrific pass from winger Valentin Rubio. Arlen Lucas’ rating wasn’t what we’re used to seeing from him, but he is rather unaccustomed to playing with such an offense attitude. The experiment was a valuable one, though, as we now have a pretty good idea of what those sort of orders will do to our offensive and defensive ratings.
Up Next: The team’s training update for week 12. Stay tuned