[DataKing]

Season 3 – Week 14 – International Training Match

Screamin’ Seamen vs. Malvineros F.C.

Date: July 9th, 2003
Venue: The Docks (Chicago, IL)
Attendance: (30,000)
Weather: Partly Cloudy

Malvineros F.C., an Argentinean 4th Division side has agreed to come to Chicago this week for an international training match. There’s absolutely nothing at stake here today, except perhaps a little bit of pride for the club. We would very much like to get a win, even a meaningless one, if for no other reason than to remove some of the sting from Sunday’s loss to the Ramblers.

Formation: 5-4-1 “Buccaneer”

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: #19 Jerry Smith
Inner Midfielder: #7 Lucian Tere
Left Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret

Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias

Team Captain: #7 Lucian Tere
Set Pieces: #13 Darryl Read

Substitutes
-Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan
-Defender: #22 Tyler Willard
-Midfielder: #4 Pete “The Old Goat” Tomlin
-Forward: #11 Johannes Henriksson
-Winger: #3 Ben McMahon

We’ve decided to run the Buccaneer formation again today, just for grins. I’m a little curious to see what sort of ratings it gives us with an offensive coach (Jack Stein) at the helm. Other than that, it’s pretty much business as usual for us today.

The one odd thing is that keeper Darryl Read will be taking the set pieces for us today. I know it seems weird, but Darryl is actually the best set piece player we will have on the pitch today.

Match Report

PRE-GAME

Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and The Docks saw a crowd turnout of 1480.

Screamin' had chosen a strategic 5-4-1 formation. The following players had been chosen: Read - Kvam , Lerma, Stubbs, Mcdonald, Leier - Peralta, Tere, Smith, Mauffret - Tobias.

Malvineros tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. Lineup: Serrano - Reinders, Caro, Fisscher - Coulon, Camara Villar, Kurkawa, Koompakan, Hess - Gillery, Jadudova.

FIRST HALF

A well placed corner kick from Jan Fisscher was followed by Kasem Koompakan´s hard but accurate header. The nice combination meant 0-1 for Malvineros.

Masakazu Kurkawa could have put his team up another one in the 12th minute, after a rush down the left, but his closing shot hit the post.

13 minutes into the game Forrest Tobias was really close to evening the score out with a dangerous long range shot, but the ball went just wide of the bar.

0 - 1 was the half-time score. Malvineros, bringing the final ball possession rate to 60 percent, dominated the battle.

SECOND HALF

Malvineros´s Masakazu Kurkawa made it through the home teams defence in the 51st minute, and had only to place the ball in an unguarded goal when the home side´s defender sprang up from the left, clearing the ball on the line.

The game had been on for 53 minutes when Kasem Koompakan broke through to the right, upping the score to the home crowd´s dismay. Malvineros´s were up 0 - 2.

Malvineros´s Jan Fisscher received a play slashing through the home side´s defense in the 55:th minute, chipping it past the keeper scoring 0 - 3. The home crowd was not pleased with that one.

After this Malvineros lowered the tempo in order to concentrate on their defensive efforts.

After the ball got lifted in from the left Laurent Gillery was on his own in the home side´s penalty area 56 minutes into the game, and should have scored, but missed, probably due to lack of concentration.

Malvineros, bringing the final ball possession rate to 59 percent, dominated the battle.

POST-GAME

Screamin'´s best player was Zarpas Lerma. Jerry Smith on the other hand, had a terrible day.

The most dominating Malvineros player was without a doubt Hugo Serrano. Marcos Caro was a disappointment, however.

Final Score: Malvineros F.C. 3, Screamin’ Seamen 0

Goals

None

Cards

None

Player Ratings

Read: **~

Kvam (off): ***
Stubbs (off): **~
Lerma: ***
McDonald (off): **~
Leier (off): ***

Peralta (off): **
Smith (off): *~
Tere (off): **~
Mauffret (off): **

Tobias (off): **

Team Ratings

Screamin’ Seamen
-Midfield: Poor (3)
-Right Defense: Solid (7)
-Central Defense: Passable (6)
-Left Defense: Inadequate (5)
-Right Attack: Inadequate (5)
-Central Attack: Poor (3)
-Left Attack: Passable (6)
-Experience: Wretched (2)
-NSI: 41

Malvineros F.C.
-Midfield: Inadequate (5)
-Right Defense: Solid (7)
-Central Defense: Passable (6)
-Left Defense: Solid (7)
-Right Attack: Solid (7)
-Central Attack: Excellent (8)
-Left Attack: Solid (7)
-Experience: Wretched (2)
-NSI: 57

Comments

We were manhandled pretty badly today, not that it really matters much. Our ratings were a good deal lower than we are used to, but there are a couple of easy reasons for this to identify. First of all, our offensive coach has skewed the ratings some, but even more obvious is that, after the difficulties we’ve had at the end of the season and the recent MOTS against Ramblers, our team spirit is in the crapper.

Not much else to say today, really. I cared very little about this match. All of my thoughts are bent on Sunday, and making sure that we remain in Division IV.

Up Next: Weekly training results. Stay tuned!