[DataKing]

Season 4 – U.S. Open Cup Round 2

Arkansas Indians vs. Screamin’ Seamen

Date: July 30th, 2003
Venue: Arkansas Field (Little Rock, AR)
Attendance: 7,000 (7,000)
Weather: Overcast

We’ve drawn another small, local club for the second round of the U.S. Open Cup, the Arkansas Indians. The Indians appear to be a club similar in orientation to our first-round opponents, the Nevada Kickers; a little bit of defensive talent, but woeful on the attack and in their midfield play. We should be looking at another easy win, as this amounts to little more than a warm-up for our lads, and will prepare accordingly.

Formation: 3-5-2

Starters (# starts w/SSFC, *s last time out)

Keeper: #13 Darryl Read (26th start, **~)

Right Wingback: #17 Mattias Leier (4th start, ***~)
Central Defender: #20 Keith Stubbs (4th start, ***~)
Left Wingback: #24 Christian Kvam (3rd start, ***)

Right Winger: #22 Tyler Willard (26th start, ****, 1st start at winger)
Inner Midfielder: #7 Lucian Tere (33rd start, **~)
Inner Midfielder: #19 Jerry Smith (10th start, *~)
Inner Midfielder: #8 Niklas Ivarsson (16th start, **, injured last time out)
Left Winger: #5 Arlen “Headcase” Lucas (46th start, ****, 1st start at winger)

Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias (33rd start, **~)
Forward: #11 Johannes Henriksson (67th career start, **)

Team Captain: #11 Johannes Henriksson
Set Pieces: #11 Johannes Henriksson

Substitutes
-Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan (42 starts w/SSFC)
-Defender: #21 Zarpas Lerma (No starts w/SSFC)
-Midfielder: #4 Pete “The Old Goat” Tomlin (43 starts w/SSFC)
-Forward: #14 German Galvez (2 starts w/SSFC)
-Winger: #16 Reg Nichols (1 start w/SSFC)

We should be looking at another easy victory today, and therefore will be going with our reserves today. There are a couple of notable exceptions, however:

1. Swedish midfielder Niklas Ivarsson has fully recovered from his pre-season knee injury. He’ll be taking the pitch today, to make sure that he is match-fit for Sunday’s league game against the Croats.
2. Always willing to try out new things, coach Ioan Fluieras has decided to play Arlen “Headcase” Lucas and Tyler Willard today, but up the field at winger instead of their typical wingback positions. We want to work on their abilities as wingers, instead of as pure defenders, and Ioan assures me that this is the best way to do this. We shall see.

Match Report

PRE-GAME

At Arkansas Field, 7000 punters turned up, and despite threatening clouds at the horizon, no rain came.

Arkansas had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Nolen - Sanz, Bergeron, Sinha, Head - Clarke, Reynoso, Sherrill, Deluca - Barr, Vizcarro.

Screamin' tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. They fielded: Read - Leier, Stubbs, Kvam - Willard, Ivarsson, Tere, Smith, Lucas - Henriksson, Tobias.

FIRST HALF

A mistake by the home sides central defence in the 10:th minute allowed Johannes Henriksson to score 0 - 1 for Screamin'.

Christian Kvam of Screamin' received a yellow card in the 16:th minute for unsportsmanlike behaviour.

Screamin' nearly produced a goal as Tyler Willard set up Johannes Henriksson for a strike from a seemingly unpossible angle. The receiver wasn´t as clear-headed though, and put the shot wide.

The away team´s Johannes Henriksson took advantage of a mistake to the home side´s right in the 33rd minute increasing Screamin'´s lead to 0 - 2.

Screamin' had, after 35 minutes of the game, worked the left side industriously, creating several opportunities to add to their lead, but somehow didn´t achieve closure.

In the 39:th minute Screamin' put themselves up 0 - 3 after an attack from the right, caused by a defensive blunder. Scorer was Forrest Tobias.

0 - 3 was the half-time score. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Screamin', with an impressive 63 percent possession of the ball.

SECOND HALF

In the 66:th minute Screamin' put themselves up 0 - 4 after an attack from the right, caused by a defensive blunder. Scorer was Niklas Ivarsson.

The structure of the game started to change as Screamin' decided to pull back and meet their opponents in the defensive zone.

Arlen Lucas increased the visitors lead by putting a volley shot away on a pass from the right. 0 - 5.

Keith Stubbs received some harsh words from his coach after he acted foolishly, probably out of lack of experience, in the 71st minute and almost caused an opponent to score.

The game had been on for 71 minutes when Forrest Tobias broke through to the right, upping the score to the home crowd´s dismay. Screamin'´s were up 0 - 6.

When Christian Kvam made yet another studs first tackle, in the games 71th minute, the referee was obliged to book the Screamin' player for the second time, sending him off the pitch.

The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Screamin', with an impressive 72 percent possession of the ball.

POST-GAME

The most dominating Arkansas player was without a doubt Dharsasatman Sinha. Richard Reynoso was a disappointment, however.

Most important Screamin' player was Mattias Leier. Jerry Smith was a disappointment, however.

Final Score: Screamin’ Seamen 6, Arkansas Indians 0

Goals

Henriksson – 2 (2, GWG)
Tobias – 2 (2)
Ivarsson – 1 (1)
Lucas – 1 (1)

Cards

Kvam – 2 yellow (ejected, suspended)

Player Ratings

Read: ***

Leier: ***~
Stubbs: ***
Kvam: ??? (ejected)

Willard: **
Tere: **
Smith: *~
Ivarsson: ***
Lucas: **~

Tobias: **~
Henriksson: **~

Team Match MVP: #17 Mattias Leier

Team Ratings

Screamin’ Seamen
-Midfield: Poor (3)
-Right Defense: Formidable (9)
-Central Defense: Excellent (8)
-Left Defense: Formidable (9)
-Right Attack: Solid (7)
-Central Attack: Solid (7)
-Left Attack: Solid (7)
-Experience: Wretched (2)
-NSI: 56

Arkansas Indians
-Midfield: Wretched (2)
-Right Defense: Inadequate (5)
-Central Defense: solid (7)
-Left Defense: Solid (7)
-Right Attack: Weak (4)
-Central Attack: Poor (3)
-Left Attack: Poor (3)
-Experience: Wretched (2)
-NSI: 35

Comments

We certainly can’t complain about the results today, as we’ve scored six and held the opposition scoreless for the second week in a row. We also saw good ball distribution again, with each of our forwards scoring twice (although Johannes missed an opportunity for his 4th career hattrick), and two other players found the twine as well (Niklas Ivarsson and “Headcase” Lucas).

The play of our midfield was again the noticeable weak point in our game, but this was at least partly expected. Jerry Smith has been downright awful as of late, and continues to play poorly. Also, we knew going in that we would receive almost no midfield contribution from Tyler Willard and “Headcase” Lucas. They’re wingbacks, after all, and frankly don’t know the first thing about ball possession techniques (Lucas is poor at playmaking, Willard is wretched).

The one sour note from today is Christian Kvam’s ejection from the match. It doesn’t so much hurt the club, as the young Norwegian wouldn’t have played this Sunday anyhow, but this is not the sort of thing that convinces us to keep him around past the end of the season. Unless Kvam gets his head on straight and improves drastically by the end of the season, he will no longer be a Seaman come November.

Up Next: Results of this week’s cross-pass (winger) training. Stay tuned!