Preview
This is not as big as the Dragons game last year, but this one is up there. If we win, we have a slim chance of finishing in the money. If we lose, we are all but forced into a qualification game following the season. There is a chance that we could knock off Iowa towards the end of the season to take over their spot, but I think Kaishaku is our best bet now. They've been slumping a little coming into this game and we've been on a roll with two wins followed by a pretty decent showing on the road at Brooklyn. Nothing odd going on with our lineup as all the starters are there. Our wings are a bit of a cause for concern as Starks is still in his form slump and Viseslav will take over for the injured Wellens. Then again, Viseslav would have played today anyways, even without Wellens injury as he's slightly better.
Game Summary
Date: 9/8/2003 at 01:00
MatchID: 8326996
Arena: The Hippodrome
Crowd: 32000
32000 spectators arrived at The Hippodrome, where weather conditions were pretty good for football. Hippopotami had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. They fielded: Kimber - Cristiano, Miquel, Bush - Viseslav, Meek, Benito, Connors, Starks - Phelan, Spagnuolo.
Kaishaku had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. Lineup: Grayson - Fulton, Nógrádi, Kieta - Gergöz, Belikov, Eskelinen, Hijano, Jiménez - Reio, Ruffle.
Elmer Bush received some harsh words from his coach after he acted foolishly, probably out of lack of experience, in the 4:th minute and almost caused an opponent to score. Kaishaku took the lead in the games 20:th minute with 0 - 1 after some elegant plays down the middle. Vadim Reio was the scorer. With a shot floated in from just outside the penalty area in the 21st minute, Gualtiero Spagnuolo of Hippopotami evened the score to 1 - 1. Hippopotami broke through to the left in the 27:th minute, Gualtiero Spagnuolo firing at an acute angle giving the home side a 2 - 1 lead. The teams went for a half-time break at 2 - 1. Possession of the ball saw an equal split between the teams during the fortyfive minutes.
Vadim Reio finished off a quick charge from the left of the field by chipping the ball just past the home sides keeper, making the score 2 - 2 in the 53rd minute. Kaishaku´s Evan Hijano gave the visitors a 2 - 3 lead in the 57:th minute with a superb strike from the right. Hugh Ruffle of Kaishaku was able to make an impressive rush past the sluggish José María Miquel, which resulted in the 2 - 4 goal. Hippopotami´s Gualtiero Spagnuolo refused to leave the field after injuring his achilles tendon in the 67:th minute. Ivan Viseslav had a good opportunity to reduce in the 68:th minute but wasn´t cool enough. The ball went miles over the bar. Hippopotami held the ball, with a clear 51 percent possession rate.
The most dominating Hippopotami player was without a doubt Herschel Meek. However, Ivan Viseslav made a disastrous appearance. Most important Kaishaku player was Afanasiy Belikov. Leroy Fulton on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 2 - 4.
Events and Stats
A few notes:
1. Our score will always be first, whether we are ahead or behind
2. The (num) after the names is their goal tally for the season
3. "xx" means the time of the goal was not specified
4. Most stats will only be for our team
Formations
HH: 3-5-2
KFC: 3-5-2
Events Summary
1st Half
KFC: 20: 0-1
HH: 21: Gualtiero Spagnuolo (2): 1-1
HH: 27: Gualtiero Spagnuolo (3): 2-1
Halftime Score: 2-1
Possession: 50%
2nd Half
KFC: 53: 2-2
KFC: 57: 2-3
KFC: xx: 2-4
Final Score: 2-4
Possession: 51%
Final Possession: 51%
Cards
None
Injuries
None- Spaguolo got hurt but refused to be taken out
Stadium
Terraces: 20000/20000
Basic seats: 8000/8000
Seats under roof: 3200/3200
VIP seats: 800/800
Total: 32000/32000
The Hippo fans knew how huge this game was and sold out Hippodrome32K for the first time ever! Needless to say, this is our largest ever home crowd.
Team Ratings
Houston Hippopotami
Midfield: solid (7)
Right Side Defence: excellent (8)
Central Defence: excellent (8)
Left Side Defence: excellent (8)
Right Side Attack: solid (7)
Central Attack: formidable (9)
Left Side Attack: excellent (8)
DataKing/Nevstar Index: 62/69
Kaishaku F.C.
Midfield: solid (7)
Right Side Defence: outstanding (10)
Central Defence: outstanding (10)
Left Side Defence: formidable (9)
Right Side Attack: solid (7)
Central Attack: passable (6)
Left Side Attack: solid (7)
DataKing/Nevstar Index: 63/70
Another formidable center attack. I'm definately glad I brought in Gualtiero. Wow! That's evenly matched. Our offense is slightly better and his defense is slightly better, but that's practically a draw.
Player Ratings
GK Tim Kimber ***~
DW Lorenzo Cristiano ***
DM Jose Maria Miguel ***
DW Elmer Bush **~
WI Ivan Viseslav **~
MI Herschel Meek (d) ****
MI Stephen Connors (x) ***~
MI Carlos Alberto Benito (o) ***~
WI Mick Starks (o) **~
FO Edwin Phelan ***
FO Gualtiero Spagnuolo ***
Total Stars: 34.0
Total player experience: poor
Team Attitude: Normal
Herschel with the first ever **** for anyone not nicknamed Timber. Spagnuolo dropped back to *** and Kimber to ***~ but that's still pretty good. This 34.0 ties our best set last week.
Three Stars
Three different positions with stars today
Bronze: Herschel Meek
Becomes the first Hippo not named Timber to get **** in a game
Silver: Ivan Viseslav
Takes back wing in Wellens absence and almost scores
Gold: Gualtiero Spagnuolo
The only two goals for us and the tough bastard wouldn't leave the game when hurt
Game Summary
This is a tough one to stomach. Not only did we have a 2-1 lead but we got outchanced in the second half 3-1 despite having essentially equal possession (51-49 us) and our team having a slightly better offense to their slightly better defense. Unfortunately, the end to Phelan's scoring streak couldn't have come at a worse time. If he could have connected here a time or two...
Press Release
9/12/2003 at 13:26 Hippos Blow Lead, Chance to Finish in Money Bleak
In his second fixture for Houston, Gualtiero Spagnuolo scored a pair of goals and gave his team a 2-1 lead at the half. Despite winning possession 51-49 in the second half, Houston missed it's only second half chance while Kaishaku scored on all 3 of theirs. The loss is Houston's second straight with another pair against Kaishaku and Brooklyn on the horizon and it dropped them into 5th with 9 points, 3 behind Iowa for 4th and only 2 ahead of The Champion for 6th.
Around the League
Chock and Iowa battle it out while Kaishaku draws the inactive zfan and the two bottom teams face off
Team Groomers - Chock Full of Wholesome Goodness 3 - 6
This was a 1 goal game most of the way but Chock turned it up and beat the soon-to-be relegee Team Groomers. Bud Willis scored a pair of goals for Chock, who won possession with 62 and 70% in the two halves.
zfan - The Champion 1 - 4
The Champion looks like they will be who is chasing us the rest of the year instead of the now defunct zfan. Camilo Beltrán Pedreira scored a pair of goals and The Champion won a key road game. It looks like they will be our main competition for 5th with zfan and Groomers doomed to 7 and 8.
Iowa Enforcers - Brooklyn United 0 - 1
Iowa loses to one of the big 2 by a late goal for the second time in two weeks. Joaquin Otegi scored for Brooklyn in the 87th minute to disappoint the home crowd. I'm guessing Brooklyn is continuing to PIC for his USA Cup run and should dispatch Iowa next week when they play again at his place. This shouldn't have been nearly this close but Iowa goalie David Freeman got ***~ and made 3 saves
League Standings
Code:
N Team P Goals Pts NSI
1. Brooklyn United 7 32 - 3 21 92
2. Kaishaku F.C. 7 16 - 11 15 70
3. Chock Full of Whole 7 19 - 18 13 77
4. Iowa Enforcers 7 14 - 10 12 69
5. Houston Hippopotami 7 16 - 19 9 69
6. The Champion 7 10 - 10 7 57
7. zfan 7 11 - 27 6 57
8. Team Groomers 7 7 - 27 0 51
The Champion moves into 6th, which is where I'm hoping to keep him the rest of the year. Iowa finally falls into 4th, which is pretty much where they belong.
Hatstats
The series stats continue to fall. Chock put up a season worst 77 (#68 on the top 100), same with Kaishaku and their 70 against us. Now computer controlled zfan is starting to put up worse ratings, too. By contrast, our losing 69 to them is a season high. The Champion was charging pretty fast, too, but they backed off this week with only a 57 after being in the 60s the past 3 weeks. Even Brooklyn is trying to save up for the Cup and "only" posted the 3rd best mark in Div IV. All this added up to our season worst showing as the 18th worst series in Div V.
For the useless stat of the week, 3 of our 4 games made the top 100 largest crowds of the week. Iowa was 39 with over 37K, zfan was 44 with more than 36K, and your Hippos were 76th with an even sellout 32K. The only game that didn't break the 30K barrier was Chock's game at Team Groomers which only got 10723 spectators. After their "slump", Louisiana is back up to 7th on the misunderstood list. Lastly, one player from Brooklyn and Chock made the top players for Div IV, each with 5.5 stars in solid form.
Notes
There goes most of the wind out of my sails. I really needed this win. There's a small chance I could win at his place next week, but that's a long shot. This week, we take an FOFC Cup hiatus and travel to The Eagles Nest in Illinois to take on illinifan and his Spring Grove Fighting Eagles in the "Player We Shall not Refer to by his Name Cup".
SI