U.S. Open Cup – Round 5
San Jose Earthquakes vs. Screamin’ Seamen
Date: December 10th, 2003
Venue: Spartan Stadium (San Jose, CA)
Attendance: (55,000)
Weather: Overcast
We’ve advanced to the fifth round of the U.S. Open Cup, tying our furthest advancement into cup play. We managed to advance to the fifth round last season as well, but fell apart in the second half, blowing a 3-1 lead and eventually losing on overtime, 4-3. Needless to say, we’re hoping for a better performance this time around.
The San Jose Earthquakes is the club that stands in our way. The Earthquakes are a strong offensive team also from the U.S. 4th-Division, and we should have a pretty good fight on our hands today. We have a huge edge on the defensive side of the ball (their defense is extremely sporadic from what I’ve been able to tell watching film), but their offensive edge may be a considerable one as well. Midfield play should work out relatively even today, with the Earthquakes possibly having a small advantage in that category.
Formation: 3-5-2
Tactics: Normal
Starters (# appearances, *s last time out)
Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan (61st career appearance, ****)
Right Wingback: #22 Tyler Willard (42nd career appearance, *****)
Central Defender: #2 Cameron “Big Mac” McDonald (22nd career appearance, ****)
Left Wingback: #17 Mattias Leier (12th career appearance, ***)
Right Winger: #20 Walter Bosch (5th career appearance, ***)
Inner Midfielder: #8 Javier Tejeda (5th career appearance, ***)
Inner Midfielder: #7 Rune Kolberg (4th career appearance, **)
Inner Midfielder: #19 Gino Behling (5th career appearance, ***)
Left Winger: #23 Ivan Richardy (12th career appearance, suspended)
Forward: #11 Johannes Henriksson (50th appearance w/SSFC, ***)
Forward: #14 German Galvez (25th appearance w/SSFC, ***)
Team Captain: #11 Johannes Henriksson
Set Pieces: #11 Johannes Henriksson
Substitutes
-Keeper: #13 Darryl Read (32 career appearances)
-Defender: #5 Arlen “Headcase” Lucas (68 career appearances)
-Midfielder: #4 Jaimy van de Kerkhof (12 career appearances)
-Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias (35 career appearances)
-Winger: #9 Ad Taxwell (4 career appearances)
To counteract the strong offense that the Earthquakes bring to the table, we’ll be playing three of our four defensive starters today. The only exception is Mattias Leier. We want to get the young Estonian some valuable match experience, so he will be taking the left wingback spot. Arlen “Headcase” Lucas will be available as a substitute, however.
In the middle, we’re hoping that we can keep up with the Earthquakes by virtue of playing Javier Tejeda and Gino Behling. Javier and Gino have begun to emerge as two of our better midfield trainees, at least from what we’ve seen thus far, so we purposely held them out of Sunday’s league match so they would be rested and ready today. Rune Kolberg has been struggling a bit since coming on board, but will provide what assistance he can. Walter Bosch and Ivan Richardy get the starting nods on the wings, with Ad Taxwell held in reserve. (Reg Nichols is suspended and unavailable to play today).
Up front, we initially considered starting with Johannes Henriksson and Forrest “Gump” Tobias. Gump has shown some good improvement over the past couple of weeks, and we wanted to reward that, but German Galvez has been absolutely red-hot in the cup thus far this season, scoring in every cup match thus far. We need Johannes on the field for his leadership and set-pieces abilities, which leaves Gump as the odd man out. He will be available as a reserve, however.
Match Report
PRE-GAME
Overcast weather free of rain made for a crowd turnout of 51804 at Spartan Stadium today.
Earthquakes started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. They fielded: Wiseman - Howland, Jackson, Acosta - Freijedo, Isaak, Carver, Frank, Kent - Hökblad, Villa.
Screamin' had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. They fielded: Jernigan - Willard, Mcdonald, Leier - Bösch, Behling, Kolberg, Tejeda, Richardy - Henriksson, Galvez.
FIRST HALF
The teams went for a half-time break at 0 - 0. Earthquakes, bringing the final ball possession rate to 51 percent, dominated the battle.
SECOND HALF
David Kent sailed high, high above the opponents as he headed the 1-0 in after a corner kick after 47 minutes of play.
61 minutes into the game Screamin'´s Javier Tejeda found a gap in the home sides central defense scoring with a long shot, making it 1 - 1.
Earthquakes held the ball, with a clear 51 percent possession rate.
OVERTIME
After the regular 90 minutes, the agony of overtime followed.
Screamin' took the lead in the games 102nd minute with 1 - 2 after some elegant plays down the middle. Javier Tejeda was the scorer.
This put an end to extra time, making Screamin' the winners.
POST-GAME
Most important Earthquakes player was Charles Carver. David Kent on the other hand, had a terrible day.
Screamin'´s best player was Tyler Willard. However, Rune Kolberg made a disastrous appearance.
Final Score: Screamin’ Seamen 2, San Jose Earthquakes 1
Goals
Tejeda – 2 (3,4)
Cards
None
Player Ratings
Jernigan: ****
Willard: *****
McDonald: ****~ (best performance to date)
Leier: ***
Bosch: ***
Tejeda: ***
Kolberg: **
Behling: ***~ (best performance to date)
Richardy: *** (best performance to date)
Henriksson: **~
Galvez: ***
Team Match MVP: #22 Tyler Willard
Golden Boot: #8 Javier Tejeda
Team Ratings
Screamin’ Seamen
-Midfield: Passable (6)
-Right Defense: Brilliant (11)
-Central Defense: Brilliant (11)
-Left Defense: Magnificent (12)
-Right Attack: Excellent (8)
-Central Attack: Excellent (8)
-Left Attack: Excellent (8)
-Experience: Wretched (2)
-NSI: 76
San Jose Earthquakes
-Midfield: Passable (6)
-Right Defense: Passable (6)
-Central Defense: Passable (6)
-Left Defense: Weak (4)
-Right Attack: Passable (6)
-Central Attack: Passable (6)
-Left Attack: Passable (6)
-Experience: Wretched (2)
-NSI: 52
Comments
This match was a strange one. Except for ball possession, we out-played the Earthquakes in every facet of the game, yet neither club was able to get anything going in the entire first half. The Earthquakes goal early in the second half I can only explain as a matter of luck, considering that we had three head specialists on the pitch today (McDonald, Leier, and Bosch). Fifteen minutes later, 18-year-old Chilean midfielder Javier Tejeda was able to even the score, but after that neither team was able to mount any serious attack, and we went to overtime.
Our young Chilean continued to shine, and the match ended up becoming a dream come true for him. Twelve minutes into the extra frame, Javier found the twine for the second time in the match (and the fourth time in the cup), earning himself a golden boot and a trip off the pitch on the shoulders of his teammates.
We ended up facing mostly reserves from the Earthquakes, and should have had a much more dominant performance than we did. With the exception of Javier, we were flat, there’s no doubt about that. We were much better than the Earthquakes on paper, but that’s why we play the games. We survive, and advance to the sixth round of the U.S. Open Cup.
Truth has indeed proven to be stranger than fiction, and I could not help but laugh when I learned who our opponents would be in the next round; none other than Ardent Enthusiast’s North County Raiders. The Raiders will be coming to Chicago for, strangely enough, the first ever showdown between the two FOFC clubs. You’ll definitely want to tune in for this one folks. It should be interesting.
Elsewhere In The Series Of The Beast [tm]
Four clubs from Series IV.49 remain alive in the cup, as Sweden Heights, Big Reds, and Ramblers were all victorious. And in what any Seaman fan will consider a humorous turn of events, Croats in Miami lost their match to 5th-Division side Webshooters, 3-2. What was the Croats’ response to the loss, you ask? Well, here’s a copy of their press release:
12/11/2003 FURIOUS
NO F**KING COMMENT!
2 F***ING SPECIAL EVENTS!!!!!
2 MISSED CHANCES!!!!!!
The round six matchups involving series teams look like this:
-Screamin’ Seamen vs. North County Raiders (#8 in Series III.8)
-Big Reds vs. Bulldawgs (#4 in III.4)
-Sweden Heights vs. Trailer Trash (#7 in III.6)
-Team 917 (#1 in IV.1) vs. Ramblers
Up Next: Weekly training results. Stay tuned!