Season 5 – FOFC Cup Elimination Play – Round of 32
Screamin’ Seamen vs. Blade Bombers
Date: January 21st, 2004
Venue: The Docks (Chicago, IL)
Attendance: 1,776 (43,750)
Weather: Partly Cloudy
We’ve advanced to the elimination portion of FOFC Cup V, by virtue of our victory over Calibiri last week. But now things get serious, where it’s a “win or go home” attitude. Just like the NCAA Basketball Tournament, if you lose that’s it…better luck next year.
Our opponents are Blade6119’s Blade Bombers, who boast a middle-of-the-road club in most areas, but an amazingly stingy defense (a team after my own heart
). This could spell trouble for us, given the issues we’ve been having with our strikers as of late. We’ll have to rely on superior midfield play, and hopefully a little bit of luck to get us through this one. A low-scoring affair is expected.
Formation: 3-5-2
Tactics: Normal
Starters (# appearances, *s last time out)
Keeper: #13 Darryl Read (32 career appearances, **)
Right Wingback: #3 Ben McMahon (46 career appearances, **~)
Central Defender: #24 Sven Svensson (111 career appearances, ****)
Left Wingback: #17 Mattias Leier (13 career appearances, ***~)
Right Winger: #9 Ad Taxwell (5 career appearances, **~)
Inner Midfielder: #7 Agustin Alustiza (6 career appearances, **~)
Inner Midfielder: #16 Reg Nichols (27 career appearances, **** (winger))
Inner Midfielder: #10 Milan Dufek (10 career appearances, ***)
Left Winger: #23 Ivan Richardy (14 career appearances, ***)
Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias (35 career appearances, *~)
Forward: #11 Johannes Henriksson (77 career appearances, **)
Team Captain: #24 Sven Svensson
Set Pieces: #11 Johannes Henriksson
Substitutes
-Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan (68 career appearances, ****)
-Defender: #22 Tyler Willard (48 career appearances, ****~)
-Midfielder: #4 Jaimy van de Kerkhof (15 career appearances, ***)
-Forward: #12 Guido Metman (121 career appearances, ***~)
-Winger: #20 Walter Bosch (10 career appearances, ***)
We’ve got our typical reserve line-up on the pitch on the back line and up front, but with some obvious issues to deal with. Darryl Read, Ben McMahon, Forrest “Gump” Tobias, and Johannes Henriksson have all been mired in lousy form as of late, and have shown little signs of recovering. Still, I cannot bring myself to play starters in the FOFC Cup (and risk having them injured) so we’re pretty much stuck with what we have. Defender Sven Svensson is the one real bright spot in the group, as he has done an admirable job over the past couple of weeks filling in for suspended players.
Fans will immediately recognize one of their favorites is on the pitch today, and is out of place. The injury to Rune Kolberg on Sunday gives us a rare opportunity to get Reg Nichols some playing time in the middle of the field, so that’s exactly what we’re going to do. Reg isn’t quite up to the level of the others in pure ball control ability, but his leadership (albeit the leadership of an 18 year old) should help to keep the others under control, and hopefully give us the advantage we will need in the middle of the pitch to earn a victory and advance to the next round.
Match Report
PRE-GAME
Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and The Docks saw a crowd turnout of 1776.
Screamin' had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. They fielded: Read - Mcmahon, Svensson, Leier - Taxwell, Dufek, Nichols, Alustiza, Richardy - Henriksson, Tobias.
Bombers tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. The following players had been chosen: Cutler - Moore, Goetz, Tătaru - Goins, Dotson, Fredfeldt, Torres, Martinsson - Sourd, Nissbo.
FIRST HALF
Screamin' tried to break through in the middle repeatedly, but kept getting stuck on the visitors defenders.
This was a good period for the visitors with several opportunities to take the lead, in particular when René Sourd slipped through the defense to come up alone with Darryl Read - but the home side´s keeper showed some lightning reflexes.
The referee showed Screamin's Reg Nichols the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge.
The teams went for a half-time break at 0 - 0. Screamin', bringing the final ball possession rate to 56 percent, dominated the battle.
SECOND HALF
Screamin' had a good opportunity to take the lead as Ad Taxwell came up the left side, but he struck the ball weakly and it went straight into the arms of Ruben Cutler.
Screamin', bringing the final ball possession rate to 53 percent, dominated the battle.
OVERTIME
As none of the teams had managed to win, extra time was called.
In the games 95:th minute Bombers´s Valeriu Tătaru fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee booked Valeriu Tătaru for taking a dive.
Bombers had several good opportunities to take the lead, especially in the 114:th minute when Johan Fredfeldt came up alone against Darryl Read who managed a block.
After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, Bombers´s René Sourd got himself booked.
PENALTY KICKS
After overtime the game was still at a tie, and a penalty contest ensued.
(PK 1) Screamin'´s Johannes Henriksson was seemingly taken by the gravity of the moment, producing a badly laid penalty, blocked by Ruben Cutler. Score still 0 - 0.
Bombers´s Sherwood Goetz cooly put the ball past Darryl Read. 0 - 1.
(PK 2) Screamin'´s Agustín Alustiza was seemingly taken by the gravity of the moment, producing a badly laid penalty, blocked by Ruben Cutler. Score still 0 - 1.
Bombers´s Stevie Dotson hesitated a long time before shooting a penalty going just wide of the left post. Still 0 - 1.
(PK 3) Screamin'´s Ben Mcmahon made no mistake. Ruben Cutler didn´t have a chance. 1 - 1.
Bombers´s Edward Moore looked insecure all the way from laying the ball down to clipping the ball miles wide of the crossbar. No goal.
(PK 4) Screamin'´s Darryl Read didn´t hesitate but Ruben Cutler managed the save, resulting in an unchanged 1 - 1 score.
Bombers´s Peter Martinsson looked insecure all the way from laying the ball down to clipping the ball miles wide of the crossbar. No goal.
(PK 5) Screamin'´s Reg Nichols seemed nervous, putting the ball to the centre of the goal. Ruben Cutler however, made an early dive to the right, the ball passing him. 2 - 1.
Bombers´s Johan Fredfeldt cooly put the ball past Darryl Read. 2 - 2.
(PK 6) Screamin'´s Ivan Richardy was seemingly taken by the gravity of the moment, producing a badly laid penalty, blocked by Ruben Cutler. Score still 2 - 2.
Bombers´s Ruben Cutler cockily booted the ball with a short-and-fast instep. The penalty, going just wide of the mark, didn´t produce a goal.
(PK 7) Screamin'´s Mattias Leier penalty shot was very well placed but Ruben Cutler went the right way, blocking it spectacularly. The score was still 2 - 2.
Bombers´s Valeriu Tătaru penalty shot was very well placed but Darryl Read went the right way, blocking it spectacularly. The score was still 2 - 2.
(PK 8) Screamin'´s Sven Svensson penalty shot was very well placed but Ruben Cutler went the right way, blocking it spectacularly. The score was still 2 - 2.
Bombers´s René Sourd didn´t hesitate but Darryl Read managed the save, resulting in an unchanged 2 - 2 score.
(PK 9) Screamin'´s Forrest “Gump” Tobias cockily booted the ball with a short-and-fast instep. The penalty, going just wide of the mark, didn´t produce a goal.
Bombers´s Randy Torres cooly put the ball past Darryl Read. 2 - 3.
POST-GAME
The most dominating Screamin' player was without a doubt Sven Svensson. Forrest “Gump” Tobias was a disappointment, however.
The most dominating Bombers player was without a doubt Ruben Cutler. However, Sherwood Goetz made a disastrous appearance.
Final Score: Blade Bombers 3, Screamin’ Seamen 2 (PK 3-2)
Goals
McMahon – 1 (PK)
Nichols – 1 (PK)
Cards
Nichols – yellow
Player Ratings
Read: **
McMahon: **~
Svensson: ****
Leier: ***~
Taxwell: ***
Alustiza: **~
Nichols: ***
Dufek: ***
Richardy: ***~ (best performance to date)
Tobias: **
Henriksson: **
Team Ratings
Screamin’ Seamen
-Midfield: Passable (6)
-Right Defense: Excellent (8)
-Central Defense: Formidable (9)
-Left Defense: Excellent (8)
-Right Attack: Passable (6)
-Central Attack: Inadequate (5)
-Left Attack: Solid (7)
-Experience: Poor (3)
-NSI: 61
Blade Bombers
-Midfield: Inadequate (5)
-Right Defense: World Class (13)
-Central Defense: Magnificent (12)
-Left Defense: Supernatural (14)
-Right Attack: Passable (6)
-Central Attack: Passable (6)
-Left Attack: Passable (6)
-Experience: Poor (3)
-NSI: 72
Comments
Even with the small advantage we enjoyed in the midfield, our struggling forwards didn’t stand a chance today against the Blade Bombers’ defense. Keeper Ruben Cutler is an amazing talent, and we just didn’t have the firepower to put one past him.
Our own keeper, Darryl Read, played a fine match as well. On two separate occasions he single-handedly kept us in the game with a lightning-quick save. We even managed to put two past Cutler once we got to penalty kicks and forced it to go nine rounds deep, but eventually fell 3-2.
I’m not all that upset about the results today. With our weakened program and relatively young training program, our only goal for the FOFC Cup was to advance past group play, and we accomplished that. We now wish the Bombers the best of luck through the remainder of the cup, and turn our full attentions toward league play.
Up Next: Weekly training results. Stay tuned!