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Season 2 – Windy City Cup – Group Play – Match #3

Screamin’ Seamen vs. High Tops

Date: February 26th, 2003
Venue: The Docks (Chicago, IL)
Attendance: 712 (17,350)
Weather: Overcast

Today is the day for our much-anticipated match-up against a fellow FOFC team, Professor58’s High Tops. As I mentioned last week, we need a solid win over the High Tops, as well as some help from Northern Lazies, if we’re going to advance to the Round of 16 in the Windy City Cup. I don’t like the fact that our fate isn’t really in our own hands, but there’s nothing to do about that now. We’re best off just taking care of business on our own end, and seeing how the chips fall.

The High Tops are an offensive-oriented team, running a 3-4-3 formation primarily. The extra attacker means this match will be a good test of our defense. We seem to have a midfield advantage, and it’s a home game for us, so we should get our fair share of scoring chances. The difference, I believe, will be how well our defense holds up under pressure. But with keeper Darryl Read “in the zone” lately, I am pretty optimistic as to today’s outcome.

Formation: 5-4-1

Starters

Keeper: #1 Darryl Read

Right Wingback: #23 William Brown
Central Defender: #24 Christian Kvam
Central Defender: #20 Keith Stubbs
Central Defender: #21 Zarpas Lerma
Left Wingback: #17 Mattias Leier

Right Winger: #25 Paul Peralta
Inner Midfielder: #12 Brooks Brannon
Inner Midfielder: #19 Jerry Smith
Left Winger: #16 Otis Johnson

Forward: #9 Ruben Stewart

Team Captain: #25 Paul Peralta
Set Pieces: #9 Ruben Stewart

Substitutes
-Keeper: #13 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan
-Defender: #22 Tyler Willard
-Midfielder: #7 Lucian Tere
-Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias
-Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret

This is pretty much a standard line-up for our second team, as all of our regular starters played in Sunday’s big victory over Ramblers. 27-year-old winger Paul Peralta will wear the captain’s armband for us today.

Confident in the play of our defense lately, and needing some goals to have a chance at moving on to the Round of 16, we’re playing a few players “up” in their normal positions. Central defender Zarpas Lerma will be up, helping out our midfielders on occasion. Midfielder Jerry Smith and winger Otis Johnson will take their opportunities to push the ball up the left side, and speedy wingback William Brown will join the rush from the opposite side when the opportunity presents itself.

Well, no more time for strategizing. The spokesladies and I need to head down to The Docks now…

Match Report

At The Docks, 712 punters turned up, and despite threatening clouds at the horizon, no rain came. Screamin' had chosen a strategic 5-4-1 formation. They fielded: Read - Brown, Kvam , Lerma, Stubbs, Leier - Peralta, Brannon, Smith, Johnson - Stewart.

High had chosen a strategic 3-4-3 formation. Lineup: Larsson - Sellers, Latham, Schell - Medina, Chuong, Gangfeldt, O´Brien - Nobles, Sullivan, Basoco.

Christian Kvam received some harsh words from his coach after he acted foolishly, probably out of lack of experience, in the 13th minute and almost caused an opponent to score. Highs Allan Sellers got himself booked after a foul. Otis Johnson went down after a savage challenge, but could keep on playing after some medical attention. The home side put themselves ahead 1 - 0 in the 36:th by a breakthrough from Ruben Stewart, who unaided came in out of the right wing hooking the ball over the visitors keeper. A great save by goaltender Mikael Larsson in the 37:th minute kept the visitors in the game as Christian Kvam struck from the left with a real cannonball. The referee showed Screamin's Christian Kvam the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. The teams went for a half-time break at 1 - 0. Screamin', bringing the final ball possession rate to 53 percent, dominated the battle.

High got a chance to level the score as Christopher Sullivan suddenly found himself free with the goaltender but the finishing shot hit the bar. A speedy charge from the left side of the field put Screamin' lead up with 2 - 0. Ruben Stewart finished that one off competently, firing from an acute angle. No one team arose to dominate this half, ending in a deadlock.

The most dominating Screamin' player was without a doubt Darryl Read. Ruben Stewart was a disappointment, however. High´s best player was Torbjörn Gangfeldt. Abe Medina on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 2 - 0.

Final Score: Screamin’ Seamen 2, High Tops 0

Goals
Stewart – 2

Cards
Kvam (yellow)

Player Ratings

Read: **~

Brown: **~
Kvam: **~
Stubbs: **~
Lerma: **
Leier: **~

Peralta: **
Brannon: **
Smith: **
Johnson: *~

Stewart: *~

Team Ratings

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

High Tops
-Midfield: Poor (3)
-Right Defense: Weak (4)
-Central Defense: Weak (4)
-Left Defense: Poor (3)
-Right Attack: Weak (4)
-Central Attack: Passable (6)
-Left Attack: Inadequate (5)

Comments

We seem to have a knack for 2-nil defeats over fellow FOFC clubs, as that has been the final score in our last four intra-FOFC matches (including the last three in the FOFC Cup). The High Tops surprised us with their quality midfield play, and we didn’t have the possession advantage that we expected. But we leaned on our defense, as expected, and they came through for us. I’ve got to give some props to High Tops though. They showed a lot of spunk out there on the pitch.

Unfortunately, I don’t think we got as much help from the Northern Lazies has we needed in order to advance in the Windy City Cup. I haven’t received the official word yet, but I believe The Prestidigitators earned the second spot from our group. We each ended up with four points, and with the same goal differential (-2), but they scored more goals than we did (6 to our 3). I hate to be denied advancement by such a small margin, but such is life.

The injury to winger Otis Johnson was just an ankle bruise, and a minor one at that. He should be fine in a few days. Our good luck with injuries continues.

Up Next: Weekly training results this evening. Stay tuned!