Season 2 – Post Season – Friendly Match
Screamin’ Seamen vs. Gargoyles
Date: March 26th, 2003
Venue: The Docks (Chicago, IL)
Attendance: 633 (17,350)
Weather: Rain
We have one of our most highly-anticipated friendly matches to round out the season this week. We have the honor of playing host to Raven Hawk’s Gargoyles, as the two top teams in the FOFC Ratings will square off. Surprisingly enough, this is the first time that our two teams have met. This one should be interesting.
Formation: 3-5-2
Starters
Keeper: #13 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan
Right Wingback: #22 Tyler Willard
Central Defender: #2 Chuck Scales
Left Wingback: #5 Arlen Lucas
Right Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret
Inner Midfielder: #8 Niklas Ivarsson
Inner Midfielder: #19 Jerry Smith
Inner Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista
Left Winger: #3 Ben McMahon
Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias
Forward: #11 Johannes Henriksson
Team Captain: #11 Johannes Henriksson
Set Pieces: #11 Johannes Henriksson
Substitutes
-Keeper: #1 Darryl Read
-Defender: #23 William Brown
-Midfielder: #7 Lucian Tere
-Forward: #14 Jesper Gravesen
-Winger: #16 Otis Johnson
Because this is the off-season, we’ve decided to play our starters primarily. It’s is much more important to us to keep their form up, rather than the form of our reserves. This is the time of the year when the back-ups get precious little playing time. We did make two key changes to the line-up, however.
In order to save Pete “The Old Goat” Tomlin’s 32-year-old legs, we’re letting him sit, and will be starting Jerry Smith in the midfield instead. We’re looking to get Jerry as much playing time as possible, with the hopes that he will become a regular starter for us next season.
Today will also be newcomer Niklas Ivarsson’s debut for the club. We expect good things from Niklas. For the $153,000 that we paid for him, we’d
better see good things.
Match Report
PRE-GAME
Due to an all-day shower, 633 paying spectators got to see a match on a pitch-turned-bog at The Docks.
Screamin' tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. Lineup: Jernigan - Willard, Scales, Lucas - Mauffret , Ivarsson, Bautista, Smith, Mcmahon - Henriksson, Tobias.
Gargoyles tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. They fielded: Kullenhult - Olesen, Dehlbratt, Payne - Holden, Newsom, Mccormick, Jackson, Ekmo - Salter, Dunn.
FIRST HALF
In the games 3rd minute Torben Olesen almost gave the visitors the lead, as he clipped a spectacular scissors shot just past the bar.
Neal Dunn of Gargoyles received a yellow card in the 6:th minute for unsportsmanlike behaviour.
Jerry Smith received some harsh words from his coach after he acted foolishly, probably out of lack of experience, in the 30:th minute and almost caused an opponent to score.
Screamin' tried to break through in the middle repeatedly, but kept getting stuck on the visitors defenders.
Screamin'´s Jerry Smith left the field after 32 minutes because of a nasty blow to the shin. His replacement was Lucian Tere.
The referee showed Gargoyless Tony Salter the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge.
Many thought Niklas Ivarsson ought to have been awarded a penalty shot in the 41st minute, as he went down trying to circle the visitors keeper Torbjörn Kullenhult.
Gargoyles had obvious problems in finding their positions.
Halftime score was 0 - 0. Screamin' held the ball, with a clear 55 percent possession rate.
SECOND HALF
Gargoyles -coach had an extra briefing during the break, and after that his players looked a lot more organized.
Gargoyles seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion about the organization of the team.
The referee showed Gargoyless Carlton Payne the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge.
Gargoyles had several good opportunities to take the lead, especially in the 75:th minute when Tony Salter came up alone against Cornelius Jernigan who managed a block.
Gargoyles, bringing the final ball possession rate to 53 percent, dominated the battle.
POST-GAME
The most dominating Screamin' player was without a doubt Arlen Lucas. Lucian Tere was a disappointment, however.
Most important Gargoyles player was Neal Dunn. However, Carlton Payne made a disastrous appearance.
The match ends 0 - 0.
Final Score: Screamin’ Seamen 0, Gargoyles 0
Goals
None
Cards
None
Player Ratings
Jernigan: ***
Willard: ***
Scales: ***~
Lucas: ***~
Mauffret: **
Ivarsson: ***
Smith: *~ (injured)
Tere: ** (replaced Smith)
Bautista: **~
McMahon: **
Tobias: **
Henriksson: **
Team Ratings
Screamin’ Seamen
-Midfield: Inadequate (5)
-Right Defense: Brilliant (11)
-Central Defense: Outstanding (10)
-Left Defense: Outstanding (10)
-Right Attack: Inadequate (5)
-Central Attack: Passable (6)
-Left Attack: Inadequate (5)
-DKI/NSI: 57/62
Gargoyles
-Midfield: Inadequate (5)
-Right Defense: Excellent (8)
-Central Defense: Formidable (9)
-Left Defense: Formidable (9)
-Right Attack: Passable (6)
-Central Attack: Solid (7)
-Left Attack: Excellent (8)
-DKI/NSI:57/62
Comments
Talk about two evenly-matched teams! Our clubs played to a very hard-fought scoreless draw, and were also tied in both the DKI and NSI Ratings. I’ve got to give props to “Corny” Jernigan, whose great save with fifteen minutes to play kept the draw intact. Of course, this doesn’t answer the question; “Which team is truly better?” I guess Raven Hawk and I will have to face off again sometime to answer that.
Chuck Scales played extremely well, putting up his first ever 3 ½-star performance. Niklas Ivarsson’s debut was exactly what we expected (I intend to have words with the referee, for not awarding Niklas a penalty kick).
Jerry Smith’s injury had me worried, but it’s just a deep shin bruise, and he should be good to go in no time. Ah, the benefits of youth.
All around, a great defensive match. Many thanks to the Gargoyles for a game well-played.
Other News
Brooks Brannon was sold earlier this week for $12,000 to Professor58’s High Tops. $11,040 of that found its way into the club’s coffers.
We would like to welcome the following three clubs to the happy family of Screamin’ Seamen supporters:
Maniacal Misfitz (Owner: Havok12, Series V.253)
Reign (Owner: heavyreign, Series V.193)
Fighting Crawfish (Owner: The Afoci, Series V.77)
This brings our total number of supporting clubs to 22, making us 4th in the United States. Welcome!
Up Next: One more training update, then we will close out the season with our annual awards banquet. Stay tuned!