Season 3 – U.S. Open Cup – Round 2
Arizona Wolves vs. Screamin’ Seamen
Date: April 9th, 2003
Venue: Arizona Field (Tempe, AZ)
Attendance: 6,913 (7,000)
Weather: Partly Cloudy
We’ve managed to escape from the harsh weather that struck Chicago recently, and are in Tempe, Arizona for a 2nd round U.S. Open Cup match against the Arizona Wolves. The Wolves, like many of the new Division VI teams in the U.S., is searching for new ownership, but have managed to claim 2nd place in their series thus far.
Still, the Wolves do not pose a serious threat to the club, so we should be looking at an easy advance to the 3rd round of the cup. We’re fortunate, because this is exactly what our lads need; a nice easy win. Their confidence was pretty well shattered by the drubbing we took in Detroit last week, but this match should go a long way towards repairing that psychological damage.
Formation: 4-4-2
Starters
Keeper: #13 Darryl Read
Right Wingback: #24 Christian Kvam
Central Defender: #18 Cameron McDonald
Central Defender: #20 Keith Stubbs
Left Wingback: #5 Arlen Lucas
Right Winger: #25 Paul Peralta
Inner Midfielder: #19 Jerry Smith
Inner Midfielder: #7 Lucian Tere
Left Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret
Forward: #14 Jesper Gravesen
Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias
Team Captain: #14 Jesper Gravesen
Set Pieces: #14 Jesper Gravesen
Substitutes
-Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan
-Defender: #21 Zarpas Lerma
-Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista
-Forward: #11 Johannes Henriksson
-Winger: #3 Ben McMahon
We’ve decided to go with a 4-4-2 approach today, which is something we haven’t done in quite a while. We want to get our defensive trainees on the pitch, but I am not comfortable with the idea of playing a 5-4-1. Winning today is too important to the psychology of the team to take that much of a chance.
Arlen Lucas will see the pitch today, as he was suspended from our league match this past weekend. Hopefully he can keep his nose clean this time around, because we will need him on Sunday against the Big Reds.
Forrest “Gump” Tobias is the other starter that will play for us today. We need a second forward to accompany Jesper Gravesen up front, and Johannes Henriksson is far too valuable to risk in a match like this. On top of that, any match experience we can get for “Gump” is a definite plus.
Today also marks the professional debut for youth squad phenom Cameron McDonald. Cameron is one of the most highly-touted players to ever come out of our youth program, and we’re really looking forward to seeing what he can do on the pitch.
Match Report
PRE-GAME
Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and Arizona Field saw a crowd turnout of 6913.
Arizona started off with a 4-4-2 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Stapleton - Gary, Goodson, Friedman, Atkins - Rivers, Aceña Lopez, Anderson, Wynn - Jiménez Asensio, Lake.
Screamin' had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. Lineup: Read - Kvam , Stubbs, Mcdonald, Lucas - Peralta, Tere, Smith, Mauffret - Gravesen, Tobias.
FIRST HALF
Screamin' took the lead after 18 minutes with 0 - 1. Jesper Gravesen placed the ball out of reach for the home sides keeper after a fine move, coming in from the left.
After 33 minutes Arizona´s Karl Friedman contracted a slight foot injury, but could finish the game.
The visitors Lucian Tere took advantage of an error due to a misunderstanding between the home side´s goalie and full backs in the 33rd minute. 0 - 2 for Screamin'.
Some fine manouvering on the left lead to an 34:th minute Screamin' goal, making it 0 - 3. Lucian Tere was noted down as the scorer.
The structure of the game started to change as Screamin' decided to pull back and meet their opponents in the defensive zone.
Halftime score was 0 - 3. Screamin' held the ball, with a clear 68 percent possession rate.
SECOND HALF
After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, Screamin'´s Christian Kvam got himself booked.
After the ball got lifted in from the left Jerry Smith was on his own in the home side´s penalty area 62 minutes into the game, and should have scored, but missed, probably due to lack of concentration.
Some fine manouvering on the left lead to an 80:th minute Screamin' goal, making it 0 - 4. Jesper Gravesen was noted down as the scorer.
Paul Peralta was dominating his wing and kept sending fine balls into the enemy box - Forrest Tobias managed to kick one of them into 0 - 5 in the 83rd minute.
Screamin's Keith Stubbs got himself booked after a foul. The Arizona player was Karl Friedman who had to be helped off the pitch, unable to finish the game.
Screamin', bringing the final ball possession rate to 83 percent, dominated the battle.
POST-GAME
The most dominating Arizona player was without a doubt Tommy Rivers. Bobbie Atkins on the other hand, had a terrible day.
The most dominating Screamin' player was without a doubt Arlen Lucas. Olav Mauffret on the other hand, had a terrible day.
The match ends 0 - 5.
Final Score: Screamin’ Seamen 5, Arizona Wolves 0
Goals
Gravesen – 2 (1,2)
Tere – 2 (1,2)
Tobias – 1 (2)
Cards
Kvam – yellow (1)
Stubbs – yellow (1)
Player Ratings
Read: **
Kvam: **
McDonald: ***
Stubbs: **
Lucas: ***~
Peralta: **
Smith: **~
Tere: **
Mauffret: **
Gravesen: **
Tobias: **
Team Match MVP: #5 Arlen Lucas
Team Ratings
Screamin’ Seamen
-Midfield: Poor (3)
-Right Defense: Excellent (8)
-Central Defense: Excellent (8)
-Left Defense: Excellent (8)
-Right Attack: Inadequate (5)
-Central Attack: Inadequate (5)
-Left Attack: Inadequate (5)
-NSI: 48
Arizona Wolves
-Midfield: Wretched (2)
-Right Defense: Weak (4)
-Central Defense: Inadequate (5)
-Left Defense: Weak (4)
-Right Attack: Poor (3)
-Central Attack: Poor (3)
-Left Attack: Wretched (2)
-NSI: 27
Comments
A nice easy win, as was expected. Although Arlen Lucas earned Team Match MVP honors, Lucian Tere deserves some special notice. The big Romanian midfielder pegged home two goals in approximately two minutes! That’s the kind of performance that I like to see, even from backups. Jesper Gravesen added two goals of his own, and “Gump” Tobias got in on the action late, adding his second cup goal of the young season.
In retrospect, we probably could have played a 5-4-1 and still won the match, but I was not prepared to take the risk at the time. In case you haven’t figured it out by now, I am a pretty conservative manager when it comes to decisions about my team.
I am particularly pleased with Cameron McDonald, and his outstanding three-star debut performance. He quietly went about his business all game long, sweeping out the area in front of Darryl Read like a pro. Some of the other starters were teasing Chuck Scales about his job being in danger after the match. Chuck looked a little worried, and he should be!
Author’s Note: Given Cameron’s three-star performance and assessed value of $100,000 “out of the box,” I suspect he’ll bump up to excellent defending in a week or two. If only he were a year younger (he’s 18), he’d be possible U-20 team material.
Other News
The incredible support for the Screamin’ Seamen continues to come in, and I can’t begin to tell you all how proud I am to have so much support (primarily from the FOFC). I would like to welcome the following clubs to the family of SSFC supporters:
Golden Eagles FC (Owner: GoldenEagle, 3rd place in Series V.167)
Calibiri (Owner: daelalus, 3rd place in Series V.46)
This brings us to 29 supporting teams, making us #2 in the entire United States! A heart-felt thanks to all of our supporters.
Up Next: Training results and the weekly financial updates in the next few days. Stay tuned!