Travelers (2) vs Volvo Aero (3)

June 27th, 2007 - Falcon Field, New Britain, CT

The first half we played GREAT, we scored 2 goals, we created some other chances, we stopped them from doing anything dangerous, we passed, we got open, it was beautiful. WHY can't we play like that all the time?

The first half was seriously great soccer, we worked the ball and everyone was involved in the offensive play. Defensively we were getting back and shutting them down. Someone (who's name I can't mention because he doesn't like it) played a great 1st half at stopper, and Will at sweeper played his best all season too. Midfielders were getting wide and spreading the field. On defense they were getting back and picking up the over-lapping players. The strikers were getting some quality chances and applying pressure to their defense. Patrick broke through from a great touch by Cedar 1-0. Then Tim's volley made it 2-0. We survived the first half. NO we dominated the first half.

My half time speech sucked or demoralized us or something because in the 2nd half we started out way below par, compared to the first half. And we got worse as the half played out. They kept running, they kept their intensity UP, and we didn't. We tried to sit on a 2-0 lead. And with every won ball, with every shot on goal, with every minute they gained momentum and we lost composure, confidence, intensity, and the game ended ugly. Not only did we lose 3-2. We lost our cool. The ref's sucked AGAIN, what a surprise? I've been in this league longer than anyone (except Rick) And these refs, yes all refs not only the two from last night - SUCK. Once anyone starts to give them $#!T they will start calling all those little things against that player and eventually that team. Same goes for the fouls vs us, the other team will start to get away with more and more the longer we yell and complain at the ref. I can't stress enough that I hate refs more than anything in this world. I wish they were extinct. No seriously, I wish we didn't need them. I don't want them, I HATE them. We need to play the game without letting them get to us. When I say we lost our cool, before, I meant that we started yelling at the refs, then the other players and eventually each-other. I don't care if you yell at the refs, but remember in this league with these refs it will come back to haunt you. The other players didn't understand what you were yelling at them anyway, and then of course our own teammates. We need to be a team and if we're yelling at each other it's gonna be a long 2nd half of the season and all the people that are worried about who's gonna be here or not for the playoffs can stop worrying because we're on the path of MISSING the playoffs.

The last 2 games we were WINNING the game but ended up with a tie, and with a lost. We had 6 points and walked away with only 1. We were in 5th place in a very tight group from 3rd - 7th. Luckily we are still in 5th place but way out of 1st or 2nd. The 3rd and 4th place teams are starting to pull away from us, and now the 8th and 9th place teams are in striking distance.

Record:
3 - Win
3 - Lose
3 - Tie

Goals:
1 - Patrick Nevins
1 - Tim Carlson

Goals to date:
6 - Patrick Nevins (1 pk)
2 - Brian Zehnder (1 pk)
2 - Gordon Hines (1 pk)
2 - Kalee Moore
2 - Marco DeMarco
2 - Derek Cedar
2 - Tim Carlson
1 - Alex Kushnir

Gold Cup Final - US and A (2), Mexico (1)

Since this game was played in Chicago at Soldier Field, I was able to witness this game live. The game was completely sold out and by my estimations it had to be at least 90% pro-Mexico. Believe or not, Chicago has the biggest Mexican population outside of LA and Texas. The atmosphere was pretty electric since this is quite a rivalry. As for the game it was a tale of 2 halves. The first half belonged to Mexico and the second half was won by the United States.

On to the game, the United States started out slow with Mexico looking to attack at full force. Mexico created many more opportunities in the first half than the US. One criticism I have of new US and A coach Bob Bradley is that he misuses Landon Donovan. Donovan looked so out of place at midfield it wasn't even funny. But with the plethora of attacking options Bradley was trying to make something work. He has Ching, Twellman, Dempsey, Donovan to choose from. The problem with those choices is that they're all very inconsistent. They all show flashes of brilliance but never do it day in and day out. Anyways, Donovan was out of place and it caused a lack of opportunities for USA. Just a minute before half time a Mexican player beat Oguchi down the right side, sent a wonderful pass across the middle of the goal, and No 18 on Mexico punched it in. I don't remember his name but I know he played one hell of a good game. Usually, giving up a goal before half time is a back breaker but Coach Bradly made some good adjustments at half time. Something that was very lacking during the Bruce Arena era.

The second half starts and US has made a substitution replacing Mastroeni with Clark. I had never seen Clark play or heard of him before but he impressed me. The game changed with him in the midfield. He was quick and aggressive and made good plays. Playing behind, the US became the aggressors and were attacking. Finally, in the 62nd minute they capitalized. Ching received a through ball in the penalty area and was taken down by a Mexican defender. Through the protestation of the Mexican players the US and A were rewarded a penalty kick. Golden boy Donovan lined up to take it. He's famous for going down the middle. I for sure thought he was going to miss but alas he makes it, tucking a nice shot into the lower right hand corner. Its now tied 1-1.

Instead of sitting on the tie, USA keeps playing an exciting attacking style. The come to fruition about 10 minutes after their first goal. The US wins a corner kick. I think it was Donovan who sends an out swinging ball towards goal, a Mexican defender heads it up and it falls to the feet of Fielhaber, who volleys it in midair into the upper right corner. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLL!!! Es un golaso!!!! First of all, who's Benny Feilhaber?!?!? Where did this kid come from? Never heard of him before yesterday's game. Second of all, that took the breath out of the crowd but that didn't stop them from throwing 7 dollar beers in air. I smelled like a brewery walking out of that game. Now is USA's chance to sit on the lead but that didn't happen either. It was back and forth attacking from both sides, though most of US's attacking came from the counter attack. Ching made a brilliant move or moves after receiving a through ball in the box, faked out the defender, made the goalie commit, did everything as he should and he hit the post. It was oh so close. He deserved that goal. Then comes a complete embarrassment of a play. Mexico is in an all out attack, the ball gets cleared to a wide open Donovan who is sprinting toward goal with no one in front of him but the goalie. Beasley decides to join so it is now 2 on none with just the goalie to beat. Donovan makes the goalkeeper commit and slides a pass over to Beasley who has a wide open goal in front of him and he MISSES!!! I couldn't believe it. He whacks it off his shin over the goal. He had to try to miss the goal was that open. Unbelievable. Fortunately it didn't come back to bite them in the ass. The game ends 2-1 in favor of the USA.

Overall the quality of play was pretty sloppy on both sides. These are both national teams and I expected much more out of them. I guess I am so spoiled by watching and following Italian soccer that I expect teams to play like professionals, not amateurs. On a positive note, the USA won and still has Mexico's number stateside. Even though it was sloppy, it was still entertaining.

On a side note, I hate when a small group of fans ruins the experience for everyone else. I know it doesn't compare to the hooligans in Europe but we had some idiots in our section that decided to throw beers, soda, etc down on the people sitting in front of them (which would have been us). I was wearing a USA tshirt and there were a couple USA jerseys in our section so I'm not sure if they were aiming at us or just being stupid but this kind of stuff is uncalled for. When I talked to some Mexican fans outside, they were very gracious and even agreed that its only a game. No need for the stupidity. They congratulated the USA and said they deserved the win and went on their way. I wish everyone else acted the same.

Travelers (2) vs Cracker Barrel Cafe (2)

June 20th, 2007 - LP Wilson, Windsor, CT
I kept saying that these guys would be tough, and they were. With 10 men they came back to tie it twice. With a 1-0 defecit they scored to tie it, with a 2-1 defecit they scored to tie it. We gave them both of their goals, but give them some credit with 10 men they ran the whole game. We need to do a better job spreading the field, which allows us more space to work, which makes those 10 men (no subs) run more and get tired.

Our first goal was a great pass from Jared to a STREAKING Cedar. Cedar, having been stopped on a previous break-away decided to play it safe and layed it off for Carlson who tapped it in. It was a sweet pass, sweet run, sweet lay off, sweet finish, - That's team soccer, when we're not greedy for the glory of a goal but content in knowing that we were involved in the creation of the goal. 1-0

Mistakes. As I mentioned we gave them both their goals. The whole game we were trying to dribble in our defensive third of the field and losing the ball. GET RID OF IT. Their first goal Kevin received the ball and turned into 3 of them. 2 mistakes here. 1st - Why pass to a guy that has 3 defenders on him? 2nd - Why not communicate and tell him NOT to turn? Needless to say they won the ball and took a shot that Buffon couldn't have saved. Upper far corner. 1-1

The second right before the halfway mark was under dispute by the other team. Their player was hopping around and then started to walk/run again. We played on and took a great shot that wasn't properly handled by the goalie; Alex was in a great spot to clean up. I'll take goals like that all day long. I did have a goal like that last week. In a 4-0 game and caught a little slack for it, but in today's 2-2 game it made a difference.

The 2nd half we started strong, but the mistakes were still there. Alex had another great chance on goal, set up again by Jared's throw in. Alex decided to be pretty and chip the goalie - it was close but he missed - UGLY. I consider that a great chance to score but not to capitalize or not making them save it is a mistake on our part. This goes for you too MARKs, the ball in front of the goal and you take your time or take a touch to set yourself up for a better shot. Are you kidding? Toe-poke it, slide, use your ass. True story - John Monticello was lined up to head the ball in off a corner kick, but it was deflected by a defender at the last moment, it went towards his ass so he stuck it out and flexed his booty to re-direct the ball into the net.

More mistakes. With a 2-1 lead and the game winding down, maybe 20 mins left we were still on the attack. We left our defense weak and they scored on a counter-attack. THEY HAD THE WIND - We need to play smarter. I wanted a third goal as much as anyone out there but we need to play smarter. Well their lone attacker was fast and beat Tony and the defender to a through ball and he slipped it in. Tony I thought you were gonna tackle the guy. 2-2

I've been saying this all season. Mistakes will get us vs good teams. We should have won this game and walked away with 3 points. Instead the mistakes we made cost us 2 points. Doesn't seem like much but those mistakes, those points, it adds up, not to mention the moral of a game where we should have won, and we end up tying, or maybe losing. I mentioned the defensive mistakes, what else are mistakes that add up? Well when we're attacking and we earn a corner kick and then we kick it out of bounds instead of in a dangerous place to create a chance on goal - that's a mistake. We had 2 corner kicks that we hit the outside netting of the goal. And that's WITH THE WIND in our favor (keeping the ball from going out of bounds) that's bad guys, I know maybe we were tired both physically and mentally but to kick the ball out of bounds like that it's poor. It happened on free kicks too. A couple of goal kicks, and free kicks in our half. That's a turn over, an unforced turn over.

Well I'm an optimistic and I have to say I had fun, I hope you all had fun; I think the guys who stayed to team bond after the game had fun too. We could have lost, we could have gotten injured so instead let's LEARN and GAIN experience from this game. Think about what you did that was good, think about what you did that was bad. And think about John's ASS.


Record:
3 - Win
2 - Lose
3 - Tie


Goals:
1 - Tim Carlson
1 - Alex Kushnir


Goals to date:
5 - Patrick Nevins (1 pk)
2 - Brian Zehnder (1 pk)
2 - Gordon Hines (1 pk)
2 - Kalee Moore
2 - Marco DeMarco
2 - Derek Cedar
1 - Tim Carlson
1 - Alex Kushnir

United States (2) - Panama (1) - Gold Cup Quarterfinals 2007

I was very pleased to see that the US advanced vs a decent Panama team. BUT, if the US wants to be a world power and compete for the World Cup in 3 years they better do a lot better. Panama is a decent team, for CONACAF, but when you add all the decent teams from Europe & South America Panama drops out of being decent and becomes, how do I put this nicely? Garbage. Yes they have some good players that can hang with the big boys but this is a TEAM sport and the team of Panama isn't going anywhere. USA on the other hand has the money and means to invest into their players to be a world power. BUT they are still not there yet. Come 2010 they still won't be there.

I hope they can repeat their effort from 2002 where they were a ref's call away from tying the game vs Germany in the quarter finals. True the German defender did not handle the bal on purpose but it still saved a goal. Or in other words gave an advantage, a huge one at that to the Germans. Germany hung out to the 1-0 lead and went to the Semi-Finals.

If the US wants to do that again (Quarter Finals) in 2010 they better get some more experience. The best way to get experience is by winning the games you should win. Yes getting your ass handed to you once in a while is fine but you need to go that when you play great teams or when you’re experimenting. I believe that the US mentality is let's do what it takes to win, When it should be Let's do what it takes to get better. I think that the US will struggle vs Canada on Thursday, unless they play up to their potential and not down to their opponent’s level. With a 2-0 lead you need to protect that. The play where Panama scored reminded me of 8 year olds. 3 guys went to the ball and it bounced around like a pinball before it got out of the mess of 6 American legs to the feet of the Panama attacker who fired, no seriously, fired a rocket off the inner post of the goal which rebounded like 30 yards back. Smart, or should I say experienced players, there were 3 defenders, would have been able to handle the pressure of one attacker and not got in each others way.

One mistake is all it takes. Back in 2002 when they were playing great, one mistake (the German defender's hand ball) is all it takes to change a game. So when they US make these minor stupid mistakes vs. a decent team like Panama imagine the other mistakes that they (Panama) didn't take advantage of. Bottom line, I love USA, I want them to succeed, so the rest of the world can hate us for another reason. But if they keep playing like this the rest of the world will continue to make fun of our president and our soccer.

Travelers (4) vs HO Penn/HS United (0)

June 13th, 2007 - LP Wilson, Windsor, CT

OUR 1st shutout of the season goes to RICK! Well deserved since he's the most capped player on the team, have been serving the Travelers Soccer team for more than 15 years. Not to take anything away from Rick, his most dangerous shots were our pass backs. That goes to show you how much we have grown into a better team. The first time we met this team we held on for a 3-2 win.

If you noticed in the first half they were kicking and chasing, and they barely got past half field. In the second half, once they calmed down and started passing they actually held possession in our half a little. I hope we can all realize that we do that too. When we kick and run we can't create scoring chances. When we pass and posses the ball we create chances. Like my first goal of the season! I CRUSHED it in, just kidding. Seriously, what was beautiful about my goal, certainly not the shot, was we had the kick off and held possession, at least 8 guys were involved with passing it around and through their defense. They never had a chance to touch the ball. It was finally crossed into the middle for me to neatly and strategically place it in the far corner with enough velocity that the goalie couldn't get to it. TRUE they started with only 8 players to our 11 but the point is we passed and played keep away with them, we controlled the game for the whole 1st half, even after their other players showed up to even it out at 11-a-side.

It was great to get one right before the half time whistle too. Me again! But this time it was one of those garbage goals. A shot from Kalee that the goalie bobbled and I was there to clean up. That's what we need to do though is take advantage of the other teams mistakes. What if it was a playoff game and we won 1-0 with a garbage goal - who cares we scored we advance end of story. In a game like this it's tough to keep composure because everyone wants to score a goal, but as I mentioned with my first goal, and the majority of the game the whole team touched the ball, we held on to it and then who scores doesn't really matter, this is a team effort and game. Like when LT ran for 28 TD in 2006, he didn't do it alone, he used his fullback to lead the way and of course his offensive linemen.

The second half was a lot like the 1st, we controlled and they didn't. They did play a little better but we kept our form and created more chances. Patrick slipped one by the keeper, and missed a few others too. We set up some good chances, their goalie made some good saves too. Derek had some effect in the last goal. If he actually touched it in, I don't think so, but without his hustle and determination their goalie and/or defender would have been able to clear the ball out of danger. We started to have fun in the 2nd half too, you could hear the oohs and aahs from the bench.

I haven't kept track of how many games we get fans to come and join in on the fun, but I promised Nolan I'd give his dog a shout out. What up Trixi! The first thing it did when it got there was pee on the new uniforms. That's why they were all wet and I told everyone that they were damp from me washing them - LOL

Record:
3 - Win
2 - Lose
2 - Tie

Goals:
2 - Marco DeMarco
1 - Patrick Nevins
1 - Derek Cedar

Goals to date:
5 - Patrick Nevins (1 pk)
2 - Brian Zehnder (1 pk)
2 - Gordon Hines (1 pk)
2 - Kalee Moore
2 - Marco DeMarco
2 - Derek Cedar

Travelers (3) vs ABB II (2)

June 6th, 2007 - LP Wilson, Windsor, CT

I've been preaching about getting off to a good fast start and we finally did - up 3-0 at the half with good goals by Kalee, & both of Patrick's. Gordon, the new interim coach, missed the 3rd one, Red Stripe is the reason to blame, and is convinced we are all lying to him. Even though this post isn't official, he'll have to trust us until the website with the standings is updated.

The wind in our favor helped big time. I didn't realize it until we were facing it in the 2nd half. Our 3rd goal was from Tony's punt. Speaking of Tony he had some great saves, like 4 of them all in one play and we were all in awe. So much so that we didn't clear the ball and ABB finally slipped it past him, for their 1st goal. Things like that will haunt us in close games. Their 2nd goal came from more poor defensive work when we couldn't move the ball and ABB took it away and brought it down to score. CRAP we're only up 3-2 and there's 20 minutes left. They better not come back to tie use like we did to Harvey.

There were a few times when we made mistakes and left Tony alone, or left out defenders out-numbered, but we had great games from all of the defenders - those 2 goals against doesn't mean nothing it could have been a lot more. This ABB team didn't give up and worked hard. Midfield had a little trouble getting the ball out of our half when we were against the wind. I hate this saying but "When in doubt kick it out" - out being upfield, unless your in the defensive 3rd then just kick it away from them out-of-bounds if you have too.

With the wind dying out in the last 10 mins, their players and momentum soon followed. It feels good to pick up 3 points and get back to .500 - our next 3 games are vs the 3 last place teams. We MUST WIN those games to get us into a spot to make a push for 1 of the top 3 spots in the playoffs. Anything less will be unacceptable.

In other team related news... Rick took out a throw back uniform (circa 1990) for the game last night... Gordon, out for the season, was inspired by the fiddler at the Half Door and has decided to take up the hobby for himself. Basically Gordon has become the concession & entertainment for our small but growing fan base. Eddie, keep getting those interns to the games, trade in your jeep for a bus, more of them will fit... Andy & Timmy are neck & neck for the "Jimmy of the Year" award... Coach K "It was a win and I’ll take it." Nicely put.

Record:
2 - Win
2 - Lose
2 - Tie

Goals:
2 - Patrick Nevins
1 - Kalee Moore

Goals to date:
4 - Patrick Nevins (1 pk)
2 - Brian Zehnder (1 pk)
2 - Gordon Hines (1 pk)
2 - Kalee Moore
1 - Derek Cedar