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