Orange...Men in Black

The Orangemen changed their colors on Saturday afternoon for the first time in modern history.  Wearing all black to their match against the yellow clad Sterling Sting, they played on a natural grass field, at Paul Hencken Fields, near Algonquin Park in Loudon County.  Alas the change in color, necessary for some of the aging Orangemen--including their manager--to differentiate between yellow and orange in the bright sun, didn't change the game outcome.  The Orangemen were defeated by a score of 6 to 2.  The defeat wasn't without an opportunity to learn a few things.  

First, the change to black, definitely eliminated any excuses for errant passes to the opposition.  And, aside from looking incredibly gallant in all black, we learned that some members of the Orangemen still haven’t added all black socks to their kits.  When wearing orange jerseys the splattering of white and orange soccer socks doesn't stand out.  When wearing all black, the white socks and the orange socks, are immediately visible.  So if you don’t have black socks, please make the investment this week.  Wearing the same uniform helps defeat any accusations for opposing teams that we are bringing on “ringers” when we go on our winning streak latter in the season.

Second, it turns out that several players didn't read the Evite properly and didn't process that the game time was 4 pm vs our standard 8 pm kickoff. Whereas it wasn't a manager mistake in this case sending out bad and confusion information, I still feel I could have sent out a secondary reminder that there was a change to what we consider normal.  My bad for those who missed it.  I’ll do better when highlighting that there is this sort of change.  Strangely, the entire team carried a black shirt with them to the field, indicating that everybody was paying attention to the email.  Ironically Mooch didn't bring his black shirt, indicating the age old adage, do what I say not what I do,  is still valid.

Third, we learned that good officiating is extremely helpful to the game and eliminates most of the need to talk with the referee.  Prior to the match the referee actually came to me and forced me to talk to him.  He asked me directly if I had any concerns or issues that I wanted to bring up.  During the match I asked him for clarification on several calls.  I addressed with him the need for the teams to show integrity when the ball rolls out of bounds...and he agreed.  Several questionable calls went against us and it was the other team yelling at the ref for us playing too aggressively.  I think it was clear that when we are the team stepping out of the fray and not engaging in the squabble, we look much better.  All confusion is eliminated if only one member of the other team is yelling at the ref...as was the case.  One voice in protest can be sorted out and sized up for what it was, and in this case, ignored.  The ref simply knew who to keep his eye on.  So I would like to thank all of you for keeping your heads and staying out of the business of calling the game!!

So we did score two goals.  The first one, if we could capture it on video, will be replayed again and again on the evening news.  Chris H brought the ball down at the top of the box with his back to the goal.  He pushed it to his right and turn on it as the keeper was rushing out to cut the angle.  As he turned on it he struck the ball with his left foot directing it left of the inside post.  The arc on the ball carried it wide of the charging keeper but it curled behind him just in time to slip inside the post.  It was a magic goal and kept us nicely in the match during the first half.  In fact the score at half time was 2 to 1.  So we were really still in it...and had a good chance of doing better in the second half.

Due to changes in the lineup for the second half, and the necessity to rotate the substitutes onto the field.  The Sting found holes in our defense and punished us with two early goals.  Now ahead by three, and with fatigue setting in, we were scrappy and just trying to hold on.  A late scramble in the box led to a pass into Bob A who was able to poke it from the center of the box wide to a charging Michelangelo G, who struck it hard and low past the keeper for our second goal.  The cheers that erupted from the sidelines on that goal were fantastic.  It sounded like we were in a stadium.  It’s not at all clear who all was involved in the cheering but we had a couple of visitors,  Jim L’s wife, Mooch’s dad, Jan’s ever present wife Crissy, Mauricio's better half, and of course Michelangelo’s new clan.  Thank you Orangemen fan’s for making that kind of noise!

We still have some issues with our system of play.  I’m not ready to make whole scale changes to our system...but I can tell you I've been analyzing the 4, 4, 2 formation that we've been playing for many years and have come to the conclusion it is the worst system of play in the history of soccer.  Much more to follow on that front.