Halloween Weekend Defeat for Orange

With Hurricane Sandy making headlines this week, threatening to wipe out all of the weekend activities, and while waiting with anxiety until the 11th hour to formally secure a field for our competition, all stress was removed as the Orangemen took the pitch at Robinson Secondary School at 3 pm, on a B-E-A-utiful Saturday afternoon in Fairfax, Virginia.  Alas, the Orangemen were defeated, not by the storm, or by zombies, but by a well organized Braddock Road side that stayed tenacious and kept a well organized defense.

As it turns out the upper field at JW Robinson has just been resurfaced and is both a colossal and wonderful pitch.  As seemingly big as the field is at Washington & Lee High it provides a extremely large amount of space to work and move the ball around...provided you have the energy.  Our opposition, dressed in blue, were the long time Braddock Road rivals who typically use the Lake Braddock High School facilities (Home of Mia Hamm) but therefore must rely on the BRSC for field assignments...which clearly came late and does not favor the adult leagues.

The afternoon game afforded an opportunity for some of our long time teammates to make a showing, as opposed to the 8 pm games we’ve been locked into for many years.  Jim Lister, Chris Brody, and Scott Fearing among those who prefer the earlier match times...it was good to have them out.  Failing to show for the match was the Orangemen equipment...does anyone know who has possession of the Orangemen equipment trunk?

After suffering through some colorful commentary about the worthless nature of the new Orangemen system of play, Mooch shook off the criticism and lined the Orangemen up with more confidence than ever in our new formation.  Without Sam or Andy showing up today, Doug and Karl started as sweepers.  Jim Lister and Chris Brody lined up as our outside stoppers with Ben playing central stopper.  Andres and Tedd Ogren lined up to control the midfield in front of Ben.  Floppy and B played our wing half-backs with Jim Landoll lining up to control the center circle.

This is a defensive minded formation, with the five full-backs and three halfbacks always behind the ball and only the midfield wingers allowed to get forward on the attack.  During the first minutes of the game, B and Floppy made good runs forward as we had multiple opportunities forward.  Braddock Road was not without an attacking presence and they also penetrated forward on multiple occasions, always from the flanks.  However, this brilliant defensive formation blocked their advances again and again.  Karl, Chris, and Jim, career veterans of this sport, instinctively knew how to disrupt an attack with the size of Doug and speed of Ben clogging the middle.  As an example of why Jim L has to get out on the pitch more, he seemingly completely forgot how to throw in a ball, lifting both feet off the ground forcing the referee to blow the whistle.  There is hope for Greg Z who got to witness a veteran of the sport making the same rookie error that he has committed in two previous games and was forced by Mooch to watch remedial videos.  Mooch will not make Jim L suffer the same indignity, particularly since Jim handed Mooch cash at the start of the game.

The first break came for Braddock Road off a nicely crossed ball from the right wing arching in high to the penalty area..  Doug had a clear opportunity to head the ball back in it’s direction of travel.  However, without any pressure being applied,  Gene also had a clear opportunity to step forward and catch the ball.  As he stepped forward he called for the ball.  Unfortunately, if a defender is already committed to the play when he hears the keepers call, it’s awkward to break off the play.  Therefore, Doug half-heartedly raised his head up to meet the ball.  Instead of making solid contact, the ball skimmed off the top his head, eluding Gene’s reach. As it was angling down it continued to the ground in front of the net and hit Nate in the feet.  As this type of awkward play goes, with the ball traveling so fast. it could have bounced forward or backward.  Sadly Nate’s feet deflected it backward into the net for an own goal.  Unlucky, highly unavoidable, and a good example of what can always happen when a quality ball arrives right in the middle of the penalty area.

Play continued in an open fashion.  The Orangemen had multiple runs forward.  Later  in the second half Chris Harven arrived and took up the midfield wing position for Floppy, who decided to skip the remainder of the game due to his appointment with the Marine Corps Marathon this morning.  It’s his tenth marathon and we wish him luck...it should be an awesome morning to run.  Chris had run after run forward and had several opportunities to strike the ball at the net and to cross the ball into a marauding B, who tried no less than four time to head the ball on target.  Earlier Chris and precisely placed ball to the outside top of the box that he was able to run onto and strike with his signature right footed blast.  He hit it low and on target  it lifted enough to carry it over the far post, but not by much.

Ben, advanced out of the back, working with B and Chris, on several runs, beating defenders, into space, and creating room to strike the ball for a shot.  When Braddock witnessed Ben moving forward they immediately tracked back and flooded the box with Blue.  Yet with Ben’s speed and maneuverability he kept creating space and threatened again and again.

Later in the second half, the Orangemen figured out the key to the Braddock retreat was to work the ball through midfield, playing the ball to Jim L, or Dave N in the center circle, who would then play it back to the midfielder who could then hit Chris or B.  Several times this worked, several times Dave Nanney controlled the ball with his hand breaking up this play.  Every time, Chris or B would come inside and could get the ball played to their feet, this allowed them to either play it back to an advancing midfielder or try to hit their opposite winger on the run forward.  On one of these scoring opportunities, Mooch played the ball to Nanney who was withdrawn from the center circle, Nanney played the ball square to him as he advanced on a diagonal run the center.  Chris Haven ran in from the flank, forward of the center line calling for the at midfield. Mooch angled the ball through to him, as Chris continued his lateral run.  He played it heavy and called out to an advancing Mooch that he was intending to continue his run.  Mooch felt Chris had lost sufficient control that he could step in.  He clipped the ball out of Chris’s charging path thereby changing the direction of play as he moved forward center of the final third. He then passed the ball back out left where B was running forward and calling for it.  B ran onto the ball putting Braddock back on it’s heels.  Mooch continued his diagonal run into right side of the box.  B saw the run in time to play the ball back through the off balanced defense diagonally across the box giving Mooch years of time to run onto it and strike the ball.  Mooch knowing he had the scoring opportunity of a lifetime beat the last defender to the diagonal ball, and had time to do everything right.  His feet were in sync, his head was down, and his intent was to strike the ball back across the net.  He hit the ball ball well, it started low, and hard, but he couldn't bring it back across net.  His strike only straightened out the roll of the ball and was therefore destined to go wide.  The build up proved, however, that the Orangemen can actually play the beautiful game, even it the strike wasn't quite so beautiful.

Defensively, we held Braddock to the outside.  Rarely, if ever, did they pose an attack from the center of the field.  All of their opportunities came from outside crosses.  Their second goal came on a low cross right in front of the net, which was tapped in by a lone striker at the far post.  On a similar play, they were denied a third goal because the striker advanced into an offside position just prior to the cross.  But their play from the flanks was superb in this regard.

In the last 20 minutes of the game we lost Tedd to injury and Ben to a social commitment.  Yet we were able to hold on to the score line and retire the fixture with only a 2 nil defeat.  Doug played those last 20 minutes like a man possessed.  He was all over box.  Time and time again breaking up ball after ball that was
delivered in as we were under siege by Braddock.   As a result I award Doug "Man of the Match" and honor I've been slow to bestow on anyone this season. The Orangemen should be proud of this  result... we've suffered some lopsided results in recent weeks, losing a handle on the game in the second half.  Yesterday we proved we can ride out the storm and create goal scoring opportunities at the same time.  Well played match to all.