Orangemen vs Juve -- a Spine Tingler

The first game of the Spring/Summer Season and Mother Nature fooled us all again.  Now I’m really considering a drive to Punxsutawney PA for a talk with the groundhog that might just result in my drop kicking the furry little  liar through the goalposts of life.  At 7:00 pm the thermometer in my car was still registering 55 degrees.  By game time, at 8:30 out at Poplar Tree park, the temperature had plummeted to 39 degrees.  The good news is that the rain held off. 39 degrees and raining would have led to one miserable night on the field.

We played the Fairfax Juventus...our last game was with them was a 3 to 7 defeat on 4 August 2012.  You can relive the highlights from that great match here...Link to 4 August Match. 

The game started late about eight minutes after 8 pm, but the ref started his clock right at 8 pm.  We know this because several member of our team also started their watches at the opening whistle.  So we were cheated out of a full first half with 8 minutes of game time coming out of first half.  The round of subs I was sending in just as he blew the whistle would not get a fair amount of playing time.  The analyst in me says we were robbed of 88 minutes of total playing time whereas the ref was overpaid by his 8 minutes.  That stinks.   It was particularly bad on this evening as the ref never called the managers up to the center circle for the coin toss.  So no coin toss and no pre-game discussion that I thought was required by the league.  In light of the liability waivers the league forced everyone to sign this season, upping the formality of play, I find this troubling that notification did not make it down to all referees that a pre-game discussion with managers in the Coaches League was mandatory.   I had to inform the ref on the field of play that I was the captain and manager of the team.  I will be taking this up with both the league and the ref scheduler.

With regard to calling the game, however, generally speaking I found the ref to be making good calls, and he was definitely keeping up with play, in some instances beating strikers (both sides) down the field on fast breaks.  On one such play he actually aided our defense taking what looked like a fine down field pass right between the shoulder blades, which ended the attack.  So for the purposes of having him on the field he seems like he has a good eye for the game and allows for a modest amount of physical play...a bit more on that in a second.

Our first goal was scored by Ben with a cross coming in from Kendall, who later confessed to flubbing a shot that resulted in that nice cross to Ben.  The second goal came from Emile on a PK after a Juventus handball in the box.  Based on the players we had on the field Emile wasn't my first choice to take the PK so  we were all nerves on the sideline.  Emile took the shot coolly and proved he can strike the ball on frame under pressure.  Which is all you want to be able to do with the PK...the rest is up to the quality of the defending keeper...who he beat.  We had a chance at an opening goal with a very similar run up, Tedd passed the ball to Kendall who streaked up the left side of the field and then sent the ball back into the center where Ben tried to finish with a hole in his foot.  Emile has a standing order to practice strikes on goal when he arrives at the field.  I forced Kendall and Jose to also take shots before game time.  Sadly, I didn't instruct Ben to take shots, nor did I myself take any pre-game shots on goal.  Ben recovered quickly, by expertly finishing his second opportunity.  When my first opportunity game, I made of hash of it.  With options to cross the ball in between the keeper and the marauding Ben who played me the ball, to take a touch into space deeper into the box, or play the ball back, I chose to strike the ball at the net, which resulted in a terrible shot.  Making contact with the inside of my right foot, I never directed the ball back across the net.  The ball simply glanced over top of my foot and continued straight over the end line...pathetic. 

Late in the second half, Juventus began fouling a lot.  Whenever we were on the ball it seemed like they were putting their body on us as well.  The referee allowed some of the more physical play to continue which is fine, shoulder to shoulder charges with some slide tackles.   Some of it was highly questionable.  He never produced a single card the entire game.  The hit Ben took to his back was particularly heinous as I saw his head snap all the way back compressing the lower five of his cervical vertebrae, C3 - C7,  and at least the top two, T1 and T2, of his thoracic vertebrae.  It was as nasty a hit as I have seen since as the Juve player was not playing the ball, he simply lowered his shoulder and hit straight through Ben’s back.  This was clearly a yellow card and quite possibly a red card but it is difficult to judge intention during the heat of play.  The ref awarded a free kick but failed to produce a card.  However, in my mind the ref was slowly losing control of the game as tensions were beginning to flair.  Juve was upping the physicality of their play.  He did award a free keep to Juve for a tackle Jan produced near our end of field that resulted in a shoving match.  The Orangemen all kept their heads when the tension flared so thank you all for defusing the situations when it was clear the ref wasn’t playing to do so on this night.

In total Juventus scored four goals on us.  Their first one off a spectacular header from an outside cross, but the remaining three, were relatively soft goals.  The third goal came in the second half when Gene failed to leave his line early enough, and the fourth when Floppy came out too early, quite possibly influenced by the third goal.  However, our defense was an abject mess which no doubt added to the confusion.  I’m not enforcing our two flat in the back defense when we have plenty of experienced defenders on the pitch...however it appears over and over again, when we change or formation in the middle of the game we get punished.  The fact that three of the goals we so soft leads me to the conclusion that confusion and disorganization are what lead to the goals rather than our abilities.  In the end though we improved our performance over the Juve game we lost back in August losing by only 2 goals vs 4 and certainly the chance to even win last nights game was within our grasp.

After careful consideration I am awarding the Man-of-the-Match honors this week to Ben for his total field play and excellent distribution, including his unselfish ball to me, which I subsequently f-ed up.  Also, Ben gets the sportsman award for not coming off that shoulder to his back with both fists swinging.  Few would have taken a shot like that and shrugged it off...in this case I recommend Ben not shrug his shoulders for a least a week lest he risk injuring what have to be sore vertebrae this morning.   Kendall, get’s runner up for his work rate and fast break opportunities.

Jim L, Dave N, Chuck P, and Mooch enjoyed a quick beer at the Red Robin in Fair Lakes directly after the game.  It really is nice to cap off the evening, win or lose, lifting a pint.