The first of June brought our first really hot game of the year...91 degrees. On grass, 4 pm versus the Sterling Sting. Traditionally the Orangemen wear black during this fixture and we kept the tradition alive, with Jimbo L, even snapping a picture of our team attire at half-time. Thanks Jimbo, for taking the picture and bringing an umbrella to shield from dad from the sun, as he made a traditional appearance at the Loudon County field as well.
Adrian brought out his yellow bubble bee Sting, on the dry field, and held off the rain. Loudon closes their field’s at the slightest hint of moisture, so the result is almost like playing on the hard clay courts of the French Open, except with the dry grass, they are a little hairy. We might as well be playing on concrete as that is how hard the Virginia clay can seem. The balls of Mooch’s feet were on fire and it hurt to walk within few minutes on this field. Those turf fields really spoil us...and make us weak.
As the manager’s discussed the rules of the game at the center circle they both agreed we would allow slide tackles during this match and because of the heat we would take water breaks. The ref who turned out for the match was very organized and explained in detail how he expect the game to proceed...since he was only one man, without linesmen, he couldn’t see every play and was expecting us to be sportsman and call the out-of-bounds, etc. This was clear foreshadowing of the game about to be played, since when he said he couldn’t see every play, what he meant was that he couldn’t see anything beyond about 10 yards. This turned out to be a challenge for both sides, as, with the sliding, both teams played hard and physically, going shoulder to shoulder for almost every ball. Luckily, even though the ref was blind as a bat, when there were fouls, I think both sides would agree, whereas they constituted fouls, where advantage was taken which when overlooked by the ref, none of the fouls were egregious, therefore tempers stayed in check and all were able to enjoy the physical match.
Visitors were brought to the game...so once again Mooch has to restate the visitor policy...all must sign the liability waiver if they want to play with the Orangemen. The only way you can sign the liability waiver is agree to the eVite in advance of the game. We have leads on many players and friends of players who are waiting in the wings to play. Mooch is maintaining this list based on requests made of him during the season. If we are going to be down players, Mooch will exercise this option first. The only way he has a handle on attendance is through the eVite, so if you say you are coming, please show to the match...or change your status. If you see we are going to have a well manned side...you can use some judgement here...but not much, if 4 or 5 players decide not to show, as happened a few weeks ago, we can be short handed. For this game, we were not going to be short handed, so it’s still not clear to me how three visitors showed up to the match. Just for the record, we had two players who did not get single minute of playing time as a result...that’s simply not fair.
Just after the first water break the Sting scored their opening goal, sadly it came during the realization that the Orangemen were playing a man down and as they were bringing someone else onto the field, without the ref’s consent, and trying to sort it out. Unlike indoor, there are no free substitution in outdoor. It’s likely that the notion of free substitution is what caused some of the on-field confusion.
Our defense was playing well and we dropped back into our legacy Orangemen formation of a single sweeper and stopper on top. This allowed us to play three in the midfield and three up top, a formation that allows us to exercise our attack. Opportunities were plentiful, with Chris H pulling the trigger on some great shots, but he wasn’t able to recreate the beauty he scored he scored last year...you can re-live the wonder of that strike against the Sting here in the archives. Orangemen in Black.
A highlight of the match is when Kendall scored a tremendous header off of a signature Tedd corner kick. The ball came in hard, low and curled to the back of the box where Kendall was able to direct it into the net.
A low-point of the match came when Mooch was knocked down in the the box, a clear penalty kick should have been awarded, as numerous Sting players sheepishly nodded in agreement. Rather than a penalty kick being awarded for Mooch being knocked ass over tea-kettle, Mooch was issued a yellow for whispering the F-bomb out-loud to himself...since the decibel level of Mooch’s whisper was at about 140 db, the ref overheard his soliloquy and registered his use of the F-bomb as decent and sent him to the bench for five minutes.
By unanimous decision, Man of the match honors goes to the player who saved two goals off the line. Jan was working in the back non-stop. Without his ability continue running and to accelerate long after the play as gone by, he could not make these spectacular saves. Those saves allowed us to finish the match with our dignity intact.
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