Orangemen Play Total Futball vs Internazonale

Last night at the Stadia de Arrowbrook, the Orangemen took on Internazionale in what would be an exciting end to end exhibition of soccer. The referee commented at the end of the match that it was one of the highest quality matches he has refereed in our division.  I can’t put my finger on it exactly what was happening last night but I might say the Orangemen were playing total futbal.  Meaning although we had positions assigned, the players were really playing wide open and were moving about the field where they needed to be.  The only two players who were staying at home were Karl and Greg, at right and left fullback respectively.  Greg Z was certainly a candidate for player of the match, several players who have not appeared in a while noticed his skills having improved considerably throughout the summer months.

The other thing that was a bit different about last night is we had two Olivera’s show up to play.  Those of us familiar with the Orangemen know that Jose the elder has been a significant fixture on the Orangemen in years past, but has chosen to spend more time overseas in Afghanistan than picking up the Orangemen level of play.  He’s got his priorities in order.  Many of you probably don’t know that Jose the Elder probably had a career in Pro Sports had his priorities not been in order after he graduated from West Point and decided to serve his country with distinction.  All was not for naught athletically because Jose Sr. was recognized for his athleticism in 2008 by being inducted into the West Point Hall of Fame for his contributions to the West Point Lacrosse team  

http://www.goarmysports.com/genrel/082808aaa.html

He’s a real athlete and an American hero and it’s always an honor when he steps onto the pitch with us.  

But I’m not done, Jose the elder brought his son Jose the younger with him last night.  The younger has played with us a few times throughout the years when he wasn’t in France, or Mexico, or the Dominican Republic playing pro-basketball.  That’s right, not soccer, but pro-hoops.  You can check out his stats at this link and some news footage at the second link.

http://www.eliteprohoops.com/jose-olivero.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFb69aChdZg

Regardless, even though we were playing soccer, the presence of a pro-athlete on the pitch could not be mistaken, nor could the presence of his Hall of Famer Dad.

Between the two Olivera’s, with the speed of Ben, John H, and B, with Tedd’s fineness on the ball, the rest of us Orangemen only had to fill in the holes.

Our defense rocked including the contributions from Gene playing  between the posts.  The first goal they scored was a fantastic shot, perhaps unstoppable, but their second goal game off a well played ball over the top that caught Gene way off his line.  Easily stoppable had Gene stayed at home, but it was a tremendous take because no one on the pitch though the attacker was evening thinking about going over the top at that point in his run.  He showed great skill, but it was definitely a soft goal.  Internazionale had plenty of opportunities though, but Gene was up to the task and made some really good saves by being exactly in the right position. 

And speaking of opportunities we had plenty.  Most of those came off of crosses from the right and some frequent corner kicks.  Johnny H was using his speed to get to the ball but was unable to direct the ball true.  We also had headers coming in from both Ben and Jose the Younger as they streaked into the box and lept into the air.  We just needed a bit of luck and a few more goals would have dropped for us.

Choosing a man of the match this evening is hard, but I think I will split the honors between Ben’s-in-Ben and Johnny Rocket who could outrun just about everyone on the pitch in the defensive third.  Both of them tirelessly ran end to end, getting up on the attack and then racing back, sometimes deep into our defensive corners to thwart an attack.

I am not ready to change our game philosophy to total football yet...but don’t think I haven't considered it seriously.  Those of you played with my indoor squad, BoB FC, know we played total football.  No positions, everybody just went for it.  And it produced some extremely competitive and exciting matches.   What I believed we needed last night was one more thing.  And that thing was one more final pass in the final third.  Not two, but one more pass.

By my count we created five opportunities to score when that one final pass to the open player occurred up top.  Whether that was a touch back to the 18 or a cross in.  Of those five, B finally got on the end of one and was able to finish, not without a heroic last sliding touch of individual effort, but it opened up for him based on the pass.    On the other side of the coin we had over ten additional opportunities where the final pass was not offered and the defense shut down the person who thought they would go it alone.  This was producing frustration within our ranks when the Orange Attacker went it alone as the defense massed leaving as many as three unmarked Orangemen standing alone on the opposite side of the box.  What happens then is the attackers simply give up.  Why anyone would think Mooch would try to go it alone, however, is beyond me.  However, after a full game of attackers making the run into the box and the cross never coming over or out to  them, when Mooch was on the break and played a perfect ball into the top of the box, literally no one made the run. That’s the tell-tale sign of frustration.  Some might argue that Mooch was simply too fast on that run and beat everyone up the field to the box,  yeah, right.

So Internazionale was fast, very fast.  The only way to beat them was to keep the ball moving.  When we kept it moving we dominated position...except, again, for the final attack.  One more pass would have outdone them, I’m convinced of it.  My motto going forward is going to be, "One More Pass".  Remember it, you're going to hearing a lot of it.

I want to give some credit to Ernesto who played with us for the first time.  And Will H was taking our free kicks for us and doing a fine job.  Alfredo also had a fine game, making tackles and helping with our position game.

There was a little criticism of Internazionale being a team that fouls a lot.  I remember them from our last game... a physical team and there did seem to be a lot of body contact prior to the ball arriving.    However, they seemed to be distracted with scoring another goal and were just playing good soccer.  Don’t know what would have happened in we would have scored a second or even went up on them...their frustrations only surfaced once or twice...and they really started yelling at each other...but for the most part they didn’t take it out on us.  I think, however, free kicks were about even on the match.

Overall it was a great game, final score was 1 to 2.  A frustrating loss since it was a winnable game for us.