Too bad we don’t have a slick varnished wood floor and a few chairs around. Or maybe I should say good thing we don’t. No doubt I would have done a Bobby Knight and started throwing furniture around last night.
I don’t want to say we did good last night Orangemen. We lost 2 to 3 against the team I consider to be the standard for the league. If you look back to that game last Fall against the Vienna Metros I wrote a very important blog. I called it, “It’s Why a Soccer Ball is Round”.
As good as we may think did on Saturday, the truth is we could have done better. Much better. And it’s not because there were a couple of calls that didn't go our way. It’s because, although we clearly had more talent on the pitch than we did when we fell 0 to 10 to the Metro’s back in the fall, we still have trouble make that simple last pass when we are on the attack. Time and time again last night there were better options in the box and the striker running with the ball decided to go at the goal alone.
Yes, we had chances. Woulda, coulda, shoulda. Make the goal and all the sins are erased. Don’t make the goal and if there were better options in front of you, square, or charging onto the 18 you've made the wrong decision. All those options were available last night and there was plenty of guilt to go around if you feel like you are being singled out. Actually, that would be a good thing because if you feel some guilt maybe you're one of the ones I'm talking too.
And it’s not that we don’t know how to pass. We were passing fine through the midfield. The Metro’s were so fast if the ball wasn't moving they would have shut us down. But just after the break heads went to ground. Two weeks ago I said I was going to start shouting about one more pass...I failed to do so last night. Some I’m shouting now. One more pass. Start making those final passes or start working on your defensive skills. It’s that simple. Only one of those extra passes last night would have made the difference.
So, onto the game. We went down 2 to 3 in the end but we clawed back from a 0 to 2 deficit to tie the game and put serious pressure on the Metros to respond. And respond they did.
The Metros are competitors. They are gonna put the body on you if you’re on the ball. They are also talented players who have been together as a team for many years. They have a system, they know their positions, and their roster rarely changes. But they are not unbreakable. FC Valpo beat them last weekend, for instance. But Valpo is a good team...they might even be the team to beat these days. Valpo beat us back in July...and if memory serves, it was quite a spanking. Although I chose to forget about most of it in the blog I wrote...the Tour de France was in full swing. It is the game where the herniated disk between my C6/C7 probably originated. But here it is if you want to remember. Orangemen vs FC Valpo.
So we clawed our way back from two goals down. We didn't lose heart...which was a good thing and we kept running hard. Jermaine scored a great goal on a break with a well place feed to him. His speed surprised the Metros. It’s not clear we ever produced that kind of speed in a player upfront for Orange before. He just strides away from them when he has the chance. However the Metros adapted. They truly understand how to play the game. Never again, did Jermaine get a clear run at the ball after the goal. The Metro’s marked him close and never gave him an inch. They put their bodies on him and got the touch in to knock him off balance at all cost. Another example of their adaptation was to Matt’s throw. Matt was using his long throw to make trouble for them. We fooled them once or twice with his long throw. After that, they backed it up. Almost instinctively they knew the yardage and had someone there.
It’s frustrating to put in the kind of work that we did last night and go down. But, just like the game is never over when you play a team like Manchester United, the Metros are gonna play hard until the final whistle and frustrate you time and time again. Yes we scored two against the Metros...but for a team that has put 10 up against us before, we know they are gonna score. So the only thing we can do is out score them. Which means teamwork. One more pass Orangemen...we had plenty of guilty players last night...all trying to be the hero.
It was a physical game. There were slides and there were whistles and there were free kicks. Yes there was some controversy but in the end we failed to produced, it was not their physical play. Dave their manager was always talking to his team and keeping things under control. Several times I noted honest play turn the ref’s call around. On both sides. But the physical play and the sliding will produce injuries. But it’s not just slides, Mooch got raked down the back of both of his Achilles tendon and had to step off until he could walk again, and a few others got knocked ass over tea kettle by the Metro’s physical play. But the injury of the night belongs Will H. If you didn't see it he has a stud mark on his upper shin that looks like a bullet wound. I hope he iced it down. But ask him to show it to you next weekend. He’s going to keep that particular scar for life.
Best goal of the night honors go to Jose for left foot blast into the top of the next that came from out of nowhere as it raced into the box with defenders all over him.
Best goal of the night that wasn't honors go to Tommy who got on the end of a very nice ball over the top from...either Matt or Jose or Will...and then he put it right back across the keeper with his head. It should have been a goal, but the quality of their keeper was not to be underestimated. He snatched it in a reflexive dive to his right.
In the end however, I’m giving Man of the Match honors goes to Scott Fearing. The defense kept us in it. And Scott was playing like a man possessed. He was there again and again to break up the play. He tireless played all positions assigned. He got forward to start the game. Was moved into midfield. And then finished in the critical position of left full-back.
No comments:
Post a Comment